|
 (May 2003) The
night of Friday, May 2nd., 2003 saw a very full hall at the
Mehran Restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Newark, as a large
group of Urdu language enthusiasts gathered at a program put together by
the Bazm-e-Arbab-e-Sukhan (Bazm for short) organization and took the
opportunity to recite the work and remember the life of one of the finest
writers of Urdu (or any language) that the 20th. Century had
produced.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz was born in
Sialkot in British India
in 1911 (now in Pakistan) and died in 1984 in the same country (Pakistan)
that he was often exiled from and imprisoned in. His wife Alys has just
recently passed away. The couple is survived by two daughters Moneeza and
Saleema Hashmi. But if this reporter may be so bold, Faiz still has a family
of millions. And most of these millions that adore him and his work to this
day have never met him. They have only known him through his written Urdu
poetry (if they know how to read and understand it) or via songs mainly in
the Ghazal form that Faiz enriched and singers like Iqbal Bano, Noor Jahan
and Mehdi Hassan immortalized for at least three generations in South Asia.
India it seems also has quite a number of this Faiz family of admirers. And
now the same can be said about North America.
The event in Newark started off with a buffet dinner accompanied by a
musical performance by two youngsters. After the nice meal Annie Akhtar, the
main coordinator of the event and one of the main forces behind it started
things off by giving us a brief history of Bazm in
Northern California and
its recent 5 year anniversary (established 1998) and the number of programs
that it has held in this area during this time. Bazm has hosted poet Ahmed
Faraz on a number of occasions and has been very active in launching the
Urdu works of American writers of the language such as and most recently
Irfan Mutaza’s “Puraanay Ghar Kay Mausam” (Seasons in my old home). A
number of others including poetess Noshi Gilani have also been hosted by
Bazm.
 Annie started off the
Ziker-e-Faiz segment which included Urdu poetry recitals and speeches by
Tashi Zaheer, Zafar Abbas, Farooq Taraz and the keynote speech by Syed
Jahangir Hamdani. A very moving slide/video/screen presentation on the life
of Faiz was also presented that included a
chronology, comments by Alys Faiz, daughters Moneeza and Saleema and a few
of his friends. After the slide presentation poet Rehman
Siddiqui presented expressed his views. Rehman Sahib also presented a number
of individuals with gifts of appreciation on behalf of Bazm for making this
evening possible and helping the organization over the years. The names
included Mrs. Naheed Zaheer, Farhan Qureshi and a certain Pakistan Link
reporter. Zameer Khan was rightfully commended for putting together the
slide show. The Zain Jeewanjee Insurance Agency was also thanked for
providing the sponsorship for this event and
Nagesh Avadhany and
Tahir Mahmood were especially recognized for their efforts along with
Fayyaz of Mehran
Restaurant.
Annie next introduced the final musical segment of the evening. She said
that Urdu belonged to all that love this language no matter where they may
be from. Singer Monidipa Sharma who
 sang the works of Faiz
this evening was a case in point because she is from
Calcutta
in Bengal (India) and Urdu is not her mother tongue. Accompanied by the very
talented Ustad Tari Khan on Tabla, Monidipa gave a solid singing performance
this evening.
In conclusion, it is difficult to grasp the mood of an event such as this
in a short report. It is a heartening to note that a writer who continuously
wrote about the rights of all human beings and their pursuit of dignity in
an often unjust world was remembered at this gathering. Faiz has been called
the greatest Urdu writer since Allama Iqbal.
But unlike Iqbal who took up the Muslim cause and tried to liberate a
colonized people through his writings, Faiz appealed for rights of oppressed
people under the Marxist ideological umbrella. It is for this reason that
there are few jails in
Pakistan
that have not had him as a guest as he was hounded constantly from 1951
onwards. Faiz also had a special place in his heart for the Palestinians.
His relationship with them may have something to do with his not being
awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
Like Tagore and Neruda, Faiz the observer extracted the essence of his
people and converted into words their hopes, loves and aspirations. The
Establishment did not care for his views. But the people did. And is it any
wonder that as South Asian Americans continue to remember this master
craftsman of Urdu today in North America, Pakistan itself still hesitates to
(at a minimum) name a place of learning, of artistic pursuits or even a road
or two to honor him? |
