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SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Let sense prevail !
The year started on a rather confused note! On one hand, the latest election results brought about relief cum hope of better days overtaking the gloom around, but, then one cannot expect overnight changes. After all, not just human beings sit affected but entire institutions. See the manner in which the very running of institutions has got affected and dented. And surviving in the midst of a tense and taut atmosphere, one doesn’t have to quote any of the who’s who on the mounting levels of anxiety and apprehensions. These are dark days, where goon
brigades have been let loose,
unleashed in our midst. Mind you,
these goons manage to go about scot
free. Nah, the government’s police
machinery cannot arrest them;
apparently they do not have the
political sanction to do so. Today one
sees tainted men ruling and overruling,
even after being accused in
State conducted murders done
under the bogus set of alibis.
Quite obviously these ‘developments’
are un-nerving, nudging one
to query and cry out .But then even
that isn’t allowed! One could be
threatened to be hounded out ... Sit of the ordinary, when even the
likes of Naseeruddin Shahs and
Aamir Khans are not spared. After all,
not very long back, India’s
best known artist, MF Hussain, was
forced to actually shift base. From
Mumbai he went to Qatar! He was
left with little option, as goon
brigades targeted him and his
masterpieces. A tremendous personality
Hasan wrote extensively — on India’s Partition, the country’s historical turns, contemporary history, the various aspects to the social fabric of the Muslim community, the legendary historical personalities, The Nehru era, the Islamic traditions, Muslim intellectuals in 19th-century Delhi, the historical-cum-social settings of Avadh …In fact, whatever be the focus, whatever be the theme, his style remained unchanging; that tremendous flow to his writings, bringing along that crucial factor of connectivity. Those who have interacted with him would know that even his conversation was laced with subtle relays of facts and happenings and more along the strain. In fact, even before one had read his volume on Turkey’s legendary woman figure Halide Edip (1884-1964), one was aware of her! For, during an informal conversation, Hasan spoke about her extraordinary life and the times she’d lived in; narrating many of those aspects to this great reformist’s career and the challenges she’d faced. And again, not narrating all this in the form of some long-winding lecture but as part of a series of conversations. And though I hail from the Avadhi belt of Uttar Pradesh, I gathered those lesser known details to the historical turns in that belt only and only after reading his numerous volumes on that region. One of his volumes -The Avadhi Punch —Wit and Humour in Colonial North India (Niyogi Books)details some of the lesser known facts to those dark Raj days. To quote - "Such was the popularity of the Avadh Punch that, by the end of the 19th century, 70 Punch papers /magazines had appeared from more than a dozen cities across the nation. Each one of them reflected mainly on the British rule from the experiences of over 300-million Indians with a long and proud past, but who were subjugated by force of arms and by commercial and diplomatic duplicity. Equally lampooned were those who abandoned their own inherited cultural and intellectual legacies in preference of western models Wit and humour as pacifist tools of devastation constituted an apt response to the situation"… The strongest aspect to Mushirul
Hasan was his personality…The
years I was a Visiting Professor at the
JamiaMilliaIslamia I could see the
changes that he, as Vice Chancellor
of that university, had brought
about on the campus. He had
transformed the university into a
truly academic institution…opening
its long -closed gates for scholars,
researchers and academics from the
Indian and foreign universities.
There was life on the campus, with
seminars and discussions and
debates taking off. He’d changed
the very approach and pattern to
academic life…And for time to come
he would be remembered through
his works, his research findings and,
of course, through his books. Punch time !Last month, after a longish gap I felt I was actually attending a literary event! It was celebration time for the Punch magazine as it completed two years and its publisher –editor, Shireen Quadri, decided to host the celebration party at the freshly renovated Kwality restaurant in Connaught Place… Writers, publishers, critics, authors were present and thankfully there were no speeches or any of those elaborate lectures. A nice relaxed evening, where one could either talk or just about listen! In fact, each time I meet Shireen Quadri I simply marvel her courage to quit a secure career to start off this digital magazine exclusively for the arts and literature and music. She has her reasons - “In the last couple of years, the number of literature, arts, food, travel, dance, music, theatre and film festivals have mushroomed. From September to March, almost every weekend has some festival or event. But when it comes to the coverage of arts and literature in the mainstream media, there’s hardly anything raring to be different. There's no single platform that chronicles the global profusion in arts and literature, which serves as onestop destination for everything exciting about arts around the globe.” Quite obviously it couldn’t have been easy; not to be overlooked the fact that Shireen is in her early 30s, has a family to take care of, and the fact that she’s doing something so very refreshingly different! How tough and rough its been for her to start and sustain a magazine of this calibre and reach? “To work tirelessly without any money is not easy, especially when one doesn't belong to the city. I love challenges and I believe in hard work. But what has been really tough is the general attitude that only the mainstream media matters. The literature, arts and culture sectors should ideally nurture such platforms… I'm often asked: 'what is your business model? Have you started making money?' I understand that it's difficult to believe that at this stage of my career when I should essentially be focusing on making money, I am spending my limited savings, time and energy on a project that does not guarantee financial rewards. But it's also true that The Punch Magazine is not a business prospect. I would like people to see it as an altruistic arts and culture project.” I’m certain, her determination will take her further…After all, she has had the grit to move on in life. |
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Humra Quraishi
Mushirul Hasan