Saqi Farooqi ... A Rebellious Poet

wow. To be honest, I don't forget anyone with a heart of gold, we'll remember you too. ; ) lol....sorry i speak with a wicked eye, and "interview with a vampire" is coming to mind as well, I wonder what 'the poet' in this case, Saqi, would have to say about the Psychologist. The other side of the picture, is always damn intriguing.
Your articles are interesting.
In the nearest language, it always works.

Re: # 20
dear ana....no i did not spend time with him in a medical capacity. i met him as a fellow poet and interviewed him as i was fascinated by his poetry and personality. his daughter who is an addiction counsellor suggested him to get help but he turned her offer down. i find it fascinating that many people with creative personalities struggle with emotional problems but do not feel comfortable getting professional help....sincerely sohail

Dr. S.

I have never read farooqi so I cannot comment on any of this. A few points though: your article could have done with some editing. It is a problem at the Chowk FP from time to time and I don't believe articles are read over again before publishing. Just some spelling errors, but when you write of Western writers like Virginia Woolf, please re-check for spelling. :)

I think Farooqi's life is rather sad. He may be a great poet, and I do not know enough about the literary society to comment on what HP has said, but from what you write, clearly he is a narcissist. Did you spend time with him in your medical capacity or outside of it.

Virginia Woolf may not have wanted therapy, but with her condition, she needed it. She needed more medical attention, and who is to say she would not have killed herself had she received it. Times are different now. Medical science is more advanced. And Saqi Farooqi should not be viewed in a "romantic" light because he is a poet.

I certainly can’t assess his literary stature as I have not read any of his work. I vaguely remember reading his name in some paper.

However, the two poems that appear here surely reflect Kafkaesque tendencies. I read one Kafka book a long time ago and it was so depressing that I never read any of Kafka book again.

He is clearly an alcoholic and his personality as described in this article and another article that I read after I googled, shows sever narcissist symptoms. Some writers and poets in Pakistan were heavily influenced by western writers and thoughts. Existentialism at one time was the in thing. Many so-called liberal writers or poets tried to imitate an existentialist living. In Pakistan most of the writers and poets for whatever reasons grew up in lower middle class harshly controlled, religious zealot and less educated families and often they carried psychological scars from the growing up days. Some were sexually abused when they were kids.

The worthlessness that was part of their growing up turned in to a desire to look and act different from the rest of the society or folks around them. The idea that being different would give them some instant recognition and acceptance did not work out for them. The heavy drinking, lying, narcissism, existentialism was the next stop that provided some refuge. Some were able to get out of the vicious cycle, as they begin to make progress financially or had strong support from the family and friends but some others plunged even deeper as their support system was not helpful.

I think instead of writing his obituary before he is even dead, Dr. Sohail should concentrate on his psychological needs. He may be an excellent poet but at this time he needs clinical help and should be in a hospital under supervision.

Re: # 16
safar main khud hi hayal ho gia hoon
main apna raasta rokay khara hoon

mera ghar door hota ja raha hay
main peechay ki taraf chalta raha hoon...sohail

Re: # 15
dear nikhat...thank you for your comments. it has been my experience that many poets, artists and philosophers in the east as well as the west are not appreciated when alive but we remember them after they die. saqi, in spite of his contraversial poetry and personality,has made significant contributuons to poetry. his autobiography...aap beeti and paap beeti...is also recently published...all the best...sohail

Main pyaas ka sahra hun tarasne ke liye hun
tou kali ghata hai tou baras kyun nahin jati

Dr Sohail, Thanks for introducing Saqi sahib. I haven't heard his name. But after reading your piece...sure gonna google him. Saqi sahib surely will get all the attention that you mentioned he crave for...Thanks
Nikhat Riaz

Divorces in India are no easy affair for the male. Gender-biased laws have been made since recently by Renuka, a notoriously feminist minister. When a woman is angry at a man and wants a divorce, she usually lies, and makes false charges to have him and his family jailed, without appeal or bail. Domestic Violence is hyped by feminist groups internationally, but this too is not borne out by studies, which attribute equal violence to the female too. Blackmail is norm - alongwith the emotional trauma of undergoing a divorce. In a corrupt system like India , that means a pot of money, and social ostracisation too – mind you, for a young, growing, citizen of the country. Divorces should surely be made easier and simpler than this?

Alimony causes even more financial commitment on the young male – whatever for? For the ‘crime' of divorcing? Some say that alimony could be an invitation for a female to divorce – and even marry in the first place! Alimony is surely a thing for the past generation of divorces?

A word on feminism here may be in order. Feminists take media sympathy from ‘facts’ that are controversial really. For eg., let us take female feticide. In reality, four times more adult men actually commit than women! Is it because women cannot bear to see their daughters grow up anything short of a princess? And the gender ratios that are quoted in India , cannot explain the widespreadedness of feticide, because in some countries, the proportion of males is actually less! And yet, feminists continue to use the media to gain sympathy – sometimes using genuine reasons ( like minority female literacy for eg.), to get unreasonable gains.

To counter the menace of feminism, we hardly have a Male Right Movement going in India yet. In addition, it is not fashionable to the media yet. Male Rights in western countries have gained some momentum in the past few years, though.

#12 Ahaan, very interesting... And did he tell what did he use to think while seeing these animals dying in water?

Re: # 11
dear charlie...saqi shared with me in his interview that as a child he accompanied their servant who used to put animals...tomcats... in a bag and then take them away and drown them in water to kill them. saqi felt guilty about those episodes.that is why he wrote poems like the one khurram quoted about jan mohammad, tom cats and empty bags...sincerely sohail

#10 Dr. Sahib, What do you mean by special encounters with animals?

Re: # 9
dear khurram...thank you for sharing saqi's poems. he has a keen interest in the issues of animals as his father was a veteranarian surgeon and he had special encounters with animals as a child. sohail

drsohail,

Thanks for this introduction to Saqi Farooqi. Here are a couple of his poems I found (translator unknown).

Dear
for last seven years
You are sitting
on this television
holding your breath
carefree and satisfied and ignorant,
like the humble and tolerant dog of
His master's voice
Beneath your feet
They have raised a tumult
Living blood
has erupted from the veins of the television
The carpet is wet
couches are swimming
I am going to drown in my own blood
help me
why don't you bark
bloody dog
----------------------------
An Injured Tomcat in an Empty Sack

Jan Muhammad Khan
the road is hard
This empty rice-sack
stifles me
The stiff jute bars pierce my heart
And into the yellow bowls
of my eyes
Coins of moonlight clink, chink
Night spreads through my body

Now who will light fires
on your naked back?
Who will fan the coals?
Who will make the bloody flowers of struggle
burst into bloom?
From my flint-and-steel claws
the life is gone
Today the road is hard


Quite soon this path
breaks and falls into a dirty pond
Alone in my coffin
I'll curl up and sleep
I'll dissolve into water
And you must go on --
go on deep-sleep-walking
And the sack that you don't see --
you don't know your own empty sack.
Jan Muhammad Khan
the road is hard.

Dear Tahir,

Let me understand your point of view step by step.

Here is HDR 2006.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr06-complete.pdf

Please let me know on where western agenda was promoted: page number?

Here is details on Pakistan:

Pakistan is ranked at 136 in HDI. Three broad parameters are health, income and education. Sub parameters include life expectancy, enrolment ratio, access to clean water, litearcy rate and underage children etc.. What defect these western economists introduced such that Pakistan ranks so low ?

Thanks for help...

Re: # 5
There other types of men too:
Fighters, collaborators, and traitors!

The economic-financial IMPORTED wizards have already casued irrepairable damage to Pakistan.

I have one of these annual HDI reports; what a joke! What farce, what agenda-driven non-sense!

Time will soon explain what it all means; keep staring at your wallet and hang on to what you think is precious.