HYDERABAD: Poetry dreams of revolution. And now since the country is witnessing protests and marches against CAA and NRC, the slogan is from the legendary Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s 1979 poem ‘Hum Dekhenge’, written against General Zia-Ul-Haq’s dictatorship in Pakistan.
Despite it being snowballed into a bigger controversy of being anti-Hindu at IIT-Kanpur, people are still using it. Back home in Hyderabad the last evening at Lamakaan was organised ‘Mushaira of Satire on NRC and CAA’ which saw coming together of Urdu and Hindi poets of the younger and older generations.
The moderator Amir Ullah Khan, an economist and professor infused powerful couplets while inviting the delegates. City-based poet Devika Das read her poem on communal harmony while Faiz Jung recited his opus with lines like: “Mere yaron shahadat Mubarak tumhe Hum sabhi Saath Hain...Kab talak Yun hi sahte rahenge sitam / Ab se meri hamd-o-sana inqilaab.”
It was interesting to see poets coming up with a mix of Hindustani and Dakhani as poet Gumshuda Hyderabadi (that’s how he addresses himself) read: “Tabiyat ku tabela bana liye / Sarkar ko jhamela Bana liye’, and ‘Hum yehan ke hain saboot lana kahte / Dada pardada ka shijra dikhana kahte / Nahi to mulk chhod k jaana kahte’.”
Poet Riaz Akram Balrampuri focussed on the tumultuous situation in Uttar Pradesh: “Ji mein aata h bann k main Yogi phirun / Phir khyal aata h ki ye yog ki tauheen na ho.” Comedian Alick Bailey took the potshot on the government calling himself a jack in the box. Shahzor read on police brutality with lines like:
“Jamia ke hostlon mein jung ka maidan / Ghulami mein lipti roti ka kyun har din breakfast hai?”
From the audience came rapper Osama Hazari reciting: “O re bondhu kaahe sataye reHindu Muslim ki roz ladai, Dalit ki roz pitai… kahaan ka tu chowkidar re... Kya sach mein tuu wafadar re?”
The second part of the event brought the senior Urdu and Hindi poets: Farid Sahar, Sardar Saleem, Lateefuddin Lateef, Syed Tamjeed Hyder, Govind Akshay, Munawar Ali, Qazi Sirajuddin and Moin Anwar. Humorous poet Leteefuddin read: “Ab shahriyat wahi hamari poochta hai yaar jis ko humney hii banaya thha chowkidar / Tumko saza milegi hum insaaf payenge, daali hai rab ki court mein hum ne petition.”
Govind Akshay, Hindi poet and journalist read: “NRC ki pungi Baja k kya karte ho Modi ji. / Bharatiyon ko Bharat se bhaga rahe ho kya karte ho Modiji.” It was interesting to see Zahoor Zahirabadi target the political system with the motif of pigeons: “Kabootar aman ka pahle hawaon mein udaate hain / Siyasat ka teer phir uss par chalatey hain.”