On the subtleties of the art of interviewing

Having a degree from a university is by no means a necessity to engage in an intellectual discourse, and likewise, private reading, keen observation and craving to learn can more than compensate for not having attained formal education from an institute.

Veteran journalist Akhtar Saeedi, whose collection of interviews was launched at the Arts Council on Thursday night, is one such person who must know more about Urdu literature than many literature graduates.

This surmise can be confirmed by the interviews of literary personalities he did for the weekly magazines and literary pages of the Daily Jang newspaper, for which he worked for 36 years until his retirement on December 31, 2018.

The book, titled ‘Duniya-e-Sukhan ke Tabinda Sitare (volume one)’, contains 40 interviews done by Saeedi. The interviewees include luminaries like Ahmed Faraz, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Muneer Niazi, Kaifi Azmi, Shanul Haq Haqqee, Dr Gopi Chand Narang, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi and Dr Jamil Jalibi.

Speaking at the ceremony, Arts Council’s literary committee chairperson Ambreen Haseeb Amber praised the author for his truthfulness, especially in his preface to the book. She said that despite working as the incharge of Jang’s literary pages, Saeedi had nothing ostentatious in his personality.

According to Amber, Saeedi had clearly demonstrated in his interviews that the interviewer must not highlight his own personality, and that all his efforts should help the interviewee’s personality emerge vividly for the readers.

She cited the examples of the interviews of Intizar Husain and Qamar Jameel in the book, saying that both the interviews looked totally different from one another because the personalities of the two did not resemble each other.

Terming the interview of Shahzadi Abida Sultan of Bhopal the best one in the book, the speaker wondered how that interview was allowed to be published, since the interviewee had made some harsh comments about the affairs of the country.

Amber also satirically remarked about the current state of interviews in the country. She said that after a bomb blast, a journalist asked an injured person if the bomb had exploded suddenly, showing the lack of professionalism and ethics on the part of that journalist.

Dr Nuzhat Abbasi said that a major utility of the interviews is that they help clear misunderstandings. She referred to the interview of Muneer Niazi in the book in which the journalist had asked him about his controversial remark that there was no poet in Karachi.

Niazi replied that he had forgotten in what context he had made the remark, and that he might have been angry about something or it could also be a case of the media exaggerating his words because he respected the literary culture of the city.

Academic Dr Auj-e-Kamal shed light on the history of interviews and how the genre of interviews originated in European journalism to give some substance to the readers amid the routine rhetoric in society.

He said Saeedi must not have had the liberty to ask his interviewees whatever he wanted because his supervisor was journalist Ahfazur Rahman (who was not an easy person to work with).

The speaker said that as the event was about Saeedi, his questions in the book must be the focus of the event rather than the answers of the interviewees.

He cited many tough questions asked by the interviewer, such as asking Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, who was a progressive writer and believed in the scientific explanation of the cosmos, about what made him include spiritual dimensions in his work.

Similarly, he asked Intizar Husain what made him turn against his mentor Muhammad Hasan Askari. But Dr Auj-e-Kamal criticised the author for not asking Intizar Husain about his role in the defeat of the progressive writers movement, saying that as a reader, he wanted that question to be asked.

Poet Rukhsana Saba highlighted the literary aspect of interviews, saying that good interviews are worth reading. She, however, lamented that only three women’s interviews have been included in the first volume of the book.

She said that the absence of Ada Jafri and Zehra Nigah from the book was noticeable. She also lamented the declining standards of interviews of late.

Writer Mubin Mirza was of the view that an interviewer must give respect to the interviewee. He said that nowadays interviews often seemed like a court martial.

Academics, publishers and literary personalities such Aqeel Abbas Jafri, Dr Jaffar Ahmed, Shair Ali Shair and others also participated in the event that was moderated by journalist Rashid Noor.