Page 60 - 28FEB2019E

OpiniOn
dilemmas
HumrA
QurAISHI
The Delhi-based writer
and columnist’s books
include Kashmir: The
Untold Story. She co-
authored a series of
writings with the late
Khushwant Singh and
her short stories are
part of anthologies.
The views expressed
are her own
Let poems overtake all
possible prose, yet again
Poets of the bygone era urged masses to speak up, to speak out and
to just about unleash not just words but heady sentiments relaying
the pain and sorrow of their times. But that breed is missing now
trains of rebellion writ be relevant…It is an attempt to retrieve
large, yet not to be heard the spirit of resistance that once roamed
potent verse… those lines so freely in the landscape of Urdu lit-
dripping with provoca- erature during the progressive writers’
tive passion and emotions. movement. In that sense, this book is
S Where are our poets? No- more than recounting of a bygone age; it
where to be seen nor heard poets reciting is our own political project. It is not just
verse after verse, to gear up the entire the history of the past, it is a history of the
atmosphere, to hit out at the anarchy present, and hopefully, a history of the
spreading around so very steadily and future as well.”
systematically! Though I’d attended the launch of this
I do wish that as the general elections book several years back, on 17 January of
near, poetic verse overtakes all possible 2006, at the Jamia Millia Islamia, where
prose, to not just provoke us towards the two brothers had flown down from
seeing and sensing the reality of the day the United States, where they were uni-
but also to awaken our dying emotions, versity professors, but its now, this week,
nudge us towards marching ahead, not as I sat re-reading it, these ‘anthems of
just towards the polling booths but also resistance’ do hold out, hit and re-hit as
towards questioning and counter- ques- never before. Perhaps, more than apt for
tioning the rulers of the day. the dark times we are living in.
Correct me if I’m wrong but during Putting forth verse tucked in the pages
of the dark phases in the recent history of this wonderful volume -
of the country, it’s the rebel poets and
writers who led the protest meets and This verse of Kaifi Azmi
marches…Where are the rebel poets and How long will I live this oppressed
writers of the day who should be seen death-like existence
marching ahead along with the masses? The times are about to change
Well, till we hear their voices, its best My blood boils, my brow is sweaty,
to sit well provoked by reading and My pulse pounds, my chest is fiery
re-reading the best of Kaifi Azmi, Faiz Roar O Revolution, for I am ready.
Ahmad Faiz, Sahir Ludhianvi, Josh Mali-
habadi, Ali Sardar Jafri .. In fact, this entire And these lines of Faiz Ahmad Faiz
week I have been sitting re-reading Not enough to shed tears, to suffer
Anthems of Resistance (India Ink/ Roli anguish
Books) where the two brothers, Ali Not enough to nurse love in secret
Husain Mir and Raza Mir, focus on the Today, walk in the public square
powerful verse of the progressive poets fettered in chains.
of the era gone by.
To quote them, “This book grows out And this verse of Sahir Ludhianvi
of a desire to reverse this ‘wilful loss of That morning, when the veil of night
memory’ and to reclaim the legacy of the will slip away from the head of these
progressive poets in an age when their dark centuries
words, insights, and politics continue to When the clouds of suffering melt, when
Tehelka / 28 february 2019 60 www.Tehelka.com