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May 30, 2004
Review: Interesting lives
THE use of cliche is not something that gets immediate approval from the readers, but when nothing conveys the sense better in a precise manner, one has to shut one’s eyes, grit one’s teeth and take the plunge. Talking of literary classics of the past, it is hard not to use the cliche, old is gold. It really is.
In the last few years the trend of reprinting Urdu classics seems to have gained currency with the publishers, resulting in a surfeit of titles from the past, including both original works as well as translations. For the lovers of Urdu, these are happy times, and one hopes the bonanza will last a while. Here below are a couple of titles that have of late found their way to a large number of hands:
Yaadgar-i-Ghalib
By Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali
Reprinted by Khazeena-i-Ilm-o-Adab, Lahore
Available with Fazlee Sons Supermarket, Urdu Bazar, Karachi. Tel: 021-2212991
406pp. Rs160
GHALIB over the years has become a grand subject, having given rise to such a large number of books about the poet and his poetic genius that it is now referred to as Ghalibiyat. Though the Idara-i-Yaadgar-i-Ghalib alone has produced a horde of titles on the subject, all very respectable efforts, the original work of Altaf Hussain Hali, who was lucky enough to have interacted with Mirza Nausha, still remains the most sought after publication.
The book not only covers the various phases of Ghalib’s life, but also comments on the worth of his Urdu and Persian prose and poetry. Since Hali had a personal interaction with the legend towards the fag end of the latter’s life, his description of his master carries the authenticity that is matched by none other. For instance, what Hali says about the controversial factor of Mulla Abdus Samad in Ghalib’s life has taken precedence over what has been said by the rival school of thought.
Ghalib alone, however, is not the reason behind the greatness of the book; Hali’s lucid, everyday diction has much to do with that as well. While summing up, Hali has indulged in a bit of sarcasm about the changing social ethos of the time, saying: “I concede that I undertook this gigantic task neither to fulfil some immediate public necessity, nor in the larger national interest. It has been a labour of love and that needs no further motive. It is something like the breeze which just blows, like the river that just flows.” Indeed, who can claim to be alive without enjoying the breeze or the river... or, for that matter, Ghalib?
Sarguzasht
By Syed Zulfikar Ali Bukhari
Reprinted by Ghalib Publishers, Lahore
Available with Fazlee Sons Supermarket, Urdu Bazar, Karachi. Tel: 2212991
536pp. Rs300
THE Bukhari brothers — Patras and Z.A. — were truly gifted souls. Though Patras, the elder of the two, somewhat overshadowed his younger sibling in terms of literary writings, Z.A. Bukhari made his name as a broadcaster par excellence. But if Sarguzasht is anything to go by, the stature of Zulfikar Ali Bukhari is no less than that of Patras. No better compliment can be paid to the wonderful book that Sarguzasht is.
As the title suggests, it is an autobiographical account of the high-profile life that the writer had as a pioneering broadcaster in the subcontinent. Bukhari first wrote these pieces as newspaper columns in the daily Hurriyat back in the early 1960s. The weekly episodes were then compiled in book form, and luckily so.
The book naturally revolves around the establishment and progress of broadcasting in the subcontinent, but in the context of the book, Bukhari has used radio only as a prism through which he sees the world at large and encourages the reader subtly to at least share his view, if not agree with his conclusions.
In view of the multifaceted exposure that Bukhari got as a broadcaster, it is a book that talks of Ustad Bundo Khan, Ustad Jhanday Khan, Barey Ghulam Ali Khan Sahib, Wahshat Kalkatwi and many more in the same vein as George Orwell and T.S. Eliot. The mesmerized reader cannot help turning page after page after page. And when there is none to be turned, the reader wonders why all good things in life have to come to an end. It is that kind of a book.
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