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| Karvaan Banta Gaya |
Among those who presented Anis’s poetry and marasi include: Ahmar Shehwaar, Asim Bajwa, Essan Hamdani,Dr. Tahir Mahmood and Tashie Zaheer’.
Hameeda Banu Chopra and Sohab Hamdani presented special maqalas on the life and work of the great poet.
Mir Babbar Ali Anis was born in Faizabad in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in 1803 and died in 1874. Poetry came to him as ancestral heritage, for his forbears, going back to his great grandfather, were eminent poets and men of letters. His father, Mir Khaliq, was a famous poet. Anis was the grandson of Mir Hasan who is remembered for his immortal Masnavi, Sehir-ul-Bayaan.
In keeping with the popular trend, he first tried his hand at the ghazal, but failing to make much headway in this sphere, he changed over, under the advice of his father, to the writing of marsias, in which domain he soon established a high reputation, equaled by his poetic compare, Salamat Ali Dabir. Besides being a master of the marsia, Anis was also a specialist of the rubai, the shortest complete poem in Urdu, containing only four lines.
According to Muhammad Hussain Azad, "The late Mīr Sahib must certainly have composed at least ten thousand elegies, and salāms beyond count. He composed as easily and casually as he spoke." Mir Anis has drawn upon the vocabulary of Arabic, Persian, Urdu/Hindi/Awadhi in such a good measure that he symbolizes the full spectrum of the cultural mosaic that Urdu has come to be.
The marsia, strictly speaking, is an elegiac poem which is synonym in Urdu literature with the poems written to commemorate the martyrdom and valour of Hazrat Imam Hussain and his comrades of the Battle of Karbala. Although many elegy poems or marsias are written by poets to pay tribute to many political leaders, great poets or sometimes to their beloved relatives but poets have virtually left the field of traditional marsia nigari after Anees and Dabeer.
Dabeer, along with Anis, left an everlasting influence on Urdu literature and marsiya in particular. Marsiya, in its content and matter, allowed the two masters to demonstrate their artistry and command of Urdu language and idiom. The first major and still current critical articulation about Mir Anis was Muazna-e-Anis-o-Dabir (1907) written by Shibli Nomani in which he said "the poetic qualities and merits of Anis are not matched by any other poet."
The second session of the September literary evening was dedicated to the life of work of the contemporary poet, Majrooh Sultanpuri.
Arshad Rashid, Asim Bajwa, Khalid Rana, Nagesh Avadhany and Waqar Khan presented the poetry of Majrooh Sultanpuri.
Tashie Zaheer presented a maqala on the life and work of the popular poet, Majrooh Sultanpuri.
Asrar Hasan Khan popularly known as Majrooh Sultanpuri was born at Sultanpur, UP, India, on 1st October 1919. After an education in Urdu, Persian and Arabic, he formally studied the Unani system of medicine and graduated in 1938 as a 'hakim'. He practiced as a Hakim for quite some time. However, his interest in Urdu poetry got the better of him and in association with progressive poets like Jigar Moradabadi, Moin Hasan Jasbi and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Majrooh polished his pen giving it a biting edge of protest and national fervour. He wrote strongly about the British high handedness in India and it was because of such writings that he along with some other members of the Progressive Writers Movement was imprisoned for two years.
In 1945, he wrote his first film song "Gam diye mushtaqil...", which was sung by K.L.Saigal and catapulted him to the forefront of film lyricists, a career which spanned more than five decades.
Majrooh Sultanpuri’s unique genius has enabled him to sail in two theoretically divergent boats - poetry and film writing - with equal mastery. Majrooh, as the most enduring songwriter in the annals of Indian cinema, has written them all to perfection - ghazals, qawwalis, mujras, bhajans, folk-based ditties, sad and comic songs, children’s songs, cabarets and discos, romantic songs and every conceivable genre of film song.
Majrooh’s first and only published work, Ghazal was published as late as in 1956 - 17 years after he began writing verse, though it has since run into several editions, one of which was named Mashaal-e-Jaan.
Majrooh Sultanpuri was the last member of a formidable quartet – Sahir Ludhianvi, Shakeel Badayuni and Shailendra being the other three – which while not ignoring the compulsions of commercial cinema transformed film songs into sheer poetry. They were the ones who introduced ghazal to the film music.
Majrooh Sultanpuri passed away on May 24, 2000. He was 80-year old.
This is the man who writes unforgettable poetry like
Main akela hi chala tha jaanib-e-manzil magar,
Log saath aate gaye aur kaaravaan bantaa gayaa.
(I set out alone towards my goal, but others kept joining me on the way and my journey became a procession).
Information :
The Urdu Academy was established in June 2000 to promote Urdu language and literature in North America.
It is a branch of the Urdu Academy in Multan, Pakistan that was founded some 48 years ago by three renown poets and dedicated persons, Dr. Arsh Siddiqi, Anwar Anjum and Fayyaz Tehsin. Unfortunately both professor Dr. Arsh Siddiqi and Professor Anwar Anjum are no longer with us. We feel privileged to have Mr. Fayyaz Tehsin as our Honorary Chairperson.
The Urdu Academy of North America is a not-for-profit organization. It does not currently have the non-profit status.
