July 6, 2003

IT WAS his prolixity which prompted a person like the late Dr Syed Abdullah to pose this question to Anwar Sadeed: “First tell me, how do you find time for eating and sleeping? From the speed with which your informative and unique books are being published there seems hardly any time left for you to do anything else. If anyone has to look for a combination of versatility and excellence of writing it can be found in you.”

And it was not Dr Syed Abdullah alone; others were equally amazed to see Anwar Sadeed churn out books with that speed.

Apart from the books written by Anwar Sadeed, his articles are seen in every second magazine of the country, besides columns and book reviews in various newspapers. Letters which he writes promptly to editors of literary journals commenting upon the contents in their issues are not only countless but are also pieces of literature. Even now, despite his bout with angina, he is holding the pen firmly between his fingers.

Describing Anwar Sadeed as a prolific writer does not describe him adequately. He is more than that. To be able to write that much one has to be an avid reader as well. In fact, it happens to be a primary requirement. That he has read all that has been written during a year is proved by his comprehensive survey of contemporary literature which appears in the literary editions of newspapers and various journals. Every writer or poet does not send him his/her creative work yet he manages to lay his hands on it and goes on to assess it minutely.

Born in 1928, Anwar Sadeed started writing at an early age. In 1942 he first appeared in such cheap publications of Lahore as Chitra and Guru Ghantal but soon started finding space in prestigious magazines like Humayun and Nairang-i-Khayal.

Soon after passing his matriculation examination with a first class first, he joined the Government school of Engineering at Rasul. Proving his brilliance during the professional training as well he stood first among the trainees and won a gold medal, Appointed a sub-engineer in the irrigation department of the Punjab, he was sent in 1966 to study at the Institute of Engineering at Dhaka from where he obtained a degree in civil engineering. After a long and successful career in the irrigation department he retired as an executive engineer in 1988.

Anwar Sadeed never forsook his quest for studies even when absorbed in government service. During that period he first passed the Adeeb Fazil examination from the Punjab University, securing a record number of marks, and then went on to graduate and get a masters in Urdu. Once again he stood first in the examination and was awarded a gold medal. Despite that, his quest for knowledge did not end. Helped by Dr Ibadat Brelvi in preparing a synopsis, he wrote a thesis on the different literary movements in Urdu literature under the heading, Urdu Adab Ki Tehreekein. When completed the thesis was placed before Dr Syed Abdullah and Dr Shamsuddin Siddiqi for assessment and evaluation. Cleared by them and finally approved by Dr Waheed Qureshi, the thesis won for Sadeed a doctorate from the Punjab University.

Anwar Sadeed is at ease in every field of writing. Although he has not produced a novel so far, his contributions in the fields of poetry, short story, translations and journalism are stupendous. In 1994 he got his first chance of travelling abroad. On his return from New Delhi he wrote a number of articles about it in a magazine which were later published in book form under the title, Dilli Door Nahin. This travelogue gave a detailed description of modern day Delhi.

However, the narrative is mostly confined to the mutual discussions among literary figures who happened to be there for the World Urdu Conference or the Ghalib Seminar. All the same, Anwar Sadeed keeps the interest of the reader alive by his delectable asides. In that book, he has also mentioned in graphic detail and with intense feeling the spiritual satisfaction he found at the mazar of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia.

The character sketches, or khakay as they are called, written by Anwar Sadeed are unforgettable. He first produced a book under the title Mohtaram Chehray which covered such writers as Ehsan Danish, Imtiaz Ali Taj, Maulana Salahuddin Ahmed and others. He also wrote Qalam Kay Loag, which focuses on writers he had personally met. These books give a lot of little known information about many prominent literary personalities.

Anwar Sadeed is very popular for his annual surveys of local literature. He started writing this for the monthly Sareer of Karachi in 1991 and it developed into a regular feature. Now readers look forward to reading Anwar Sadeed’s comments on all books published in the country during the course of a year. This is a marathon undertaking which he seems to be handling with ease. Going a step further, he also comments on the matter carried by some literary magazines during the year. He even categorizes his comments under different heads e.g. nazm, ghazal, geet, novel, humour, inshaiya, etc. As mentioned earlier, Sadeed has translated some well-known English books into Urdu. These include Stanley Wolpert’s Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan, Governor Jagmohan’s book on Kashmir, My Feudal Lord by Tehmina Durrani and Moonstone by Willie Collins

Dr Anwar Sadeed’s forte is literary criticism. Over a dozen of his published works are on this genre. He has written 50 or so books and some of them have won him awards. He wrote Iqbal Kay Classikee Naqoosh for which he was awarded the Writers Guild/Dawood Literary Prize. He won the Naqoosh award for his treatise, Urdu Haj Nama Ki Rivayat. His book based on his thesis, Urdu Adab Ki Tehreekein won him the Hijra Award of the Pakistan Academy of Letters. In 1989 he won the APNS award for being the best column writer. In 1995 he was selected for the prestigious Baba-i-Urdu award.

Soon after retiring in 1988, Dr Anwar Sadeed joined the monthly Qaumi Digest as its editor. He already had experience in the field as he had edited the Qaumi Zaban of Sargodha and the Auraq. Quitting the job with the Qaumi Digest in 1995, he became the deputy editor of a prominent Urdu daily of Lahore. Since the last few years he is on the editorial staff of another leading newspaper of the country.