KARACHI: Resisting to comply with the host’s requests for reciting some of his popular poems at T2F on Friday evening, distinguished Urdu poet Dr Pirzada Qasim presented quite a few of his unpublished and unheard nazms and ghazals which were a treat to listen to. In his distinct soft-spoken style, he also spoke on some important issues pertaining to Urdu poetry’s subject matter at the event organised in his honour.

But first, since he’s been vice chancellor of three universities, Dr Qasim responded to moderator Dr Fatema Hassan’s question on the state of education in the country. He said it was a major issue. According to a recent UN survey on basic education, he said, Pakistan was lagging half a century behind. “Hum ma’azrat khwahana zindagi guzar rahey hain” (We are leading an apologetic life) since it was difficult to find us [as achievers in education] on a global scale. He said we needed a knowledge-based society because it’s only by having such a society that sustainability in a system was possible. He said we should spend at least four per cent of our GDP on education. He said teachers should join the teaching profession by choice, and only then would they be able to do their job with commitment.

After the brief speech on education, Dr Qasim read out his poetry. He set the tone for that segment of the programme with a nazm titled ‘Waqt ki qaed’ (imprisoned by time). Once he was done with that, the moderator asked him to recite one of his well-known poems whose first line was ‘Tezi se guzar raha tha ik pal’ (a moment was quickly passing by).

When he was asked about the role and understanding of ishq (love) in poetry, Dr Qasim said love groomed the character or personality of a human being. It led him/her to the point, he said, where s/he began to comprehend the ‘sense of relationships’ and because of it [certain] light emerged within that person. Finishing his argument, Dr sahib recited a ghazal in which he said he had touched upon the subject. The first two lines of it were:

Hamari shaam he thi shaam se zara pehley Buhat sukoon tha aaraam se zara pehley [It was our evening, a little before the evening There was peace, a little before I could relax]

A couplet from another ghazal in the same context was:

Yaad kia dast-i-hunar hai ke sanwarta gaya maen Uss ko socha to ussey yaad hi kerta gaya maen [Ah the way memory fashions us, I’m now refined The moment I thought of her, I never stopped remembering her]

Answering the question on his gentle nature despite the use of metaphors in his poetry which signified commotion and tumult, Dr Qasim reasoned if we existed on the planet, we needed to entrust ourselves to something or someone. One of those things, he said, was time (waqt). He said if we entrusted ourselves to time, it would prepare and train us for many things. He said our upbringing, circumstances and relationships with others also contributed to the making of our cultural selves.

Dr Qasim then reverted to entertaining the audience with his poems. He read two shorts pieces ‘Bey masafat safar’ (journey without distance) and ‘Dasht-i-hairat’ (desert of surprise) followed by a ghazal one of whose remarkable verses was:

Mera nishaan to mila waqt ko sar-i-manzil Na jaaney maen tha ke rakhi thi ra’aigani meri [Time did find a trace of mine at the end of the journey I can’t say if it was me or my futile attempt]

Another verse from a different ghazal was:

Pehley mein sub se juda ho ke buhat tanha tha Khud se bichra to khula ronaq-i-tanhaee thi aur At first I felt alone when I lost everyone around me Wonders of solitude dawned on me when I parted ways with myself]

Published in Dawn September 11th, 2016