IN an ambience where the vast majority of our poets seem bent upon following the much harped on themes ad nauseum, the poetry of Yasmeen Hameed is an exception. Unlike other poets she does not hesitate in exploring untapped themes and therefore her poetry stands distinguished from the run of the mill stuff. It is also due to this reason, that all her four books have been warmly received by critics and laymen alike. Aadha Din Aur Aadhi Raat, her collection that appeared in 1996 won the national Hijra Award. Her latest work, Fana Bhi Ek Sarab too won laurels from all and sundry.
When asked about her list of favourite books, she comes out with a long and varied stock that she adores. “I have been reading books since my childhood. In my early days, I read works of authors like Bronte, Jane Austin and Thomas Hardy. My mother, a strict disciplinarian that she was, used to recommend books to us, which in her estimation were suitable for us. In our house, there was a rich treasure of books and I did savour a host of books from that collection of books,” Yasmeen Hameed states gleefully. Once the habit of reading developed in her initial days, she found it hard to part with the company of books. Over the years in fact she has managed to study a great number of books on almost every subject under the sun. As she herself is a leading poetess of the country, it is but natural that poets like Iqbal, Faiz, Majeed Amjad, N.M. Rashid, Shakeeb Jalali and Saleem Ahmed are among her favourites. And then there’s the titan of them all, Mirza Ghalib, whose, Yasmeen Hameed is a die-hard fan. There is also Qurtaba, a poem in Bal-e-Jibreel that has greatly impressed her.
“Bal-e-Jibreel fascinates me beyond the words. I have read this poem many times and each time it grips me due to its awe-inspiring mood and atmosphere. Iqbal was a great poet and there is a strange passion in his poetry,” states Yasmeen Hameed animatedly. These days she is introducing works of new poets. She thinks that some of the poets of this generation are promising. However, she is averse to the institution of mushairas as she is of the view that they do not serve the purpose of literature. Rather, she thinks mushairas only provide entertainment to the people.
In the realm of prose, Yasmeen Hameed loves to read works of both Urdu as well as English writers. In the list of her favourite authors, there are not only Urdu writers like Bano Qudsia, Khalida Husssain, Mushtaq Yousufi and Mukhtar Masud but there are also foreign writers like J.M. Coetzee, Yann Martel and Margaret Atwood. She singles out Loh-e-Ayyam by Mukhtar Masud and rates it highly. Taoos Chaman Ki Mena, a book of short stories by Nayyer Masud is also one book that she venerates. The essays of acclaimed critic Muhammad Hasan Askari and T.S. Eliot are also dear to her. Among the books that she read recently, she mentions Islam Aur Aurat by Dr Farooq and Women in Islam by Arifa Fareed.
“There is great clarity in the style of Dr Farooq. He has answered many questions regarding the status of women in Islam in light of teachings of Quran and Hadith. On the other hand, Arifa Fareed has thrown ample light on the status of women in Islam vis-a-vis the other religions of world,” opines Yasmeen Hameed. When asked about her all time favourite book, she is at a loss to label any one book as her all time favourite. So she simply denies doing so.
As a small child, Yasmeen Hameed saw in her house records of such greats of music as Baday Ghulam Ali Khan and many others. Her grandfather, aunt and uncle were diehard classical music buffs which resulted in her being exposed to classical music at an early age. She is all praise for Baday Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, Fareeda Khanum and Mehdi Hasan. Especially, the thumris of Baday Ghulam Ali Khan put her in trance. Another voice that captures her attention is that of Lata. She enjoys her semi-classical songs greatly. On the other hand, she does not reject pop music and has a soft corner for it too.
From the fraternity of pop music singers, she likes Sajjad Ali and Shafqat Amanat Ali. Of Shafqat she says that he started off well but then his later songs were not too appealing. But here too, there is no question of naming any song or singer as her most favourite as there are numerous ditties that she listens to with rapt attention. She says, “I listen to any song according to my mood. If at one time, I listen thumris of Baday Ghulam Ali Khan, at the other time I may be listening to any song of Lata.” She says that there is no paucity of talent in the field of classical music and we only need to chisel the talent to produce more classical singers. In her view, the government must also patronize classical singing and the records of great maestros must be preserved. As regards the suggestion of setting up a classical music academy, she states that there is no guarantee that the music academy would attract more people. Rather, in her opinion, media should be so powerful that it must develop peoples taste for good music.
Coming to movies, Yasmeen remembers watching Ben Hur with her family in Rawalpindi in 1960s. In those days, she says, we were not allowed to frequent cinemas; there were many restrictions. Although, she does not appear to be a cinema freak, but still there are a few movies like Dr Zhivago, A Beautiful Mind, Crime and Punishment, and Educating Rita that had deep influence on her. She also ranks Junoon, a movie based on the 1857’s War of Independence, highly. She likes the acting talent of Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck and Russell Crowe. Commenting on the pathetic state of our local cinema, she says that our industry is promoting vulgarity in the garb of entertainment. “The medium of film has a role to play because it really influences the people. Our industry is not playing a healthy role as it encourages obscenity,” rues she. Theatre too, she lambastes, is not producing anything creative. “Our theatre is in shambles in terms of quality. What they are producing is not humourous at all because it is below the belt and is in bad taste. One must not resort to vulgarity to churn out humour,” Yasmeen says as a matter of factly.
From across the border, she, however, mentions the drama serial, Ghalib by Gulzar and terms it a great attempt. As regards our local soap operas, she thinks they too have fallen on bad times. However, that’s not what she thinks of the drama serial, Thori Si Muhabbbat, written by Nur ul Huda Shah and produced by Sultana Siddiqi, that in fact she likes. Sania Saeed’s acting in this drama is spectacular, she opines.
IN an ambience where the vast majority of our poets seem bent upon following the much harped on themes ad nauseum, the poetry of Yasmeen Hameed is an exception. Unlike other poets she does not hesitate in exploring untapped themes and therefore her poetry stands distinguished from the run of the mill stuff. It is also due to this reason, that all her four books have been warmly received by critics and laymen alike. Aadha Din Aur Aadhi Raat, her collection that appeared in 1996 won the national Hijra Award. Her latest work, Fana Bhi Ek Sarab too won laurels from all and sundry.
