ATLANTIC CITY: As usual, the mushaira started late — around 10:30pm on Thursday night — and ended at three in the morning, but it was a testament to the love and respect that poets like Iftikhar Arif and Amjad Islam Amjad enjoy that many in the audience stayed till early Friday morning to listen to them.

The current atmosphere of open hostility in South Asia means that cross-border mushairay are rare, so Indian and Pakistani poets can only meet and share their poems in such settings, this one arranged by APPNA.

Most participants left their politics at the door; die-hard PTI supporters and staunch PML-N sympathisers could be seen sitting calmly under one roof.

Many poets recited ghazals, most of which had real-world underpinnings, des­cribing the political and social upheavals permeating both India and Pakistan.

When popular Indian poet Manzar Bhopali talked about “how lamps are being given out to increase darkness”, it seemed like an obvious reference to communal violence and hate prevalent in today’s India.

Pakistani poet Ghazanfar Hashmi’s complaint that “the boat was already sinking, now the bank has moved too” was also seen as referring to the situation in his country. Abbas Tabish’s assurance that “Kufa-o-Shaam are phases and they shall pass too” was also interpreted as a reference to the current situation in Pakistan.

Poet Ashfaq Hussain’s com­plaint that “we too are responsible for writing meaningless words” was an obvious reference to self-censorship. Humorists Khalid Maso­­od and Khalid Irfan were more direct. Masood’s “lota once had other uses but now it is used to undo knots in parliament” needed no explanation. Khalid Irfan, too, was pretty straight-forward when he complained about the link between presidency and dentistry.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2022