Ghazal ka saaz uthhaao badi udaas hai raat
Posted on: January 4, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Connoisseurs of Urdu poetry may recall that sometime in early 90s, Doordarshan televised a TV serial KAHAKASHAN covering the lives of six of the doyens of Urdu poetry – Firaq Gorakhpuri, Hasrat Mohani, Jigar Moradabadi, Josh Malihabadi, Majaz Lacknawi and Makhdoom Mohiuddin. This TV serial was produced by another well known Urdu poet and writer, Ali Sardar Jafri, the contemporary of these galaxy of poets. The serial was directed by Jalal Agha. I had seen some of the episodes of this serial in the 90s but did not remembered much of the contents. A few months back, I came across the episodes of this TV serial on the internet. I have already watched the episodes covering Firaq Gorakhpuri and Majaz Lucknawi. The treatment in the serial is biographical in nature covering some of the important events in the lives of these poets interspersed with their own ghazals many of which were sung Jagjit Singh who also composed the music for the TV serial. Watching the episodes covering these two Urdu poets, to say the least, was a heart wrenching experience for me as the lives of these two poets were full of pains, misery, misfortunes and loneliness. My curiosity to learn more about these six Urdu poets grew after I had watched this T V serial.
My quest started with Firaq Gorakhpuri.
I first became familiar with the name Firaq Gorakhpuri in my younger days when I read the news of his receiving the Jnanpith Award in 1969. But it was at a much later stage that I came to know that his real name was Raghupati Sahay and he shared honours with other contemporary Urdu poets such as Josh Malihabadi, Hasrat Mohani and Majaz Lucknowi in giving a new direction to Urdu poetry.
Firaq Gorakhpuri (real name Raghupati Sahay) was born in Gorakhpur on August 28, 1896. His father Gorakh Prasad ‘Ibrat’ was a lawyer and a poet. After completing High School in Gorakhpur, he got married to Kishori Devi at the age of 18 – a marriage by deception as he termed it. After passing his B.A. examination from Allahabad University, he got an offer from British Government for the post of a Deputy Collector and before joining the post, he was selected for Indian Civil Service (ICS). However, he soon resigned from ICS to joined Mahatma Gandhi’s movement for India’s freedom struggle and was jailed for one year. After his father’s death, and he being involved with the freedom movements, his family went through very difficult times forcing him to sell his ancestral home in Gorakhpur to pay off the loans and to get his younger sister married. In 1930, he left politics and completed M.A. in English literature securing the first rank in Allahabad University. He joined Allahabad University as a lecturer in English and worked there until his retirement as a Reader in English in 1958.
It was during his stint in Allahabad University that he wrote Urdu ghazals, nazms and rubaits accounting for over 40000 couplets. It is said that he was influenced by English poets Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley and Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir. Over the last few months, I have read his select works mostly in ghazals and nazms. One can notice a difference in his ghazals which have more Hindi or even a few Sanskrit words than the Persian words. Another important deviation in his ghazals and nazms as compared with that of other Urdu poets was that he introduced the centuries old Indian traditions and culture in his writings. His poetry is rich with Hindu customs and traditions reflecting day to day life. He was a master of both the romantic and melancholic poetry. His romantic poetry had sensuousness which he kept within the ethical boundaries.
His entire life was full of personal tragedies. He got married to a girl who, according to him, was ugly, stupid, incompatible with his temperament and incapable of running the household. Because of this ‘marriage by deceit’, he suffered from insomnia. At the same time, he was not in favour of a divorce and getting married for the second time as he could not think of breaking the marriage bond. From his childhood days, he was very sensitive to beauty or lack of it – be in persons or in nature. It is said that his romantic poetry is the reflection of his craving for romanticism which he lacked in his personal life. He lost his father soon after passing his BA examination. So the entire responsibility of running the household, getting his younger sister married and repaying his father’s loans fell on him at an young age of 22. He lost his younger brother at a young age whom he loved very much. His son committed suicide at a very young age and lost a young daughter. With not much communication with his wife, he virtually remained a lonely man throughout his life. People close to him had said that but for his ugly and incompatible wife, the poetry lover would have missed his romantic and sensuous poetry. But all these events in his life did not make him cynical and his poetry is the testimony to it.
Firaq Gorakhpuri and Josh Malihabadi were not only contemporaries, they were good friends as well. But one minor incidence over a discussion following their participation in a mushaira resulted in both of them vowing not to talk to each other for life. In fact, Firaq Gorakhpuri’s first rubai was an outcome of this incidence. But this did not dilute the respect they had for each other. He dedicated his book of rubais ‘Roop’ to Josh Malihabadi. Many years later when Josh Malihabadi wrote his autobiography ‘Yaadon Ki Baarat’ he mentioned that after Mir Taqi Mir and Mirza Ghalib, Firaq Gorakhpuri was the greatest Urdu poet of India.
Firaq Gorakhpuri spent his retired life virtually in loneliness. He faced financial difficulties due to medical expenses for his prolonged illness. In the later years, he was completely crippled requiring a wheel chair to move around even in his house. The Central Government sanctioned him a financial aid of Rs.2000/- per month. When his medical conditions worsened, he was shifted to a hospital in Delhi where he passed away on March 3, 1982. He was cremated with state honours. A few days before his death, he had received the news of the death of Josh Malihabadi in a hospital on February 22, 1982.
I have chosen for discussion one of Firaq Gorakhpuri’s ghazals ‘ghazal of saaz uthaao badi udaas hai raat’ (1990) which was sung by Jagjit Singh in a TV serial KAHAKASHAN. This ghazal is the reflection of poet’s loneliness. The ghazal is very poignant especially when one relates with Firaq Gorakhpuri prolonged illness when he spent most of the time in loneliness without having with him his near and dear ones except some hospital staff and his admirers. This ghazal had 11 couplets of which only 4 have been incorporated in this song. After listening to this ghazal, I get a feeling that in his loneliness, his ghazals stood by him and at a fag end of his life, he wished that he remains in the company of his ghazals for some more time.
Jagjit Singh who composed the music sang in a way to enhance the poignancy implicit in this ghazal.
The audio CDs of all the ghazals of ‘Kahakashan’ were issued under the label of Saregama in the early 90s.
Note : While covering the profile of Firaq Gorakhpuri in this article, I have relied mostly on the information culled out from the TV serial episodes on Firaq Gorakhpuri and K C Kanda’s book ‘Firaq Gorakhpuri – Select Poetry’ (2000).
Audio
Video link of TV Serial ‘Kahakashan’
Song-Ghazal kaa saaz uthaao badi udaas hai raat (Jagjit Singh NFS)(1990) Singer-Jagjit Singh, Lyrics-Firaq Gorakhpuri, MD-Jagjit Singh
Lyrics
ghazal kaa saaz uthaao badi udaas hai raat
ghazal kaa saaz uthaao badi udaas hai raat
navaa-e-neer sunaao badi udaas hai raat
ghazal kaa saaz uthaao badi udaas hai raat
kahen na tumse to phir aur kis se jaake kahen
kahen na tumse to phir aur kis se jaake kahen
siyaah zulf ke saayon badi udaas hai raat
ghazal kaa saaz uthaao badi udaas hai raat
sunaa hai pehle bhi aise mein bujh gaye hain charaag
sunaa hai pehle bhi aise mein bujh gaye hain charaag
dilon ki khair manaao badi udaas hai raat
ghazal kaa saaz uthaao badi udaas hai raat
diye raho yoon hi kuchh der aur haath mein haath
diye raho yuun hi kuchh der aur haath mein haath
abhi na pass se jaao badi udaas hai raat
ghazal kaa saaz uthaao badi udaas hai raat
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
January 4, 2013 at 5:36 pm
Sadanandji
Thank you very very very…… much for this excellent post.
I feel like I have to write THANKS again and again
Prakash
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