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Darwazay / دروازے
Sketches of Urdu authors including Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Mustandar Hussain Tarar, Abdullah Hussain, Ahmed Faraz, Ahmed Bashir, Shakil Adilzada, A Hameed, etc
- GenresEssaysNonfiction
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 14, 2023
I read this volume some months ago but have only now gotten the opportunity to pen some words about it. I find any book about books and authors, especially in a milieu where the broader consensus seems to be that books and writers don't matter much any more, to be wonderful. And I find those who write them to be performing a tremendous act of service to society. Not only will those readers appreciate Darwazay who are already well familiar with the charms and value of the world of books, but indeed also those who are entering it.
Irfan Javed is without a doubt a romantic at heart and that consistently reflects in his evocative descriptions and astute character sketches. He has a great ear for the good anecdote and an eye for detail and proceeds to meticulously build his sketches in complex and intricate ways - combing anecdotes, descriptions, nostalgia, assessments, and analysis of people, books and ideas. The book flowed beautifully for me and it was a pleasure learning more about some of our most celebrated writers as well as the phenomenon of writing itself.
To start with some of my favorite sketches. I have always found A. Hameed to be an incurable romantic and underrated writer. Part of the reason could also be that while he was prolific in terms of travelogues, popular stuff, columns and children's literature he never really had the opportunity to hunker down for something really serious. First introduced to his time travel adventure series Maut ka Taakub (with the memorable characters of Ambar, Nag & Maria) as a child I was enthralled by his imagination. Over the years I came across his nostalgic writings on Lahore and Amritsar and so many other places, and also his melodramatic accounts of travels in Sri Lanka, Burma etc. He never quite became a great writer but he was a productive man and an accomplished writer because he ensnared you to read, through his skill for weaving webs of romance, history, exotica, nostalgia and a sense of adventure. Irfan Javed's sketch on A. Hameed also provides wonderful vignettes about so many other great writers such as Nasir Kazmi, Manto, and Ibn-e-Insha. In many ways Irfan Javed shares stylistic features with A. Hameed and has quite remarkably written an essay on him that could be a story from A. Hameed himself. The essence of rain, fragrance and a samovar brimful with hot tea - that is what A. Hameed's writing was like. That is also what his sketch is like.
We learn more also in this book about the ingrained decency, propriety, graciousness and wit that characterized Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, his literary journal Funoon and the opportunities it provided to several young writers. The sketch contains insightful descriptions of meetings at Majlis e Taraqi e Adab which Qasmi sahib headed and that he had an extensive and productive tenure at. It is a dreamy, tree-lined place with a rich history that I often visit.
The essay on Ahmad Faraz interestingly also brings out the great romantic poet's lesser known skill as a shrewd investor in shares and lands, a gracious benefactor of many deserving people, and a man of thrift. The writer's meetings with Faraz divulge a man of courtesy and etiquette but also one of sharp humor and forthrightness. One finds out more also about his courageous defiance while facing persecution at the hands of the military establishment, as also of his great charisma and romantic escapades.
A particularly good sketch is that of the lesser known Urdu and Punjabi poet Nasir Kavi from Jhelum - an ideologue, a son of the soil, a man of the masses, self-effacing and the composer of the now famous poem with the memorable line: "Yeh Bazi Jan ki Bazi Hai Aur Tum Yeh Bazi Haro Gai/ Har Ghar Sai Bhutto Niklay Ga Tum Kitnay Bhutto Maru Gai." This particular sketch is also resonant for its description of the varied and enigmatic landscapes, lore and history of the Pothohar region from which the poet hailed.
I liked the sketch of Ata-ul-Haq Qasmi as I grew up reading and being impressed by his column 'Rozan-e-Diwar-Sai," and it carries the flavor of his wit and light-heartedness. Notwithstanding the constraints, growing up challenges and complexes faced by Javaid Chaudhry in his life that are described in his sketch, I felt at the outset that he simply didn't have the stature and accomplishments to be part of this anthology. Friend of the author and someone whose personal traits he admires he may well be, but even after reading the sketch I could only find Chaudhry's thinking muddled, pedantic and less than substantive, and his biggest achievement his commercial success and vast readership. But it is after all the writer's prerogative to include or exclude. With eleven out of the twelve sketches being very good, one miss ought to be overlooked.
Mustansar Hussain Tarar's sketch interestingly dwells initially on the diverse people his thoughts and travels have inspired. It then moves on to Tarar's memorable childhood at Laxmi Mansion, including encounters with Manto, which are also memorably captured in his famous and very good novel Raakh. What follows is a wide descriptive sweep and assessment of his characters, anecdotes, vignettes from his wanderlust and travels, and his fondly narrated tales of romance. What is also of particular interest here, especially if you a writer, are insights into the writing process of various writers, the honing of their craft, how books get written, and how life interfaces with the production of fiction and vice versa in complex and multifarious ways.
Abdullah Hussain's sketch also provides highly readable and interesting insights into the life and times of a taciturn and difficult man who made a successful career out of writing and became a major writer, but felt under appreciated till the very end. His arduous early life, his writing career, his perspectives on other writers and the art of writing, and on various other aspects of society, make for lovely reading.
Additional sketches dealt with are the writer, journalist, director, socialist, and activist Ahmad Bashir who is of course himself the author of a well known and highly candid and scathing book of sketches of literary personalities; the iconic man of letters, writer, publisher and above all the man behind the phenomenon known as Sabrang Digest - Shakeel Adilzada (this sketch also has wonderful vignettes about the larger Amroha clan and particularly Raees Amrohi, Kamal Amrohi, Sadequain and Jaun Elia as well as the lovely and urbane Meena Kumari); and the distinctive, epicurean and highly idiosyncratic painter Tasadduq Sohail; as well as the modern novelist Asim Butt known for his exploration of modernity, contemporary writing approaches, symbolism and abstraction.
In Darwazay Irfan Javed has given us a rich, multi-textured exploration of the lives, times and works of some of our most accomplished writers, adroitly capturing also their distinctive moods and temperaments. It is an invaluable documentation of important literary lives, as also a piece of writing that is of high merit in its own right. As a society we could do with many more such books that underline the societal and cultural significance of serious writers and writing.
Irfan Javed is without a doubt a romantic at heart and that consistently reflects in his evocative descriptions and astute character sketches. He has a great ear for the good anecdote and an eye for detail and proceeds to meticulously build his sketches in complex and intricate ways - combing anecdotes, descriptions, nostalgia, assessments, and analysis of people, books and ideas. The book flowed beautifully for me and it was a pleasure learning more about some of our most celebrated writers as well as the phenomenon of writing itself.
To start with some of my favorite sketches. I have always found A. Hameed to be an incurable romantic and underrated writer. Part of the reason could also be that while he was prolific in terms of travelogues, popular stuff, columns and children's literature he never really had the opportunity to hunker down for something really serious. First introduced to his time travel adventure series Maut ka Taakub (with the memorable characters of Ambar, Nag & Maria) as a child I was enthralled by his imagination. Over the years I came across his nostalgic writings on Lahore and Amritsar and so many other places, and also his melodramatic accounts of travels in Sri Lanka, Burma etc. He never quite became a great writer but he was a productive man and an accomplished writer because he ensnared you to read, through his skill for weaving webs of romance, history, exotica, nostalgia and a sense of adventure. Irfan Javed's sketch on A. Hameed also provides wonderful vignettes about so many other great writers such as Nasir Kazmi, Manto, and Ibn-e-Insha. In many ways Irfan Javed shares stylistic features with A. Hameed and has quite remarkably written an essay on him that could be a story from A. Hameed himself. The essence of rain, fragrance and a samovar brimful with hot tea - that is what A. Hameed's writing was like. That is also what his sketch is like.
We learn more also in this book about the ingrained decency, propriety, graciousness and wit that characterized Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, his literary journal Funoon and the opportunities it provided to several young writers. The sketch contains insightful descriptions of meetings at Majlis e Taraqi e Adab which Qasmi sahib headed and that he had an extensive and productive tenure at. It is a dreamy, tree-lined place with a rich history that I often visit.
The essay on Ahmad Faraz interestingly also brings out the great romantic poet's lesser known skill as a shrewd investor in shares and lands, a gracious benefactor of many deserving people, and a man of thrift. The writer's meetings with Faraz divulge a man of courtesy and etiquette but also one of sharp humor and forthrightness. One finds out more also about his courageous defiance while facing persecution at the hands of the military establishment, as also of his great charisma and romantic escapades.
A particularly good sketch is that of the lesser known Urdu and Punjabi poet Nasir Kavi from Jhelum - an ideologue, a son of the soil, a man of the masses, self-effacing and the composer of the now famous poem with the memorable line: "Yeh Bazi Jan ki Bazi Hai Aur Tum Yeh Bazi Haro Gai/ Har Ghar Sai Bhutto Niklay Ga Tum Kitnay Bhutto Maru Gai." This particular sketch is also resonant for its description of the varied and enigmatic landscapes, lore and history of the Pothohar region from which the poet hailed.
I liked the sketch of Ata-ul-Haq Qasmi as I grew up reading and being impressed by his column 'Rozan-e-Diwar-Sai," and it carries the flavor of his wit and light-heartedness. Notwithstanding the constraints, growing up challenges and complexes faced by Javaid Chaudhry in his life that are described in his sketch, I felt at the outset that he simply didn't have the stature and accomplishments to be part of this anthology. Friend of the author and someone whose personal traits he admires he may well be, but even after reading the sketch I could only find Chaudhry's thinking muddled, pedantic and less than substantive, and his biggest achievement his commercial success and vast readership. But it is after all the writer's prerogative to include or exclude. With eleven out of the twelve sketches being very good, one miss ought to be overlooked.
Mustansar Hussain Tarar's sketch interestingly dwells initially on the diverse people his thoughts and travels have inspired. It then moves on to Tarar's memorable childhood at Laxmi Mansion, including encounters with Manto, which are also memorably captured in his famous and very good novel Raakh. What follows is a wide descriptive sweep and assessment of his characters, anecdotes, vignettes from his wanderlust and travels, and his fondly narrated tales of romance. What is also of particular interest here, especially if you a writer, are insights into the writing process of various writers, the honing of their craft, how books get written, and how life interfaces with the production of fiction and vice versa in complex and multifarious ways.
Abdullah Hussain's sketch also provides highly readable and interesting insights into the life and times of a taciturn and difficult man who made a successful career out of writing and became a major writer, but felt under appreciated till the very end. His arduous early life, his writing career, his perspectives on other writers and the art of writing, and on various other aspects of society, make for lovely reading.
Additional sketches dealt with are the writer, journalist, director, socialist, and activist Ahmad Bashir who is of course himself the author of a well known and highly candid and scathing book of sketches of literary personalities; the iconic man of letters, writer, publisher and above all the man behind the phenomenon known as Sabrang Digest - Shakeel Adilzada (this sketch also has wonderful vignettes about the larger Amroha clan and particularly Raees Amrohi, Kamal Amrohi, Sadequain and Jaun Elia as well as the lovely and urbane Meena Kumari); and the distinctive, epicurean and highly idiosyncratic painter Tasadduq Sohail; as well as the modern novelist Asim Butt known for his exploration of modernity, contemporary writing approaches, symbolism and abstraction.
In Darwazay Irfan Javed has given us a rich, multi-textured exploration of the lives, times and works of some of our most accomplished writers, adroitly capturing also their distinctive moods and temperaments. It is an invaluable documentation of important literary lives, as also a piece of writing that is of high merit in its own right. As a society we could do with many more such books that underline the societal and cultural significance of serious writers and writing.
December 3, 2019
عرفان جاوید اور ان کی کتاب دروازے کا تذکرہ پہلے پہل جاوید چودھری کے کالم میں پڑھا۔ چودھری صاحب مبالغہ آمیزی میں خاصہ ملکہ رکھتے ہیں سو میں نے بدگمانی سے کام لیا اور خیال کیا کہ کیوں کہ صاحبِ کتاب جاوید صاحب کے دوست ہیں اور کتاب میں ان کا خاکہ بھی شامل ہے اس لیے اس قدر قلابے ملائے جا رہیں۔ آج کتاب کو مکمل کرنے کے بعد میں حقتیتاً شرمندہ ہوں کہ میں نے ایسا سوچا بھی کیوں۔ عرفان جاوید کی کتاب اور اندازِ تحریر جاوید چودھری کی تعریف سے بدرجہا شاندار ہے۔
ہر خاکہ لاجواب، الفاظ کا ایسا چناؤ، تراکیب کا وہ شاندار استعمال کے بندہ ناچیز رشک کر رہا ہے اور سوچ رہا ہے کہ ایسا بھی کوئی دن آئے گا کہ چند لائینیں ایسی بھی لکھ پاؤں گا۔ ویسے تو کتاب میں شامل ہر خاکہ شاندار ہے کیوں کہ ذکر باکمال لوگوں کا ہے اور قلم عرفان جاوید کا لیکن مجھے سب سے زیادہ عبداللہ حسین، تصدق سہیل اور جاوید چودھری کے خاکوں نے متاثر کیا۔ عبداللہ حسین کی زندگی سے کئی اسباق ہیں جو سیکھے جا سکتے ہیں جن میں سب سے اہم ان کا وہ اعتراف کہ جسے وہ اپنی ایسی غلطی مانتے ہیں کہ جسے سدھارا نہیں جا سکتا، "میں اپنے اہلِ خانہ کو پوری توجہ نہیں دے پایا"۔ تصدق سہیل نے زندگی جیسے گزاری اس پر انہیں فخر ہے اور اپنی زندگی کی کہانی انہوں نے بغیر کسی حجاب کے کھلی کتاب کی طرح بیان کر دی۔ جاوید چودھری کی تحاریر کا میں ازمنہ قدیم سے شائق ہوں لیکن پچھلے کچھ عرصے میں بدگمانی سے کام لیتے ہوئے خواہ مخواہ سے ہی ان کی شخصیت سے منفی باتیں منسوب کر لی ہیں۔ جاوید چودھری نے عرفان جاوید کو بالکل صحیح گلہ کیا کہ وہ لوگ جو مجھے جانتے نہیں مجھ سے کبھی ملے نہیں کیوں خواہ مخواہ میری ذات پر رکیک حملے کرتے ہیں۔ بات سو فیصد درست ہے کہ آپ کو چودھری صاحب کی کسی بھی بات سے اختلاف ہو سکتا ہے لیکن ان سے ملے بِنا، جانے بنا ان کے بارے میں رائے قائم کرنا سراسر ناانصافی ہے۔
عرفان جاوید اور ان کی کتاب دروازے ایک ایسی کتاب ہے جو ہر اردو کتب بین کو زندگی میں کم ازکم ایک بار ضرور پڑھنی چاہیے۔ ان کا اندازِ تحریر مجھ جیسے تنہائی پسند شخص کو بھی ان سے ملنے کے لیے بے قرار کر رہا ہے۔
ہر خاکہ لاجواب، الفاظ کا ایسا چناؤ، تراکیب کا وہ شاندار استعمال کے بندہ ناچیز رشک کر رہا ہے اور سوچ رہا ہے کہ ایسا بھی کوئی دن آئے گا کہ چند لائینیں ایسی بھی لکھ پاؤں گا۔ ویسے تو کتاب میں شامل ہر خاکہ شاندار ہے کیوں کہ ذکر باکمال لوگوں کا ہے اور قلم عرفان جاوید کا لیکن مجھے سب سے زیادہ عبداللہ حسین، تصدق سہیل اور جاوید چودھری کے خاکوں نے متاثر کیا۔ عبداللہ حسین کی زندگی سے کئی اسباق ہیں جو سیکھے جا سکتے ہیں جن میں سب سے اہم ان کا وہ اعتراف کہ جسے وہ اپنی ایسی غلطی مانتے ہیں کہ جسے سدھارا نہیں جا سکتا، "میں اپنے اہلِ خانہ کو پوری توجہ نہیں دے پایا"۔ تصدق سہیل نے زندگی جیسے گزاری اس پر انہیں فخر ہے اور اپنی زندگی کی کہانی انہوں نے بغیر کسی حجاب کے کھلی کتاب کی طرح بیان کر دی۔ جاوید چودھری کی تحاریر کا میں ازمنہ قدیم سے شائق ہوں لیکن پچھلے کچھ عرصے میں بدگمانی سے کام لیتے ہوئے خواہ مخواہ سے ہی ان کی شخصیت سے منفی باتیں منسوب کر لی ہیں۔ جاوید چودھری نے عرفان جاوید کو بالکل صحیح گلہ کیا کہ وہ لوگ جو مجھے جانتے نہیں مجھ سے کبھی ملے نہیں کیوں خواہ مخواہ میری ذات پر رکیک حملے کرتے ہیں۔ بات سو فیصد درست ہے کہ آپ کو چودھری صاحب کی کسی بھی بات سے اختلاف ہو سکتا ہے لیکن ان سے ملے بِنا، جانے بنا ان کے بارے میں رائے قائم کرنا سراسر ناانصافی ہے۔
عرفان جاوید اور ان کی کتاب دروازے ایک ایسی کتاب ہے جو ہر اردو کتب بین کو زندگی میں کم ازکم ایک بار ضرور پڑھنی چاہیے۔ ان کا اندازِ تحریر مجھ جیسے تنہائی پسند شخص کو بھی ان سے ملنے کے لیے بے قرار کر رہا ہے۔
January 25, 2024
زبان و بیان کی چاشنی سے بھرپور، 12 نابغۂ روزگار شخصیات کی ادبی اور ذاتی زندگی سے متعلق دلچسپ واقعات و حقائق کا بیان جو شروع سے آخر تک قاری کو باندھے رکھتا ہے۔ کہیں انداز بیان کی شیرینی دل موہ لیتی ہے تو کہیں واقعات کا رنگا رنگ تسلسل پڑھنے والے کا ارتکاز ٹوٹنے نہیں دیتا۔ قومی و بین الاقوامی ادبا اور مفکرین کے دانشورانہ اقوال کا بین السطور بیان پڑھنے کا مزہ دوبالا کر دیتا ہے۔ خاکہ نگاری پر یہ ایک انتہائی خوبصورت کتاب ہے۔
April 11, 2017
One of the best Urdu books I read in near future. Writer got originality in his style and empathy towards people he wrote about. The book provides some interesting facts about some known and some unknow writers. I liked sketches about Naseer Qavi (the writer who gave PPP its most chanted slogan 'her ghar se Bhutto nikle ga') and Abdullah Hussain (writer of Udaas Naslen).
August 16, 2020
یہ بات میری سمجھ سے بالاتر ہے کہ اس خاکے کی کتاب میں ایسا کیا ھے جو اس کو 1200 روپے میں سیل کیا جا رہا ہے، سخت مایوس ہوا اس کتاب کو خرید کے۔ کاش میں نا خریدتا۔ میں اس مقام پہ پہنچا ہوں کہ کتاب سے دوستی اب اچھی نھیں۔ باقی یہ خاکے کچھ ادیبوں کے بارے میں ھیں۔ مجھے کچھ خاس نھیں لگے شاید اس وجہ میرے دل کی خلش ہے جو مجھے اس کتاب کی قیمت نے میرے اندر پیدا کر دی۔
June 26, 2019
Excellent book which keeps you attentive in its contents through out reading.
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January 23, 2019QTq3y23UHg
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews