Mushairas past and present

The Aalmi Mushaira held in Karachi on Friday night (Oct 10) attracted a pretty large audience despite the fact that conditions in the city are less than propitious for functions involving a night out. Starting at midnight, the Mushaira continued blissfully until early the next morning. The organizers, Sakinan-i-Sheher-i-Quaid, truly, had reason to be satisfied. The entertainment-starved people of Karachi did not let them down.

As it so happens, at literary sittings these days, we are quite often privileged to have some “foreign” guests with us. These for the most part happen to be Pakistanis living abroad, who are on a visit to Pakistan. When they attend a function here its status goes up and it becomes “aalmi”. So, a couple of poets from the USA and another from Bangladesh made the mushaira ‘aalmi’. However, the presence of the noted non-agenarian poet Tabish Dehlavi was quite an inspiration for the poets and the discerning among the audience.

Tabish Sahib’s recitation at the mushaira recalled some memories of the grand mushairas of the past decades. They were an important feature of the city’s cultural life. One may recall the Indo-Pak mushaira held by Dawn in 1949, which was attended by some of the most outstanding poets of the two countries. A well-known wit termed it “azeemud-Dawn” mushaira. As it set the ball rolling, many other cultural bodies, like the Anjuman Sadaat-i-Amroha, and the management of the famous literary magazine, Nigar, held quite a few subcontinental mushairas. These were often attended by poets like Jigar Moradabadi, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Josh Malihabadi, Ali Sardar Jafari, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and others. Incidentally, Ms Zohra Nigah and Mustafa Zaidi were the budding poets of the 50s.

Relations between Pakistan and India, strained though they generally were, did allow a bit of freedom of travel. Getting a travel visa had not become the nightmarish experience, as it is now. Senior citizens recall that an Indo-Pak mushaira in those days would come like a tidal wave and spawn many ‘mini-mushairas’ in the city for weeks to come.

The Aalmi Mushaira this time had lost much of its appeal owing mostly to the absence of poets from across the border. Some of our own popular poets had also gone abroad to attend some mushairas. The spokesman for Sakinan-i-Sheher-i-Quaid was unhappy that the authorities in New Delhi had refused permission to their poets, who intended to visit Pakistan.

Poets have always been the most admired and effective messengers of goodwill between the two nations. One hears a good deal of the two-track diplomacy being pursued in furtherance of the devoutly wished for normalization of relations between both countries.

Pakistani parliamentarians, lawyers, students and some journalists and a delegation of traders have visited India, and so have Indians in recent days on a reciprocal basis. Their poets were also eagerly awaited and would have earned the people’s goodwill.

However, coming back to the mushaira, it is interesting to note that the same event was held in Hyderabad only a day earlier (Oct 9) with the visiting poets present. In a way, it was a bilingual mushaira in which Sindhi and Urdu language poets presented their verses to the delight of everyone as the audience appeared conversant with both languages. The compering was done in both Urdu and Sindhi.

One may also recall that some progressive writers in the mid 50s had held a joint literary conference besides an Urdu-Sindhi mushaira attended by such stalwarts, as Shaikh Ayaz who was also an eminent Urdu poet. This ethnic and communal goodwill was destroyed by the creation of One Unit and Ayub’s martial law.

By the way, a senior poet during conversation inquired as to why poets from the interior of Sindh were not invited to the Aalmi Mushairas in Karachi. Poets from Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta often visit Karachi and mushaira-goers enjoy their poetry. But one misses poets from the interior of Sindh. One wonders why no serious attempt has been made to institutionalize multi-lingual mushairas.

The Aalmi Mushaira — though not a tidal wave as in the 50s — nevertheless caused ripples in many areas. Taking advantage of the visiting poets presence in the city, a mushaira was held at Karachi Gymkhana on Oct 12, another is due at Sadaat-i-Amroha on Oct 19 and yet another at the Karachi Club on Oct 23.

In the wake of the Aalmi Mushaira, a mushaira at Karachi Gymkhana has become a permanent feature. Some other elite clubs are likely to follow suit, shedding their superior cultural airs for a while.

PS: Hooting is taken as an essential part of a mushaira. Spicy and intelligent remarks from the audience at times speak of their taste for poetry. It is said that sometimes some poets fail to distinguish between cheers and jeers — between catcalls and requests for more verses.

Hayden deserves all the accolades that he has been getting

PAKISTAN let in South Africa into the series at Faisalabad through poor staff work. Yousuf Youhana, the acting captain, may have had his hands full but surely there should have been someone in the dressing room who should have been keeping an eye on the fading light and sent a message to ginger up things.

Strange that we should not know about home conditions. At this time of the year the light begins to go in the late afternoon and the timing of the sunset forms a part of a published met report. Slow over rate has nothing to do with Shoaib Akhtar’s long run-up. The fielders are required to move with more urgency between overs and not stroll to their positions, as if walking in the park.

I don’t say that Pakistan would have won at Faisalabad but it is patently absurd that Duckworth and Lewis should have come into the reckoning in the matter of light.

Then there is the question of injuries. So much cricket is being played these days that the fitness-factor has become paramount. Every team is beset with injuries. But there is such a concept as a fitness test and it is the team’s trainer who should decide whether an injury constitutes a serious handicap and whether playing an unfit player serves the best interest of the team.

In the final, both Inzamam-ul-Haq and Youhana were carrying injuries. I can appreciate that Inzamam was very keen to play. It was a very brave decision but it became obvious that his mobility was severely restricted.

I do not agree that a half-fit Inzamam was a better proposition than no Inzamam. It was no great surprise that he was run out. He was batting in that part of the innings when the strike had to be rotated and sharp singles had to be taken so that the rhythm of the South Africa’s bowlers was disturbed and the fielders put under pressure.

It was a tough call for Inzamam but it might have been better had he sat out the final. After all, Graeme Smith too was not playing though for a different reason.

To be two down and still win the series is a monumental achievement or put another way, to be two up and lose three games on a trot was a monumental disappointment for Pakistan fans. The credit, of course, goes to the South Africans who quickly adjusted to local conditions and found their focus.

This would suggest a lot of homework put in by the players and the support staff. Did Pakistan get complacent? I don’t think so and apart from the end-result it was a wonderful series. Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami bowled with great fire and one hopes that the wickets for the Test matches will have something for them.

There seems to be some sort of curtain of silence drawn on Mushtaq Ahmed. He played an entire county season without any fitness mishap. Yet, he plays one match in Pakistan, bowls poorly and is declared unfit for the entire remaining matches. That being the case, Danish Kaneria should have been inducted in the team straightaway. He was finally brought for the final and bowled superbly.

For a long time, the conventional wisdom was that a leg-spinner was a luxury in the one-day game. It was Imran Khan who saw in Abdul Qadir an attacking weapon, followed up by Mushtaq Ahmed who played an important role in Pakistan winning the World Cup in 1992. And then came Shane Warne and the leg-spinner became an integral part of a bowling attack in limited overs cricket.

I have no idea about the fitness progress of Mushtaq Ahmed but Kaneria should, in any case, be in contention for the Test matches. If the conditions are right, I don’t see why two leg-spinners cannot be played. There’s no law against it.

It is the batting that should be a matter of concern, the inability to convert fifties into hundreds. We are still being told that the team is in a re-building process, as if we are embarked in creating some wonder of the world like the Pyramids.

The team should have had a settled look by now. Yasir Hameed alone has looked promising among the new players and he too is becoming careless in his shot selection. But he is not an opening batsman. He filled that spot in the one-day games.

So who will open the innings in the Test matches? Make-shift openers? What happened to the pool of players that the re-building process was supposed to provide? We are still heavily dependent on the old guard.

Is the ICC doing the right thing in becoming too pro-active in enforcing the code of conduct? There is the danger that the authority of the umpires and the match referee can be undermined. At the same time the bans on Smith and Andrew Hall were justified because re-plays showed a very ugly incident and some action was required.

I feel that my good friend Clive Lloyd should have acted himself rather than the ICC having taken sue moto notice. I believe that a code of conduct for the players should be something instinctive with the players. They themselves should draw the line.

Good sense makes you obey the traffic rules not fear of punishment. At an international level, the players are representing their countries. They must avoid behaving like street-urchins and bullies. They are tarnishing the image of their countries.

380 runs is a helluva lot of runs to score at any level of cricket but to get that score in a Test match is an achievement even when the opposition is Zimbabwe. Matthew Hayden deserves all the accolades that he has been getting.

With teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh now decorated with the medal of Test status, it was only a matter to time that Brian Lara’s record would go. How long before someone else overtakes Hayden?