By Syed Arif Hussaini

Aug 25, 2006

Asifa Nishat - a Deep Thinking Urdu Poet


All poets are thinkers, as each poetic composition is essentially the _expression of an idea taking form in the mind of the poet. The difference in the case of Asifa Nishat is that she is no just an ordinary thinker but a deep thinker. Poetry in her case serves as a mere vehicle to communicate her ideas. It is perhaps for this reason that she has adopted the format of free verse.
Mr. N. M. Rashed, a pioneer of free verse in Urdu poetry, tried to explain to me its niceties in Jakarta where both of us were stationed half a century back, he as the UN Information Officer, and I as Pakistan’s Press Attaché. His talk went over my head perhaps because of my immaturity. Being a true gentleman, and much senior to me in age, he noticed my indifference and did not press the matter further. The loss was totally mine.
Now that Asifa Nishat has given me a selection of her poems to express my views on them, I am haunted by the memories of my association with Rashed Sahib and how I missed the opportunity of benefiting from the advantage that had come my way.
A pen-picture of Sanaullah Dar Miraji, another pioneer of this genre, drawn by Saadat Hasan Manto, has itched an unfavorable image of the controversial poet on my mind.
Rashed, Miraji and their school of blank verse writers used to leave vague certain aspects of what they had to say presuming perhaps that the reader would be gifted with the skill of joining the dots. I am not one such reader.
Asifa Nishat, fortunately does not subject the reader to such a brain teasing exercise. Her poems are fairly easy to understand. My interpretations of some of her poems are given below.
DISAPPROVAL (Eiteraz) This is an incisive critique, a heart-wrenching exposure of the strange value system in our society that places fetters even on the innocuous expressions of a girl’s emotions towards a boy. No cataclysm, no violent shift in the flow of a river, not even the dawn of the day of judgment, provokes as much reaction and disapproval as the simple act of a girl writing on her palm the name of a youth from across the gender divide. The poem touches a nerve in the heart of the reader as it comes from the depth of the feelings of its composer.
THE ROUNDABOUT APPROACH: This poem satires the narcissistic desire of men to be loved by the opposite sex. This basic urge, contends the poet, when expressed in a roundabout way, takes the form of a boy asking a girl for her picture, while he desires her to ask for his picture. While all civilizations of the past had placed a low value on women, some cultures had made women even worship their men as part of their faith. The poem portrays this inherent desire of a young man though he expresses it in a roundabout way.
PRIORITIES (Tarjehat): The insignificance, in our society, of the feelings of a bride-to-be towards the arranged match is artfully presented in this poem. Mother of the bride is portrayed paying full attention to the minutest details of the marriage function but she is not bothered at all about the reaction of the bride to the match and her groom-to-be.
CLOTHES CLOSET: The hypocrisy of modern day living is the target in this poem. The struggle for conformity with the demands of different situations turns a person into a hypocrite. He loses sight of his real self, his genuine likes and dislikes. He moulds himself to the expectations of the society and kills in the process his inherent proclivities.
MARS.COM: This is a forceful satire on the selfishness prevailing in modern society. A Martian lady on return to her plant following a visit to planet Earth describes her shock over the extent of selfishness permeating human society. Love and consideration for others, she reports, have yielded to the all-consuming self-interest. People exploit each other in the name of art, religion and politics. Any stick is good enough to beat the other fellow. Yet, all of them pay lip service to peace and tranquility. They flaunt pictures of doves and pigeons with olive branches in their beaks. Perhaps only doves and pigeons are in need of peace on planet earth. Human beings who claim themselves to be best of all creations, sing all the time on the tune of “I, My and Myself”. Had they instead learned the art of sharing with others what they have acquired, the world would have been a different and better place. And, they wouldn’t be wasting resources on flights to the moon or mars.
CURIOSITY: The poem laments the disappearance of ‘justice’ from modern society. We frequently talk about justice but without the feeling that it really exists anywhere. Perhaps justice did exist at some time in human history. For, an _expression finds place in the lexicon of a language only after its substance, its meaning has taken shape first.
(A function has been arranged on the evening of Saturday, August 26, to mark the poetic genius of Asifa Nishat and another eminent poet of California, Khalid Khawaja, at the Shahnawaz Restaurant in Lakewook, CA.)


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