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This Shair continues to thrive

As "Shair" completes platinum jubilee, R.V. SMITH traces its inception and expansion

Shair, the journal of poetry started by Allama Simab Akbarabadi in 1930, has completed 75 years of distinguished service to Urdu literature. Now published from Mumbai by the grandsons, Nazir and Iftekhar Imam Siddiqui, its achievements have been lauded by Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu(Hind), New Delhi. The Anjuman has brought out a special colour issue to mark the platinum jubilee of Shair for the benefit of readers in the Capital and elsewhere.

Ashiq Hussain Siddiqui, who adopted the pseudonym Simab (meaning the planet Mercury), was the son of Sheikh Mohammad Hussain Siddiqui. He was born in 1880 (some say 1882) at Agra and died at Karachi in 1951 with the exclamation, "Karachi ki hawa ne mar dala". While his elder son, Manzar Siddiqui also went away to Pakistan, the younger one, Aiyaz Siddiqui, decided to make Mumbai his home, from where he continued to publish Shair till his death in 1978. Now the latter's sons are carrying on the tradition with uninterrupted publication of the risala, which may be something of a record for an Urdu magazine, says Khaliq Anjum, Chief of Anjuman-e-Tarraqi-e-Urdu, Delhi. .

A lyceum

Father, who knew Simab, and often visited his house in Nai-ki-Mandi, where he had his study on the first floor, remarked a few years after the poet's death: "His residence was the nesishtgah (lyceum) of poets and scholars and the rendezvous in the 1930s of many a young man like myself. It contained a vast library of books and manuscripts. The only other place of this kind in town was the dewan khana of Maikash Akbarabadi at Mewa Katra, in Seb-ka-Bazar. That was the place where I met Aijaz Siddiqi on his last visit to his home town."

Simab's family had come to Delhi in the 17the Century during the reign of Aurangzeb and then decided to settle down in Agra. Simab was a born poet and, like Alexander Pope, could say, "I lisped in numbers for the numbers came". He studied Arabic and Persian, besides Urdu, and it is said that at examinations "he wrote his answers in verse, which no doubt amazed his examiners". Although he started life in the Railways, he soon gave it up as "a bad job" and took to serving the Muse under the guidance in Delhi of Nawab Mirza Dah Dehlvi (1831-1905). He launched many literary journals, among which was the fortnightly Shair (now a monthly), whose popularity has kept alive the memory of both the poet and his mentor.

Simab left behind three diwans (volumes) of poetry and a voluminous prose work. He also translated the Quran and Rumi's "Masnavi". In his "Saz Ahang", he wrote on social and political subjects. His works were more popular in Delhi and other cities than in his native place.

Thomas Smith described him thus: "He was short-statured, wore a sherwani, loose pyjamas, fez cap and spectacles and walked with a stick in hand; his face was roundish and his eyes were bright and penetrating...I found him genial and polite, but in a section of society he was thought to be conceited and pedagogic, though it was generally conceded that he was a man of letters to the core, in the same mould as Dagh, Iqbal, Fani, Josh, Hasrat and Jafar Ali Khan."

Renewed interest

Ustad Simab's birth centenary was observed 25 years ago in Delhi and abroad but his grand collection of books found their way to the kabari market during the mayhem of Partition.

Now, however, there is renewed interest in the poet and the special edition of Hamari Zaban from Urdu Ghar, Delhi, which focuses on him and his Shair, is in great demand, reminding of one of Simab's words: "Kahani meri rudad-i-jahan malum hoti hai / Jo sunta hai usiki dastan malum hoti hai". Surely, whoever reads his work is amazed by the legend of Allama Simab Akbarabadi (Ata hai yad mujhko guzra hua zamana). One does remember times passed, and Shair is proof of that.

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