Saqi Farooqi ... A Rebellious Poet

Wish I had read Saqi enough to enable me to comment on his life and work. What little I do understand is that, steering clear of the cliches of contemporary poetic works and exploring new expressions, forms and truths appears to be the way of both Saqi and our great and controversial poet Noon Meem Rashid.
The article is well written, but to enjoy and relate to it fully, one has to know Saqi Farooqi enough to appreciate his life and work. Dr. Khalid Sohail writes about him and his poetry in such a way that I am already motivated enough to explore Saqi's poetry.

Najeeb Kazmi

Dr Sohail, enjoyed reading your article. Saqi sounds very interesting, will look him up.

By the way, honesty and openness are no more rare in the Eastern society than in the Western. Regarding the Eastern society being hypocritical----at a fundamental level, all societies are the same. Best, Lajwanti Khemlani

Re: # 2
Dear Lajwanti...thank you for your comments. If we read International Human Rights reports, some countries have 90% while some countries have 20---30%. If all societies are the same why do you think there is such a big discrepency? sincerely sohail

I thought you read real humans and not the devil's agenda-driven humanists' doctored reports about HDI (human development index) figures and such trash.

#4 Tahir Sahib, Dr Mehboob ul Haq came up with the idea of HDI. And it has nothing to do with freedom, democracy, openness or honesty as being discussed here. HDI is a generalized number representing how healthy, educated and rich a nation is. Would you mind explaining how it is "devil agenda driven"...

However, I might agree that several western "think tanks" and "international" agencies often present many reports to back their own agenda...

Re: # 5
Monsieur Charlie,

You' ; le VE a déjà répondu à votre propre question. Des choses ordre du jour-sont très conduites de nos jours. Les théories folles d'économistes modernes ont fait équiper tellement la détresse. Seulement Islam' ; les préceptes de s apportent la réponse vraie, et elle est CETTE ce qui a été identifié comme menace terrorisante pour le système usurous.

Bonne nuit.

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.

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...

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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