The People's Poet

Re: # 44, rashis_s:
Thanks for the analysis of the Ghalib`s sher.

It was a pleasure to read Qamar`s sher.

TaaroN ki bahaaroN mein bhi Qamar,
Tum afsurdaah sey rahtey ho;
PhooloN ko to deykho, kaaNtoN mein,
Hans, hans key guzaaraa kaerty haiN.

Re: # 42, echoboom:
Thanks alot. This is a jewel!

I have attended a couple of sessions of Faraz’s poetry recitals. As said else where here, he has copious amount of entertainment and I noticed it did affect his performance as the night wore off!

Faraz was not particularly enamoured by singers like Mehdi Hassan etc he said, for he alleged that they did not respect the ‘copy right’ issues.

# 27 has quoted Ghalibs praise for Meer. It may not be the case with you Freethinker, but it is commonly understood to mean that Ghalib accepted Meer as his ustaad in Urdu poetry.
I have read a bit of Ghalib and have been impressed by his articles and letters on various issues too.

Ghalib comes out as a uniquely self-confident person and full of “Khudari”, to the extent that I believe that he would not admit to any body being above him. Hence the shaer:

Rekhta`h kay tum hi ustad naheen ho Ghalib
Kehtay hai`n uglay zamanay mein ko`i Meer bhi thaa,

needs to be analysed such that the ‘tu-mhi’ --stresses that there is also another Usdtaad, namely Meer, not above or in exclusion to Ghalib, but equal to him. Then he limits Meer’s expertise to Rekhta’h, which as I understand, in his time was a bit different to and not as linguistically sophisticated to Urdu, with the additional connotation that Rekhtah was the art of spontaneous poetry. Again the kehtay hai’n-- leaves the room for us to assume that he too, just like us, had ``heard`` from others that Meer was an Ustaad. Not Ghalib`s original thought!

I never the less love Meer and Ghalib both. May I say that in sheer impishness, particularly for an old wiry, lean and pious getup, my favourite is Qamar, who uses his name ‘Qamar’ =full moon - as no body else close to the real meaning:

Jalwa gar bazm-e hasinaa’n mey hai’n is shan say
Chaand jesay aey ‘Qamar’ taaro’n bhari mehfil may hai

Mainay jo upna naam btaayaa unhai’n `Qamar`
Khenay lagay khe daag dikhao jigar may hai? (The full moon has lots of marks on it)


Just an excuse to take part in your mehfil- Rashid_s

RE: Delhiwala

The style, substance and presentation are similar

but I have never used any other name except

for my own here on CHOWK.


Ras

something a little different: a treat nonetheless

The earliest (1904) ones of the recordings in India

Gohar Jan: An armenian jew, settled in calcutta--Fascinating life stories of armenian jews like Nadia & helen (the dancer) , and David: Only if one has enough time to read them all!

enjoy!

Re: # 32
DrSohail,
What is your opinion on Gay-Marriages in Canada?
Do you think that they should be legailized?

Ras: Are you DrSohail?
My jassoseey 6th sense is hyper these days.

Re: # 35

Talking of agnostic poetry, I like these ash`aar by Sahir

saza ka haal suanayen, jaza ki baat karen
khuda mila ho jinhe, woh khuda ki baat karen


har ek daur ka mazhab naya khuda laaya
karen to hum bhi magar kis khuda ki baat karen

Re: # 31, freethinker:
``I am sorry you related Iqbal with ``bitter pills``. Many people disagree with Iqbal regarding his philosophy but if you read Iqbal for his poetry, you`ll be gripped by its beauty.``

****There is no doubt Iqbal`s poetry is superb, though for my equipment in Urdu, it is difficult to understand. But I take care of using the dictionary. The high climax of Iqbal is matched by the low trough of his personal quality as a disrupter of India par excellence. But selfishly, I enjoy his poetry and ignore his social philosophy. Nazar Hayat Khan has summarized him quite well on the thread running on Iqbal currently at Chowk.****

``Please don`t take any offense if I unwittingly made a remark about your comprehension of Iqbal because I am not aware of your background.``

****It is kind of you to make this statement. Being from Allahabad, I have my own pride about the beauty and knowledge of Urdu but my personal beef with Iqbal and Jinnah is that their actions prevented me from learning more Urdu in School. As you can imagine subsequent to the partition of India Urdu had fallen out of favor in all schools except those run by the Masjids.****

``For many readers, Ghalib is difficult to read and comprehend. But he is unique. ``

****Though the culturally conservative Hindus often criticize Ghalib`s escapade with Umrao Jan, Ghalib is by far the greatest poet in Urdu firmament. His poetry has the no political ax to grind. He reaches where a poet ought to dwell, namely, in the domain of personal psychology+ spirituality.****

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate you for providing many worthwhile fora at the Chowk and I am happy at the dimensions of your personality which is inquisitive, eclectic, shows intersest in deeper things.

In the war of Mind and heart..

Faiz captured the hearts with his mind but lost his own war..*Alas..*..

Ata Turk and Faiz met the same fate..

...while faraz the ghazal poet is known and loved by most poetry lovers, not many have appreciated his nazm-nigari... in my humble view, he is probably the greatest nazm nigar after josh malihabadi...his famous nazms``khandar``, ``aag``, ``kharidaar`` and many more are amzing in their fluidity and depth... i would post one of his more famous nazms, ``bano ke naam`` which is the story of a young beautiful maid who was killed on the orders of the Begum of JunagaRh... wife of Nawab of JunagaRh...

malukiyat ke mahal ki gunahgaar kaneez
voh jurm kya tha ke tujh ko sazai marg mili
voh raaz kya tha ke tazir-e-narava ke khilaf
teri nigaah na bhaRki, teri zabaN na hili
voh kaun sa tha gunah-e-azeem jis ke sabab
her aik jabr ko tou sah gayee ba-taib-e-dili

yehi suna hai buss itna qusoor tha tera
ke tou ne qasr ke kuch talkh bhed janay thay
teri nazar ne voh khilvat kadoN ke daagh ginay
jo khwaajgi ne zar-o-seem meiN chupaane thay
tujhe ye ilm nahin tha ke iss khata ki saza
hazaar tauq-o- salasal thay taziyanae thay

ye rasm taaza nahiN hai agar teri laghzish
mizaj-e-qasr nasheenaN ko nagawaar hui
hamesha oonche mahallat ke bharam ke liye
her aik daur meiN tazeen-e-tauq-o-daar hui
kabhi chuni gayee deewaar meiN anarkali
kabhi shakuntala pathraao ka shikaar hui

magar ye takht ye sultaN ye begumaat ye qasr
muarrakheen ki nazroN meiN bay gunaah rahe
ba-faiz-e-waqt agar koi raaz khul bhi gaya
zamane waalay tarafdaar-e-kajkulaah rahe
sitam ki aag meiN jalte rahe awaam magar
jahaN panaah hamesha jahaN panaah rahe

Great article, Gill sahib. The lines from Faraz have the ring of truth to them - religion has sadly proved in practice to be just that, nafraton kay saheefay.

``Inn rasoolo’n ki kitabain taaq mein rakh dau Faraz
Nafrato’n kay yeh saheefay umar bhar dekhay ga kaun``

HP: #33

Thanks for reproducing Khatir Ghaznavi`s ghazal in your post. I had read its opening verse a long time before and I remembered where I had read it. It was quoted by Anwar Sadeed who had written a short review of Khatir Ghaznavi`s new (new in 1985/86) book ``Khwab dar Khwab.`` It (the review) was published in ``Auraq,`` October-November, 1986. Fortunately, I still have this magazine in my collection. After reading your post, I took it out and read the review again to refresh my memory.

The opening line of the review, roughly translated in English, reads as follows:

``Khatir Ghaznavi is one of those fortunate poets whose only one verse ensures their eternal fame. And then this verse always helps in the progression of the graph of their success.. ..`` And then he quoted his verse:

go zaraa sii baat par baraso.n ke yaaraane gaye
lekin itanaa to huaa kuchh log pahachaane gaye

Thanks, HP, for the whole ghazal.

Mohammad Gill

Ahmed Faraz was a professor at Islamia College, Peshawar. He had a running rivalry with another Professor Khatir Ghanzvi of Islamia College. I think they were both in the Urdu Dept.

Zeemax perhaps knows more about that. The story is that Khatir Ghaznavi gained popularity when Mehdi Hassan sang this ghazal (see below).

Ahmed Faraz went ballistic and claimed that he wrote this Ghazal and another one that too was sung by Mehdi Hassan. Khatir Ghaznavi denied that though he never wrote another ghazal worth anything after Faraz left Islamia College.

If Faraz really wrote this gahazl then it is perhaps his best...better than Ranjish hee sahi...

go zaraa sii baat par baraso.n ke yaaraane gaye
lekin itanaa to huaa kuchh log pahachaane gaye

garmii-e-mahafil faqat ik naaraa-e-mastaanaa hai
aur vo Khush hai.n ki is lahafil se diivaane gaye

mai.n ise shoharat kahuu.N yaa apanii rusvaaii kahuu.N
mujhase pahale us galii me.n mere afasaane gaye

yuu.N to vo merii rag-e-jaa.N se bhii the nazadiik tar
aa.Nsuuo.n kii dhu.Ndh me.n lekin na pahachaane gaye

vahashate.n kuchh is tarah apanaa muqadaar ho gaii.n
ham jahaa.N pahu.Nche hamaare saath viiraane gaye

ab bhii un yaado.n kii Khushbuu zehan me.n mahafuus hai
baarahaa ham jin se gulazaaro.n ko mahakaane gaye

kyaa qayaamat hai ki `Khatir` kushtaa-e-shab bhii the ham
sub_h jab huii to mujarim ham hii gardaane gaye

Re: # 30

Dear Inquirer...Being a Secular Humanist I believe all citizens of a state need equal rights

and privileges. I also believe in separation of state and religion, religion being a private

matter and state laws based on secular values. I hope one day we see more and more

secular states all over the world. sincerely sohail

Inquirer: #29

I am sorry you related Iqbal with ``bitter pills``. Many people disagree with Iqbal regarding his philosophy but if you read Iqbal for his poetry, you`ll be gripped by its beauty. True, it`s not romantic, but its beauty of expression, fluency, musicality and depth is very overpowering. Read his Tasweer-e-dard in Baang-e-Dara (you may have already read it, for all I know), it`s beautiful although it is now outdated. It was addressed to all the Indians before partition of India. His Shama aur Shaer is superb. Please don`t take any offense if I unwittingly made a remark about your comprehension of Iqbal because I am not aware of your background. His Farsi kalam is excellent.

For many readers, Ghalib is difficult to read and comprehend. But he is unique. He took great pains to screen his own diwan. He discarded many ghazals which did not measure to his own standard. The remaining diwan as we see it now is great, ghazal after ghazal after ghazal. I think I am getting carried away; I better stop here.

Mohammad Gill