Images

Meet the Urdu poetry stars of the digital age

Meet the Urdu poetry stars of the digital age

These Bards of Facebook have bypassed picky editors of literary magazines and paved their own way.
Updated 22 Mar, 2017

These new young poetry stars of the digital age capitalise on people’s love for sharing quotes on Facebook.

The shorter and catchier the post, the more likes, shares and comments it generates.

"In muftiyaan-i-sheher se jab kuch naheen bana

Logoun ko deendar bananay mein lag gaye

Mili hai jab se inko bolnay ki azadi

Tamam sheher ke akhbar jhoot boltay hain"

(The muftis of the city couldn’t come up with any better idea

Except for being in the business of making people religious

Ever since they were given the freedom of speech

All the city’s newspapers disgorge lies with freedom)

— Imran Aami

These are excerpts from a ghazal by Imran Aami, a moustachioed, dark-haired poet from Rawalpindi, which delighted the crowd at a mushaira in the Islamabad Literature Festival earlier this year.

As he left the stage with a big smile on his face, several young audience members came up to him saying that they had first discovered his posts on Facebook and had become his followers ever since.

Poet Imran Aami
Poet Imran Aami

Similar was the experience of Islamabad-based poet Saeed Shariq who had female fans meeting him after a recent mushaira saying they followed his Facebook posts. “Are you really Saeed Shariq?” they gushed.

Their posts are shared by hundreds, followed by thousands and commented on by numerous; Facebook has given rise to a new generation of poets.

“It is a nice feeling when you finally meet your Facebook fans. They are no longer unfamiliar,” says Tehzeeb Haafi, a poet based in Taunsa Sharif, Dera Ghazi Khan District.

These verses, composed mostly in Urdu, are ideal for Facebook, because so much can be articulated in just a few lines.

No longer dependent on the whims of picky editors of literary magazines, these young versifiers have bypassed them and post their verses on the timeline of their Facebook accounts engaging with their readers in just a few seconds.

The readers instantly click their likes and post comments indicating to the Facebook poets what it is that resonates with them. In other words, the digital equivalent of wah-wah.

Whatever one may think about the quality of their poetry, the discernment is left to the follower; the fact of the matter is that they are popular, and that too in an age when the knell has been sounding for Urdu and Urdu poetry.


"Yeh raat naam naheen le rahee thi katnaay ka

Charagh jor ke logoun ne din bana liya hai"

(It seemed impossible to while away the night

But people linked lamps to create daylight)

—Tehzeeb Haafi

Tehzeeb Haafi, aged 26, started writing poetry seriously about 11 years ago. Initially he explored the genre of nazm but then soon started to express himself in ghazals and has remained faithful to that genre. He has 4,409 friends on his Facebook account at the last count.

Tehzeeb Haafi
Tehzeeb Haafi

Haafi, whose real name is Tehzeeb-ul-Hasan, writes mainly romantic verses replete with imageries of darya, parinday, bagh and samandar. Currently pursuing his MPhil degree in Urdu from Oriental College in Lahore, his poetry voices the torment of a spurned lover using everyday language:

"Main us ko har roz bas yahi ek jhoot sunnay ko phone karta

'Suno yahan koi masla hai tumhari awaz kat rahi hai'

(I would call her up every day just to hear that one lie of hers

“Listen, there is some disturbance in the line, your voice is breaking”)

“I don’t like to philosophise in my poetry,” says Haafi, who also writes in Saraiki. When Haafi started writing poetry, he took the traditional route.

He sent his poems to Urdu digests and prestigious literary magazines, which, if he was lucky, would sometimes publish them. “But the general public’s accessibility is limited to literary magazines,” he points out.

And he felt frustrated in not reaching out to more people. The advent of Facebook became a game-changer for him. He started to post poetry about four years ago and reached out to large number of readers.

His devoted fans started to compile some of his best verses and shared them. Some designed his couplets in artful typography eliciting several hundred likes.


"Guzar na jaye samaat

Ke sard khanoun se

Yeh bazgasht, jo chipki

Hui hai kanoun se

Khara naheen tha magar

Aisa raigaan bhi na tha

Woh sikka dhoondh ke laaein

Toh kin khazanoun se"

(May the hearing of an echo never pass by

from cold chambers

stuck to the ears

It wasn’t genuine

But it also wasn’t quite useless

From which treasures shall we find

Such a coin)

— Saeed Shariq

For 23-year-old Ajmal Saeed, writing ghazals was solely a personal pursuit. Facebook allowed him to put up his unpolished verses and gauge the response from his Facebook friends.

Established poets and friends began to comment on his poetic posts giving this young poet, who writes under the pen-name of Saeed Shariq, the impetus to write seriously.

Saeed Shariq
Saeed Shariq

A physics graduate and working as a scientific assistant in a government organisation, Shariq’s verses have a metaphysical quality replete with innovative metaphors.

"Jis se tabeer ki ek eenth uthayee na gayee

Khwab ke shehr ki bunyad bana phirta hai

Pehlay kuch log parindon ke shikari thay yahan

Ab toh har aadmi sayyad bana phirta hai"

(Not even one brick for construction was he able to lift

But now he is the foundation of the city of dreams

Earlier there were some people who hunted birds

But now every man has become a hunter)

— Imran Aami

It is 36-year-old Imran Aami, real name Syed Imran Akhtar, who is arguably the brightest star among the Facebook poets. An established poet whose works have been featured in several literary journals and anthologies, he has a fanatical online readership.

While perusing his posts it is not unusual to see hundreds of likes. Ruminating on social injustices and hypocrisies, his style of versifying is cynical and sarcastic. This reverberates deeply with his followers; “bahut aala”, “kya kehnay”, “dhairoun daad” are the frequent comments that he receives.

“We are no longer dependent on literary establishments. Literary journals tend to be exclusive domains. But with Facebook we now have a direct relationship with our followers. They are not interested in the technicalities of poetry,” he says.

Aami, who also writes poetry in Potohari, is grateful to this form of social media: “Facebook ne bahut nawaza hai.” “Facebook has opened up avenues for new poets, particularly those living in towns and villages. It has brought so many poets to the fore.

One no longer needs a sifarish,” says Aami, who works as sports in-charge with the Punjab Police. It has been heartening for him to learn through Facebook that readership is not on the decline. “Urdu poetry is still quite popular, and not just classical but also original poetry.”

All this shows their readers have a voracious appetite for poetry, but will they buy their collections should they ever be published? Haafi seems to have no such plans, pointing out the lack of commercial viability.

“Sadly, publishers are not interested. Hence, most poets self-publish and distribute their books to friends and family members.” Shariq and Aami are certain that their Facebook followers will buy their collections, which are planned for next year, even if they self-publish them.

Aami says that it is crucial for literary organisations such as the Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq, the Pak­istan Academy of Letters, the National Book Foundation and Anjuman-i-Taraqqi-i-Urdu to print their works and advertise them.

And one couldn’t agree more as these organisations receive government funding and also make substantial profit annually through book sales.

Part of that funding and profit could certainly be used to publish original individual poetry collections. And with a network in the entire country, literary organisations need to encourage Facebook poets or they will fade into oblivion and we will perhaps be worse off without them.


Originally published in Dawn, Books & Authors, August 14th, 2016

Comments

Bupi Aug 15, 2016 10:23pm
Poems are part of sub continent culture. If petry dies culture dies. Its welcome sign that youngsters from the both sex are coming forward. Wish them grest sucsess
Recommend
Pakistani_hero Aug 16, 2016 02:04am
Wah wah wah! Irshaad irshaad, adaab
Recommend
Ali Aug 16, 2016 09:41am
waoo nice to read,, yes youi must promote local talent instead of post regarding some indian actress having affair with someone,,
Recommend
M. Emad Mar 22, 2017 03:45pm
Literature in Pakistan's regional languages should be promoted.
Recommend
ak Mar 22, 2017 04:40pm
Beautiful. I always feared that the use of pure urdu in poetry will vanish. It might sound sack-religious but I find all the "A g tutti fruiti hn main" quite intimidating. I myself try to do a bit of poetry now and then, I dont really succeed most of the time so its quite a thrill to read such fantastic verses from our youth.
Recommend
riz Mar 22, 2017 05:00pm
what an amazing post,, this is the bright side of FB,, keep bringing good post like this and inspire people,,,
Recommend
HaMAAD Mar 22, 2017 05:47pm
@M. Emad Urdu is Pakistan's national language.
Recommend
jiyala Mar 23, 2017 11:38pm
There's something called 'wazan' in poetry (very essential for aspiring poets), that is missing at least in the first poem you quoted. So if anything, these are pseudo-poets who've got nothing on the real poets like the late Faraz and Parveen Shakir.
Recommend
Nasir Mar 24, 2017 12:28am
For the first time in my life I fear for Urdu poetry 's future.
Recommend