Adil Najam
This is an amazing picture (click on picture, or here, to see an enlarged version). Here are just a few of the giants of Urdu literature in this group: Majnoon Gorakhpuri, Mahirul Qadri, Maulvi Abdul Haq, Hasrat Mohani, Saqib Lakhnavi, Seemab Akbarabadi, Hafeez Jullandhari, Dr. Taseer, Josh Maliahbadi, Behzad Luckhnavi, Raja Sahib Mahmoodabad, Tilok Chander Mehroom, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Col. Majeed Malik, Ghulam Rabbani Taban, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Chaudhri Mohammad Ali, A.D. Azhar, Ishwar Dayal, and many more.
That is a breathtaking list is there ever was one. And it is a breathtaking picture.
Unfortunately, we do not know much about the picture in terms of its details. It has been floating over emails, and I received it from Naveed Riaz. A number of people in the picture remain unidentified. We do know that the picture was published in LIFE magazine, but do not know when and in what issue. If we could find the answer to that, I think a lot of other details will become known too. For example, when was this taken (most likely, this is pre-1947)? And why was this taken? What brought all these giants of literature together? Where? And why?
If anyone knows more about this picture, do please let us know.
Adil Sahib, you may need to double check the source of this picture. The entire collection of images from Life magazine is available on web at: http://www.life.com or better http://images.google.com/hosted/life and I have tried many different search parameters but this pic didn’t show up there.
For me it was interesting to see Behzad Lakhnavi (number 15). He is the poet of famous ghazal ‘ae jazba-e-dil gar meiN chahooN’ sung by Nayyara Noor.
I saw his black and white interview from 1960s on PTV. He was bed-ridden and quite ‘zaeef’ at that time. In that interview he also had a bone hanging on his chest as part of some ‘totka’ treatment.
Presence of Choudary Mohammad Ali & Ghulam Mohammad, the two bureaucrats who ultimately became Prime Minister and Governor General of Pakistan in 1950s, suggests that this picture was taken in 1940s at Hyderabad State.
Thanks for sharing the priceless jewel.
Truly amazing