THE Indo-Pak Drama Festival, Women’s Day, Saarc Writers Conference, Indo-Pak cricket matches — what a jumbling up of events! But Indo-Pak cricket carried the day, leaving all other events far behind. However, there is one snag. It is purely a male-dominated show while we are now living in an age dominated by feminism. The newly emerged tendency for the beard among Pakistani players has made Pakistani cricket a bit more male-dominated. Madiha Gauhar’s Ajoka Theatre doesn’t suffer at least from this kind of oddity, though she has been gracious enough to accommodate male artistes, too, in her theatre.
Ajoka Theatre had made its appearance in the Ziaul Haq era as a protest theatre. It played its role well in those times of oppression. After Ziaul Haq met his end, Ajoka, through its playwright, Shahid Mahmood Nadim, discovered in the male-female relationship as observed in Pakistani society a new pair of the oppressor and the oppressed. So now it began staging the kind of plays which depicted the sad plight of the Pakistani woman as she was fated to live in oppressive and suffocating conditions. Such was the dance-drama presented on the inaugural evening of the Indo-Pak Drama Festival. In fact, the whole festival was devoted to the cause of women. Drama groups and individual artistes coming from India seemed to share their passion for this cause.
So Ajoka’s Drama Festival was perfectly in tune with International Women’s Day, which fell in the same week. Both were demonstrative of female assertion, which is a new trend in our society.
Amidst the hectic cultural activity drawing nourishment from new hopes for Indo-Pakistan relations, I received news that saddened me. Ijaz Husain Batalvi had passed away. How shocking! The man who till recently appeared so alive fell ill and within months, breathed his last.
While waiting for a call for the funeral prayers, I saw Zia Jallundri standing in a corner and instantly the good old days of the Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq came alive. Those were the times when the Halqa enjoyed the presence of all the stalwarts of modern poetry belonging to the Miraji school of thought. To name a few, who were more distinguished, Mukhtar Siddiqi, Yusuf Zafar and Qayum Nazar. Along with them were seen two souls, a little younger to them, Ijaz Husain Batalvi and Zia Jallundri, who were more vocal and appeared a little fresher in their approach to literature. In those days, they were in their best form, and formed a galaxy of luminaries of modern Urdu poetry. But Ijaz Batalvi had now chosen to concentrate on the short story.
Quite apart from what he wrote, he was a brilliant talker. It was a sheer joy to listen to him. I can still recall moments when we sat spellbound listening to him. One such moment was when he narrated to us his meeting with Ezra Pound. While on a visit to the US, he somehow managed to pay a visit to Mr Pound in jail. On his return, he came to Tea-House, sat with us and began talking about Pound as he had found him living in the jail. Later, he had recorded this meeting in an article. But I have a feeling that Ezra Pound came more alive in his talk than in his article. So was his talk about his visit to Miraji when, in his last days, he was in a charity hospital in Bombay. In fact, he relished more in talking than in writing.
But in writing, too, he was delightful. While discussing a problem, he was never irrelevant or boring. He was delightful even when writing as a researcher. In fact, he has also some research work to his credit. I had the opportunity to listen to his two research papers. The one he had written in the 1950s and had read it in a meeting of the Halqa originated during his stay in London. He had gone there to study law. But along with it, he also developed an interest in the manuscripts preserved in the India Office. From beneath these manuscripts he unearthed a dewan of a forgotten poet named Yakroo.
But more important was his research paper on the legal case Ghalib had to face during his lifetime. He had dug out documents relevant to this case and had studied it with the eye of the lawyer that he was.
Unfortunately, he did not care to compile these writings. In fact, he had a feeling that he lacked the kind of devotion the literary job demanded of a writer. He liked to call himself a weekend writer. That speaks of his humility, a quality so rare in our writers. But with due respect to his humility, his different writings are precious literary pieces, which deserve to be compiled with care and preserved.
Ijaz Batalvi combined in himself the virtues of a gentleman and the qualities of a good writer. He belonged to the class of those cultured men who, with their versatility of taste, are able to appreciate classical as well as modern literature.
THE Indo-Pak Drama Festival, Women’s Day, Saarc Writers Conference, Indo-Pak cricket matches — what a jumbling up of events! But Indo-Pak cricket carried the day, leaving all other events far behind. However, there is one snag. It is purely a male-dominated show while we are now living in an age dominated by feminism. The newly emerged tendency for the beard among Pakistani players has made Pakistani cricket a bit more male-dominated. Madiha Gauhar’s Ajoka Theatre doesn’t suffer at least from this kind of oddity, though she has been gracious enough to accommodate male artistes, too, in her theatre.
