KARACHI: Writer and humorist Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi’s death on Wednesday saddened lovers and practitioners of Urdu language and literature.

Poet Iftikhar Arif was crestfallen. Talking to Dawn, just as he was about to take a flight from Islamabad to Karachi to attend Yousufi sahib’s funeral, he said: “He was the greatest [Urdu] prose writer after Ghalib. It would be wrong to box him as a humorist. He was more than that. He was a great prose writer. In the presence of Shafiqur Rehman, Patras Bukhari, Col Mohammad Khan, Ibn-i-Insha etc, he was the tallest. He was unique and his contemporaries wholeheartedly acknowledged his greatness. Just like there was no other example like that of Faiz Ahmed Faiz [among his contemporaries], he was one of his kind.

“He wrote even at the age of 90. If you’ve read his books, you would know that how different an author he was. People remember his paragraphs [not just sentences or lines] like the way they memorise good couplets. Also, he led a pure, uncontroversial life. He never became part of any literary clique. I thought of him as my teacher, my father. I’ve learned a lot from him.”

‘He was the greatest [Urdu] prose writer after Ghalib’

Going down memory lane to underline Yousufi sahib’s arrival on the literary horizon, Prof Sahar Ansari said his writings were noticed in the 1960s when his essays started getting published in the monthly Urdu magazine Afkaar. Those essays were subsequently compiled into a book, Chiragh Taley. It immediately attracted people’s attention. Some thought that since he had acquired education from Aligarh University, he was influenced by the likes of Rasheed A. Siddiqui. But later he proved that he was different and therefore was appreciated by the readers. At times it felt that his lines and phrases were laboured, but actually it was to do with his craftsmanship. There were influences of James Thurber and Art Buchwald on his writings, though.”

Journalist and poet Mahmood Shaam was of the view that although the Yousufi era of humour has come to an end, his writings will live on. Readers have memorised not just his lines but entire essays. He was the kind of humorist and satirist who is known and recognised in all those regions of the world where Urdu is understood.

“My contemporaries and I have learned how to write from him. The way he used to pen a sentence was exemplary. His death has created a void, and I’m not saying it just like that [rasmi taur per nahin keh raha]. It will have to be seen as to who fills that void,” said Mr Shaam.

This feeling was echoed by eminent playwright Haseena Moin. She also felt that it would be difficult to find Yousufi sahib’s replacement. “There isn’t anyone who can write humour in literature the way he did. I had known him for a long time, from the time when I was in college. He was a relative of one of my friends. I remember I was once writing a serial and wasn’t able to come up with a title for it. Someone suggested let’s name it Chiragh Taley, but then it was pointed out that it was also the title of his book, so we needed his permission to use it. When I sought his permission he said ‘yes’ and added ‘writer ka naam bhi likh dena’ [mention the writer’s name as well]. Whatever he wrote was of great quality. You couldn’t stop laughing after reading his lines.”

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2018