MAJEED Lahori was a poet-satirist, a humorist and a journalist. Born in Gujrat (Punjab) in 1913, Majeed worked in some Karachi-based Urdu newspapers before partition. Around 1946-7, he wrote a humour column in ‘Azaad’, an Urdu daily published from Lahore and edited by Shorish Kashmiri, the renowned journalist and author. Majeed soon came back to Karachi and joined ‘Jang’, one of the leading Urdu newspapers of the country, in which he wrote his humour column ‘Harf-o-Hikayat’ and satirical poetry.

He simultaneously launched his own humour magazine ‘Namakdaan’ from Karachi and gave a light-hearted talk titled ‘Waghaira Waghaira’ on Radio Pakistan. ‘Namakdaan’, an anthology of his satirical poems, and ‘Harf-o-Hikayat’, a collection of his columns, were published posthumously.

Majeed’s portrayal of the ethnic communities living in Karachi — Memons, Pathans, Makranis, Sindhis — with their dialectical accents of Urdu, is something to cherish. Gujrati seths, Pathan moulvis and Mohajirs — Urdu-speaking refugees who migrated to Pakistan from neighbouring India after independence — are characters that explore the mood of Karachi in the late forties and early fifties of the last century.

There is a character named Ramzani who symbolises the common man, presenting his dreams and frustrations. Majeed invented this character not only to throw the spotlight on the poor man’s woes but also to pour scorn on capitalism.

Moulvi Gul Sher Khan is a caricature of ostentatious religiosity. This character shows how religion is used to cover up immoral practices. Seth Tyre Jee Tube Jee is greed personified. Money-making is only what he wants out of life. And then there is Sain Sulaiman Badshah who is a majzoob and Majeed presents him in such a way as to ridicule so-called religious figures who advocate apathy and inactivity.

These characters not only depicted different segments of society but were also, to some extent, real as they were drawn from society and based on actual persons.

Majeed’s poetry and prose capture the mood and spirit of Karachi, the former capital of Pakistan, where everyone is trying to eke out a living. The milieu appears to be very familiar: corrupt politicians, inefficient bureaucracy, lethargic civic bodies, grumbling common man, rampant nepotism and bribery.

In Majeed’s writings, one can see this grim situation annotated with words like permit, plot, allotment, One Unit, Muslim League, constitution, Jamaat-i-Islami, aanso gas, Mohajir, Safety Act.

Dr Waheed Qureshi had it right when he said that after the birth of Pakistan, Karachi, its capital, became a nursery of humorist-poets because the situation then obtaining here was very conducive to humour.

Political chaos and anarchy threaten the very fabric of society and generate enough material for a discerning humorist.

The intellectual level of Majeed’s humour may not be high as he was not an intellectual type, but he gets to the crux of the matter and puts it in a lively manner, with satire thrown in for good measure.

Just to let you have the feel of it, I would try my hand at rendering into English a passage from one of his columns (the scene is a barber’s shop and the author is getting a shave): “The barber put the safety razor at my neck and asked, ‘Do you support Muslim League or Awami League, sir?’ I said, ‘My dear barber, before I answer this question, for God’s sake, remove this razor from my neck as in the presence of the Safety Act I cannot reply’ (Majeed Lahori Ki Harf-o-Hikayat, compiled by Shafi Aqeel, page 36).

Majeed died on June 26, 1957 in Karachi. He was born in Gujrat, and yet he called himself Lahori. He worked and died and was buried in Karachi. He was a Lahori, a typical Lahori; lively, cheerful, carefree but compassionate. He was a Lahori Karachiite, I must say.