KARACHI, Feb 10: Moving speeches were delivered at a literary reference held in memory of poet Mohsin Bhopali at the Arts Council Karachi on Thursday.

Vice Chancellor of Karachi University Dr Pirzada Qasim, who presided over the event, said any event was known for the purpose it served, and the literary reference served a very important purpose of acknowledging the worth of a brilliant poet. He said the world of literature was a progression and all creative individuals were a continuity of their preceding writers. He said Mohsin Bhopali (who passed away four years ago) was a significant poet who knew the importance of the time he was creating verse in and had great know-how of the technical aspect of poetry. He said it was no mean feat to have emerged and become part of a creative horizon that already had luminaries likes Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Nadim Qasmi, Ali Sardar Jaffery; and Mohsin Bhopali made his presence felt among such great poets. He claimed that Mohsin Bhopali's poetry never lost its freshness, a virtue that not many poets could boast of. He said he'd look to it that a PhD on the work of the late poet was pursued at the Urdu department of Karachi University.

Writer Asad Mohammad Khan, in his soft-spoken and gentle style, narrated a few incidents from Mohsin Bhopali's life delineating the humane side to his personality. He said both of them originally hailed from the city of Bhopal and he had known the late poet since the 1950s. He said Bhopali was a friend to his fingertips and once when he (Asad) had shifted to a new plaza in Karachi, Bhopali came to his house, which surprised him because nobody knew his address. When he asked the poet how he managed to locate him, Bhopali said being an engineer he could smell fresh cement which is how he traced him down.

Recounting another story, he said one day Bhopali, Athar Nafees and Asad Mohammad Khan went out to buy apples and found a pushcart laden with fruit outside a mosque. The vendor had gone into the mosque to pray. Bhopali waited for 15 minutes for the fruit seller to return, and when his other two friends asked him why he did that, the poet replied that the vendor had left all he had outside a mosque having faith in God, so he had made up his mind the moment he saw the pushcart that he's going to buy apples only from him.

Prof Sahar Ansari also began his speech by highlighting how Bhopali valued friendship (he chose his pen name Moshin after a friend in Bhopal who died an untimely death). He said Bhopali was an extremely organised human being who kept track of everything he did in life. Touching upon his poetic endeavours he said his collection, Nazmaney, brimmed with the element of truth, for he was the poet of the masses (awami shaer). Mohsin Bhopali had also written other books, including a piece on travel writing, he said, adding that he was a wonderful traveller to accompany.

Arts Council President Ahmed Shah shared with the audience his early memories of the poet when he lived in his neighbourhood, and commented that a society that didn't respect its writers and poets wasn't worthy enough. In that regard, he lamented that in the recently held literature festival in Karachi, literary giants like Rasa Chughtai and Pirzada Qasim were ignored.

Prof Haroon Rashid said Mohsin Bhopali had helped and tutored a generation of poets, a fact that not many were aware of.

Poetess Humaira Rahat in her succinct paper talked about the poet's kind disposition and quoted a few of his couplets, one of which was: Mahaz-i-jang mein paspaiyan to jaez hain

Muhabbaton mein magar wapsi nahin hoti

Mohsin Bhopali's daughter Shahana Javed also spoke, while Arts Council Secretary Prof Ajaz Farooqui thanked the participants of the event. The programme was conducted by Rashid Noor.