PESHAWAR: Speakers at a book launching ceremony here on Monday lauded the author for drawing pen portraits of eminent personalities of yore days who impacted lives of a host of generation of people growing up in the walled city of Peshawar.

Written by US-based noted writer Dr Syed Amjad Hussain, the new Urdu book with Hindko title ‘Hase Wasde Log’ was launched at an event arranged by Abasin Arts Council (AAC). Senior poets, writers and scholars turned up to attend the event.

Urdu book of US-based Dr Amjad launched

Former bureaucrat and poet Ejaz Rahim, who chaired the function, said that the writer crafted wonderful images of the personalities that bespoke of not only his sharp observation but also his skill of turning dead words into moving pictures. Being son of the soil, Dr Amjad Hussain immortalised Peshawar and everything belonged to it through his flowing writings, he added.

“Dr Hussain is a polymath of Peshawar whose writings are always drenched in the medley of humanism and universalism reminiscing past glory of the walled city. Pen portrait is in fact art of exploring a personality in word images without letting pen to unjustifiably infringe a person’s inner soul and the book under debate is the best example,” said Prof Nazeer Tabassum.

Commenting on the book, Prof Nasir Ali Syed said that it contained 49 pen portraits of noted figures and ended on the longest sketch that portrayed ‘Peshawar’. He said that it completed the full picture of a city where the writer was born and bred and still haunted him despite being away from it.

Dr Syed Amjad Hussain, author of the book, on the occasion said that his teachers, guides and mentors played a pivotal role in his mental makeup and therefore he was forced to bring out their pen portraits to satiate his nostalgia for his land and people.

“It is my humble tribute to my own land and people and the country at large. I hold everyone in high esteem as my childhood memories are deeply rooted in the soil where I was born and bred. I cannot help loving it what come may,” he said with great reverence.

Senior writers Jahanzeb Malik, Barrister Rauf Rohila, Bushra Farrukh and Dr Ejaz Hassan Khattak also shed light on the newly published book.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2021