It is too well known a fact that some poets got fame through their first collections of poetry and the majority of poets kept on piling up their collections without achieving even a nodding approval of poetry-lovers.
This proves that the vast majority of readers is endowed with the 'gift' of recognising the talent even they may not be enjoying the reputation of being experts in talent-hunting. It is rightly said that good poetry rings the bell. So the bell rang for Saima Ali whose collection of poetry 'Dhoop Loon Hatheli Per' was recently welcomed at an Arts Council gathering organised by Young Cultural Welfare Society.
Saima Ali comes from a literary background and she was fortunate enough to have a good grounding in Urdu Classics. She had studied some of the well known classics in her childhood days. On top of it her parents promoted the Bait-Baazi encounters followed by sessions as to what made a couplet more creative than others. I believe what is true of sprinting is truer in the case of acquisition of literary taste. It is by virtue of constant grooming - sifting out one poet from the other on the basis of a peculiarity and digesting the 'merits' of a 'ghazal' or 'nazm' under discussion, that the initiates come to know the measure of their choices.
It is only after this initial training that a poet (I don't prefer a separate word for a woman poet) could be assumed as success as an artist having the ' perspective' besides talent. A talent without 'perspective' is like rowing a boat without knowing whether the waters are deep or shallow. It is usually a hit or miss game - mostly a game of 'missed chances to hit the jackpot.
Saima Ali, I would like to believe, hit it out quite early. She has unmistakable signs of being a different poet. Mehmood Sham, chief Guest of the function, was eminently right that he began reading Dhoop Loon Hatheli Per with a bit of disdain thinking it to be a yet another P.R. exercise but as he turned page after page and came into contact with the 'form' and 'content' of Saima's poetry, he was taken aback. It was a totally different fore he said. Mehmood Sham, editor of the Jang group of newspapers, is himself a poet of stature. He started off as a 'new' poet in the early '60s. He belonged to the brigade of those poets who, under the intellectual leadership of Safder Mir and his Government College pupils Iftikhar Jalib and Anis Nagi, had launched the 'New Poetry' school. This school rejected everything 'conventional' as it thought it to be glossing over the realities in a language that was devoid of the ability to portray reality. The idea was borrowed from the school of linguistic analysis led by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
However, Mehmood Sham did not subscribe to the notion of throwing the conventional language into the Rawi river in Pakistan or in the Ganges or Jumuna in India. Mir Taqi Mir, Ghalib, in fact, every poet was for burning or drowning. Only the 'New' poets could have the right to survive. Instead none of the New Poets has been able to survive. Each one of them came back to accept the validity of conventional language, with of course fresh images and metaphors which the changing life was bound to throw up.
The '60s and '70s were very crucial for Urdu literature. Had not the struggle been waged to retrieve the conventional language from the blind of acts of dismantlement at the hands of the "New writers", most of our poetic legacy could be lost. This writer had played some role in the grand battle against Wittgenstein's ideas in Urdu and my book 'Tawazun' published in 1976 in the living testimony of the literary battle. May be it was declared 'Best Book of the Year' just to tell the New Poets that their demolition squad was not welcome in late '70s.
Now Mehmood Sham is known for writing some of the best poems on the trauma we underwent from 1986 to 1998. His poetry is fresh in vocabulary and images but he doesn't believe in throwing the bathing tub with the baby.
Mehmood Sham was not alone in highly affirmative comments on Saima Ali's poetry. Poet critic Mohsin Bhopali, Poet critic Jazib Qureshi, Ishrat Aafrin, a commendable poet from USA in her own sight, Shahnaz Shoro, an upcoming Urdu short story writer and Khalid Moin welcomed Saima Ali as some one who deserved approbation.
Needless to say that most of the launching ceremonies are known for being too encouraging for writers merely because in a society where book-reading is not popular, it is considered proper to welcome every book good or not so good. However, one could make from the comments which one rings truer and which one is not. A fellow writer is on record having said that he always praised the 'launchers' as it was not decent to find fault in a bridegroom on his wedding days. So most of the launching ceremonies are 'wedding day' for their writers.
However, Saima Ali's launching ceremony was a gamine affairs. She came in for praises and as she said she was feeling very rich that evening.
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PAKISTAN PERSPECTIVE
Professor Dr. Syed Jaffer Ahmed, Director of Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi, should be proud of the fact that he is bringing out Pakistan's best research periodical, Pakistan Perspective, for the last 8 years.
Professor S. Jaffer Ahmed is himself a distinguished scholar. The recent issue deserves special mention as it is the first ever study of 'Feudalism in Pakistan' on such a varied and grand scale.
Every article is well researched and meets the international criteria. All the articles have been written by scholars who are internationally recognised and, no facet or present has been left untouched. No wonder literature also figures in this important. Literature, in our topics, cannot afford to be escapist or indifferent to the lot of our people. It is a serious business and should be undertaken only by those who are interested to 'project' society with a view to end its agonies.
Even a highly 'introvert' piece of writing has to have an 'external' reference to its proper appreciation. It is a known fact that some vested interests have tried their best to wean away our writers to write 'pure' literature with a view to breeding 'fatalism in the exploited sections of the society. They have every right to insist on the observance of artistic standards a work of art should carry but they should not fight shy of spotting 'black spots' in an apparently white surface.
The writers are supposed to foresee and forearm and not blunt the edges of their readers perception.
The magazine has been edited by Ms. Sabiha Hasan and Dr. S. Jaffer Ahmed's success lies in having made it possible to get co-operation of such a distinguished galaxy of writers as Hamza Alavi, Mahnaz Fatima, Ansaruddin Syed, Themrise Khan, Mubarak Ali, S.M. Naseem, Abdul Ghaffar Jatoi, Anwar Shaheen, Jauher Husain and Lubna Saif.
I wish our universities should emulate the five standards set up by 'Pakistan Perspective'. It only proves that given the will, the remarkable efforts are always possible.
'Pakistan Perspectives' 'Feudalism in Pakistan' number is a 'must' reading for every one interested in socio-economic-political studies on Pakistan.
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