Amjad Islam Amjad

Playing the Creative Role

Khuzaima Fatima Haque

Amjad Islam Amjad is a household name in Pakistan. His has seen a career that has taken into its fold both the print and the electronic media with a comfortable excellence in both. So when he says “I’m fifty-nine now, and so to see and describe things is easier,” it certainly doesn’t come as a surprise. “But when I started everything was hazy,” he adds. And from those hazy days he has travelled a long way to success.

In 1998 he received the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, and was awarded the Pride of Performance in 1997, the National Hijra (Iqbal) Award 1403 for Best Book of Poetry for Fishar and the Writers Guild Award for Best Work of Translation for Aks. He is also the recipient of fifteen Graduate Awards (1975-2000) and five Best Playwright Awards from Pakistan Television.

Sitting comfortably behind his office desk at the Children Library Complex, he is a man quite satisfied with his contribution towards society. As Project Director of the institution, he has added a science museum to the complex and on his cards is a state of the art mini complex for handicapped children matching world standards. “As a child I hated maths and science. The reason being that I was never shown the proper approach towards science. I felt that if we want to prosper as nation we must make our children confident and for that scientific knowledge is a must,” reaffirms Amjad Islam Amjad.

One expects a more creative line of action than this from him. Yet “creativity has many forms,” says the poet inside him. “I believe that if a thinking mind is guided properly and channels itself then a novel direction evolves from inside it. Getting feedback keeps him on the track”.

Amjad started writing poetry when he was studying at the university. In the 1960s romantic poetry was in vogue and he followed suit. “I was an emerging poet without a sound academic knowledge of the genre. The young blood in me was adventurous and even if I made mistakes they were overlooked.” However he now feels that as an established name in literature the “mental world may have opened up for him but otherwise the limitations are many.”

Stopping by a chollaywala and devouring the taste of a hot plate of desi cuisine or buying a gallery ticket at the cinema house or walking on the canal with friends without any fear of breaking the rules of recognition are memories of a time in his life that he sometimes misses a lot.

Amjad explains the background to his emergence as a poet. “The socialist movement was gaining strength and in nearly all the third world countries socialism was taking root. The subcontinent too had its share of political awakening. The writers of those days had a dual responsibility. One was to get independence from the British Raj and secondly to write for the masses.”

However when Amjad Islam entered the era the first cause had already been addressed. The second remains to the present day.

“Ours is an anti-human society,” says Amjad, “and social change is a two-way traffic”. Amjad stands for a form of creativity whereby justice becomes accessible to the common man and the conscience of the ruling class is touched in such ways that change occurs. He feels that our society will only progress if the middle and lower class moves up on the ladder and takes charge of society. Thus his poetry varies from romance to serious issues of justice and social change.

“One very important thing that guided my poetry was the concept of time. That really haunted me. Exploring the idea what the world around us and the time we live in is very interesting. Iqbal calls time an eyewash and that there is no past, nor any future nor a present. The current moment is the only reality and I have worked a lot on this. Yet this is not very attractive for the common reader who indulges more in my romantic poetry. However I do have my share of readers who have appreciated my efforts,” says Amjad.

Over the years Amjad has enjoyed a steady readership, the majority of which are university and college students who enjoy and know his romantic poetry by heart. He is also among the few poets of Pakistan whose books are printed more than once in a year. Amongst his fans is a new class of expatriates who often invite him to mushairas abroad. Therefore media coverage has led to the public knowing more of the poet’s activities.