Reviewing two collections of Urdu verse and a miscellany of Urdu prose writings authored by noted female writers from Faisalabad and Lahore
Book 1:
‘She had resolved not to cross the legendary river with an earthen pitcher in her hold although she were to chart her diurnal course of existence through many a (river) Chenab of a different mould.’
Book 2:
‘Gulfam would seem to be a poet endowed with the perceptions of a thinker. She perceives and feels all the time, and it would be impossible that her feelings should not control her poetry, or, conversely, that her poetry should not control her feelings.’
Book 3:
‘The style of the writer in these prose pieces is anecdotal. She delineates a feministic overview of the vast archipelago, as it were, of her observations, perceptions, and experiences.’
By Syed Afsar Sajid
Diya Jalanay Tak
Author: Kaneez Ishaq
Published by: Misaal Publishers, Rahim Centre, Aminpur Bazaar, Faisalabad
Pages: 224; Price: Rs.400/-
Hum kisi aur hi safar pay haiN
Author: Gulfam Naqvi
Published by: Misaal Publishers, Rahim Centre, Aminpur Bazaar, Faisalabad
Pages: 192; Price: Rs.300/-
Pachpan Saal Pahlay
Author: Khalida Malik
Published by: Fiction House, Lahore, Karachi, Haiderabad
Pages: 206; Rs.400/-
Two collections of Urdu verse and a miscellany of Urdu prose writings authored by noted female writers from Faisalabad and Lahore form the subject of this review.
Kaneez Ishaq (Late), author of the poetic work titled Diya Jalanay Tak, was a woman of many parts, so to say, as she was an active feminist, a zealous social and political worker, and an ardent litterateur. Gulfam Naqvi who has composed the verse collection captioned Hum kisi aur hi safar pay haiN, is a seasoned female poet with keen interest in social work. Khalida Malik, author of the prose miscellany named Pachpan Saal Pahlay, is a veteran short story writer and essayist of yore.
Diya Jalanay Tak
This verse collection was published during the life time of its author when she was also a sitting MPA in the Punjab provincial assembly. That was the acme of her political career. She was a versatile lady with interests as diverse as literature, social work, philanthropy, and last but not least, politics.
As a poet she focused on the feministic issues of male chauvinism, gender inequality and maltreatment of women in a patriarchal social set-up. But, curiously enough, her tone and tenor in verse is scarcely rebellious. As per her own avowal, she had resolved not to cross the legendary river with an earthen pitcher in her hold although she were to chart her diurnal course of existence through many a (river) Chenab of a different mould.
The book contains a mix of poems on different themes besides a delectable miscellany of ghazal portraying the spontaneity of the author’s feelings on love and its generic adjuncts with spasmodic outbursts on issues like gender disequilibrium, social injustice, want and penury, despondency, the proverbial silver lining in a cloud et al.
Poet Gulfam Naqvi and noted literati Dr. Saeed Ahmad have contributed introductory notes to the book wherein they have lauded the poet for her earnestness in expressing her feelings on some vital themes in the reigning existential perspectives. The sanctity of womanhood is stated to be the cardinal motif of her poetics.
Renowned poet and intellectual Nusrat Siddiqui, Prof Dr Sohail Abbas, an academic from University of Tokyo (Japan), and popular Urdu and Punjabi poet Ahmad Shahbaz Khawar have written thoughtful commendatory flaps appended to the book. They think that Kaneez Ishaq coalesces the harsh realities of life with a delicate apperception of her inner feelings in an estimable artistic formulation. The book is thus a welcome addition to the extant feministic literature in Urdu.
Hum kisi aur hi safar pay haiN
Gulfam Naqvi is a well-known Urdu and Punjabi poet from Faisalabad. Her latest verse collection contains Na’at, Salam, qat’a, nazm, and ghazal. Dr Riaz Majeed and (late) Ghulam Rasool Asif have written its prefaces whereas Safdar Salim Sial has scribed its singular flap.
As a literary artist Gulfam is acutely distressed at the yawning gap between her dreams and their materialization. In her scheme of things, love seems to be an illusion and hope a haunting delusion. The poet’s voice is a cry in wilderness; the doom is inevitable. Her alter ego, however, sustains her in the ominous shadow of an impending fiasco.
Har lamha mray sath hai ek zaat ka saya/Jo Gul ko kisi dasht may khonay nahi daita
Har gaam na’i duniya har gaam na’ey rastay/KantoN hi nay thama hai jab hath barhaya hai
Mri hi zaat mray raastay may ha’il hai/Lagay gi umr usay raah say hatanay may
Safdar Salim Sial appreciates Gulfam’s verse as a genuine expression of her seething internal strife emanating from the disparities inherent in the poet’s environs. It needs must be reminded here that a poet does not merely deal in statements, arguments, proofs, teachings or persuasions, he shows or reveals also. Judged on this parameter, Gulfam would seem to be a poet endowed with the perceptions of a thinker. She perceives and feels all the time, and it would be impossible that her feelings should not control her poetry, or, conversely, that her poetry should not control her feelings.
Pachpan Saal Pahlay
Khalida Malik is a veteran writer. The anthology in view comprises her articles, essays (inshai’yas), and short stories published from time to time in the popular Urdu magazines Qindeel (now defunct) and Akhbar-e-Jahan in the 1960’s and 70’s. Pachpan Saal Pahlay is a symbolic title insofar as it denotes the erstwhile age of physical inability (superannuation) of a government servant here besides remoteness in the eternal void of time.
The style of the writer in these prose pieces is anecdotal. She delineates a feministic overview of the vast archipelago, as it were, of her observations, perceptions, and experiences. Some of these compositions read like insha’iyas (light-hearted personal essays on some common workaday themes). Her outlook on the multi-coloured panorama of life is overly didactic albeit its visual breadth. The canvas of her portrayals at times narrows down to domesticity; nonetheless it rarely distances itself from readability.
The issues that the author has taken up are universal, and timeless too. Far from being an idealist, she seems to resolve and rationalize the unpalatable earthly realities underlying the complex phenomena of life, as a keen but objective analyst. Her sense of humour would not allow her to lapse into sentimentalism. The persona in these narratives is an all too familiar ‘I’ that lures the reader into vicariously identifying himself/herself with him/her. In the short stories the author soliloquizes the amorous wants and wishes of her personae in the backdrop of their middle or lower middle class subsistence. Patriotism is a marked feature of the author’s penmanship in the instant work.