February 10, 2008

It is always a pleasant surprise to discover that a friend, known to us for long, is a gifted poet. It is only now, after his retirement from Radio Pakistan, that his true identity, concealed till now under the fine swathe of radio production has been revealed.

The realisation has familiarised me with the way retired government servants in our country grapple with the dreary days of life after retirement, and believe you me the picture is not delightful. However, our officers of higher ranks, say CSPs, have found a way out of this situation. For soon after retirement they start writing their autobiographies. This provides them with a golden opportunity to point out the follies of the successive governments during their tenure, the corruption of the functionaries around them and their integrity in spite of such fraudulent conditions.

The interesting bit is that they like to write in English, even though it takes double the effort. Qudratullah Shahab’s Shahab Nama is an exception as far as such autobiographies are concerned. Written brilliantly in Urdu, it was a huge success and ranked among the bestsellers of that era.

On the other hand, Aftab Ahmad Khan was an exception in a completely different way. After his retirement, he was seen engaging himself in the art of writing in a truly genuine way. Most of what contributes to his literary reputation was written during his period of retirement. He did not care enough to write his autobiography. Instead, he engaged himself in depicting the epoch he lived in, with particular reference to the literary personalities of the time.

Aftab Ahmad Khan’s range was wide enough to cover various literary trends and temperaments as reflected in his writings such as Bayad-i-Sohbat-i-Nazuk Khiyalan as well as in the personalities he chose to portray.

On the one hand personalities such as A.B. Bukhari, Dr Taseer and Sufi Tabassum remind us of the famous literary group Niazmandan-i-Lahore, and on the other Firaq, Mohammad Hasan Askari and Khwaja Manzoor Husain bear a completely different temperament. In between them, there are names such as Faiz, Rashid and Ghulam Abbas. But apart from all of them, we observe Aftab Ahmad meeting and exchanging views with T.S. Eliot, F.R. Lewis, and E.M. Forster.

So this is how officers belonging to superior services have been responding to their retirement. Those belonging to other cadres have their own ways of finding remedies to the creeping pace of retired life. Some find refuge in writing poetry, for poetry is very much an antidote to the dreariness of retired life.

There are also those, who when faced with this situation, turn to religion. Soon after retirement they develop an insight into Islamic thought. And with a sense of authority begin discussing the philosophy of Islam and write at least one book on the teachings of Islam.

The realisation has familiarised me with the way retired government servants in our country grapple with the dreary days of life after retirement and, believe you me, the picture is not delightful. However, our officers of higher ranks, say CSPs, have found a way out of this situation. For soon after retirement they start writing their autobiographies.

But I am more interested here in those who turn to poetry. Bashir Zaidi Asir is one such soul. He was associated with Radio Pakistan as a producer and has a number of good drama productions to his credit. It was therefore common to hear him talking about drama, but he hardly ever betrayed his interest in poetry. It was under the pressure of retirement that this aspect of his personality was revealed and he brought out his collection of poems, Zanjeer-i-Khwab. The collection took many people by surprise. It was then known that he has been writing poems from his early years when he was a student of grade seven.

Poets are generally impatient souls. Ghazal writers are, in particular, known for this characteristic. A ghazal writer must find a listener immediately after he has composed a ghazal, caring little about whether the listener is in a receptive mood or not. It requires a lot of patience for the poet to go on writing verses in secrecy.

Bashir Zaidi was, however, careful enough to preserve each and every verse he had composed since his high school days. So here is a collection of poems wherein we find even those precious verses that the poet had composed at a tender age.

As I have mentioned earlier, it was under the pressure of retirement that he felt compelled to disclose the secret of his verse-writing and have them published. But no, it was, he admits, more than that. It appears that his wife compelled him to proclaim the treasure he possessed for the benefit of the reading public. That too is something exceptional, as wives in general are hostile to their husbands’ verse-writing.

Poetry, when written by a husband, is something like the other woman to his wife. Bashir Zaidi was lucky in this sense, for not only did he have the consent of his wife but also the full support of his sons, for they insisted that he publish his collection of verses. The poet had little choice but to yield to his family’s wishes.

However, since being published, Bashir Zaidi’s poetry is no more a family affair. It is now exposed to the readers of poetry in general. And seeing the qualities it possesses one can only hope that it will win the admiration of readers and critics alike.

Hence Bashir Zaidi Asir’s retirement has paid off well. Under its pressure he has come out of his shell. He will now be known more as a poet than just a retired radio man.