KARACHI, March 23: The annual international mushaira organised by the Sakinan-i-Shehr-i-Quaid at the Expo Centre on Tuesday night had its praiseworthy moments, but on the whole it left much to be desired. The poetry symposium, which ended early on Wednesday morning, commenced a little less than a couple of hours after scheduled time and was further delayed because of the cliché-laden anchoring by Salman Siddiqui and Rizwan Siddiqui.

The first seven poets were introduced as the ‘host poets’, an invitation which fell terribly short on quality. Of Shaukat Ali Anqa, Saeedul Kabeer, Saeeduzzafar Siddiqui and Anwar Kaif, only Nadeem Sibtain and Qaiser Wajidi recited couplets of a reasonable quality. Qaiser Wajdi, who appeared to be influenced by Jaun Elia, earned applause from the vast crowd as soon as he uttered the following lines:

Ultey seedhey sawal kertey hain Loag bhi kia kamal kertey hain Apne funn mein lahu mila ker hum Apni rozi halal kertey hain Hakim Nasikh’s humorous effort was liked by the audience but a large chunk of the listeners didn’t seem to take him seriously, perhaps because of his animated, somewhat jester-like fashion. The poet can write satirical lines well, one example of which was:

Yeh baitha ja raha hai kion mera dil Yeh Amreeki dabao to nahin hai Sahibzada Atiqurrehman recited a ghazal in tarrannum, copying the late Muzzaffar Warsi’s style. Bangladesh’s Jalal Azimabadi came to the microphone and changed the mood of the mushaira a bit. One of his couplets was:

Kion jurm samajhtey ho Jalal apni muhabbat Dil chahey kisi ko yeh buri baat nahin hai Baqi Ahmedpuri from Lahore provided some semblance of quality to the symposium by reading out well-crafted lines such as:

Thak gaey hont tera naam bhi laitay laitay Aik hi lafz ki takrar kahan tak jaati Habib Siddiqui’s effort was reasonable. Haider Hasnain Jaleesi’s politics-driven, if a tad crude, humorous quatrains were appreciated by the gathering, and he despite the anchor’s requests to all poets to ‘keep your stint at the mike short’ (ikhtisar se kaam leejey) read out seven quatrains, suggesting his predecessors were given more time.

Khalish Muzzaffar from Hyderabad presented some sensitive ghazal:

Koi nahin hai ab deewana, meethey bolon per mutt jana Ghaeb ho jaen gi lakeerein, soch samajh ker hath milana He was followed by Naeem Hamid Ali from Saudi Arabia, after which Lahore’s Abbas Tabish came and recited a few of his known ghazals. He began with:

Aisey to koi tark-i-sukoonat nahin karta Hijrat wohi karta hai jo ba’et nahin karta The next two poets were Preeta Vajpaee from India and Naqqash Kazmi from Karachi, followed by Hasan Kazmi from India. Hasan Kazmi’s effort was greeted with a thunderous applause, particularly this couplet:

Khoobsurat hain aankhein teri, raat ko jagna chhor day Khud bakhud neend aa jaey gi, tu mujhe sochna chhor day What was a little confounding was the next poetess, Zakia Ghazal, who for some odd reason Rizwan Siddiqui kept calling back on the mike to recite more ghazals in spite of the shortage of time. While other poets were being requested to keep their verses short, Ghazal stayed for 15 to 20 minutes on the stage.

Prof Inayat Ali Khan from Hyderabad in his trademark way enthralled the audience with his humorous pieces and his nazm on democracy, Main bechari muft maari gaee, was particularly liked. It was sad that when Ameerul Islam Hashmi came to present his poetry, a lot of people had left the huge hall to refresh themselves with snacks. He recited some brilliant satirical quatrain replete with wisdom.

Manzar Ayubi, Sarshar Siddiqui and Arif Shafique kept intact the standard that they’re known for, as did Amjad Islam Amjad, one of whose couplets was:

Agarchey koi bhi andha nahin hai Likha deewar ka parhta nahin hai The last poet of the event was Dr Pirzada Qasim, who recited quite a few couplets of different moods. The following two lines from Dr Pirzada, who presided over the event, would be apt to round off this review:

Havas paraston ko ab sidq-i-muda’a koi day Bahak rahay hain inhein hosh ki dava koi day