Ali Jawad Zaidi


                                               
Freedom activist. Padma Shri awardee. Sarojini Naidu - herself a noted poetess - was a fan of his firebrand poetry. Alongside Ali Sardar Jafri and Kaifi Azmi, he was a member of progressive Urdu literature movement. Contemporary of Majaz and Faiz. Authority on Anis and Ghalib. Board member of Sahitya Akademi. Subject of research scholars. Civil servant. Editor of Urdu magazines. Author of over 60 to 70 books. Annie Zaidi, the writer who recently won USD 100,000 global prize, is his granddaughter. One of the doyens of Urdu poetry. Has a prize named after him. Polymath.

Such was the personality of Ali Jawad Zaidi (AJZ), one of the most, if not the most, eminent Zaidi’s. I have read him, not extensively (because of my lack of Urdu command), but enough to understand his grip on Urdu poetry. He was a master in his own right as the following couplet will prove:

Jin hauslon se mera junun mutma.in na tha

Vo hausle zamane ke meyar ho gaye

What profound thought is conveyed through these simple words!

In his memoirs, Habib Tanvir, the famous Urdu-Hindi playwright, recounts instances of arguments and debates on who was a greater poet amongst Faiz, Jafri, Jazbi or Ali Jawad Zaidi.

Bal Anand, who retired as India’s High Commissioner to New Zealand, has fond memories of AJZ with whom he served in Tehran, where AJZ was posted as AIR’s Special Correspondent. It was Anand’s first diplomatic posting and AJZ’s last. Anand says, ‘AJZ was never a person to talk about himself… he had a magnetic personality and thus was able to attract many people for gatherings, seminars and other literary functions. ‘

No matter how difficult the literary terrain, AJZ was able to negotiate due to his scholarly brilliance. Right till his last years, despite failing eyesight, he was involved in research work and there are hundreds of manuscripts that are stall awaiting academic scrutiny. I recall two lines of his which appropriately captures this trait of his:      

Yeh to sach hai kar guzarta hai, jo dil mein than le

Kya ghalat hai, log ‘gar Zaidi ko deewana kahein

Loosely translated,

It is indeed true that he does accomplish, whatever he determines to

The people are not wrong if they call Zaidi a crazy fellow!

If ever anyone needed motivating words to reach their goals, then they just have to read this couplet.

AJZ was a modern literary giant of India. Let’s together salute him!

-          NZ

3.8.2019   

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