Majaz has been a favorite romantic poet for poetry lovers, critics and general public for his variance in topics and elegance in diction. To understand his bent of mind and circumstances of his life journey in Agra is paramount to grasp the inner soul of his literary outposts.
Asrarul Haq Majaz came to Agra with his family at the age of 18 years when his father Chaudhary Sirajul Haq was transferred as the assistant registrar here. They rented a house in Hing Mandi, which was adjacent to that of Fani Budauni having a gate in the upper floor to commute between them. Majaz was enrolled in Saint John’s College, a distinguished educational institution of the erstwhile capital of Muslim India. As his dad wanted him to be an engineer, physics and mathematics were his major subjects of study.
Agra has turned out to be a turning point in the existence of Majaz. His poetic journey began here. This city of Taj was a center of poets and academicians. Literature and cultural activities had due place at the time. Fani Budauni was his neighbor and Jazbi one of his colleagues. Ale Ahmad Suroor too was the student of the same college. The house of Maikash Akbarabadi was the center of poets. Hamid Hasan Qadri was the head of Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu and he was a staunch patron of poets. Obviously, the environment was conductive for a poet so he could not concentrate on the non-poetic subjects of Physics, Chemistry or Mathematics. By degrees, Majaz became a part of this literary ream. The name the plume of Jazbi was Malal during this period and Takhallus of Majaz was Shaheed. We can perceive from both these pen names that both Majaz and Jazbi were under influence of Fani Budauni.
When the father of Majaz was transferred to Aligarh, he had already appeared at the examination of the first year. He could not discontinue the study in the middle of the year so the entire family moved out of Agra to Aligarh leaving the poet of romance in the boarding house hoping that he would shift to Aligarh after passing the intermediate examination. Nevertheless, in this age of adolescence, a teenager of 18 years compensated his separation from his dear ones with the poet peers and the literary circles of Akbarabad. Now he was free from restrictions straying where the wind blew. Mushaira would be organized frequently in colleges during this period in which he also would participate with Jazbi, Fani and Ale Ahmad Suroor. Once, he got gold medal in the poetry symposium for the best ghazal, though Ale Ahmad Suroor, Jazbi and others also were attendants in the Mushaira. This ghazal of Majaz is included in his poetry collection ‘Aahang’, below which, its year of composition is written to be 1931. Some couplets of the ghazal read as under:
युंही बैठे रहो बस दर्दे दिल से बेखबर होकर
बनो क्यों चारागर, क्या करोगे चारागर होकर
यह किसके हस्न के रंगीन जलवे छाये जाते हैं
शफ़क़ की सुर्खियां बन कर, तजल्लीये सहर होकर
(Hamid Siddiqui)
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