KARACHI: Kaifi Azmi, noted poet and social activist and one of the icons of the Progressive Writers, who died recently, was remembered at the Press Club on Tuesday.

Addressing the gathering, famous fiction writer Shaukat Siddiqui, who had close friendly relations with the poet while their stay at Lucknow in the 40s, recalled those fruitful years blossoming with creative writings.

Kaifi, he said, had arrived in Lucknow to study religion, but he chose to become a political activist and a trade union worker. He was a committed Marxist and stood firm on his ground throughout his life.

Shaukat quoted Kaifi as saying that he was born and brought up in a slave India, and was now expected to live in a Marxist India. But sadly his dreams were shattered. History had been marching in the opposite direction, he said.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Shaukat Siddiqui and was conducted by Zeb Azkar Hussain, the secretary of Adbi committee. President of the Press Club, Sabihuddin Ghausi, who was also there, thanked the audience. Endorsing Shaukat Siddiqui’s remarks, Ghausi lamented the rise of fundamentalism in South Asia, particularly in Pakistan and India, the carnage of Gujrat and the nuclear threat looming large on the eastern skies.

Among those who addressed the audience were Prof Ali Haider Malik and Dr Mosharraf Ahmed. While the later recalled the preface on Kaifi’s collection ‘Aawara Sajdey’ by Faiz and Kaifi’s own writings, Ali Haider Malik talked about Kaifi’s long verse ‘Iblees Ki Majlis-i-Shoora Ka Doosra Ijlas’, an extension of Iqbal’s famous poem written in the great master’s own technique, giving an account of the present conditions prevailing in the subcontinent and abroad.

Malik also remembered his interview with Kaifi, in which the later defended his plain talking (barahna goi) in verses. All epic poetry, Kaifi said, was ‘barahna’ in form and there was no harm in it. Malik admired the poet for his commitment with the ideology he professed throughout his life. Kaifi had refused the covetous ‘Padam Shiri Award’ announced by the Indian government because of its hostility toward Urdu.

Among those who read poems in praise of Kaifi included Shafiq Ahmad Shafiq, Tauqeer Chughtai and Safder Siddiq Razi.—Hasan Abidi