ATP Mushaira: Humaisha dair kar daita houN meiN

Adil Najam

I sometimes receive email from angry readers, fuming about our moderation policy here at ATP. I usually keep quiet since the comment policy is already explicit and part of our ‘Pakistaniat’ is to be trigger happy with our anger.

But sometimes – like earlier today – I am reminded of this wonderful verse from Munir Niazi.

Kissi ko apnay amal ka hisab kiya daitay
sawaal saarey ghalat thhay, jawab kiya daitay

Regular ATP readers are very well aware of the esteem in which I hold the memory of poet Muneer Niazi. I first wrote about him back in August 2006 while he was still alive (here), and then when he died in December we had two posts (here and here) celebrating his work, including a clip of his famous film song ‘Uss bewafa ka shehr hai aur hum haiN dostou.’

Today, I feel like remembering Munir Niazi again.

Even more so because I recently found two mushaira video clips from him. In some ways these are sad clips because one can see just how much his health deteriorated over the years. This was not the Muneer Niazi I remembered from my Lahore days. But the poetic brilliance, the passion, the style, the simplicity of vernacular, the depth of meaning were all very much the same. One example is the following verse, which you will find in the first video:

Khiyal jis ka tha mujhay, khiyal meiN milla mujhay
Sawaal ka jawab bhi, sawaal meiN milla mujhay

The second video (below) includes his masterpiece ‘Humaisha dair kar daita houN mein.’ Even if poetry is not your greatest passion, I urge readers to take a listen to this one, and carefully. To me, this poem (along with his Punjabi ‘kuch saanou maran da shouq ve see‘) are the most representative of the Munir Niazi genre.