Urdu Academy of North America's Tribute to Abdul Hameed Adam
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
The Urdu Academy of North America dedicated its monthly literary session of February 17, 2019 to the life and work of a prominent Urdu poet, Abdul Hameed Adam.
The event was presided over byParvin Shere, an award-winning artist, poet and musician. New York-based Parvin Shere who happened to be visiting the Bay Area.
Nagesh Avadhany, whose mother tongue is not Urdu, presented a well-researched maqala on the life and work of Abdul Hameed Adam. His style of presentation drew wide applause.
Muniba Zeeshan thrilled the audience with her presentation of two ghazals of Adam in her melodious voice.
Nagesh Avadhani perhaps stole the show with his presentation of Adam's poetry in classical style.
As usual, a number of Urdu enthusiasts recited the poetry of Adam: Irfan Siddiqui, Hatim Rani, Mukesh Kackar, Mahmoodul Hasan, Tasadduq Hussain Attari, Jaafer Shah, Jawed Umerani, Abdus Sattar Ghazali and Zeeshan Abbasi.
Abdul Hameed Adam was born on 10 April, 1910 in Talwandi Musa, a village in the Gujranwala area of Punjab.
He first used the takhallus Akhtar, then switched to Adam. He was first educated at Gujranwala. Then the family moved to Lahore
He was enrolled at Islamia High School Bhati Gate Lahore, where one of his schoolmates was Meerza (Mirza) Adeeb, a respected Urdu prose writer.
According to Meerza Adeeb, young Abdul Hameed was a very good student and his knowledge of Islamiyat was excellent.
Khawaja Muhammad Zakariyya writes in Kulliyaat-e Adam: When Abdul Hameed was 16 years old, his father passed away in 1926. One of his relatives (later his father-in-law) supported him and following his Matriculation (10th Grade), got him employed at the Military Accounts Department, Rawalpindi in 1927/1928 as a clerk. Soon after, Abdul Hameed got married.
He was transferred to Rawalpindi after the establishment of Pakistan in 1947. In 1948, he was appointed Deputy Assistant Controller of Military Accounts and later retired from this position in April 1966.
During the Second World War, he was sent to the Middle East, where he served in Iran and Iraq.
In Iraq he fell in love with an Iraqi girl, got married with her, and brought her with him back to India after the end of the War. He was posted to Pune (Poona, Maharashtra, India) where he became excessively involved with friends and started drinking. He would come home very late and disputes started with his Iraqi wife.
The second wife soon returned to Iraq and thereafter Adam remained loyal to his first wife till her death in 1978/1979.
Abdul Hameed Adam started writing poetry in his late teens (in late 1920's). It was a time when Akhtar Shirani and Hafeez Jalladhari had captivated people and nazams (poems) were more popular than ghazals. Naghma-e Zaar, a work of Hafeez Jallandhari with Abhi to mein jawaan hoon, had just been published. So it would be safe to assume that he was influenced by such poetry. Adam proved a master of short meters and simplicity of ideas which touched the heart.
He is himself characterized by his friends as a simple, straightforward, and honest man. He adeptly and fluently uses words like kharaabaat adam mey khirad hashr (all coming to Urdu from Farsi/Arabic), etc. Farsi terms are blended well.
Adam's verses are beautiful and full of musical rhythm. There are about four dozen published collections of his Urdu poetry.
The first, Naqsh-e Davaam, was published in 1934. It consists mostly of nazams (as opposed to ghazals), and the style is mostly that of Hafeez Jallandhari, Akhtar Shirani, and Josh Malihabadi (all masters of Urdu poetry of that time).
He later turned to ghazals. He also wrote masnawis (long poems) and qataats (quatrains). His publications include Dastaan-e Heer (1959) and a masnawi on Pakistan’s political history, Jhoot Such (1972)
He was so adept in writing poetry that he could complete a ghazal in a few minutes.
The last three works were published following his death. His philosophy is of being patient and content in life and not to make it difficult for others by being greedy. The suffering and sorrows of the have-nots are expressed very effectively and in a personalizedmanner.
Abdul Hameed Adam passed away on March 10, 1981.
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