GONE are the days when the publication of a book was a time-consuming and cumbersome affair. Back in the 1980s, books in Urdu had to be first handwritten by calligraphers before being sent to the press. The katib or calligraphers, used to copy the manuscript and in most cases it was quite frustrating. This was because good calligraphers were hard to find as they were by and large busy and were mostly uncooperative.
Writers and editors who were perfectionists and wanted to see their books and journals printed in flawless and elegant calligraphy, such as Mushfiq Khwaja and Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi, waited for months before the actual calligraphy could start since the ‘best calligrapher in town’ was too busy.
On the other hand newspapers had no choice when it came to calligraphers. No power on earth could stop a newspaper from going to press, except for those seemingly harmless calligraphers poring over their clipboards and busy deciphering the handwritten copy submitted after subbing. In those days one could see rows of calligraphers sitting on the floor or raised wooden platforms with their backs resting against the wall and a wooden clipboard resting on their raised and half-folded knees.
Broadcaster Raza Ali Abedi in his book Urdu ka haal (Sang-e-meel publications, Lahore, 2005) has beautifully described how this calligraphy had become one of the greatest hurdles in Urdu’s progress since general readers detested the Urdu type and its naskh fonts and how the Urdu publishing was a hostage to the nastaleeq calligraphy. Abedi Sahib has also recounted the replacing of the traditional Urdu calligraphic writing by composing in Urdu through computers. However, this too has its drawbacks which according to the author that just as calligraphers were prone to mistakes and sometimes mutilated the actual text, the composers who compose the text in computers too have their own drawbacks and can sometimes become annoying.
What he has not mentioned, however, is that with the introduction of computerised Urdu composing printing and publishing has become high-speed and branding oneself now as an Urdu writer or poet has become quite easy. All one has to do is to scribble a manuscript and within a month or so the book will be in one’s hands. And lo and behold, this is how one becomes a writer.
Back in the 1990s, this writer met the well-known critic Dr Anwer Sadeed who said that with the introduction of computerised calligraphy the publication of Urdu books had got a boost up with new titles being published every year in ever greater numbers. However he also added that “a lot of trash is also finding its way into the market quite easily now.
This writer also remembers a publisher in those days showing him a book which he said was written, printed and marketed within 15 days. Needless to say one can only imagine what the standard of a book was considering that it was conceived, written, composed, proofread, printed and marketed merely in a fortnight.
It seems that since then the situation hasn’t changed much. A couple of years ago, the editor of an Urdu medical and health magazine cheerfully handed me the latest issue of his magazine saying that it was prepared and published within a few days. After flipping through the pages all I could manage to say was “with the number of proofreading lapses I see, you took too long to publish it”. I didn’t dare quote Mushfiq Khwaja who had once commented on the calligraphic errors in one of the issues of Nuqoosh that “had Muhammad Tufail (the founding editor of Nuqoosh) been alive, he would have burnt all the copies of the issue rather than sending them to booksellers”.
The speed and ease with which some debutant Urdu writers get published these days is simply astonishing. I still remember that one had to wait for years before any publisher accepted one’s manuscript for publishing. But that was when the writers could not afford to self-publish. These days the trend in Urdu is to self-publish. Especially if one is settled abroad and has a bit of knack for composing a few lines, then the future as a “great poet” is quite bright.
All one has to do is to spare a few hundred dollars or pounds or, in case one is settled in one of the Gulf States, make it a few thousand riyals or dirhams. Keeping in view the battered rupee, one can get a handsome amount in the local currency. Any publisher will be glad to hand over a few dozen copies of one’s book within a few weeks, that is, if one has ever bothered to write anything (except love letters and grocery accounts). As for espousing the quality of one’s published work that too is not an issue anymore. For the publisher’s friends will gladly pose as critics and discuss the literary merit of the book.
And in case writing seems unexciting, one needn’t worry. One can still become a writer as there is a rent-a-poet or rent-a-writer service offered by several publishers. At this point let me reveal a secret: residing overseas is not a criterion for availing this service. In fact, many local writers, especially poets, have been hiring this service for ages. Visit a bookstore these days and one can find many titles published by writers living abroad that are self-published or financed by the writers themselves. These books are nothing but an exercise in self-indulgence.
However, there are writers and poets who have greatly benefited by the arrival of computerised composing. A couple of modern Urdu poets have published 40 collections of poetry though the figure showing their age is much smaller than 40. Their poetry is meant for those who are, as put by a writer, “terribly young”, or have just turned “sweet sixteen”. This pseudo-romantic poetry does sell and publishers make a profit on these books.
A word of caution for those wanting to avail the rent-a-poet service. One must bear in mind that after the book is published one will have to avail the ‘rent-a-literary-gathering’ service. Otherwise those who cannot afford a literary gathering can forget about becoming “a great poet”! Also, bear in mind that the cost for hiring critics that wax lyrical about one’s poetry in the literary gathering is not included. Critics do not come with the service and will cost extra money. Your literary career has now been launched.
drraufparekh@yahoo.com
