A fresh look at the ghazal

Parveen Kumar Ashk (centre) with Bashir Badr and Nida Fazli on the occasion of release of his second anthology Chandni ke Khatoot

Parveen Kumar ‘Ashk’ has introduced a totally new school of lyrical concepts in the Urdu ghazal. His language, imagery, words, treatment, symbols and diction is definitely as never before in the Urdu ghazal. Its amazing to know that he never had any formal training in Urdu. Ranked amongst the first five writers born after Partition in the sub-continent, this 53-year-old poet from Pathankot has made it to the poetical scenario even to the USA, UK and Europe, where he has been invited to take part in the poetic symposium. Top-of-the line Urdu poets of Pakistan and India—Wazir Agha, Saqi Farooqi (London), Bashir Badr and Balraj Komal—have appreciated him.The famous Marathi magazine, Tawaazun, issued a special 78-page supplement on him.

Awards include Shehanshah-e-Ghazal Award from the Punjab government, the Literary Council of Bihar, in recognition of his contribution to ghazals, honoured him with the prestigious Firakh Gorakhpuri Award in 1998. The Pakistan association, Melody, has invited him to Lahore to honour him for his poetic achievements. On November 17, 1999, the BBC telecast a 15 minute-long live interview with Ashk. In an exclusive interview to Divya Aggarwal, he talks about his life and work:

What motivated you to write Urdu poetry, even though you had received no formal education in it?

My father Kanwal Hoshiarpuri, a doyen of Urdu literature, was a great poet and journalist. Naturally, I was brought up surrounded by thousands of Urdu magazines and books. He brought out a literary weekly called Janam-Bhoomi from Pathankot. Eminent Urdu poets like Kaif Irfani and Harichand Akhtar were his cronies. He was an institution by himself.

It was only after his sudden demise in 1971, when I was just 20, that I felt an extreme sense of loss. I would look at his books and cry for hours. It was then that I became determined to learn Urdu and compose verses to be an exponent of my father’s legacy. I took some help from elders in the neighbourhood but it was my junoon for Urdu that saw me through. I read thousands of poetry books in Urdu to be able to compose couplets.

I can compose verse on anything in the whole wide world. I have aspired to rise above caste, creed and gender and perceive the whole ‘cosmos’ as a single God-created unit. I have dissolved the differences between jism (body) zameen (earth) and aasman (sky) as well as the divide of castes. No male poet is complete without a woman and no experience complete in poetry without a man. Women, at different stages, have played different roles in my life. There are other important subjects such as boundaries, joys and ecstasies of life.

Well, right from the matla (beginning) of my ghazals to the maqta (conclusion), its conception, every misra (line) is typical ‘Ashk’ brand. I have never been able to copy other poets, though I may hold them and their poetry in high esteem.

My father departed when I had hardly crossed the threshold of childhood. This buried my natural kiddishness and I was forced to become mature. That hidden innocence tends to re-surface through my verse. What could not find expression in my life practically has appeared subtly in my poetry.

I am like a sanyasi (hermit) in a jungle, worshipping the ghazal like a goddess-incarnate. The ghazal for me is an ultimate experience in piety and God’s service. the difference is in terms of theme and style. I don’t talk about surface romanticism but of love that has crossed its initial stage of bodily attraction to a stage of infallible love where the two sexes are only inseparable souls.

The ghazal actually means ‘a beautiful woman’. So this mode of poetry addresses a woman and her external beauty. But I have involved others too. I don’t necessarily talk about myself, instead I address a third person. For instance:

(Only the one who has experienced pangs of pain and suffered with others around, can compose ghazals)

There is hardly any Urdu poetry magazine where my verses haven’t found place. I have three individual ghazal collections to my credit. The first, Dar-Badar (1980), the agony of a lover of 20s, was immediately accepted by critics as a refreshing work. Then came Chandni ke Khatoot (1992), which was acclaimed nationally and internationally. This collection is being published in Pakistan. Ghazal tere shehar mein, a collection of my Urdu ghazals in Hindi, is for Hindi readers.

I was recently invited by famous music-composers Anand Raj Anand and Harry Anand for their music albums. In addition, my lyrics have been sung by well-known singers such as Sardool Sikander, Amar Noorie, and Mamta Chetan Joshi. At heart, I remain a ‘Sufi’, and do not attach much importance to worldly and material objects. I feel overwhelmed with the regard people have showered on me.

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