Poet of myriad moods
By Ramesh Chandra

THE phrase "fuller minstrel" was contributed to the English language by the Victorian poet Lord Tennyson. Having composed mournful verses year after year in memory of his friend, Arthur Hallam, he realised that he should not invoke his muse to sing only sad songs but let her sing happy songs too.

As I went through two anthologies of ghazals and poems — Khushboo Ka Safar and Tashnalab — written by Dr Naresh, the recipient of this year’s Ghalib Award, Tennyson’s phrase flashed across my mind. Dr Naresh is a fuller minstrel in a wider sense than the phrase was intended to convey. His verse sings of sad as well as happy moods, nationalistic as well as humanistic aspirations, Hindu as well as Muslim culture, self-esteem and family ideals, and ancient as well as modern values.

A perusal of Dr Naresh’s work reveals a romantic streak in his poetry. The last couplet of the first ghazal in Khushboo Kaa Safar reads:

Woh jo khush thaa Naresh mele men
Ghar pahunchate hee ro diyaa hogaa

(That fellow who did in the fair

So gaily roam

Must have shed copious tears, Naresh,

When just back home.)

The romantic in Dr Naresh is at his lyrical, rhythmical best in this free verse titled Sadaa (The Call).

Baadalon ke jhurmut se
Kis ne dee sadaa mujh ko
Aur ufuq pai kaun ai dost
Meraa naam letaa hai?
Main harek rishte ko
Yaas kaa kafan de kar
Muddaten hueen jabki
Door jangalon men kaheen
Dafn kar chukaa hoon
Ab
Kis ne dee sadaa mujh ko?
Kis ne dee sadaa mujh ko?
(Who sent me a call from the gathering clouds?

Friend, who is calling me

From the Horizon’s verge?

Long ages have passed

Since I had buried

In far off wilds

I know not where

All kinships wrapped

In shrouds of deep despair.

Now

Who is it that called me?

O who is it that called me?)

We have Naresh’s own testimony to his cult of sadness in this couplet:

Ai Naresh aap jise tarze-e-bayaan kahte hain
Main use aap kaa andaaz-e-fughaan kahtaa hoon

(Naresh, what you say is your style

Of making melody,

That in my view is just your way

Of wailing mournfully.)

This sadness does not cloak the self-esteem of the man and the poet in Dr Naresh. A couplet from Khushboo Kaa Safar bears out the poet’s self-esteem.

Uthaaen kis liye ahsaan bijliyon kaa Naresh
Bas aaj ham ne nasheman ko phoonk phaank liyaa

(Why should to lightnings I beholden stay?

Naresh, my nest I burnt down just today.)

Dr Naresh comes across as a poet who is a votary of composite culture and humanistic ethos. The first quality is illustrated in this couplet from Khushboo Ka Safar:

Naresh lab pai rahe go Kabir ke dohe
Magar nigaah men dajlaa-o-kohetoor rahe

(Naresh, although you always sang

The verses of Kabir,

From Tigris banks and Sinai slopes

Your vision would not veer.)

The following stanzas from his poem Pakistani Doston Ke Naam (To Pakistani Friends) in Tashnalab proclaim the humanist in Dr Naresh:

Mubaarak aab-e-zamzam aab-e-kausar dosto lekin
Tumhen Ganga bare hee pyaar se aawaaz detee hai
Muqaddas sarzameen-e-Hind se roothe hue logo
Tumhen Jumna bare eesaar se aawaas detee hai

(May water of the holy Meccan well’

And Kausar bless you, friends, who disapprove

Of holy Hind. The Ganga calls you still,

And Jumna too, with all their fondest love.)

Magar kab tak nibhegee badgumaanee badzanee yaaro
Muhabbat ke binaa kaise kategee zindagee apnee
Abas hai shikvasanj-o-ta’nazan honaa zaraa dekho
Abhee minnatkashe-insaaniyat hai dosatee apnee

(How long will this suspicion, ill will last?

Our lives how shall we sans affection lead?

Well, taunting and complaining are no use,

Our friendship still does humanism need.)

Dr Naresh has not reconciled himself to the partition of India. Upholding cultural unity amidst diversity of political ideologies, ways of worship, social customs and linguistic domains, his verse repudiates the Partition.

A staunch upholder of family values, Dr Naresh sees them as part of India’s culture. In a moving poem composed on the occasion of his younger sister Ramana’s marriage, he impresses on her the age-old ideal relationship between wife and husband in these words:

Raaj gadee par bhee baithe to patee hee saath ho
Aur ho banvaas to haathon mein uskaa haath ho

(If a throne royal be your destiny,

Enjoy it in your husband’s company;

And if your stars make forests wild your home,

Then hand-in-hand with him live there and roam.)

The following couplet bears testimony to his modern outlook:

Voh daur-e-maaze guzar gayaa hai jahaan ke qadren badal gaee hain
Jadeed naqshe men tum bhee tabdeel ab voh kuhna nizaam kar lo

(The past is dead and gone, the world’s

Old values are no more the norm;

You too had better now provide

The order old with modern form.)

Dr Naresh emerges as a holistic poet who is an advocate of ancient values which form our heritage and modern values which bring us to the brave new world.