Talk on Urdu poetry maestros with Raag Bageshri

Continuing with the lecture series to celebrate the 25 years of the Mohatta Palace Museum, the museum administration on Saturday held an interesting talk on three major Urdu poets — Mir, Iqbal and Faiz.

The icing on the cake was the musical performance by sitar player Ustad Nafees Khan before and after the talk, who, as expected, played the instrument but in addition to that also sang two ghazals.

Titled ‘A Homage to the Legendary Poets of Urdu’, the discussion went back and forth over the three poets with intermittent references to Ghalib, who could not be ignored by the panellists despite being not on the agenda.

The absence of a fixed moderator was also an interesting aspect with some of the panellists assuming that role giving cues to other panellists to take the talk forward.

The speakers included veteran poet and one of the most respected personalities of the literary circle of Karachi Zehra Nigah, poet and critic Ahmad Javaid, who has been on a visit to Karachi from Lahore, young literary scholar Hijaz Naqvi and journalist Ghazi Salahuddin.

Zehra began the discussion on Mir by wondering why many of her elders were enamoured by Ghalib only and had sort of ignored Mir. She asked other panellists what made people take time to discover the greatness of Mir.

To this, Naqvi replied that Ghalib had such a forceful style that he immediately grabbed one’s attention, whereas Mir’s style was mild and his verses’ beauty unfolded over time, due to which he was comparatively less popular.

Nevertheless, he said, if 10 books were written on Ghalib’s art, six to eight were penned on Mir as well, due to which this could not be said that Mir had been forgotten or ignored.

Javaid, who has declared Mir the greatest Urdu poet on multiple occasions, said Mir lived in an era that was the start of human beings’ decline.

He said that through his poetry, Mir tried to resist that decline and showed the heights of the potential of humanity. He added that Ghalib, on the other hand, lived when human beings had been completely defeated and so he tried to show an alternative ideal on which a new model of humanity could be built.

Zehra then brought the discussion to the interesting advice of Mir’s father to the poet when he was about to die. She said whereas others would have suggested some path that could lead to material wealth, Mir’s father told him to pursue the path of Ishq (passion).

To this, Javaid lamented how superficial the understanding of the term ‘Ishq’ had generally become these days and how frivolously the youths of today would react to such a piece of advice.

On Iqbal, Zehra said his was a poetry full of Dardmandi (compassion). She added that Faiz would not hesitate to concede that Iqbal was a far greater poet than him.

Salahuddin praised Iqbal for his aesthetic ideals and quoted a verse that equated slavery with loss of aesthetics.

Zehra, Javaid and Hijazi also praised some great Nazms penned by Iqbal like Masjid-e-Qurtaba, Zauq-o-Shauq and Himala. Whereas Hijazi said the greatest poems by Iqbal were Masjid-e-Qurtaba and Himala, Javaid said Masjid-e-Qurtaba and Zauq-o-Shauq were the greatest poems.

Javaid went on to say that if anyone made a list of the 10 greatest Nazms ever written in Urdu, all those 10 Nazms would be Iqbal’s.

On Faiz, Salahuddin remarked his poetry had documented the history of Pakistan as it was known about his verses which particular incident caused him to write them.

He also praised the poem, ‘Raqeeb Se’, by Faiz saying that Faiz gave an altogether new perspective to the character of ‘Raqeeb’ in Urdu poetry. However, this opinion was countered by Javaid, who said ‘Raqeeb Se’ was an expression of a defeated man who could not compete with Raqeeb.

Before the talk had begun, Nafees sang Mir’s ghazal ‘Dekh To Dil Keh Jaan Se Uthta Hai’ rendered by Mehdi Hassan. After the talk, he showed his formidable mastery on sitar.

The raag he chose was Bageshri, arguably one of the most beautiful raags of the classical music. He played the raag in vilambit (slow) and drut (fast) tempo. The tune of the fast tempo was inspired by a Tarana, which Nafees also briefly sang.

The event ended with Nafees playing Bhairavi. He could not elaborate the raag as by that time it had started raining and he wisely chose to end the performance.