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.)
