|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 
|
feature Let
us now praise ordinary men
Zia Mohyeddin column
feature After hosting a
plethora of events like Lumun, Lums PsiFi, Lums Olympiad and Lums Carma,
Lahore University of Management and Sciences is organising a first ever
five-day residential writing workshop called LUMS Young writing workshop from
August 5-10, 2012. Through a short story
competition, the judges have selected eight winners which will attend this
workshop out of 250 entries. The names of these young writers are Aliya Waqar,
Amna Chaudhary, Babar Sulieman, Haneya Hassan Zuberi, Meraj Fatima, Shakeel
Ahmed, Syed Muhammad Mustehsan and Waqas Ahmed. Haneya H. Zuberi, one of
the selected winners, is a student of International Relations and Journalism
at Ohio Weselyan and is pretty overwhelmed by the idea of attending this
particular workshop. “I always want my work to be critiqued and this would
be a perfect opportunity for me. I would not only get a chance to learn the
fundamentals such as how to construct a basic sentence but also how to
polish, brush and chop my words,” says Zuberi. “Everything abroad happens
on a large scale and such opportunities are quite common in which students
get to learn outside the boundaries of classroom; such workshops are a rarity
here in Pakistan.” The creative mind behind
this workshop is Bilal Tanweer, a writer and translator who teaches fiction
writing at LUMS and will be acting as the mentor for the young writers this
year. “The
workshop has been designed to address the lacuna of quality creative writing
instruction in Pakistan,” says Tanweer. “The writing community is missing
in Pakistan and this event will give exposure to these young writers to meet
other people with similar aspiration and even professionals within the
field.” The workshop is structured
in such a way that it caters to twin aspects of literature—reading and
writing. The workshop would commence with a rigorous reading boot camp that
would allow the participants to study and understand great works of
literature. It would also groom the young writers to analyse different
writing styles following engaging discussions. On the other hand, the
participants will reciprocate by producing their own pieces of work after
every dialogue. On the second last day, Mohsin Hamid would be invited as a
guest to discuss his second book The Reluctant Fundamentalist with the
writers and on the fifth day, the writers will work on a story and then
conjointly critique it. In an earlier interview
with TNS, Mohsin Hamid was asked if he ever has to conduct a writing workshop
in Lahore, what it would be like. “Everybody has to come and read their
stuff. I want to hear a voice. Anyone who I think has a voice would be
someone I’d like to work with. If I pick a book and I don’t hear a voice
I won’t like to read it. If the writer or narrator is so compelling on a
topic I don’t even like that; you should go find that voice yourself and if
you haven’t done that you’re not a writer. The ones that sound good I’d
ask them to read me a chapter and if a voice is there throughout then I can
talk about building it up. I would, say, give them a reading list. I would
ask them not to copy those authors but read them by themselves. Maybe I could
assign books and have a group discussion on the way you structure a novel. It
is like the same way you can learn to play a guitar by listening to Jimmy
Cage. You listen to it and then play. Writing is a craft like music. If you
don’t do either of those two things you are not a writer.” Bilal Tanweer thinks that
this workshop would give these enthusiasts a push in the right direction as
they will start considering writing more seriously. He certainly can not
guarantee that these individual would adopt writing careers, but it would
equip them with the writing basics. Tanweer feels that English
Pakistani literature has a long way to go. “There are only a handful of
good writers; the literary criticism and critical analysis is very dull and
even book reviews are very ordinary.” According to Tanweer, to
give a real boost to English literary culture, intervention at the state
level is required. “The state education system needs to be revamped so that
the parameters of the English language are stretched beyond the purview of
the elite and there is more literary activity across Pakistan.”
Let
us now praise ordinary men The rise of
socialism and a concern for building an equitable order also motivated poets
to write about the down-trodden and the exploited. From a spontaneous
gesture, it became an organised move with the establishment of the
Progressive Writers Association in the mid-1930s. But there was already a
tradition in the subcontinent, though a minor one, and not truly
acknowledged, of writing in forms that were more direct.
Nazeer Akbaradadi was probably the most outstanding poet in this
tradition. With changing critical canons, the graph of his stature has seen
an upwards turn though the graph of another poet Jaffar Zatli has not been as
ascendant as one would have liked to see. But the Progressive Writers
Association was quite an inspiration and many writers and poets were swept by
the force of its noble argument. As it moved from an academic study of
history to a political movement it germinated a sensibility that imbued many
feeling/ thinking persons to genuinely write poetry on this subject. This was probably one of
the most overwhelming movements, especially in the beginning, and to many, it
represented the spirit of liberation both from colonial rule and an
exploitative order. As its two goals of freedom, from colonial rule and the
establishment of a just society, could be achieved by a single master stroke
much was written around this to became the dominant expression of the times.
So overwhelming was its influence that not being consonant with it’s views
raised eyebrows and not the other way round. It assumed a more extreme
form as it happens with movements which tend to have strains of
self-righteousness about them and this extremism alienated many a writer,
thinker and even politicians. But all said and done, it did create a body of
work that merited to be assessed on its own steam. In the enthusiasm of the
enterprise, Jaffer Ahmed has gone as far back as Wali Dakkani to build his
case on the veracity of his argument as demonstrated in tradition. Obviously
such strains are found in poetry of any language in any age but making it the
central point of experience was the cardinal issue and this only came about
in the twentieth century. The poets whose works are
included in the volume are Wali, Mir, Nazeer Akbarabadi, Ghalib, Hali, Ismail
Meerathi, Iqbal, Josh, Firaq, Akhter Shirani, Hafeez Jullundhari, Ehsan
Danish, Majaz, Meraji, Faiz, N.M. Rashed, Ali Sardar Jaffery, Makhdoom
Muheyuddin, Kaifi Azmi, Akhter Ansari, Sikander Ali Wajd, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi,
Mutlabi Fridabadi,Raees Amrohvi, Sahir Ludhianvi, Jameeluddin Aali, Aziz
Madni, Nasir Kazmi, Salim Ahmed, Zahoor Nazar, Khalid Alig, Himayat Ali Shair,
Nasan Abidi, Saroor Barabankvi, Hasan Hameedi, Habib Jalib, Qamar Hashmi,
Rasa Chugtai, Mujeen Khairabadi, Akhter Piyaami, Saher Ansari, Ahmed Faraz
and many others. In the pre colonial period
the unity of consciousness was expressed through a much stylised expression,
a well-wrought form steeped in it own vocabulary and carrying its own
referential magnetic field. The colonial sensibility called for an
unravelling of the unity focussing more on the particularity of the here and
now than invoking forever an overarching archetype. When the European hegemony
was established in the subcontinent, the arts were critically evaluated in
the context of the theories and art movements back home. Here the poetry and
the arts in general, music in particular were very arcane, well wrought with
a very particular tone which did not match with the rough edges of the
external environment. A drive started from the
top to bring the poetry and the objective environment into some sort of a
direct connection. Anjumane Punjab was set up under the guidance of the
Education Department and the poets, in a way, were instructed to write on
certain themes and subjects. The instructions did not bear the intended
fruits but, at the back of the minds of the poets, hovered awareness that
their poetical expression should be addressing the issues which they were
confronted within a daily basis and to develop a form that seemingly was more
direct than through the screen of a metaphoric remove. Poets wrote about seasons.
Trying to create poetry out of subjects was thought unworthy of a poetical
expression. Many delightful little poems by these leading poets like Shibli,
Azad, Hali and above all Ismail Meerthi were written, the latter in
particular wrote probably the best poetry in a minor tradition. But this may
also have been the reason for Hali and then Iqbal expressing in verse the
social consciousness of the besieged Muslim community of India. What is the literary merit
of this poetry and what were the various routes that the poets took to arrive
at a subject. Much has been written about the literary merit of the poetry
and there is disagreement between the believers and those who see literature
to be assessed on its own aesthetic principles. Enough time has lapsed for a
more objective assessment of the poetry thus written and it should be done
objectively and fairly on a larger scale. But the fact that this
subject was introduced, written extensively about without prompting as it may
appear in the case of naturi shairi, and formed the patent expression of
poetry with some of the better
poetry being written round it
every now and then is undeniable. In the same breath it must be said that
there were many versifiers who did not have the ability to rise above the
immediate, and place this theme in a larger human context. This act of sublimation is
a necessary backdrop that adds incremental depth to merely stating the very
pressing and the immediate. It did enlarge the scope of our creative
potential as gham-e-dauraan and gham-e-roozgaar also became worthy themes of
poetical experience. Mehnat Khashoan Ke Naam Edited By Dr Syed Jaffar
Ahmed Publisher: Pakistan Study
Centre, University of Karachi Pages: 257 Price: 300
Zia Mohyeddin
column Our classical
music, as we perceive it, flourished during the 19th century and the first
half of the 20th century, due entirely to the patronage of the rulers of the
Princely states of India. Some of the major (and minor) Rajahs — and Nawabs
— were gandabandhs, that is to say, disciples with a sacred thread or
amulet around their wrists tied by their ustads, a symbol of eternal bonding
which indicated that the ustad had accepted the pupil as a member of his
clan. Such was the dominance of Muslims ustads that even in states ruled by
Hindus and Sikhs — Gawalior, Jaipur, Indore, Baroda, Patiala, Dewas,
Kashmir, Kolahpur, etc — the top-most court musicians were all Muslims. The ustads and their
entourage (nephews, cousins, uncles, chosen pupils) lived comfortably. They
were given every conceivable facility — and respect. All they were required
to do was to practice their art, impart musical talim to their pupils (mostly
those belonging to their own gharanas) and offer a recital if and when the
raja commanded it. Nearly all the great
maestros of the 20th century, Allahdiya Khan, Rajab Ali Khan, Abdul Wahid
Khan, Bande Ali Khan, Mushtaq Hussain Khan, Ali Baksh Khan, Fateh Ali Khan
(known as Alya-Fattoo) Abdul Karim Khan, Faiyaz Khan and a host of others
whose names escape my memory, perfected their art in the service of one
prince or the other. They travelled to other states at the specific request
of a ruler and were rewarded generously for displaying their art.
When Ustad Faiyaz Khan performed at a command performance in Indore,
the maharajah took off the pearl necklace he was wearing and presented it to
him along with a nazrana of 11,000 rupees (over a million rupees in today’s
terms). The great Abdul Karim Khan
(founder of Kirana gharana) was once invited to Junagarh to give recitals.
The Nawab of Junagarh was not particularly keen on classical music. He was a
dog lover who spent a fortune on his kennels. The Nawab’s father was an
insomniac. Abdul Karim and his brother Lateef were assigned the task of
tending to the old Nawab. They are reported to have lulled the old man to
sleep with their melodious rendering of Darbari Kanrha. On their way back to Kirana
they broke their journey at Baroda. Lateef went back but Abdul Karim’s
younger brother, Abdul Haq, joined him. Baroda was one of the larger states
with a progressive and enlightened ruler, Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad, known for
his widespread reforms and welfare programmes for his subjects. Like Haroon-al-Rashid,
Gaekwad also had the habit of doing his rounds at night, incognito with his
ADC. One night, during his rounds, he heard the two brothers practising in
the house of their hostess, Allahrakhibai. Enquires revealed that they were
not residents of Baroda but belonged to the small town of Kirana in UP, to
which they intended to return soon. The Maharajah was so struck by the voices
he had heard that he asked his ADC to get the brothers to sing to Maharani
Jamnabai, who belonged to Travancore and was a connoisseur of both Karnatak
and North Indian music. The recital of the two
brothers was a great success. Their youth, their courtly manners and their
singing made such an impression on the Maharani that the two brothers were
offered positions in the music school which had been founded by Gaekwad. Soon after Abdul Karim Khan
and Abdul Haq had taken up residence in Baroda, the renowned Alya-Fattoo (as
Ali Bakhsh Khan and Fateh Ali Khan were together called) arrived with a
letter from the Maharajah of Patiala. The virtuosity of Alya-Fattoo was a
by-word in the world of music. They were the gandaband disciples of the great
Haddu Khan and Hassu Khan. A command performance was arranged with all the
pomp and splendour before His highness and the entire court. There is a wonderful
account of this event in Kumar Prasad Mukherji’s jewel of a book, The Lost
World of Hindustani Music. “No one, not even Maula
Baksh nor Fayez Mohammad Khan, could summon sufficient courage to participate
in the same mehfil. The two Ustads from Patiala started their recital with
the Raga Basant in vilampat followed by a song in fast ektaal with such
dazzling taans and paltas and at such speed, that the musicians present in
the audience were dumbfounded. The Gaekwads was piqued by the realisation
that there was no ustad in his court who could give a fitting rejoinder to
those two virtuosos from the court of the Maharajah of Patiala. When he turned to request
Maula Baksh, who was the principal of the Baroda Music school, to play, the
latter got up and with folded hands whispered into the Maharajah’s ears
that Ali Baksh and Fateh Ali, apart from being great ustads, were ‘mehmaan’,
honoured guests, and it would be improper for him or Fayez Mohammad Khan to
sing after their recital. This made Sir Sayajirao even more indignant. ‘I
fail to understand the protocol of these ustads. I spend lakhs of rupees on
music and musicians every year, only to find now that there is no one here
who can save the face of Baroda. You talk about form and etiquette, I call it
incompetence. What about the chhote musicians, the two young brothers?’ He turned to Abdul Karim
and asked, ‘Do you have the courage to sing after this?’ With folded
hands Abdul Karim stood up and said, ‘At your service Maharaj. Husoor’s
command will give us the courage.’ Then the brothers sat down and tuned the
tanpura in nishad and pancham and took everyone’s breath away by starting
on the same raga, Basant. Their treble and tuneful voices and vistar
(elaboration) wiped away the impact of the fireworks of the older, great
ustads in a matter of minutes. To sing the same raga after Alya-Fatto was a
huge breach of etiquette, to say the least. Karim and Abdul Haq further
shocked the audience by taking up the same song ‘Teri gail gaili’, in
drut ektaal with superb nonchalance and proceeded to outrival Alya-Fatto by
trotting out a series of amazing taans and paltas. Ali Baksh mutterd to his
partner, “Let these bastards come to Patiala, they will be skinned
alive.” Maharaj Sayajirao was overjoyed but the happiest person was young
Tarabai, the niece of the Maharani, listening from behind the dainty blinds
of fine bamboo strips, which separated the ladies enclosure from the rest of
the darbar.” Tarabai became Abdul Karim
Khan’s pupil. The pupil’s respect and admiration for her Ustad turned to
love. She decided to leave home. On her insistence Abdul Karim Khan, his
brother Abdul Haq and Tahira Begum, (Tarabai’s new name), took a morning
train to Bombay. Abdul Karim Khan never went back to Baroda (To be continued)
|
|
