By Mohd Faisal Fareed for TwoCircles.net,
hamarein lab key tabassum pe aap na jayen,
hamari ankh mein jhankey key sogwar hain hum,,
hamari khasta-libasi pey gul bhi hastey hain.
khizanuma chama-e-zeest ki bahar hain hum..
The couplet is written by Afzal Hussain Rizvi an urdu shayar hailing from Lucknow.
For many Afzal Hussain Rizvi is just another zardozi artisan living in Kazmain locality of old city in Lucknow. For those who know him personally, Afzal is a urdu shayar(poet) who is illiterate. He cannot
differentiate between alphabets but his works may give some learned poets run for their money.
Hadi Raza Hadi
He is not the lone case, there is a whole breed of urdu poets living in penury in old city who are illiterate but their poetry is classic and perfect in the eyes of many urdu experts. Afzal, himself states that he has never been to any school or madarsa though he developed this art of poetry. His creative work is included by several anjumans of the Lucknow during the annual moharram. “I have been doing poetry for past 20 years. Some of my works were written by family members in a copy. However, I was in Mumbai to earn my living as zardozi worker in 2005 and lost it in the Mumbai floods. I still remember most of my
lines penned by me,” said Afzal. He himself may be illiterate but his son Ammar Rizvi is studying in Class VII. “Perhaps, he will grow up as a poet who knows how to read and write,” he added.
At a little distance from his house another aged poet Hadi Raza Hadi lives with his family. Hadi is also illiterate but a poet of excellence. His works mostly revolve around religious affairs and reflect that the author may be some person well versed with religious affairs. Hadi even claims that some foreigners came to meet me and they compiled book which had mention of great urdu poets of Lucknow starting from Meer Taqi Meer. “They also mentioned my name in the list, but I make one clear from the begining that I am illiterate and for me every alphabet is black in colour,” said Hadi.
Afjal Husain Rizvi
Over the tradition of illiterate poets flourishing in Lucknow, Head, Urdu Department, Lucknow University (LU) Prof Anees Ashfaq opined that such breed existed during the Nawabi era. “There was an atmosphere of urdu poetry and learning during that period. Literary discussions were a common thing at houses and majlis during moharram provided ample opportunity to learn the religious affairs. People who were illiterate also developed the trait of poetry and some of them still exist in Lucknow,” said Prof Ashfaq. He however is amused that these illiterate poets hardly need any correction in their work and even use difficult jargons and urdu words in their poetry. Afzal Hussain Rizvi himself uses Kinsu for Kisi and Sambhu for Sabhi-the words which were used during the period of Meer.
He also mentions a whole breed of such shayars who are known as Ummiwhich existed in the past, to name a few Sheikh Bulaqi Badtar, Mijjan Saheb aka Jahil Lakhnavi, Dularey Mirza Lakhnavi, Kazim Hussain Gargu and others.