Reviewed by Asif Anwar Alig
Ajnabi Shahar (Unknown City), Poetic
Collection, by Zubairul Hassan ‘Ghafil’, pp164, Bazm-e-Hassan Publishers, Kamaldaha, Araria (Bihar), Indian Rupees
100/-, Hard.
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Poetic Collection Ajnabi Shahar |
udiciary and literature has parting of ways. The
jigsaw between law and poetry, particularly comic is bound to differ. Both have
uniqueness in approaches to define life that never ever synchronizes anyway in
treatment while defining gloom and progresses of human history.
In contrast to
literature, judiciary looks into life cycles with genuineness in their
respective treatments to look into objectivity on the conjugative issues of
human experience and its existence. Both law and poetry, particularly comic don’t even
prefer to go along in one go being streams of different connotations. Judiciary
has menial ways to hypnotize its own predefined subjects in the social
spectrum of human races world over because it contours issues on the lines of
established idealism.
Law and literature have remained unbiased for each other
since time immemorial on the grounds that both have nothing to work out for
each other.
The poetic collection Ajnabi Shahar, a book
of poetry breaks this myth assenting that the author Zubairul Hassan Ghafil is
not a professional poet. Neither had he intended to be a poet enlisting rather
commenting on the social arbitraries in poetic fashion – like he intends to
give us comic relief out of the crisis that our society is undergoing. Mr.
Ghafil served in Bihar Judicial Services as Additional District & Session
Judge for years.
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Reviewer Asif Anwar Alig |
The poetic collection guffaws this humane feeling,
emotional pitches, close encounters, compromises in tackling issues,
confessions and un-uttered fringes that he had have with political circles,
hypocrisies and deep rooted political analogues that couldn’t be expressed
while he served in Judicial department. But he never leaves any stone unturned
to express unfinished anger through this poetic collection.
Writing comedy is rather a serious task that needs
more pains to express anger into unique language felt with satirical or
ironical expressions. This book justifies such literary anecdote. It is summed
up into seven broad sections comprising of eighty-five sub sections.
Poems on
political bigotries, social trends, communal dis-harmonies, comments on society,
commenting political system and last but not the least comment on self
besides in-camera feelings of litterateurs, intelligentsias and his near and
dear ones—a life sketch of a Judicial Magistrate cum poet.
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rdu poetry has, no doubt, come out of the dogmatic
trends of indigenous proprietors of literature. The approach Ghafil has
is out of the pretext of earlier trend instead he redefines poetry in his own
unique style, though this approach seems novice, what he has seen and faced is
beyond the thinking level of “progressive process of thought” that has now
confined to the ivory tower literature.
This poetic collection is a compilation of poems
that Ghafil wrote in his long span of judicial career. Though he kept
poetry aloof of the purview of media, some of them were published in the
newspapers on the insistence of his friends, which he never intended. Each poem
has different approach in treatment and style and appeals all without any
reservation of thought, ideology, logic or community bashing.
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Kashmir Times |
The collection of poems is comic but its message is
true like what Keats said, “Beauty is truth; truth is beauty.” Some of
them as much small as of a few lines makes us laugh but instantly comply to
think on the other ugly side and weep. Of course the issues give one comic
relief; full of laughter and go deep into situational irony from where truth is
understood and poems are born.
From Bihar to national politics to social conditions
to so called progress to the condition of educational institutions to
professors to lingua franca to judiciary to self—the reality byte of travesty
and agonies remain prevalent in our society.
They are brought into our notice
by the medium of poetry. How poet sings a song that has lots for us to
laugh and weep afterwards because we pay for laughter when we are happy we
should also expect, obviously, to welcome sorrow because Indian subcontinent is
diverse and its countrymen has got that much of patience that it leads life
happily in same pace it encounters pogroms. This collection of comic poetry is
a must-read for every sensitive reader.
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