Poets prove the pen is mightier than the TT pistol

Indian and Canadian poets steal the show.

KARACHI: Indian poet Preeta Wajpai and the Canadian Zakia Ghazal stole the show or as it should be said, ‘mushaira loot liya’ at the 19th Aalmi Mushaira 2011 in Karachi on Tuesday night.

Fans gushed. “Preeta and Zakia had the potential to light a fire in water,” remarked Waqas.

“Preeta and Zakia can mesmerize listeners with their lyrics and their maddening, sweet and moving voices,” said Tariq.

“Both poets looted the mushaira and in fact they conquered the audiences with the melody of their voices and if they read prose in the same melodious style, it would be as sweet as honey,” added Kamran.

The evening was a vast success. A few nasty gossips had speculated that it would be a dull one, given Karachi’s violence, but they could not have been more wrong. The mushaira started at 10pm at the Expo Centre and it was only by 5:48 am that people reluctantly left when the host said the evening had to come to an end. In fact, the poetry gathering turned out to be a slap in the face of naysayers, pessimists and the cowards who hide behind the muzzles of their guns. The pen proved mightier than the TT pistol.

A large bouquet of young and experienced poets read out select works, including odes, poems, Rubai (with repeat end words for each couplet), Dohay (romantic songs) and Qat’aat (quatrains).

The audience particularly admired poets who read romantic and revolutionary couplets and Qat’aat with witty double entendres. They roared to clever jibes at Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, among other politicians. Raymond Davis featured in some meaner couplets. So did America. The audiences responded vociferously to Qat’aat by Haider Hasnain Jaleesi because of their political criticism, Arif Shafiq’s couplets because these were in favour of the Urdu-speaking people, and Preeta Wajpai and Zakia Ghazal’s romantic poetry.Take for instance Haider Hasnain Jaleesi’s jab at bald men:

Tumko nahi lagay jo change na lijeo

Serr per baal nahi hain to kunga na lijeo

Do bhaiyon say arz hay iltimas hay

Bus ek bhai say punga na lijeo.

Of particular note were the young poets, especially Qaisar Wajdi, Atiq and from the well-established names, Sarshar Siddiqui, Ejaz Rahmani, Saleem Kausar, Naeem Hamid Ali, Jalal Azimabadi, Amjad Islam Amjad and Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui.

The well-organised event had Farshi Nishist with gao takyas as has been a tradition of such gatherings in the subcontinent. This arrangement is a great leveller as prime ministers sit shoulder to shoulder on the same ground as paupers. This time, however, the organisers also provided chairs towards the back, which were mostly taken up by the elderly.

Several newly married couples turned up, with shy brides and swaggering grooms. Parents brought young daughters to stay all night long, something unheard of at non-family events in Karachi. “I cannot tolerate sitting with my wife and daughter to my right and a stranger to my left if it is the cinema or theater,” said Shahid. “But this was noble because it was a mushaira, a literary event.”

Not that longhaired and equally long faced young romantics did not show up dressed for the event. For many young women it was a good excuse to get out as well and many came in their evening best. Tea and other refreshments were served outside but families came with picnic hampers - soft drink bottles, bananas wrapped in newspaper, pakoras, biscuits, paan. Steel flasks were passed around with tea as children, tickled pink by a night’s outing, messed around in the circle formed by the seated family.

“The aalmi mushira has long been a family function because the stereotype vulgarity you see at other events has never surfaced here,” commented Abrar Usmani.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2011.