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Ali Sardar Jafri (My Sardar – Sultana Jafri)

Ali Sardar Jafri

(Ali Sardar Jafri is considered one of the most distinguished poets, critics and prose writers of Urdu language, who had won a number of accolades including Gyanpith Award. Here we present the English version of the impressions penned by her wife Sultan Jafri for a magazine after he left for heavenly abode)

I met (Ali) Sardar Jafri in 1938 CE in Lucknow University where we were the members of the Students Federation. The ideology of both was the same. We both were the active participants in the activities of the Communist Party. All India Conference of All India Students Federation had been organized in Delhi in 1939 CE wherein I met with Subhash Chandra Bose and Asif Ali. When they saw a Muslim girl so active they were highly impressed expressing their delight. One photograph of this very occasion had been taken in Qaisar Bagh, which is still preserved, in which I and Sardar are walking together.

I was postgraduate student in Lucknow University and these activities also were going on. I passed MA in Politics and returned home. Thereafter, I wanted to conduct research works on the mills woman laborers, for which my parents did not accord the permission. I resolved to do a job and (Ali) Sardar (Jafri) was arrested in 1944 CE for the activities of the party and I got the appointment as the Program Assistant in All India Radio Lahore, so I moved to Lahore. Then, I neither met Sardar nor was there any correspondence between us. He had come to Mumbai after release from jail. By chance, I was transferred to Bombay where I met with Sardar again and then there was no distance between us. We were so engrossed in the works of the Communist Party that mostly we would forget even ourselves. I had joined Bombay City Social Education Committee, which was active for adult education at that time and it does it still now. The patron of this organization was Kulsum Syani. I would teach Urdu to the class of women in Muslim dominated areas such as Madanpura, Nagpara, Bandra and others. One room in a Chal was designated for this class where all women gathered afternoon and learnt how to read and write Urdu. I went to all those places where Muslim populated for these classes and I continued for ten years in this organization. This task was undertaken under the management of the party and I did my job as well. We were living in the commune of the party situated in Andheri. This was that very commune where war prisoners were kept at a time. Anyway, we lived there and traveled by train to the party office (Raj Bhawan) in Bombay. (Ali) Sardar (Jafri) was composing revolutionary poetry. So far I think he was a poet less and revolutionary more. As we had many values common, we were closer to each other. This very intimacy resulted in marriage in January 1948 CE. Until then Sardar Jafri had not gained a big name.

When Bunney Bhai migrated to Pakistan, we shifted to his house at Walkeshwar Road. No changes occurred in our life or routines after tying the knot. The life was blissful.  We did party works in the day and in the night we converse in this very house at Walkeshwar where a number of comrades were residing. The meal of all was cooked together, for which every comrade had to pay two rupees every day.

(Ali) Sadar (Jafri) was a fantastic man, broad minded. He never prevented me from going to any place. He never said ‘No’ to me, though he did not have any means of permanent income. However, he never pressurized me to get employed earning money. I lived a blissful life with so blessings that I cannot imagine a better life. To this house where we are and from where Sardar left for his eternal abode, we had come in 1961 CE to live. At the start, we lived on rent but we bought it in 1968 in fifty thousand rupees. We lived the life very peacefully and happily for more than half a century. He was so good that no differences occurred between me and his on any matter, as ideological differences were already missing and as far as minor disharmony on daily chorus is concerned, even if it occurred, it would get resolved soon. When any dispute came to the fore, I kept silent, but Sardar knew how to make persuading talks so he would convince me by this art of his.

(Ali) Sardar (Jafri) loved his children dearly. He liked his sons much particularly Nazim. When Nazim was born he was in jail (Nasik). When he got the news of the birth of his son, he was restless and composed the poem titled ‘Neend’ (Sleep). You can guess yourself reading this poem how much delighted he was getting the news of the birth of his son in jail and how the compulsion of not being able to meet him might have pained him. These stanzas of the poem express these very pain and restlessness.

The night is fair,

Why I am unable to sleep

Daily the sleep betrays my eyes in the night.

It leaves jail alone deserting me.

It knocks at the door of my home in the hamlet of Bombay melting honey of sweet dreams in the childhood of infant, singing a lullaby as a fairy moving the cradle.

Night is fair

Why I am unable to sleep

(Ali) Sardar Jafri would write only in the night. When all the family members slept, Sardar would sit to write in the room inside where all of his books are kept. He wound ponder over the whole night, read a little and would take cigarette lavishly. When I woke up sometimes in the night, I would say to him, Sardar, why do you take cigarette so much, but he did not dislike it. He would say only that I cannot write unless I take cigarette. It was necessary that there must not be any person in the room when he writes. When his sisters came here, he would sit in the outer room in place of this one. He would like nobody should be around when he writes. Nothing should move. Here sitting in this very room, he composed many of masterpieces of his poems. Personally, I like much his poems ‘Barhana Faqeer’, ‘Aabla Pa’, ‘Mera Safar’, ‘Neend’, ‘Karbala’, ‘November’ and ‘Mera Gahwara’. He has mentioned me also in ‘Mera Safar’ “Har Ashiq Hai Sardar Yahan, Har Mashooqa Sultana Hai.” I would frequently say about the mention that it is not reference to me. However, there are many Sultanas, who are the beloved of (Ali) Sardar (Jafri), on which he would smile. (Translated from Urdu by Hamid Siddiqui)

Sultan Shamsi: A Poet

I Am Mohammad Khalid Nadeem Budauni

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