Three Poems

Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies, 2010

Translations co-authored with Talmeez Burney

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 2018

Diasporic literature refers to texts which record the geographical and cultural displacement of individuals or communities to a new location. Sense of loss, identity crisis, hybridity and memories of home and nation are some of the common themes examined by the diasporic writers. The characters are often struggling to negotiate between the two cultures-old and new. The memories of the lost nation or homeland are often recaptured in certain images and objects which recreate the imagined past from memories of immigrant characters. Through their supple and cultivated imagination, these writers draw on different cultures simultaneously, bringing together the two distinct physical and emotional landscapes together.

Urdu literature prides itself on the presence of many significant female voices, both in fiction and poetry. I would like to investigate whether women’s writing in Urdu is merely one homogenous category, or are the women in the Urdu literary scene creative writers first and women writers afterwards? The case of Bilqees Zafirul Hasan would be an interesting one to explore, as she blossomed into a full-fledged writer only about the time when she was in her fifties, and had mothered six children. She gave up writing after marriage and devoted herself to the care of her husband and family. What were her possible concerns in turning to poetry? Bilqees Zafirul Hasan (b. 1938) has published two collections of poems in Urdu, Geela Eendhan (“Damp Fuel”), 1996, and Sholon Ke Darmiyan (“Amidst the Flames”) in 2004. A volume of short stories, Weerane Aabad Gharon Ke (“The Wildernesses of Flourishing Homes”), came out in 2008. She also writes plays. Very little of her work is available in translation, although her entire body of work deserves to be translated into English, and into Hindi and other Indian languages. This interview (conducted over several sessions in 2008) aims to present an introduction to the poetry of Bilqees Zafirul Hasan, who has not received the attention she deserves. It includes many excerpts from her beautiful poetry which may not necessarily dwell on a woman’s identity.

The patriarchal structures of Pakistani society and its self-proclaimed identity as an Islamic state have necessarily and inevitably exercised a strong influence on Pakistani women poets. This paper examines how these poets negotiate with their religion and how this interface finds expression in their poetry. In order to engage with these issues, it would be pertinent to make a reference to Kishwar Naheed who, in her prose work Aurat Khwab aur Khaaq ke Darmiyan points out how traditional opinions concerning the role and position of women in Pakistani society have been conditioned by the injunctions of the Koran as interpreted and enforced by men:

MIT International Journal of English Language & Literature 3.1, 2016

This paper peeps into the poetry of Syed Ali Hamid who is known for his naturalness, cosmopolitan vision and loving heart. He is a poet of desire—desire which creates hopes resulting in a new life. As he writes ghazal in English, he knows how to make his poems beautiful with figures. With his poetry, he experiences life and attempts to search for the philosophical sense of the quest for meaning. He turns the abstract into concrete and thus colours the ontology of desire to make the readers feel its presence.

Soundings, 2020

This article reproduces examples of Afghan Landays and offers a commentary on their meanings. Landays are pithy, powerful two-line poems that speak of love, honour, war and separation. They are part of a long oral tradition in Pashtun culture, and are often composed by women. The largest group of Landays are written by women left behind in Afghanistan, and they include references to all stages of the migration experience, from departure, through the period of absence, to return. Landays have continued to circulate among Afghan Pashtuns for decades, and the emotions voiced have remained largely the same - the fear of abandonment, and the loneliness and vulnerability of women who are left behind. The only distinction between the earlier and later Landays seems to be the absence of joy in the later ones. All the teasing and urging of migrants disappears in the period that began with the Soviet invasion.

2023

The News on Sunday, 2017

In his latest collection of poems Mahmood Awan captures the zeitgeist of present day Punjab

The socio-political environment of a nation leaves an enormous impact on the individual and collective trends and thinking of its people. More than the thinking of the layman, it influences the thinking of the writers and poets, who are the highly perceptive and sensitive class of society. The socio-economic and political impact of the ordinary or even extra-ordinary events, also known as the spirit of the age is evidently reflected through the poetry and other writings of the poets and writers of a society. The Afghan land, and the Pashtun region on the Pakistani side of the border, which is a part of Pakistan, has remained a witness to war and terrorism for a period which is spread over four decades. During this period, a whole generation was born and grew up. The impact of the socio-political conditions on the millennials' poetry on both sides of the border is visible in their poetry and can also be deeply felt by the reader. This is also an age of awareness through social media and that influence is also visible in their poetry. The awareness of the millennials about socio-political scenarios around them is really amazing, as it is a rarity in the writings of females of a few decades back. The restriction of females into the domestic sphere and their exclusion from the public sphere limits them to the household and domestic world. The wider social world belongs to man amongst the Pashtuns. The very open expression of these millennials is a like silver lining in the dark world of FOCUS 80 Pashtuns and may bring far reaching positive results. One book of every Pashtun millennial, two from Afghanistan and two from Pakistan, have been studied for this paper. From the four books of the four millennials, sixty-six ghazals (a form of poetry) and other poems have been selected for a more profound analysis and also to explore the trends, approaches and understandings of these young minds about the social and political world around them. The outlook of these four millennials from the very conservative Pashtun society and their understanding of the social and political issues around them is amazing despite the so many restrictions even on the thinking of Pashtun women.