Jamal Ehsani
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Jamal Ehsani
Jamal’s complete works launched
By Peerzada Salman
Ignore the mind-numbing absurdities of Pakistani politics. Switch off your TV sets to shield yourself from the verbal dingdong of partisan news anchors and their popularity-craving guests. If you really want to know how you can hold a mirror up to nature, read Urdu poetry. Jamal Ehsani’s poetry at that!
It’s been a decade since Jamal Ehsani breathed his last. Yet, like Elizabethan drama plots and Mona Lisa’s smile, students of literature find his ghazals contextually multilayered and technically startling every time they go through them. On Oct 10, 2008 Jamal Ehsani’s complete works (Kulliyaat-i-Jamal), a collection of three of his fascinating books – Sitara-i-Safar, Raat Ke Jaagey Huay and Taare Ko Mehtab Kia -- were launched at the Arts Council Karachi. Taare Ko Mehtab Kia was published posthumously.
Former information secretary Yousuf Jamal presided over the function while poet and critic Sahar Ansari was chief guest. Others who spoke on the occasion were Jamal’s friend Mohammad Ahmed Shah, artist Shahid Rassam, Khawaja Jaffer Raza and poetess Dr Fatima Hasan. Jamal Ehsani’s eldest son Ali Azar was also on the dais.
The marked feature of the book launch ceremony was Shahid Rassam’s astounding essay on Jamal Ehsani. The way Shahid – known for his brush-wielding ability all across the globe – described his association with the poet and the manner in which he narrated anecdotes from the time when he and Jamal used to work together and were going through a torrid financial period, was a piece of art unto itself. While recounting one such incident Shahid had a lump in his throat and his voice trailed off, which made a few eyes teary.
Shahid remembered the days when Jamal Ehsani and Jaun Elia would stay at the roof of his rather incommodious house in Korangi for hours, discussing vagaries of life in their inimitable, witty styles. One would like Shahid Rassam to publish his paper for the benefit of all literary aficionados.
Khawaja Jaffar Raza spoke on Jamal Ehsani’s link to his ancestral town of Panipat, which inculcated in the poet a certain spiritual sense.
Ahmed Shah shed light on certain personal aspects of the poet’s life.
Sahar Ansari spoke on the semantic facet to Jamal Ehsani’s ghazals, and then touched upon the remarkable onomatopoeic quality in some of his couplets. He said it wasn’t just personal predicament that made his poetry poignant, but also an insightful collective social sense that distinguished him from his contemporaries.
Ye shehr apney hareefon se hara thori hai
Ye baat sub pe magar aashkara thori hai
(This city hasn’t surrendered to its foes/
But this not many a man knows)
Yousuf Jamal talked about the days when he interviewed Jamal Ehsani for a job in the information department, and how his creative self endeared him in Yousuf’s eyes. He said at the age of 27 Jamal wrote couplets that could be bracketed with verses written by some of the greatest Urdu poets. To give cogency to his argument he quoted the following two lines:
Charasazon mein thi ik chashm-i-nadamat asaar
Ye maseehaon mein beemaar kaha(n) se nikla
(Among problem-solvers there was a sullen face/ A disease-stricken amidst messiahs?)
Dr Fatima Hasan conducted the entire event quite aptly. It was her heartfelt efforts that made the book launch a success.
