KARACHI: The first pre-lunch session on the third day of the 17th International Urdu Conference, organised by the Arts Council of Pakistan, focused on the ghazals and their poets that emerged from Karachi with reference to poetic style (asloob).

Moderated by Khalid Moin, the discussion was presided over by Iftikhar Arif.

Ambareen Hasib Amber began by espousing the idea man is style. She said the poets of the city of Karachi, too, have their distinct style which mainly has two factors: one, the correct use of language; two, the hustle and bustle associated with a big city. In that connection, she quoted two lines by Rasa Chughtai:

Zindagi aur is qadar masruf
Aadmi aur is qadar tanha

[Life, such a busy life
Man, and so lonely]

She argued that what distinguishes the poets of Karachi from their counterparts of other cities is the pangs of migration.

Discussions on ghazal, radio, TV and theatre held on third day of Urdu Conference

Ahmed Mubarak said two time periods signify Karachi: 1947 and 1971. Migration has a major role to play in the city’s poets’ works because of which they buy sadness at the cost of happiness. He recited quite a few verses to support his argument.

Jawaid Saba mentioned two poets, Mustafa Zaidi and Jaun Elia, who, according to him, defined two strands of aesthetics in poetry. Zaidi’s particular sense and appreciation of beauty and Elia’s penchant for the genre of wasokht became their identities. “Jaun turned his ego into art,” he added.

Dr Ziaul Hasan said he doesn’t believe in divisions such as Karachi or Lahore schools of poetry. He highlighted the name of Salim Ahmed, who, he claimed was one poet that many verse-wielders learnt from. He remarked, “A poet creates his own metaphysics.”

Firasat Rizvi carried on with the topic of migration and said that because of that Karachi’s poets began to follow in Mir Taqi Mir’s footsteps.

Ashfaq Hussain said style has to do with a poet, not a city. One of definitions of style is that when you read a particular poet’s poetry, you immediately recognise who’s written it.

Iftikhar Arif said Aziz Hamid Madani was the most important ghazal poet from Karachi. Mehsher Badayuni and Salim Ahmed are two other names that represent the city.

Conversation with Zehra Nigah

One of the eagerly awaited post-lunch sessions was a conversation between distinguished poetess Zehra Nigah and the council’s president Ahmed Shah.

Ms Zehra in response to the question about her early days in the field of poetry said Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had once quoted someone’s verse in an essay:

Aaj apni hai sarguzisht logo
Kal is se kahaniyan banein gi

[Today, it’s my journey
Tomorrow, it’ll be made into stories]

She said she saw the light of day in a household where everyone had an interest in literature. “My mother was the only daughter of her father, so he showered all his affection on her. My mother was the one who encouraged me the most when I started writing poems. When I was six or seven years of age, I used to recite to her and she’d give me advice.

“Quite a few years ago, a book was published in India in which a survey revealed that after the partition of the subcontinent, among the families (read: children) that migrated, those whose mothers stayed alive progressed compared to those whose fathers died. It’s only the mother who, no matter the circumstances, keeps giving to her children. To date, I believe whatever I have got, be it my voice or poetry, I’ve got it from my mother,” she said.

History of Karachi’s radio, TV, theatre

Another important session was on the history of radio, TV, theatre and film vis-à-vis Karachi. It was hosted by Huma Mir.

Iftikhar Arif said discussion on Radio Pakistan is incomplete without mentioning the services of Z A Bukhari.

“After the inception of Pakistan, there were three radio stations — in Lahore, Peshawar and Dhaka. It all began with Radio Pakistan Lahore. Since Karachi was the capital of the country at the time, a station was set up here on Queens Road in barracks. Shaheed-i-Millat Liaquat Ali Khan inaugurated it,” he said.

He said the quality of Radio Pakistan at the time can’t be compared to the current radio stations because no Pakistani institution had so many great people under one roof.

Khushbakht Shujaat said after she acquired education, the first platform she had was Radio Pakistan. “When you speak of Radio and don’t mention the name of Yawar Mehdi, it is not possible. For us youngsters, Radio was an educational institution. We learnt how to speak. The second platform was television. Since we had been trained on Radio, we didn’t face much problems at TV.”

She said theatre, too, had big names such as Kamal Ahmed Rizvi and Athar Shah Khan.

At that point Mr Arif took the name of Khwaja Moinuddin and Ali Ahmed.

Akhtar Viqar Azeem said when he joined the service, Karachi TV had been on for two years. His colleague was Rashid Umar Thanvi. He had more experience. He used to say to him that if they were to work in a better way, they needed to avoid recommendations (sifarshein) and poets. In that connection, he also narrated an anecdote.

Munawwar Saeed and Amjad Shah also shared their experiences.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2024