Tanvir A Siddiqui
Ahmedabad, June 16
Ahmedabad, June 16
Multiple genius is a rare thing that was quite common in the past. In the case of Adil Mansuri and Jayant Parmar, this happens to be the common thread that runs through their persona; both have a high standing as poets in the literary world, but at the same time they are accomplished artists in their own right, as well.
The similarities don't end there. Both have Gujarati as their mother tongue and have earned fame in Urdu, a language alien to their families. Adil Mansuri is dexterous at home with Gujarati and Urdu when it comes to writing poetry. He is also a calligrapher par excellence, be it line drawing or oil painting. Elsewhere, Jayant Parmar, a self-taught Urdu poet, has an enviable handwriting in that script. Besides, he is also adept at playing with colours and lines, which have a charm of their own.
Mansuri, also a playwright and a US citizen for decades, is currently on a visit to India. Incidentally, he belongs to Ahmedabad and had started his career from a local advertising agency before moving to New Jersey with his family.
Mansuri, also a playwright and a US citizen for decades, is currently on a visit to India. Incidentally, he belongs to Ahmedabad and had started his career from a local advertising agency before moving to New Jersey with his family.
It was a pleasant coincidence last weekend that he released the third collection of Jayant Parmar's poetry titled 'Maanind' in Vadodara under the aegis of the 'Anjuman-e-Ashiqaan-e-Sukhan,' run by poet and academic Shakeel Qadri, who also runs a Gujarati journal 'Shaheed-e- Ghazal.'
Mansuri has been recently conferred with the Vali Award of the Gujarat government, which carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and a citation. Jayant Parmar won accolades when he received the national award from the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, a body run by the HRD Ministry. He is the first Urdu writer chosen for this award in the category of those who write and excel in a language other than their mother tongue.
He has also been honoured with the Gaurav Puraskar for his contribution to Urdu poetry and the Vali Award for his contribution to Gujarati poetry. But his name has been struck off from the Gaurav Puraskar awardees bandwagon due to his radical views on the award money for the Guarav Puraskar and the vague official stand on the restoration of Vali's grave.
Adil Mansuri is of the opinion that the conferment of the Vali Award should not be restricted to Gujarati poets only as Vali was not a Gujarati poet but an Urdu poet and therefore, two awards should be announced every time: one for Gujarati poet and the other for Urdu poet simultaneously.
He says that appropriating the genius of Vali to Gujarati language is a half-truth. "He has to be mentioned as Vali Deccani-Gujarati and Urdu ghazal writers must be given their due," he says.
in the over-enthusiasm to find similarities among our two celebrated poets from gujarat, mr tanvir siddiqui failed to notice one glaring difference : being born as a muslim, aadil had natural advantage to learn urdu through his socio-religious milieu but being born as dalit, jayant was the real eklavya - learning and mastering the language all by himself. to the extent that he can write poetry worthy of national akademi's accolade.
ReplyDeletemr siddiqui should note, the 'multiple genious' were really rare in the past and are rare in the present too.
ahmedabad,