SSYED Masoodul Hasan Tabish will be remembered as a great lyricist, lexicologist, writer and broadcaster who contributed a lot to Urdu literature in the subcontinent and the world of broadcasting.

Born on Nov 9, 1911 in Dehli, he died on Sept 23, 2004 in Karachi.

He started his career at All India Radio (AIR) as an Urdu newsreader in 1941. The great Pitras Bokhari, the then controller of AIR, took his audition. Masood Tabish was remarkable as a news reader. Hashim Raza once said at a function “When Tabish was reading news, we all used to correct our pronunciation”.

On a number of occasions there were blunders in translation but using his presence of mind Tabish read correct news and received compliments from his colleagues like Krishn Chandr, N.M. Rashid, Meera Jee, Sadat Hasan Manto and Ansar Nasri.

According to Zulfikhar Ali Bukhari, “Tabish had all the mandatory requirements of a good news reader like narration voice, pronunciation, knowledge of current affairs and last but not least presence of mind”.

He had some historical and memorable events of his career as a broadcaster while in Dehli and later in Karachi. It was he who first announced in a news bulletin the establishment of Pakistan on Aug 14, 1947 on AIR and the death of the Quaid-i-Azam on Radio Pakistan.

It also goes to his credit that he was a proposer who sent two historic words 'Pakistan Zindabad' for the first time on air from All India Radio.

Tabish Dehlvi was a true connoisseur and virtuoso of Urdu literature. He inspired the hearts of many through his most established and famed domain of poetry, the ghazal, and it became one of the hallmarks of his poetic life.

He was one of the few poets of modern times that kept up the spirit of classic Urdu poetry and proved to be a true discipline of Fani Badayuni.

Tabish's poetic brilliance did not limit himself in exploring new territories and trying out his hand in other domain of popular verse. Be it 'nazm', 'nasr', 'marsia' or 'heiko', he made his mark on all of these and established himself as an authority in all the sphares of Urdu literature.

Although Tabish was a great literary figure, he was an equally caring and loving person. He was one of the rare people in today's world who had no dreams or desires that remained unfulfilled in his life time.

Once during his last days when I asked him if he had any wish that remained unfulfilled in life and he wanted to accomplish that, he said, with a grin encompassing his face, that he had lived a full and contended life.

He was a person who lived free of materialistic desires, worldly goals and monetary anxieties.

SAQLAIN HYDER
Karachi