KARACHI: Tanazur a collection of literary essays from Muslim Shamim, a known progressive poet and critic, was launched at Karachi Gymkhana on Saturday.

Presided over by elderly poet Tabish Dehlavi the function was attended by a cross section of intellectuals, including Sindhi language writers and members of the bar. The agenda carried only one paper by Mazhar Jameel, a longtime associate of the author and himself a reputed critic.

Mr Yusuf Jamal, adviser to the provincial ombudsman was the lone speaker. Justice Sabihuddin was the chief guest of the evening.

Mazhar Jameel in his paper presented an analytical study of each and every article in the book Tanazur and admired them for their fair judgment. Some of those were descriptive, others impressionistic. Despite his commitment to the ideology of socialist realism, these articles were not tied with any particular philosophy of literary criticism, Mr Jameel observed and quoted instances where the former had written essays on ‘non-progressives’ with judicious care. He also recalled his earlier prose and poetry collections Imkan, a poetry collection Aadersh, a collection of his published editorials and a compilation on the life of a contemporary poet Shaukat Abedi.

Mr Yusuf Jamal enlivened the evening by his address laced with couplets from Faiz and recalled that the great poet had much regard for Muslim Shamim. He also remembered those days when both he and Muslim Shamim were college mates and the latter, after joining law and being engaged in literary activities, became a ‘Saqafti Dehshat Gard” (cultural terrorist). Mr Jamal lamented that the message of love, compassion and social concern was nowadays missing from the writings of most writers, ‘a predicament of the poets and intellectuals’, and praised Muslim Shamim for being a ‘genuine writer’ having a wide area of love and concern.

Justice Sabihuddin Ahmad recalled his association with Muslim Shamim since the decade of 60s and praised him on two counts — one that he faced the ordeals in life with courage and fortitude and did not glamorize his past, and secondly he did not employ his legal profession to elevate his social status.

Later, Muslim Shamim also spoke and presented some pieces from his poetry. Noted poet Tabish Dehlavi paid his tributes to Muslim Shamim for his friendly gestures and wished him even more success in his literary ventures.

As Mr Nasim Gandhi welcomed the guests, Mr Zamurrad H. Jaferi spoke on behalf of the Gymkhana and briefly described its services in the fields of social uplift and culture. The Gymkhana Library owned a collection of around 70,000 books, he proudly disclosed and promised to carry on the ongoing literary activism by the club.

Ms Najma Khan, herself a poet and writer, compered the proceedings. —Hassan Abidi