KARACHI, July 7: Eminent literary critic and poet Dr Muzaffar Hanafi was invited by the Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu at its office to meet city writers on Wednesday. President of the Anjuman, Aftab Ahmed Khan, spoke about the contribution Dr. Muzaffar Hanafi had made to enrich literature.

It was remarkable that Dr Hanafi excelled in many creative fields at the same time. He was a noted poet, a bold and balanced critic and a studious researcher apart from being a story-writer. He remained a professor of Urdu and held Iqbal chair at the Calcutta University for 14 years.

Earlier, Prof Dr Farman Fatehpuri introduced Dr Hanafi. He mentioned the compilation of Rooh-i-Ghazal, a selection of 800 poets of the 20th century, made by Dr Hanafi, spread over one thousand pages a feat of great learning.

A brief introduction of all the published books of the last century, originally planned to appear in 24 volumes, has been published so far. Of which almost three volumes were compiled by Dr Hanafi single-handedly.

But his major work was the collection of ghazals by the great poet Shad Arfi which he got published and worked his doctoral over it. His book on Hasrat Mohani was another important publication.

But as the learned writer said "ghazal is close to my heart". His 13 collections of ghazals speak a lot about it. His three collections of stories were also published and received well by the readers.

Dr Hanafi, quoting himself as "Qalam Ka Mazdoor" in his humble way spoke about the state of Urdu in India. He was optimistic about its future. Urdu suffered badly in all those states where Hindi was imposed as an official language, the province of UP, Urdu's natural and traditional home was one such place, he said, still, Urdu had deep roots in Indian soil and it was gaining strength.

Dr Hanafi recited some of his ghazals which were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. He said:

Sitam raseeda hai Hindostan mein Urdu
Isi zaban mein Hindostan zeyada hai
Zamin tang rahi hai, hamesha meray liya
Merey hisab say aik asmaan zeyada hai.