“Urdu is the language of my culture and I feel comfortable in expressing myself in it. English is the language of my learning academia, and my teaching and instructions. I prefer the nazam form in poetry rather than ghazal which is more stereotyped, confined to love themes of the medieval era, neglecting day-to-day life and its realities,” says Dr Satya Pal Anand, who comes across as an enigmatic personality who prefers writing in Urdu rather than his native languages Punjabi and Hindi, and teaches English in foreign universities.

Gulzar, the famous poet, describes Dr Anand as living in a void and on earth at the same time in his writings. The writer defends himself by explaining that most people are staunch realists and only think of bitter realities of the world. “I, on the other hand, let my imagination and feelings wander about and combine them with the bitter and strong realities of life in my poetry.”

For example, Bayaz-i-Umr, a longish poem, more an autobiography as he has analysed himself in it, reflects the pain and sadness of being happy. It begins with his endeavour to see himself as a footloose man going to the heights where no one else has gone before and to unconquered areas in the quest of beauty. Being a professor of comparative literature he had the opportunity of recognising the essentials of seven European languages. “I could fathom their depth and add to the realm of Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Hindi and Sanskrit literature.”

Urdu, Dr Anand says, is not merely a language; it is a common heritage of the people living in the subcontinent — an amalgamation of two cultures: indigenous Indian culture and the one brought by Islam. Though varying in styles of writing Urdu is the common denominator and can play the role of bringing the people of the two countries together rather than Hindi.

Gulzar, the famous poet, describes Dr Anand as living in a void and on the Earth at the same time

Although a prolific writer, he prefers poetry as it gives more room for expression. “Prose is longish to the extent of being boring whereas, on the other hand, poetry is compact, concise and musical. Each line, Dr Anand elaborates, can be remembered by the listener separately. There is no time lag in what is being said and what is being understood.

In the last 50 years he has written over 600 poems in blank verse. It gives him comfort and room for expression, not bound by the length of the stanzas or the rhymes, which include more than a dozen poems on Prophet Mohammad (PUBH). “He is as much my Prophet as he is a Prophet for any devout Muslim,” he says.

Having lived in Chakwal before partition, the writer visited his birthplace in 1999 and describes the feeling as that of a long lost baby reuniting with its mother. He had his schooling in Rawalpindi and so he went there as well, visiting other major cities on the way. “This area was the cradle of civilisation, including Harappa, the Gandara belt and Moenjodaro, with Aryans and Buddhist tribes also settling here. The advent of Islam in India created a common civilisation of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.”

Though he began writing in his teens Dr Anand published his first book in 1952 when he was 21. His family had migrated to India at the time of Partition when he was 16, an age when one is free from the burdens of life. For the young Anand, responsibilities made life bitter as he had to take care of his widowed mother and three younger siblings when his father was killed in riots during migration.

He found life cheating him, robbing him of his youth and making him “suffer and bleed”. But by working hard he forgot the hardships; the more he worked, the happier he felt. “Therefore, I wrote and wrote and became a prolific writer of novels, short stories and poetry. Though poetry did not bring much money, it was my first love and I indulged in it — but prose writing did, so I focused on it.

“I have four collections of short stories which include 90 stories, four novels, 13 books of poetry in Urdu and nine books of poetry in English. Some are in Hindi and Punjabi as well, but that is more of an escape from Urdu and English writing, just to change the taste in the mouth. My basic love remains Urdu.”

His past consists of an incident that is etched in his memory. It was in 1957 when Dr Anand wrote a novel Chowk Ghanta Ghar in Ludhiana. The main character was not a human being but a clock tower and it recorded the happenings around it.

The Indian government thought it had a leftist message in it. The book was banned 24 hours after it was in the bookshops and Dr Anand was hounded by the police but was able to elude them, thus escaping jail.“ The government later on lifted the ban but it left a very bad taste.” Later, he left for America to do his Ph.D. and settled there.

Known to his colleagues and students as ‘airport professor’, Dr Anand, who is not too happy about it, explained how he acquired the nickname. When he became a university professor his area of expertise developed from English literature to comparative literature which included other branches of literature and languages. Universities in Europe, America and Canada began inviting him regularly for curriculum planning and course designing as a visiting professor, which kept him on the go.

“The visits enabled me to rub shoulders with the literati, the academia, and teachers and writers of Europe, which broadened the horizons of my knowledge,” he explains.

Now retired and living in Washington DC for the last 20 years, he makes annual pilgrimages to Europe to give lectures and attend seminars, spending most of his time in London visiting the universities he works with and sometimes to India and Pakistan also.

Dr Anand loves writing late in the night when the world is asleep, his companions being a table lamp and a computer. “Sleep is, of course, a very sweet thing but I never complain that it eludes me. For me, three to five hours are enough. I get up in the morning, refresh myself with coffee and then begin my daily work.”

He is quite optimistic about contemporary young writers as they are more aware of the sordid realities around them, especially in politico-economic terms, and are more inclined to tackle them in their writings. “Reality existed in earlier times as well, but there was only one message in the Progressive Writers Movement and that was revolution, though nobody ever knew what kind of revolution. These youngsters are now experimenting with their thought provoking messages and I was very happy to meet them here.”

His recent visit to Karachi was a busy one, attending a number of conferences including the Aalimi Urdu Conference as well as the Anjuman-i-Taraqqi Urdu Conference.

With a life filled with interesting events, Dr Anand decided to pen his memoirs which took him seven years. “It is very difficult to write about oneself. Most write to glorify themselves for posterity. I have avoided that, focusing more on my literary friends such as Krishan Chandar, the novelist and short story writer; Inder Singh Bedi and Akhtar Rehman a poet in the taraqi pasand mode of writing; Dr Wazir Agha, Jamiluddin Aali and others from whom I have learnt so much.'

“There are islands of Urdu poetry, which are extended branches of the main Urdu culture here. Somehow, the poets feel that by branching out they have not kept in touch with their mother and try to renew that connection by coming here regularly. I am 82 now but I believe I have some more years left and I will keep coming here till the last breath of my life.”

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, July 13th, 2014