People around the world remembered the most celebrated poet Sahir Ludhianvi on his 100th birth anniversary on 8 March. Sahir was such a lovely personality that even V.K. Krishna Menon, who was described by some as the second most powerful man after the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, had donned his lawyer’s robe after many years to defend the iconic poet in a court litigation.
Sadly, his own city Ludhiana has failed him. Only one event at his alma mater, SCD Government College, was organized. A musical concert was held in his memory at Sahir Auditorium in collaboration with the Voice of Asians. The concert began with his nazam “Mein pal do pal ka shayar hoon”.
Principal Dr Dharam Singh Sandhu talked about Sahir’s life and motivated students to learn resilience and humility from him. Unfortunately, there is not a single memorial in the memory of Sahir, who was born as Abdul Hayee, in Ludhiana even though the renowned poet had embraced the name of the city as his identity.
To remember the legendary poet, programmes were organised abroad, including Pakistan. Lahore Arts Council and the Karachi Arts Council organised a two-day online event from 7 March.
The University of the Frazer Valley, Canada, celebrated the occasion online for three days from 7 March. The Ghalib Academy, Anjuman Taraqi Urdu Hind, Delhi University and a few other organisations in Delhi and various places in India also organized events in Sahir’s memory.
In Moscow, Hindustanti Samaj in association with Indian Embassy organized a lovely online event—Ek Sham Sahir Ludhianvi Ke Naam. Speaking in this programme, Sharad Dutt, former Deputy Director General, Doordarshan, from Delhi, said, “Sahir was the most misunderstood personality. He was a gem of a person.”
Talking to The Sunday Guardian, Sharad, who is writing a biography of Sahir Ludhianvi, said, “He was my personal friend. Many people say that he was an arrogant man. But he had a golden heart, very soft and lovable. That is why, he could pen so touching songs for Bollywood. He wrote all kinds of songs, ghazals, nazams, quwallis and even bhajans.”
To understand Sahir, Sharad said, one had to see his family background and his insecure childhood. “Sahir’s father was a rich zamindar. Sahir was born from his 11th wife. His father was tough on him and used to torture Sahir’s mother. Sahir’s father had married for the 12th time some years after his birth. Sahir’s mother had taken a divorce from her husband and in the court Sahir had said that he wanted to be with his mother and not with his father whom he hated.”
“Sahir loved his mother immensely. Sahir never married, though he had four roaring affairs, two with Sikh women and two with Hindu women,” Sharad revealed.
Sharad also revealed that Sahir wrote his first famous nazam, Taj Mahal, at the age of 19, without seeing the monument of love. The nazam was later sung by Mohd. Rafi in Ghazal (1964). The film had all the songs by Sahir but he had not given Taj Mahal nazam for this movie. So, Sahir had filed a case against the film’s producer and music director Madan Mohan for not taking his permission to use his Taj Mahal nazam and the producer had not paid him for this nazam. The film producer had taken the plea that this nazam was printed in a magazine and due credit was given to him in the film. As Sahir’s counsel, Krishna Menon donned his lawyer’s robe after many years. On the first hearing itself, the judge delivered the judgment in Sahir’s favour.
Dr Kewal Dheer, a writer and founder of Adeeb International, was the keynote speaker in the programmes organised by the University of the Frazer Valley, Canada, and the Lahore Arts Council and the Karachi Arts. He told this paper that the saddest part is that there is not even a single site in Ludhiana dedicated to the great son of the soil. According to Dheer, there was a plan to construct Sahir Cultural Centre and the foundation stone of the same was also laid, but sadly it was scrapped and later it was planned to construct residential flats-cum-shops.
Dheer said that Rs 65 lakh was released in 1995 by the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh for the construction of the centre, but unfortunately he was assassinated the same year and the idea of the cultural centre was sacrificed. In 1998, the funds lying in the bank in the name of the Sahir Cultural Society were returned to the government as unutilised.
Dr R. Vatsayayan, an ayurvedacharya who has also studied at SCD Government College, said only his alma mater had acknowledged Sahir and named an auditorium and a botanical garden after him. The road from Fountain Chowk to Rose Garden was named as Sahir Ludhianvi Marg and a foundation stone was also laid, but sadly after a week, the board was uprooted and even the foundation stone is nowhere to be seen.
Vatsyayan has an autograph of Sahir and is taking care of it for the past 50 years. Sahir took the name of Ludhiana along with him wherever he went, but the city has forgotten its hero, says Vatsyayan.
*********************
First voter gets vaccine jab
Shyam Saran Negi (104), who has the honour of being the first voter of independent India, took Covid vaccine at Kalpa’s primary health centre in Knnaur district in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday. Negi, who has voted in every Lok Sabha and Assembly elections since 1947, told The Sunday Guardian that he did not feel any discomfort while getting the vaccine and “everyone should take it for protection”.
Man Mohan can be contacted at rovingeditor@gmail.com