Fazal Tabish, the maverick poet

Fazal Tabish, Urdu zubaan ka baaNkaa shaair thaa. This is often you get to hear about Fazal Sahab. I had heard a lot about him especially his personality and bohemian lifestyle.

In my school days I knew him through his son, who was our teacher. But I never met him. It was only after his death that I read some of his poetry and was instantly drawn towards it. Fazal's poetry is different in the sense that all his ghazals and Nazms stand out amongst hundreds of contemporary poets of his generation.

shakhsiyat hai ki sirf gaalii hai
jaane kis shakhs ne uchhaalii hai

shahar dr shahar haath ugte haiN
kuchh to hai jo har ek savaalii hai

jo bhii haath aaye TuuT kar chaaho
haar ke yah ravish nikaalii hai

meer kaa dil kahaaN se laaoge
Khuun kii buund to bachaa lii hai

jism meN bhii utar ke dekh liyaa
haath Khaalii thaa ab bhii khaalii hai

resha resha udheD kar dekho
roshnii kis jagah se kaalii hai

din ne chehraa kharoNch Daalaa thaa
jab to suuraj pe Khaak Daalii hai

(Click for the ghazal in Hindi and Urdu scripts here)

A group of Qawwals rendered it at a function a few years back. They sung it differently and started with the last two couplets but had a magical affect on the audience. Of course, his sexually explicit couplets once floated across the Urdu world:

chaahte the aazmuudaa aurat ka visaal
khair jaisii bhii haath aaye, nibhaayaa chaahiye....(aazmuuda=experienced)

But it is Nazm where Fazal Tabish reveals his brilliance. Never in the history of Urdu poetry, a poet had treated the subject of sex like Fazal did. Amongst the voices of Nazm in the post-Progressive movement era, Shaharyar, Nida Fazli, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Ameeq Hanafi are counted but I surely consider Fazal amongst them. His nazm for another day.