FAROOQ NAZKI …… A DARVESH WHO WISHED WELL TO ONE AND ALL
”Karaa ba maan tse saetien chhusa ba tath laayak
Tse shaah savaar ba khosh Tsaenisiyi Gubaaras manz”……( Farooq Nazki )
“ How can I compete with you?
Am I worthy to do that?
for you ride the galloping horse,
Let me be happy with the dust that you raise in this hurtle ”
Unbelievably but true, Farooq Nazki left us for his heavenly abode. He had not been keeping well for some time. Like the odds that he fought in his life, he also battled with his ailments courageously. Too many people are paying heartfelt tributes to him through various social media platforms. His friends from all the corners of the country feel saddened. He had a vast circle of admirers from all the sections of the society. He enthused them with his conversation and empathy. To talk to him was always a pleasure and to listen to him no less a treat. In communication, he opened many gates that took you walking through history, literature, cinema, philosophy and books. For the quantity and quality of the knowledge that he possessed about Kashmir, one could call him a walking encyclopedia on Kashmir. Like his friend Sadiq Ali ( son of Jaffer Ali artist ), Farooq Nazki was also from a different breed, a rare one from amongst the people who I came across in my life. Well-read, positive, compassionate, tolerant and a symbol of composite culture and inclusiveness. Anyone who met him felt happy at his accessibility, down-to-earth simplicity and helpful attitude. He had earned the love and affection of many giants in the world of art, literature, journalism and bureaucracy including poet Jigar Moradabadi, Ali Sardar Jafri, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kamleshwar, G R Santosh, Kashyap Bandhu, Girish Saxena and many more. He never made a show of his proximity with many top names in the world of cinema, music, theatre and literature. As a bureaucrat, he discharged his functional obligations with poetic empathy and as a poet, he touched every aspect of universal beauty through his imagination. Wherever he remained, Kashmir was inseparable from him. He talked it, breathed it and felt it all around. He had no ambiguity of perception and his conceptual framework was clear about what happened in Kashmir and who brought the gloom and misery in the peaceful valley.
In Rainawari, I would see him in the intellectual group that came to the shop of poet Radhe Nath Masarat during the evening time. The members of this group included artist P N Kachru, poet Muzaffar Azim, Professor Kak, J L Raina, Chaman Lal Abhay, Predimen Krishen Wattal and some more persons. His other friends in Rainawari included Sadiq Ali (MLC), Jawahar Dhar ( Sita Travels ) and Siddarth Zadoo ( engineer Doordarshan ).
In 2007 or 2008, he was associated with Take One TV. It was the month of April and summer had set in early in Jammu. When I visited him, he expressed a desire to visit Saint Gopinath Ji’s Ashram in Jammu. I took him there in my vehicle. It was about 2 pm when we reached the Ashram braving the midday sun. The moment he entered the Ashram premises, he took out his shoes, washed his hands with soap and entered the sanctum sanctorum. Before leaving, he tied the Daesh ( sacred string of faith ) seeking some boon from the saint. I didn’t ask for details. After some months, I met M K Tikoo ( Trustee Bhagwan Gopinath Ji’ Ashram ) and gave him the photocopy of Farooq Nazki’s poem Naad Laayey ( I shall call you back) that he had demanded. He told me that Farooq Sahib had come to the Ashram with one Kaul Sahib.I didn’t tell him anything about his earlier visit and tying of the Daesh . I believe Saint Gopinath Ji must have also been pleased with his affable mannerism.
I also invited him as Chief Guest or Guest of Honour in some high-profile functions of the bank. He kept my bosses enthused and engaged with his lively conversation. In 2017, he spent almost a full day with us, when along with Narinder Safaya, we organized a Baithak function on Poet Dina Nath Nadim. He joined the event along with Mrs Nazki, Ayaz Rasool Nazki ( his brother ), Mrs Ayaz Rasool Nazki, Mrs Nusrat Andrabi, Brij Nath Betab, T K Jalali, Arvind Gigoo, and many more persons. That time also he read from his poetic collection Naar Hyotun Kazalvanas.
I am informed by Brij Nath Betab how Farooq Nazki had picked him up along with his bag and baggage from Kashmir House and taken him to his official accommodation at Minto Road, New Delhi. Both were posted in Delhi and Betab had been waiting for allotment of some governmental accommodation. Betab remembers how like a big brother Farooq Nazki had made him comfortable in Delhi. Bihari Kak tells me that as Incharge Doordarshan Srinagar, it was Farooq Nazki who explicitly told every private producer in Kashmir to engage artists from the exiled Kashmiri Pandit community in fair proportion as they were almost starving in Jammu. Ravinder Kaul informs me that he set a process rolling that proved a boon for the exiled Kashmiri Pandit artists in Jammu. Ramesh Marthatta of Akashvani Jammu tells me this :-
“ I can never repay the debt that I owe to Nazki Sahib. He alone stood behind me like a rock after I was attacked and kidnapped by terrorists in the 1990s. They fired bullets at me and four bullets hit my body. I was in the Army hospital for many weeks. I survived miraculously. I was working as a casual artist. Nazki Sahib almost fought with his bosses in Delhi to get me regularized and posted in Kathua. My services were regularized on his strongly worded recommendation letter but I was transferred to Jaipur. He got my order modified to Kathua. I really feel saddened at his death.”
Many such stories are with me that demonstrate the selfless humanism of Farooq Nazki.
Farooq Nazki started as a journalist and joined Radio Kashmir, Srinagar that he headed in later days. From Radio, he moved to television and rose to become Deputy Director General of Doordarshan. He also remained a Media Advisor to Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah. As an administrator and bureaucrat, he was exposed to the binary behaviour of the system that he expressed through his poetic wisdom.He experienced the binary variations of issues.Truth could be diametrically oposite to what was apparent. And what was apparent could be nothing but packaged falsehood . I quote him:-
“Me vuchh zaal gaadan karaan raahnumayi
Me vuchh zaal Haanzan karaan jaalsaazi
Me vuchh aab tael aab peth kyaah chhu sapdaan ”
(I saw the fishing net leading the fish to the freedom,
I saw the same fishing net misleading the fisherman,
I saw what happens below and over the water's surface )
Born in 1940, Farooq Nazki was a well-known name in the contemporary literary world of Kashmir. He equally established himself amongst the frontline Urdu poets of the country. Essentially a romantic, he added new metaphors, modernism and positivity to Kashmiri poetry through his subtle and deft use of words and ideas. I was highly impressed by his Kashmiri poetic collection Naar Heutun Kazalvanas ( Kazalvan is on fire ) which won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1995. I also read his latest poetic collection Sat Baran and felt happy. He was a prolific poet and I believe a good quantity of his work remains unpublished.
“Aap ki tasweer thi akhbaar mein ,
Kyaa sabab hai aap ghar jaatay nahin..
Nazki se shair kehnaa seekhiye ,
Jo gazal kehte hain chhapwaate nahin”….( Farooq Nazki )
He was a poet of hope. goodwill, reconciliation and reunion. His poem dedicated to his friend Som Nath Sadhu comes close to a poem of Sindhi Poet Sheikh Ayaaz that he dedicated to his closest friend and eminent Sindhi poet Narayan Shyam. Narayan Shyam moved to India in 1947 while Sheikh Ayaaz Stayed back in Sindh. Nazki’s anguish over the loss of composite culture in Kashmir is profound. He misses Kamla Ji ( Kamli ) who was like a mother to him. Why did Kamla Ji (mother of Som Nath Sadhu ) leave Kashmir? What had this simple and god-fearing woman done? I quote him:-
“Ek intesaab aur
Somnath Sadhu, teray naam.
Jaanta hai tumhari maa,
Kamli,
Kashmir chho’rr kar gayi hai
Aur apnay saath chaandi ki woh thaali bhi ley gayi hai
Jis mein woh
Hum donon kay liye khaana parosti thi.
Kya tu jaanta hai ke
Woh meray dar se kashmir se bhaag gayi hai.
Tumhara,
Farooq.”
( Once more a dedication to you,
My Somnath Sadhu,
Do you know Kamli,
Your mother,
left Kashmir,
taking her silver plate along,
Yes, the very plate,
from which you and I ate,
the food that she served us,
Do you Know Som Nath Sadhu
fearing me,
she left Kashmir.
your Farooq )
Even during the dark decade ( 1990 to 2000 ) of turmoil when death and destruction were rampant, Nazki retained his hope and optimism. Rising above the then-prevailing gloom and negativity, he kept talking about sunshine, goodwill, flowers and the ensuing spring. For him, the scenario was an aberration which had to die down under the mounting thrust of the time-tested ethos, tradition and open-minded culture of Kashmir that had evolved over 5000 years. On 14th February, he would have celebrated another birthday. A birthday when spring would be knocking. He loved the flowers and fragrance that spring brought to his Kashmir. However, he had been always missing something in this spring for the last three decades. Will the Pandits return to celebrate the Soant festival? He put forth this pain through his poems. I quote him:-
“Mushuk valith aav vaav sontuk,
Dichin bashaarat.
Yimav qadam kaed garav nebar,
Tim na aayee pheerith,
Na Tchhandi sontan ...”……………..( Farooq Nazki )
(Bathed in perfume,
the spring has once again come this way,
bringing some good news.
Alas! Those who stepped out of their homes,
did neither return,
Nor did this spring seek their whereabouts .)
I met him on 9th March 2012 and on 10th March 2012, he had written this couplet on my Facebook Timeline :-
Tumhaare aane se mehfil mein roshini aayi
Bujhe bujhe se chiraagon pe taazigi aayi
Good bye Farooq Nazki. You will be always missed for what you were and for what you believed in.
( Avtar Mota )
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
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