THESE days one feels that we need to read something that could lift our spirits as heavy monsoon rains and flooding have dampened our cities and villages as well as moods.
It does not have to be hilarious but must be something written in a lighter vein, with a sparse sprinkling of some motivational stuff. A good pen sketch, known as khaka in Urdu, will do, as it is often slightly amusing while trying to capture the essence of the characteristics that make someone great.
A pen sketch is just like a portrait, a painting that tries to capture the face and the real personality of a person. With some meaningful strokes, a good portrait painter can reveal the inner self of the subject. Same can be said of a pen sketch, which is not a life sketch and does not try to narrate the whole life but prominent features to represent what lies behind the persona. The subject of a pen sketch does not have to be a luminary and a pen sketch may draw an ordinary person, too, if they have some extraordinary traits, motivating the reader.
A pen sketch is a lovely blend of some not-so-serious musings and some thought-provoking ideas as to what makes a person great or extraordinary. So pen sketches may qualify as light reading but they are not devoid of serious ideas that make you think. In fact, some of them can even bring tears to your eyes.
According to Dr Khaleeq Anjum Ghalib’s Urdu letters have a brief but very interesting pen sketch of a maid named Bi Vafadaar. This may be one of the earliest traces of Urdu sketches, if not Urdu’s first pen sketch.
Some life sketches of poets in tazkiras were not khakas in true sense of the word. Even Muhammad Hussain Azad’s absorbing accounts of poets and their eccentricities — quite amusing albeit sometimes concocted — could not qualify as pen sketches.
The pioneer of Urdu pen sketches — the genre that became swiftly popular in the early 20th century — was Farhatullah Baig.
1. Nazeer Ahmed Ki Kahanai
Mirza Farhatullah Baig’s pen sketch ‘Dr Nazeer Ahmed Ki Kahani Kuch Meri Aur Kuch Un Ki Zabani’ is Urdu’s first pen sketch. Baig masterfully reveals essence of his teacher Moulvi Nazeer Ahmed Dehlvi’s personality: Moulvi Sahib was not only a religious figure or a serious writer but in private life he was very witty. Baig does not pretend not to have noticed his teacher’s foibles but narrates them as natural human weaknesses. Baig’s humorous style has made it doubly readable.
2. Naam Dev Mali
This brief pen sketch by Moulvi Abdul Haq is really moving. It portrays a poor gardener from a low-caste ethnic group. He loved his job and was attacked by a swarm of bees while tending his plants. Naam Dev the gardener died of bee stings but Abdul Haq made him immortal through this sketch declaring him a great man and asking the readers what virtue is and who a great person really is.
3. Kundan
Kundan was a semi-literate, poor Hindu peon at Aligarh Muslim University whose duties included striking the gong to signify recess or the end of a class. He did it dutifully for about 35 years without fail while doing other chores, as Rasheed Ahmed Siddiqi narrates in this pen sketch. A selfless and unbiased fellow who risked his life to save a Muslim family during the 1947 riots, Kundan truly deserved the tributes that Siddiqi has paid him in his usual semi-humorous style.
4. Teen Gole
Sa’adat Hasan Manto’s collection of pen sketches Ganje Farishte includes Meera Jee’s sketch. Manto is known for hiding his empathy behind a stolid realism. In this sketch he wonderfully captures Meera Jee’s miserable life and his psychological problems that haunted him till his untimely and woeful death.
5. Mir Nasir Ali
Shahid Ahmed Dehlvi wrote a sketch of Mir Nasir Ali, a typical Delhi veteran writer. Included in his book Ganjeena-i-Gauher, it is written in a flowing style.
6. Dauzakhi
Written by his sister Ismat Chughtai just a few days after Azeem Baig Chughtai’s death, the sketch is at the same time saddening and humorous. It successfully reveals the inner and private life of Azeem Baig Chughtai.
7. Hakeem Chishti
Abdul Majeed Salik was a journalist but was a wit, too. Both his skills can be seen entwined in his book Yaaraan-i-Kuhan. He is at his best in Hakeem Faqeer Chishti’s sketch, a wit and scholar himself.
8. Sanaullah Meera Jee
Shaukat Thanvi’s humour in his book Qaaeda-i-Be Qaaeda has given it a touch of spoofing, but his ability to unmask a person’s inner self in a couple of pages is amazing. Meera Jee’s sketch is included in this book.
9. Mela Ghoomni
When a veteran short story writer like Mumtaz Mufti decides to write pen sketches, he can weave amazing tales that reveal the subject’s mental state with the accuracy of an x-ray. Narrated in his semi-humorous style, his Perveen A’atif’s sketch is a part of delectable book Aukhe Log.
10. Jaan-i-Betaab
Aslam Farrukhi is one of the most prominent sketch writers of Urdu in our times. It is really difficult to choose a sketch from his six collections. But Jaan-i-Betaab, included in Laal Sabz Kabootron Ki Chhatri, is perhaps his best.
Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2020
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