Pain, poetry and passion

They call him Pakistan’s Shiv Kumar Batalvi but he would rather be known as Afzal Saahir, who has interpreted pain his own way

THERE is something very endearing about Afzal Saahir, Lahore’s young poet who is in town with his fine repertoire of Punjabi poetry. Endearing and vulnerable, one is at once protective about him and a little afraid, for poets such as him have had the going tough in an essentially prosaic world. It is not uncommon for Indian hosts to introduce him as ‘Pakistan’s Batalvi.’

However, charming Saahir is quick to put things right his own mellow way, “Babeo! Na. I am an admirer of Batalvi who was one of the best poets the two Punjabs have seen but I would be rather known as Afzal Saahir for that’s who I am.” He goes onto explain that while Batalvi romanticised pain, he has endeavoured to look pain in the eye. “Pain for me is not an individual experience, I speak of the pain of an entire populace. It is not I but us who are undergoing the pain and this pain is inflicted on humanity by vested interests and not a divine ordinance,” says Saahir.

Saahir was born in Faisalabad and there he started writing poetry . “I started writing in Urdu but soon I moved to Punjabi, influenced as I was by the folk poetry sung by my mother and folk legends told by my father,” he says. His parents belonged to the Hoshiarpur district. His mother was from Jandi and his father from Chabewal. The talk of Partition makes this sensitive poet sad, “My parents were married just a month before the Partition. She was away on muklava when the riots broke out. My parents saw each other the first time in a refugee camp. My mother would tell us how the hen had just laid the eggs and the atta had been kneaded for lunch the day they fled their village.”

After school, he came to Lahore to join college and started editing various Punjabi magazines and journals, besides making a place for himself as a poet to look forward to. True enough, he proved himself and has the reputation for looting the mushaira and well loved in both Punjabs even before his book is out. The name of his first anthology to be released early next year is ‘Peedhan Vikane Aayian’. In translation it would mean — Pain is up for sale. And thus he says:: Sajjan ajj peedhan vikane aayian/ Kisse na hass kjarai bohni kisse na jholi payian.

Saahir is in India the third time and this trip he came as delegate to the Sajjaad Zaheer Centenary celebrations early this month in Allahabad and then for the IPTA meet in Lucknow. From there to Delhi and now two days in Chandigarh and Amritsar before his return. What is he taking back with him? A lot of pleasant memories and something very precious. Saahir tells, “When I went to meet Imroz, Amrita Pritam’s companion, he gave me three dozen cigarettes that Amrita had left behind. I promised him that I would smoke them when I write poems.” Thus the puff of poetry travels from Delhi to Lahore.

Strengthen Punjabi to better relations: Pak delegates
Sanjay Bumbroo Tribune News Service

Since Partition we were not allowed to become Punjabis as Urdu language was thrust on the Punjabi community in Lahore and other parts of Pakistan by the powers, said Afzal Saahir, programme manager of the FM 103 Lahore.

Afzal was part of the nine-member delegation which include Bhai Ghulam Mohammad Chand, a descendant of Bhai Mardana, his nephews Mohammed Afzal and Amjad Hussain, noted poet and composer Yasub Tahir, Augustin Arfaan Javedd and Rebecca art and craft teachers of Lahore College for Women and Kannaird College for Women Lahore, respectively, classical singer and teacher Sameena Hassan Sayyad and young film maker Danial Rashid.

Saahir talking to The Tribune rued Punjabi script Shahmukhi was not being taught from the primary school level and it was only taught to those students who opted for this subject as an optional subject at the postgraduate level. He said only those students especially from Lahore took it as optional subject who have love for the mother tongue. He said even some of the persons who are keen to know the literal meaning and the message of Bulle Shah, Baba Farid and Guru Nanak hidden in their poetry showed interest in learning the Shahmukhi.

Another Pakistani resident Yasub Tahir, an eminent composer and singer, said conferences and seminars of eminent classical Punjabi poets should be held in the near future to strengthen Punjabi language in the two Punjabs which would also help in bridge the gap between the people of the two countries.

He said with the thaw in the relations between the two beleaguered nations the misunderstanding between the people of the two countries have started waning. He said now the people have started understanding the ground realities and were coming forth to organise cultural and social functions together.

The delegation would be participating in a function in New Delhi organised by Saanje Rang Punjab De which would be showcasing the similarities between the cultures of two Punjabs. The group will also visit Chandigarh, Jaipur and Agra.

A multi-faceted personality Afzal is also a poet, a drama writer and actor, who has the credit of working in many theatre productions including Saiyan Naina Walion and many other which were being staged in India by renowned producer-directors like Kewal Dhaliwal and Madiha Gauhar.

On his visit to the GNDU, he was amazed that the university students who had assembled there told him that they listened to his programme on FM 103 Lahore and also watches his plays on television.