JEDDAH – “It seems that many famous poets including Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Muneer Niazi and Ahmad Nadeem Qasimi intentionally damaged the Urdu language. I think, God forbid, it was a conspiracy. Zafar Iqbal and his likes too have dented our beautiful language and poetry by their whimsical linguistic experiments. The institutions are reproducing old literature. Original work has become rare. What many poets and writers are doing to save Urdu from degeneration should be done by institutions.” These were remarks made by Hayat Rizvi Amrohvi during an interview with Saudi Gazette here. Amrohvi worked as an architect in the Kingdom for more than a decade before returning home to Pakistan in 1992. “I came to Tabuk in 1979. I continued my professional carrier in Jeddah. In 1992, I said goodbye to the Bride of the Red Sea to work in Pakistan. “The literary environment in Jeddah enriched my soul and mind during my stay here. There were many poets and intellectuals and these luminaries paved the way to make Jeddah a cradle of Urdu poetry and literature,” Amrohvi said. “As a student of Grade VII, I, along with four other students, was selected for the Adeeb examination of Punjab University, Pakistan. Noted literary figure and poet Aqeel Danish, who is presently teaching Urdu in London University UK, was my class fellow. I was a science student but had an inclination toward poetry and literature. Math, science and Drawing were my main subjects but poetry always tempted my soul. In this regard my collection of poems ‘Zawiya-e-Hayat' is a telltale. It's a blend of my scientific mind and literary soul.” Amrohvi's real name is Syed Hayatunnabi Rizvi. He was born on July 12, 1941, in Amroha, now in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. His father Syed Khursheed Hasan Rizvi, a descendant of the famous Sufi scholar Shah Abban Badr Chishti, was in the printing business and migrated to Pakistan in December 1947. The young Rizvi received his education in Karachi, Pakistan. He inherited the tradition of printing and publishing from his father. An architect by profession, he also became an Adeeb and Alim. “Allama Iqbal was one of the greatest Urdu poets and thinkers. Iqbal's poetry has essence of the Holy Qur'an and Islamic history. In Urdu ghazal I love Mir, Ghalib and Nasir Kazimi. “Kazimi's poetry has elements of pathos and sorrow. In Pakistan, the poets and intellectuals who were influenced by great maestros of Urdu poetry were Raees Amrohvi and Jone Elia. Jone made his mark in Urdu ghazal and became a trendsetter. Those were busy bees, always ready to learn from the great tradition of Persian and Urdu poets. Those diligent people tried to teach the present generation by setting their own example but the modern generation of Pakistan is in a hurry. The hard toil is disliked now and cheap popularity attracts our youth. This has resulted in the decline and fall of standards in Urdu poetry and literature. While comparing Indian and Pakistani Urdu poetry, one finds Pakistan's poetry's inclination toward ghazal. Indian Urdu poetry is influenced by geet and nazm (genres other than ghazal),” said Amrohvi. “My long stay in Jeddah had a great influence in shaping my poetic mind. In those days a famous Saudi poet of Pakistani origin, the late Ahmad Jamal Sadiq, guided the poets of the new generation. I met him with his disciple Syed Naeem Hamid Al-Hamid. Rashid Siddiqui, Mustafa Qidwai, Ataullah Farooqui and Sagheer Lodhi were great people living in Jeddah at the time and they created an atmosphere conducive for young poets. “Now a days, in Pakistan Fatimah Hassan, Najma Khan, Sarwar Javed and Salman Siddiqui are composing good poetry. I publish a half yearly ‘Emaratkar'. This is the first journal on architecture in Urdu. I publish literary articles too. In Karachi, the Arts Council is very active in promoting the Urdu language and literature. I designed Urdu Bagh (the building of Anjuman-e-Taraqqi Urdu, which was a dream of famous Urdu poet Jamiluddin Aali). After the retirement of Jamiluddin Aali, due to old age, Fatimah Hassan and Dr. Javed Manzar have helped Anjuman-e-Taraqqi Urdu Pakistan. “Dr. Inamul Haq Javed's contribution in holding seminars, conferences and publishing new books cannot be ignored. The writers, poets and intellectuals from Lahore are regularly invited to events in Karachi but in Lahore conferences, the Karachi intellectuals hardly have a chance to show their faces,” he concluded. Amrohvi currently lives at Gulshan-e-Sir Syed, north Karachi. He has three sons and a daughter, all of whom are married.
