ISLAMABAD, Aug 23: Lovers of rhythm and rhyme continued to enjoy the poetry sessions held in the capital as a Mushaira, organized in connection with the Independence Day by the Pakistan Academy of Letters, came close on the heels of a an evening of poetry reading a day earlier.
The poets, who were described as the generation born after the establishment of Pakistan (most of them, that is) by Chairman of the Academy Iftikhar Arif, who hosted the function, sang of the wheel of fire that their elders had to cross to bring to realization the dream of a poet, the poet-philosopher Iqbal and the struggle of the Muslims of the subcontinent under the dynamic leadership of the Quaid-i-Azam for achieving their homeland.
Poets and writers, Iftikhar Arif said played a very crucial role in the movement for independence.
The Mushaira, where like in any other traditional Mushaira, one heard of the pangs and sorrows of outrageous fortune, of the indifference of the beloved, and of Gul-o-Bulbul (flower and the nightingale) also echoed the pride one felt about the motherland, or the feeling that one had about the Pakistan flag.
For instance this couplet by Junaid Azad: “Aiay arze-Pak teri khak say jo nata hai, yeah hi ghoroor meraiy sar ko sar banata hai (O land pure, the relationship that I have with you makes me proud, allows me to keep my head high)” Or one by poet Akhtar Usman about Pakistan flag: “Pharpharana haraiy phurairaiy ka, chlta sabza khyal mein aya. (Fluttering of the green flag, one thought of walking verdure, of moving meadows)”.
Vice Chancellor of the Allama Iqbal Open University, Prof Altaf Hussain, who was the Chief guest at the function a PhD, in chemistry spoke of the “close relationship” between chemistry and poetry; probably he was referring to the traditional Keemia Gari often mentioned in Urdu poetry, or to the fact that the chemistry of the lover and the beloved could somehow never meet in our classical poetic tradition. He also mentioned that he used to bring out a literary magazine at Sindh University while he was studying there.
Noted poet and columnist, Mohammad Izharul Haq read a long, moving poem of six parts (cantos, as it were) which, in a mixture of technique from the Four Quartets and Wasteland of the famous English poet T S Eliot, as it were, spoke of a world which was about to end; the poem used warnings from the Holy Quran in profusion about the end of the world.
The poet announced that he had been writing it for many years and kept it for an audience that he thought should listen to it.
Unlike the usual traditional practice of Mushaira, where the poets recite in order of Taqdeem-o-Takheer (the juniors followed by seniors), poets in this Mushaira were called in the alphabetical (Urdu) order, as Iftikhar Arif jokingly said, “ no one considers himself lesser than Ghalib or Mir”.
Poet Mehboob Zafar did a pleasant job of Nizamat (comparing), and described almost every poet called on the stage, as a poet who had a style and wrote good ghazals and /or nazams.
Those who read out their poetic creations were: Iftikhar Yousuf, Anjum Khalique, Pervaiz Akhtar Shad, Pervaiz Malik, Tania Shah, Tanvir Haider, Akhtar Usman, Dr Sarwat Zehra, Javed Ahmed, Junaid Azad, Khurram Fareed, Dawood Rizwan, Akhtar Sheikh, Rukhsana Nazi, Saeed Ahmed, Tariq Naeem, Abid Sayal, Ayisha Masood Malik, Imran Naeem, Ghazanfar Hashmi, Zahir Baqir, Qaim Naqvi, Mir Tanha Yousufi, Wafa Chisti, Dr Yasmin Ghazal and Syed Arif, whose ghazal was recited in absentia.
One found a number of senior writers of good prose, who had come to listen to good poetry such as short story writer and founder of Qalam Qabila, Saquiba Rahimuddin.—Mufti Jamiluddin Ahmed