Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages (JKAACL) Thursday remembered prominent poet, writer and broadcaster, Mir Ghulam Rasool Nazki on his 22nd death anniversary. The Academy invited artists and literati online for hailing Naki’s contribution in literary sphere.
Secretary, Muneer-Ul-Islam said that Nazki ruled a literaryera in Kashmir and his literary services can never be forgotten.
“Amid these healthcare crisis, when all of us are homebound.We at Academy thought of remembering our legends through online mediums,” hesaid. “I am highly thankful to the artists and writers fraternity who are justa call away on these times to contribute their part.”
“Academy used to organize special tributary functions on theoccasion but owing to lockdown, we couldn’t organise, as such we thought itwill be a humble tribute from our side to the great literary personal,” theSecretary said.
He said social media was a biggest platform to connectpeople in this crisis. On the occasion, several prominent singers, includingMunir Ahmad Mir and Waheed Jeelani among others paid musical tributes byrecording some famous Ghazals, written by Nazki.
Besides several other artists, academicians joined theon-line group to pay floral tributes to the prominent artist. Noted poets andwriters, including Ghulam Nabi Aatish, Aziz Hajini, broadcaster, Rashid Nizami,Mishal Sultanpuri, Editor, JKAACL, Ashraf Tak also paid their tributes online.
The Ghazals were shared on the official page and handles ofthe Academy. Nazki was a prominent scholar, poet, writer, intellectual andbroadcaster. He was born on 16 March 1910 in a family known for scholarship andspiritualism.
Nazki received his early education from his father MirGhulam Mustafa and completed the traditional courses in Persian, Arabic andreligious texts at a very early age. He was admitted to a school at Bandiporewhere from he completed his middle standard and then moved to Srinagar where hewas enrolled in Islamia School for matriculation.
Upon completion of matriculation, he got a job as a languageteacher at a tender age of 16 years. His first posting as a teacher at primaryschool Wadipora (Kupwara district) opened up the world of Urdu literature forNazki. It was here that he came across few classical books particularly”Aab-e-Hayat” of Molana Muhammad Hussain.
He began composing Urdu verse and his compositions foundtheir way into prestigious literary magazines of the time notably “Kaleem”edited by Josh Malihabadi and “Adb-e-Lateef”.
Nazki’s poem ‘ekand hilad kiki dua’ introduced him as a poetfull of promise. Nazki continued to grow in stature and found a patron in theperson of Khawaja Ghulam Sayidain, the famous educationist who came to Kashmiras the head of education department.
After serving at different schools, Nazki was inducted intothe personal staff of Khawaja Sayidain and assigned the editorship of educationdepartment’s journal, the “Taleem-e-Jadeed”.
Nazki improved his academic qualifications and did hisgraduation in due course of time. He joined Radio Kashmir in 1948 and had theprivilege of making the maiden announcement from Srinagar station. Nazki retiredfrom All India Radio in 1966.
Nazki published his first volume of Urdu poetry ‘Deedai Tar’in 1948 and thereafter came out with ‘chirageraah’ and ‘mataifaqeer’.
He also penned a commentary on Gani Kashmiri’s verses and amonograph on Nadim. He wrote extensively on subjects like tassawuf, aestheticsand naat. Nazki moved towards writing Kashmiri poetry in later part of hisliterary career.
He is very well known for resuscitating the four-line genrein Kashmiri poetry, a tradition that had begun with Lal Ded and Sheikh-ul-Alam.
Nazki’s Rubai is a four line wonder and gets easily etchedon memory. Nazki deals effectively with all subjects that matter to him in hisRubai, the spiritual, moral, ethical, aesthetic and satirical, nothing escapeshis masterly treatment.
He published three volumes of Kashmiri poetry, ‘Nimrudnama’,Awaze Dost’ and ‘Kaweyenewol’. Hiskuliyat of Kashmiri poetry has been publishedrecently. Nazki has been described as the ‘Jamiulkamalat’ the multidimensionalachiever. Nazki breathed his last 16 April 1998 at Srinagar and is buriedoutside Kathi Darwaza. He composed his own epitaph which adorns his grave.