“The more you know, the more you will know; there is more than you can ever know” are the thought provoking words of Gulzar Bano, a poet, book lover, philanthropist and a former civil servant.

It is because of her intelligence and strenuous efforts that she became the first woman secretary in all five executive ranks. Now she is a social worker, supports different organisations and is running her own social welfare trust: Sarwar Bano and Manzur Ahmad Trust.

She associates herself with people and shares their aspirations.

Ms Bano was born in Jallundhar in 1927 and is the eldest daughter of a forester and silviculturist. Before migration to Pakistan she was studying in legendary Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow. In Lahore, she did her graduation and masters in English Literature from Kinnaird College and Government College, respectively.

After completing her education, she joined civil services and retired in 1983.

“In those days some of the high profile services such as civil services were not open to women because of male dominant society and gender biases. My journey as a woman in civil services was very tough,” says Ms Bano in an interview.

She suffered a lot in her career as a woman but her consistency made her a success. “Sometimes, I was abused verbally by my boss and when I asked for my resignation he would say ‘you can’t resign Ms Bano’,” she said.

When she disagreed with a point during meetings, her boss would say: “Well! Let’s please agree with her, after all she’s a lady.” Ms Bano’s argument would always be “please agree with me for my views and not because I am a woman”.

Continuous male chauvinism compelled her to do something for women. Feminism is the hallmark of her poetry. Her career as a poet is bright like her journey in the civil services.

In Urdu fiction, there are names like Ismat Chughtai, Bano Qudsia and Quratul Ain Haider etc.

but none of them used English language as a medium. Ms Bano can be rightly called one of the pioneers of English poetry in Pakistan. She started writing when she was at school, but her first creative piece was a short story entitled “The Bedroom Ghost” published in Lucknow-based newspaper The Pioneer in 1946. Later, she discontinued fiction writing.

She had a passion for poetry. In her poetic collection she mostly highlighted feminism, exploitation, liberty and love. She has written a lot but she published only a few selected items in her book “Lost Found, Found Lost”. The book under review contains 67 poems of her. She describes how they came about and the lives of many who survived the painful birth of Pakistan.

She says: “This happened to me and I had to abandon my innermost urges. I came from Lucknow to Lahore in a military special train without my parents in November 1947. My only piece of luggage included a few books and paintings. Intensive concentration as a single working woman in a large family made me neglect my aptitude for the arts. However, words can be drawn without paint and brushes. Often on notepapers here and there I started writing poems ... many of them lost.

Somewhat egoistically, late in life I thought of getting these 67 poems published.” Her poetry is the reflection of reality and her volume entitled “Voice Against Violence” includes poems for special occasions like international conferences. The poems in this volume are very heart touching and melancholic. Very emotionally she describes the miseries and pains of the violence victims. Have a look at her following verses:

Even when feet are bleeding, Mothers, whose breasts are drying, With children sucking blessed broken nipples, Proclaimed paradise blooms beneath the feet of mothers, Still more violent is the passion in these lines, Monsters forget their mothers’ encircling arms.

Her poetry is about struggle and justice, intellectual and passionate and a combination of sensitivity and realities. She criticised violence against women through her poetry. The marvelous criticism on violence against women could be seen in her poem “The Rape of Macharanwali”, which was also published by Oxford University Press, Karachi in 1997.

“My career of more than three decades has the kind of loneliness which only a single Pakistani woman starting work in the 1950s and being the eldest of ten children can experience. The above words are not my last words. I stand with John Keats who concluded his ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ with just two lines”:

Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

“This is the universal message for all. And last but not the least never disappoint Pakistan - this is my advice to every inhabitant of this beautiful homeland,” she says at the end of her interview. — Amna Toheed