Decoding an icon

Prem Kumar’s book “Bato Mulakato Mein Shaheryar” zooms in on the poetic concerns and aesthetic sensibility of the one of the most gifted Urdu poets, Shaheryar.

March 05, 2015 06:09 pm | Updated 06:16 pm IST

Urdu poet Akhlaq  Mohammed Khan 'Shahryar'.

Urdu poet Akhlaq Mohammed Khan 'Shahryar'.

Eccentric behaviour and dishevelled appearance do not betray any measure of creativity, and promiscuity and inertia hardly symbolise the aesthetic sensibility.

If poetry garners widespread appreciation and gives the poet a distinct and ever visible personality, why should his physical appearance look odd?

He must be suave, courteous and committed to the well-being of the society.

His creativity must run counter to all that drawing the sustenance from common sense.

These are not the pithy observations of a literary critic or theorist but this is what that has been articulated by Jnanpith awardee Shaheryar in a fascinating book authored by eminent Hindi writer Prem Kumar.

The book titled “Bato Mulakato Mein Shaheryar” — Shaheryar in conversations and Encounters — presents a judicious mix of biography, memoir, anecdote and intimate conversation. Shaheryar, who has been acknowledged as the great exponent of cerebral poetry in the contemporary Urdu poetry, discusses various strands of social reality of the world we live in.

Prem Kumar’s detailed and perceptive interviews and memories featuring a number of eminent Urdu, and Hindi writers fetched him the title of Boswell in the making. His recent book filters out creative dexterity of Shaheryar with remarkable ease.

Not much has been written on the poet’s intellectual pondering and here Prem Kumar meticulously supplements what has been left out.

For Shaheryar, literature does not mirror life in a mechanical manner.

Life depicted in literature is exactly not what we practically live. Life exudes itself quite differently in literature.

Life and literature are two parallel lines that cannot impregnate with each other.

Replying to a question about the contemporary world, Shaheryar says, it heralds the death of absolutism.

Vice, virtue, ugly and beautiful got merged.

Truth has become a relative concept, it is what we conceive through the language with a view to fulfilling our cultural inspirations.

Today, even a rose does not get appreciation from all quarters. We wage wars in the name of peace; truth explores a new possibility of falsification and deception.

People, normally swayed by emotions, can only fluster and sensitivity elude them.

Sentimentalism poses a great threat to the society but power hungry politicians whip up emotions by kicking up new controversies related to religion, language and region.

According to Shaheryar here, the role of the literature becomes central; it wipes out the miasma of emotionalism by making them aware of the complex terrain of human sensitivity. Poetry thwarts the very attempt of usurping the right to sensitivity.

Shaheryar candidly admits it is not an era conducive to great poetry but there are many reasonably good poets that collectively pave the way for the excellent poetry. External forces make innumerable people to think alike; writers are no exceptions and on thematic level apparently they look similar but close reading acquaints one with the inherent individuality of the writer.

It is wrong to assume that creative writers lose their distinct identity.

Prem Kumar rightly points out that Shaheryar’s ironic eye presents disaster as a spectacle and also shows the poet’s ability to live through peril without any trace of self-pity or melodramatic flourish. For Kamleshwar, Shaheryar’s poetry hardly produces any emotional firework and it goes well beyond waling and whining. It is deeply rooted in cultural pandering. It turns a piece of land fertile that tends to make mind and heart barren.

Deciphering several metaphors and tropes frequently used in his poetry, Shaheryar says that night symbolises loneliness that is both frightening and captivating.

Darkness does pave the way for creation. Shaheryar’s deliberate and sustained silence defies the expectation of the reader who is always search for an impetus for emancipation. “Poetry will continue to survive as long as a sense of rhythm exists, Shaheryar asserts.

Explaining the semantic import of the most popular genre of Urdu poetry-ghazal, Shaheryar says truth depicted in Ghazal is usually devoid of specific details. Hence, it becomes generalised and people easily decipher its meaning in the context of personal experience. Ghazal immediately stitches up a warm rapport with the reader.

Answering to a query related to Mushaira, Shaheryar says that poets rely too much on shallow romantic posturing and they try to whip up emotions.

In such gatherings, poets do not enlighten; they recite poetry that shows fogy conformity to romanticism. Here one can hardly listen to genuine poetry; poets try to create on illusion of poetry that harps on initial responses.

According to Shaheryar, conscious effort at gaining popularity is essentially an act of vulgarisation.

Prem Kumar’s book, published by Vani Parkashan, is an insightful read that is braced for acquainting the readers with biographical narrative and poetic concerns and aesthetic sensibility of the one of the most gifted Urdu poets, Shaheryar, whose poetry focuses on a relentless probing into human predicament through the prism of alienation and social commitment simultaneously.

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