Death of an icon: Kaifi Azmi (?-2002)
The words of Jigar Muradabadi can perhaps best summarise the loss of Kaifi: "Jaan ke min jumlaye khasane maikhana mujhe / Muddaton roya karenge jaam-o-paimana mujhe".
Kaifi Azmi was one of the greatest stars in a galaxy that included the likes of Krishna Chandar, Rajendar Singh Bedi, Mahendra Nath 'Ashk', Sahir, Asmat Chugtai, Majaz, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Sulaiman Areeb, Ali Sardar Jafri, Josh, Faiz and Firaq, all members of the 'progressive writers movement' of 1936. Kaifi was many things and wore many caps: a rebel, a romantic yet a realist, a secularist, socialist and humanist, he was a satirist, a poet and a lyricist among other things. He, Syed Athar Hussain Rizvi, rose from the nondescript village of Mijwan in the Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh to become Kaifi Azmi, one of the best-loved Urdu poets and Bombay songwriters ever.
The rebel in Kaifi, who died in Bombay on 10 May 2002, found early expression. Attending his first mushaira at Bahraich at the age of 11, he recited, "Qismat hamari gaisu-e-jana se kam nahin / jitna sawaarte gaye utne hi bal pade / Itna to zindagi mein kisi ki khalal pade / Hasne se ho sukoon na rone se kal pade". (My fortune is as are the locks of my beloved / the more I seek to untangle them, the more entangled they become / there can be no life so distressed with interference / that neither can I gain peace by laughter, nor hasten tomorrow with tears).
He was admitted to Sultan-ul-Madaris, Lucknow, a centre for theological learning but he left it very soon with the awareness that religious education was not for him. Instead, guided by his temperament and worldview, Kaifi embraced Marxism at the age of 19 and started writing for Quami Jung, the Communist Party paper. The fire of revolution made him drop his studies to join the 'Quit India movement' of 1942, and by the time India got independence, Kaifi had evolved into more of an activist than a journalist.
A thorough nonconformist, Kaifi did not lay down his pen with the coming of independence but used his energy to question and challenge the ills of the new India, and 'the establishment' often found itself the subject of Kaifi's critical exercises. When the government engaged in anti-people manipulations, Kaifi aimed this comment at the then-chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Govind Vallabh Pant: "Gunde communist hi mazdooron ko bhadkate hain / Pant ro dete hain jab golian chalwate hain". (Ruffian communists instigate the labour / while Pant sheds tears even as he orders gunfire). Maulana Azad's efforts to sway Malik Khizr Hayar Tiwani and bring him into the folds of the Congress Party made Kaifi write: "Thhe hotel mein bechain Azad udhar / Idhar Khizr takiye pe dhunte thhe sar". (As Azad paced uneasy in the hotel / Khizr struck his head repeatedly against his pillow).
Kaifi, who was not certain which year he was born in (but is thought to have been born between the years 1915 and 1925), liked to say that he was born in an enslaved India, had lived in an independent India and relished the idea of dying in a socialist India. His wish may not have been realised but the vision with which he nurtured his daughter Shabana (now a member of parliament, an actress and an activist) has paid dividends. It was when Kaifi was on his first visit to Europe that Shabana, like any other girl, asked him to bring her a doll. She visualised a blonde, peach complexioned doll but daddy brought back a black golliwog with thick red lips! Shabana says she will never forget the incident. On another occasion he gave her a birthday gift: "Ab aur kya tera bimar baap dega tujhe / Bas ek dua ke khuda tujh ko kamyaab kare / Wo taank de tere aachal mein chand aur tare / Tu apne waaste jisko bhi intekhab kare". (Now what more can thine ailing father give thee / But a prayer that Khuda may grant thee success / that he may embellish thy wrap with the moon and stars / that thou may'st choose whichever of these thou pleasest).
Kaifi made his writings a rallying cry for the struggle of peasants and labourers, and the struggle of an individual against injustice was written of in poetry that was drenched in red: "Ailan-e-haq se khatra-e dar-o-rasn to hai / Lekin sawal ye hai ke dar-o-rasn ke baad" (Declaration of rights does lead to the gallows / But the question is: what after that?) speaks of the immortality of life laid down for justice and truth. The realist in Kaifi would make him say: "Tum pareshan na ho baab-ekaram wa na karo / Aur kuchh dair pukaroonga chala jaaonga / Isi kuchein mein jahan chand uga karte hain / Shab-etareek guzaroonga chala jaaonga". (Fret not thou, gateway of deeds, nor do aught / A while longer shall I call and then be gone / In these confined apartments do the worlds bring forth moons / The night I shall tarry and then, be gone). And as a broken-hearted romantic he wrote: "Ek to itni haseen doosre ye aarais / Jo nazar padti hai chehre par thahar jati hai / Muskura deti ho mooh pher ke jab mehfil mein / Ek khanak toot ke seene mein bikhar jaati hai". (Such beauty; and so well embellished / glances that perchance fall on this face are stayed thereon / when you smile and turn away in a gathering / the jingle of them embellishments strays away and spreads within my breast)."
Kaifi's rendezvous with films brought into existence some spectacular songs. Haqeeqat had 'Ho ke majboor mujhe usne bulaya hoga'; Hanste Zakhm had Kaifi's 'Aaj socha to aasoon bhar aaye / muddatein ho gayeen muskuraye'; his song in Arth became all the rage, 'Tum jo itna muskura rahe ho / kya gham hai jisko chhupa rahe ho'. His words became a countrywide phenomenon when the playback singer Mohammad Rafi in the film Shala Aur Shabnam gave voice to the song, 'Jaane kya dhoondti rahti hain ye ankhein mujhme / raakh ke dhair mein na shola hai na chingari hai'.
The renowned poet Ameer Minai Lucknawi once said of poets: "Khanjar chale kisi par tadapte hain hum Ameer / Saare jahan ka dard humare jigar mein hai". (The dagger may lodge in another's chest but it is I, Ameer, that shivers with pain / all the agony in the universe resides in my breast). Kaifi, with his political awareness, embodied these words to a greater extent than any other. Reacting to a Shia-Sunni riot in Lucknow, he lamented: "Aza mein bahte thhe aasoon magar lahoo to nahin / Ye koi aur jagah hogi Lucknow to nahi / Yehan pe chalti hain chhuriyaan zabaan se pahle / Ye Mir Anees ki Aatish ki Guftugu to nahin / Chamak ralut hai jo daman pe dono firqoun ke / Baghaur dekhein ye Islam ka lahoo to nahin". (It surely was tears that flowed at the mourning, not blood / this must be another place, surely not Lucknow / Daggers are brandished here before tongues can be / These are surely not the fiery words of Mir Anees / That which gleams on the robes of the two sects / regard it carefully: is it perchance the blood of Islam itself?)
The anti-Sikhs riots in 1984 and the demolition of the Babri Mosque in 1992 shook him. His pain and anguish were evident in 'Ram ka doosra banwas' (A second exile for Ram): "Paon Sarju mein abhi Ram ne dhoye bhi na thhe / Ke nazar aaye wahan khoon ke gahre dhabbe / Paon dhoye bina Sarju ke kinare se utthe / Ram ye kahte hue apne duare se uthe / Rajdhani ki faza aaye nahin raas mujhe / 6 December ko mila doosra banwas mujhe". (Ram had not even washed his feet in the Sarju / When he spied deep stains of blood upon it / Rose he from the bank without washing his feet / Left he that place saying thus / The reigns of my capital's government are not in my hands / On the 6th of December was I exiled again).
Kaifi, who had travelled far and wide, was denied a visa for Pakistan for several years despite the fact that his family lived there. When he did visit Karachi finally he expressed a yearning for everlasting peace between India and Pakistan: "Rahegi dosli hi dosti ab dono mulkon mein / main har dil mein apne dil ke arma chhod aaya hoon". (I have left my desire in every breast / now will there be only friendship between the two nations). He believed that friendly relations between India and Pakistan would be the greatest joy for the Muslims of India.
His emotions in real life and reel life were almost the same. His angst in Saeed Mirza's film Naseem, where he played the role of an old bedridden man reciting Mir Taqi Mir, trying to explain the untenable situation of the Babri Mosque to his granddaughter, was a rare character for Hindi films.
"Main ja raha hoon sareshaam laut aaonga / Safar safar hai mera intezar mat karna" (I will only be back from where I am headed when it is sunset / this is a wandering of mine, do not wait for me), said an unknown poet but Kaifi, at the fag end of his life returned to Mijwan, and poured his energies into the development of his home village. He pursued the authorities at the Uttar Pradesh capital till a metalled road was actually laid in Mijwan. The road was inaugurated without the pomp and importance of a dedication ceremony but as was inevitable, it has come to be known as Kaifi Road nevertheless. Kaifi's efforts meant that Mijwan acquired a girls' high school, a government hospital and a post office. It was a personal tragedy for the residents of Mijwan then, that their poet was not buried in the village but in Bombay.
The echoes of 'Jhankar', 'Aakhir-e-Shab ', 'Awara Sajde', and 'Sarmaya' (collections of Kaifi's work) are not only invaluable as literature but also as records of images from pre- and post-independence India. It is almost poetic that the poet died even as the mazaar of Wali Dakhini (the Chaucer of Urdu poetry) was being demolished in Gujarat.