By Balraj Puri,
When I read that Haryana government honoured Kashmiri Lal Zakir, as Fakhr-e-Harayan and Ghalib Institute, New Delhi, facilitated him on his 90th birthday and Syed Nooruzzaman, a columnist in Tribune, called him Fakhr-e-Urdu, I, too, shared a sense of pride. For I have known since before 1942 when he agreed to be a regular contributor to the literary section of the Urdu Weekly Kashmir Sansar (later its name was changed to Pukar to oversome some technical problem) that I started in June 1942.
I was fortunate to maintain contact with him and enjoy his affection ever since. I was so famibiar with some of his poetry that at one Mushaira, whenever he recited first line of a verse, I , sitting on the stage could speak out the next line.
But it was no less an occasion for a feeling of guilt for me particularly and for all Urdu lover of the state in general. Coincidentally, I expressed this feeling at a function organized by the new team of office bearers of Anjuman-e-Tareqqi Urdu (Hind) to honour me. I had been its president since its inception and despite my repreated entreats, the President and General Secretary of the national organization had not accepted my resignation till then. Veteran Urdu writer Sham Sunder Anand Lehar, the new president of the
Anjuman, also wanted to felicitate me for being honoured with Padam Bhushan Award.
While giving an account of achievements and failures of the Anjuman during my stewardship, I specifically mentioned my deep regrets over my failure to felicitate Kashmir Lal Zakir, who belonged to Jammu and had won acclaim as a leading Urdu writer not only in India and Pakistan but also in the entire Urdu world.
Main reason for my lapse was that Ghulam Nabi Azad, the then Chief Minister, who had agreed to felicitate Zakir and release his latest book dedicated to him (as his uncle Ghulam Rasool Azad, a great educationist of his time, was Zakirs friend), could not spare time or realize its importance aas he considered his other engagements deserved higher priority.
Needless to say it was our loss and not of Zakir. Having started his literary career in early forties in Jammu and published in prestigious literary journals like Humayun and Adabi Duniya from Lahorealong with illustrious writers like Krishan Chander, Sadat Hussan Manto and Upendra Nath Ashok. In present times, he is a name to be reckoned with as a Urdu writer.
He has served Haryana, in his capacity as Secretary of Haryana Urdu Akademi since 1987. Among its seminars that I attended was on Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, who was a descendent of Altaf Hussain Hali and belonged to Panipat. I was looking forward to attending another seminar that the Academi had proposed to orgainse on the role of Urdu press in the first war of independence in 1857. Somehow it got postponed. The publications of the Akademi include, Role of Meos in the 1957 revolt.
Zakir has authored 29 novles, along with many books of poetry. Despite his organizational responsibilities of running multifacet activities of the Akademi, he has not ceased making his contribution to Urdu literature to which his anxious readers look forward to. May this versatile litterateur live long and continue to enrich Urdu literature a symbol of composite culture of India. And may Urdu lovers, Urdu organizations, Urdu department of the University and Culture Academy realize how much they have been missing by no owning a great writer who is honoured every where except in the place of his origin, where
Urdu is also supposed to be the official language.