Jalal Azeemabadi: an industrialist-cum-poet from Bangladesh

Karachi
It was a real surprise to know that an Urdu poet from Bangladesh was to feature in the Mushaira organised by Saknan-e-Shahar-e-Quaid last month.
The shock was justified as Urdu, for all purposes, has been almost obliterated from Bangladesh, especially after Haseena Wajid assumed power.
Jalal Azeemabadi appeared on the stage and presented his beautiful and masterly composed verses to an enthusiastic audience. His language was chaste and accent and presentation simply marvellous. My curiosity and desire to know more about the poet compelled me to have a session with him a few days later.
Yes, Urdu is not taught in schools or colleges but Dhaka and Rajshahi universities have vibrant Urdu departments, he says. So who are the students who join the Urdu departments? “They are students from the privately-run Madressahs where still religious education is imparted in Urdu. Government-run Madressahs don’t teach Urdu,” he explains.
Jalal is a soft-spoken and a friendly person who has the unique distinction of being an industrialist in addition to his literary pursuit. He owns a tyre factory in Dhaka and like Ghalib poetry is not a means for him to earn his bread and butter.
“My mother tongue is Urdu and I have inherited the taste for Urdu literature from my father and grandfather who were quite adept in Urdu and Persian and composed both prose and verse in their own inimitable style. I was so much interested in Mushairas that I travelled far and wide to India and Pakistan to attend grand Mushairas where poets like Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Dr Jagan Nath Azad, Naresh Kumar Shad, Anan Narain Mullah, Firaq Gorakhpuri and other stalwarts would read their work to the spell-bound the audience. These poetic gatherings moulded my thoughts about composing poetry. I did that and the sojourn continues.”
Jalal edits and publishes the highly-acclaimed literary magazine ‘Adab’ and dispatches its copies to Urdu poets, writers, critics and universities

all over the subcontinent. “It is my passion. Money does not matter.”
However, he had to temporarily stop publishing the magazine after the current government took power.