KARACHI: I’m not in favour of the genre of ghazal, but to be specific I’m not in favour of the traditional ghazal. This was said by eminent scholar and poet Dr Satyapal Anand at the launch of Parindagi, a collection of ghazals and nazms by a young poet, Ammar Iqbal, at the Arts Council Karachi late Monday evening.

Dr Anand, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said he was not the only one who was against the genre. Before him the likes of Altaf Husain Haali and Kaleemuddin had opposed it, calling it a neem wahshi sinf (semi-savage form).

To support his argument, he gave the example of present-day Indian poets and the culture of mushaira, or poetry symposium, in India. He termed mushairas ‘mujre’ (dance acts) where young poets wrote ghazals in the Devnagri script and prepared for days to ‘perform’ them at the symposium.

To further elucidate his point, Dr Anand went down memory lane when in the ‘70s in pursuit of his PhD he met someone in Paris who asked him that why orature (oral literature) existed in the subcontinent. This made him think and he realised that there was no proper translation of the Urdu word ‘sunana’ in any language.

The phrase ‘read out’ and the word ‘recite’ just wouldn’t serve the purpose. Ghazal, primarily, was a genre which poets rendered orally to their audience, and in Europe orature didn’t exist in literature at all (though it had its presence in folklore).

Lauding Ammar Iqbal’s effort, Dr Anand said the poet used simple, colloquial diction and his verses were sharp like the shards of a broken glass. There was negligible self-pity in his poems and the good thing about his ghazals was that he specified the gender (female) of his beloved, which didn’t usually happen in Urdu poetry, he added.

Prof Sahar Ansari presided over the programme. Carrying on the debate from where Dr Anand had left off, he said the word parindagi, the title of the book, signified the flight of fancy which every creative individual had. The language Ammar Iqbal had used was the language of his own era.

In Urdu poetry there were two kinds of linguistic strands, diachronic and synchronic: the former dealt with the evolution of language (such as used by Ghalib) and the latter was to do with a particular moment in time (for example, contemporary).

Poet Mir Ahmed Navaid delivered a fiery speech in which he lambasted those who berated the genre of ghazal. He said a bad ghazal was of no use just as a bad nazm. He said the real issue was the ‘content’ that the poets were producing, not the form they were adhering to. The form that had the strength to withhold the vagaries of time would survive no matter what, he said.

He then praised Ammar for being a good versifier and quoted many of his verses, one of which was:

Kia qayamat kisi pe guzre gi
Aakhri aadmi banaate huay

(How difficult it would be for someone
To create the last man on earth)

Dr Fatima Hasan said the young generation was our hope and it was Ammar’s nazms that she enjoyed most.

Poet Salman Sarwat read out a paper on the poet’s work and stated that parindagi (the ability to fly) was ingrained in Ammar.

Poet Nadeem Qais spoke on the poet as a friend.

Ammar recited some of his ghazals and nazms which were thoroughly enjoyed by the audience. One of the verses that he read out was:

Rang-o-rass ki havas, aur buss
Masa’la dastaras, aur buss

(The craving for colour and nectar, that’s it
The issue is how to have them, that’s it).

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2015

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