LAHORE: Speakers at various sessions on the second day of the Faiz International Festival on Friday highlighted some aspects of the life of the literary icon.

The inaugural session began with the remarks of Faiz Foundation Trust chairperson Saleema Hashmi who also held Indian critic and writer Shamsur Rehman Farooqui in high esteem.

Mr Farooqui addressed the day’s first session ‘Reasons of Faiz’s popularity’ which was moderated by Yasmeen Hameed from LUMS. Ms Hameed, in her introduction, said Farooqi was a great critic and fiction writer and had worked extensively on story-telling. She said Farooqui’s novel ‘Kaie Chaand Sar-e-Asman’ was considered one of the finest literary works.

Mr Farooqui read a paper on Faiz and said: “If Iqbal was the most popular poet of the last century, Faiz is unsurpassed as a poet of the current century. A major reason of his popularity lies in the fact that his poetry has been sung and recited frequently.”

Faiz, he said, had an extraordinary appeal in his poetry as he used to juxtapose common words in such a manner that his poetry became easily readable. “Like Ghalib and Mir, there is a great flow in Faiz’s poetry.”

Another session ‘Aye Habib-e-Amber-e-Dast’, moderated by actor and music composer Arshad Mehmood and having Tahira Syed and Mrs S.M. Zafar as guests, offered a recollection of memories of Faiz and Malika Pukhraj. Mr Mehmood opened the session by reciting Faiz’s poem ‘Aaj phir dard-o-gham kay dhagay mein’.

Mrs Zafar recalled that she first met Faiz when she was in school. “One day, Faiz, his wife and both daughters visited our residence, where I saw him. Faiz’s elder brother was the friend of my father and later his friendship also developed with Faiz and his family,” she said.

Tahira Syed also shared her memories of Faiz and her mother Malika Pukhraj. She said Faiz would often visit their Muslim Town home and used to sit at the rooftop. She said the memorable memory associated with Faiz was that one day she and her ex-husband were in London when she saw Faiz and Ahmed Fraz sitting together on roadside. “We requested both poets to visit our apartment and they gleefully accompanied us. There I sang in front of both great poets ‘Kab yaad mein tera saath nahin’ written by Faiz and Ahmed Faraz’s ghazal ‘Janan Janan’.

Sharing memories of her mother (Malika Pukhraj), she recalled her mother was a perfectionist in every matter. “My mother was always open to learn something new and she had an amazing ability to learn so much so that she would even ask singers junior to her to teach her items she liked and wanted to sing. Once she asked Mehdi Hassan to come over to her place and teach her how to sing ‘Ab kay hum bichray’.” She also had great appreciation for Reshman, Tufail Niazi and Ashiq Jatt.

Arshad Mehmood also talked about Faiz, saying since he was a student of Shoaib Hashmi, he would often visit Hashmi’s residence at Model Town and there he used to meet Faiz. He then shared with the audience how he convinced Faiz to write a jingle for a spice company, which was later refused by the company as its owner just did not believe a poet of Faiz’s calibre could write a jingle for a young boy.

In yet another session, Mustansar Hussain Tarar threw light on novel-writing technique. He said he was lucky to have prized possessions like Faiz’s autograph which he managed to get after standing for two hours in front of the Pakistan Times office and a letter Faiz wrote to him. And how could he forget “two nights he spent with Faiz during which he discussed many things.”

As for novel writing, he said “it’s an unbridled genre of literature. All big novels are reflective of the fact that the universe is not that simple and clear.” He then quoted from leading novelists of the world to make a point that in each great novel “characters can rebel anytime.”

To Tarar, comparisons between novels just can’t be done because every novel has its own significance and time period it is written in. He said it was unfortunate that great novels written in Urdu could not be translated into other languages. He said Quratul Ain Haider, Aziz Ahmed, Abdullah Hussain, Shaukat Siddiqui and Jamila Hashmi were some of the finest fiction writers of Pakistan.

A book titled ‘Faiz Kay Nayab Khatoot’ was launched on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2015