Khuda Hafiz Abdullah Kamaal: Mumbai's egoist Urdu poet is no more

It's a regret that will stay for life. I couldn't meet one of my favourite poets, Abdullah Kamaal, who passed away recently. I must curse my laziness for delaying my trip to Mumbai.

ajab thaa uskaa hunar, pai-qafas rakhna parinde ko
aur uske saamne shaakh-e-sharar pe aashyaaN rakhnaa

Kamal was a poet of exceptional talent and like two other major poets of his generation, Rajendra Manchanda 'Baani' and Irfan Siddiqui, he kept away from publicity. In fact, Kamal's expression of his self-respect 'anaa' [ego] is unmatched in contemporary Urdu poetry.

koi us shahar meN kab thaa uskaa
use yeh zom ki rab thaa uskaa

sidq-zaada thaa vo shahzaada Kamaal
bas yahii naam-o-nasab thaa uskaa

Though he lived in Mumbai, Kamal kept himself confined to literary circles. He had nothing but contempt for self-projection and publicity tactis though this is also a reason that he didn't get the due recognition outside Urdu world.

Abdullah Kamal was born in Muzaffarpur on April 17, 1948. He made Mumbai his home in 1966. Life was not a bed for roses for Kamal but he was the first of the generation of modernist [post-progressive] poets, who made their mark in Mumbai.

ye chaaNd taare merii nigaahoN kaa husn haiN
varnaa merii zamiiN pe koii aasmaaN nahiiN

His collection of poetry, MaiN, was published in 1973. The intensity of his poetry and the poet's unique metaphors, drew the attention of critics as well as aficionados of Urdu poetry.

bohat sambhaal ke rakhi hai maiN ne apnii saliib
ki merii zaat ki pahchaan hai anaa* abhii tak [anaa=ego, self-respect]

Kamal's angst is revealed in numreous couplets

maiN ne maanaa ki ye shab guzregii, magar kab guzregii
maiN ne maanaa ki sahar hogi, magar kab hogii

duur bohat hai ghar meraa/zakhmii hai shahpar meraa
apne muqaabil khud maiN thaa/qatl huaa aksar meraa

Kamaal, the ringmaster of Ghazal: Kali Das Gupta 'Riza'

Abdullah Kamal's diction is cleary different from other poets of his era. This had prompted the legendary Kali Das Gupta 'Riza' to label Kamal as 'Ringmaster of ghazal'. It was in context with Kalimuddin Ahmed's old saying that ghazal is a a sort of wild genre and needs a perfectionist to restrain it by putting thoughts in poetic form with regard to constraints of meter, as each couplet of ghazal despite being similar to the other has an independent identity as well.

Ghazal is a unique genre of Urdu poetry and though it appears it's easy to write a ghazal, the fact is that it takes a real wordsmith to do justice with this format. Kamal forged a new path in modernist Urdu poetry.

chaar jaanib, ek, akelaa aasmaaN
sogvaar, afsurdah, mujhsaa aasmaaN

maiN apnii Daar se bichhRa huaa parindaa huuN
merii uRaan abhii dard kii navaaH meN hai

In Mumbai, when his heart craved for his native Muzaffarpur [Bihar] place, he wrote:

guzishta biis baras se huuN bambaii meN magar
haraa hai zaKhm-e-taalluq Bihar ka ab tak

Tilism-e-shahr hai hammam-bad-gird* Kamaal
milaa na lauT ke jaane kaa raasta ab tak

[Hammam-baad-gird was the City of no return, the last expedition of Hatim]

toD aaya to huuN har rishta tere shahar se
tasma-paa yaadoN kii zanjiir kahaaN le jaauN

na koii Khwaab na Khwaahish, na Gam na Khushii
voh be-hisii hai ki har shaKhs raaigaaN hai yahaaN

His second collection Be-Aasmaan was published in 1991. He had suffered two heart attacks. Lately he avoided participating in events for obvious reasons and stayed mostly in his house in Mumbra suburb near Mumbai.
 
kab chaDhtaa huaa suuraj dharti pe utar aaye
kab raah meN ruk jaaye yah chaltaa huaa ziinaa

The moving stairs or the 'chaltaa huaa ziina' finally stopped. On May 18, he suffered a stroke that proved his last. Read Abdullah Kamaal's ghazals in Urdu, English (Roman) and Hindi (Devanagari) scripts at Best Ghazals.