Dareechah-e-Nigaarish



Ahmed Shamim (1927 - 1982) was born in Sri Nagar (capital of Indian Occupied Kashmir) in a neighborhood called Gosha Haft Chanaar, to middle class parents Khawaja Asadullah Zargar and Zainab Zargar. His mother's family had all been killed in a devastating earthquake (except for a 3-year old brother,  Ahmed Shamim's maternal uncle) some years before Ahmed's birth. His mother had never truly recovered from this tragedy and had devoted her life to her three children, Ahmed being the middle child. 

Ahmed Shamim was always an "A" student and matriculated from Islamia High School, Sri Nagar in 1944. He joined Sri Partab College, Sri Nagar and was an active participant in the Kashmir Liberation Movement which became stronger after the creation of Pakistan in 1947. In 1948, a United Nations delegation came to Occupied Kashmir to assess the strength of the demand for liberation of Kashmir from India and also visited Sri Partab College. Ahmed Shamim was part of the demonstration organized by the students of Sri Partab College to voice the Muslims demand for liberation of Kashmir. After the delegation had left, the Indian police, Indian army and goons hired by the Muslim Conference (a pro-Indian establishment political party) surrounded the college. Ahmed Shamim and other student demonstrators were beaten up viciously and taken in army jeeps to the lock up at Kotthee Bagh where he met other Muslim professors from the college who were similarly treated and imprisoned. Ahmed Shamim's clothes were torn and his whole body was covered in blood. As he fell down in the dark prison cell, a  college professor took Ahmed's  head in his lap and said,

"My son, our Prophet has suffered more than this!" 

Ahmed Shamim had become a thorn in the eyes of the Indian authorities as a committed yet peaceful freedom fighter and the Indian police started harassing him constantly.  He and some of his friends decided to leave Sri Nagar and move to neighboring Pakistan, especially to the Liberated Kashmir region protected by the Pakistan government and to continue their political struggle from there. This was to be one of two momentous decisions in his life (the other being his marriage later in life).  Ahmed Shamim loved his family and especially his mother dearly. He writes in one of his essays "Asaasay (My Belongings)":

 

 

He migrated to Rawalpindi in 1948 and started working as a broadcaster for Liberated Kashmir Radio from the resort town of Murree in Pakistan. At that time he was living in a cheap hotel (Hotel Qaiser) at the back of Gordon College, Rawalpindi.  In 1950 he moved in as a paying guest to a kind old lady (referred to by everyone as Maan Jee or "Mother") on Jamia Masjid Road, Rawalpindi.  Maan Jee taught Quran reading to girls in the neighborhood.  In 1955, while living in Maan Jee's household, he noticed a young teenaged girl (Muneera) among the students of Maan Jee whose quiet demeanor and unassuming ways impressed him immediately.  However, he did not approach Muneera in any way for fear that Maan Jee would stop her from coming to the house for lessons if she ever found out. He kept his emotions to himself.

During the early 1950's, Ahmed Shamim joined the Progressive Writers' Movement, an avant-garde literary movement among Urdu writers and poets which was the target of brutal repression by the Pakistani establishment during the 1950's and 1960's.  Rawalpindi's Coffee House was the literary hub of the city and Ahmed Shamim became close friends with other progressive writers and poets viz. Aftab Iqbal Shamim, Jameel Malik, Ahmed Zafar, Shafqat Tanveer Mirza and had the good fortune to interact with such writers as Munnoo Bhai, Yusuf Zafar, Mukhtar Siddiqui, Baqi Siddiqui, Ata Husain Kaleem, Izhar Kazmi, Saleem Rafiqui and Taoos Baanehaali.

 

Sometime in the early 1950's, Ahmed Shamim met the Kashmiri religious leader, Meer Vaiz Yusuf Shah. At that time Ahmed Shamim was a columnist for the weekly "Kashmir" published from Muzaffarabad (the capital of Liberated Kashmir on the Pakistani side of the border) as well as for the daily "Taameer" from Rawalpindi.  The Meer Vaiz used his influence to get Ahmed Shamim a job in the Liberated Kashmir government's Department of Information as an Assistant Information Officer.  As the years passed, he was promoted  eventually (1975) to the post of Director of this department. During these later years, he spent his time between Muzaffarabad and Rawalpindi.

Ahmed Shamim completed his Intermediate degree in Arts (with English Literature as a major) in 1956 and graduated with a B.A. degree in 1958 from the University of the Punjab. He enrolled for M.A. Urdu classes in Gordon College in 1960 but was disheartened by the non-scholarly and anti-literary mood pervading the Urdu department  and abandoned his studies.

 In 1961,  six years after he had first set eyes on her in Maan Jee's house, Ahmed Shamim was lucky enough to meet the girl of his dreams, Muneera, by chance in Rawalpindi.  They immediately hit it off and so began an innocent romance that had been long nurtured deep within the soul of Ahmed Shamim. There was no one from Ahmed's family in Pakistan and there was opposition from Muneera's household to the match.  In 1963, Ahmed got news from Sri Nagar that his mother had passed away. He phoned Muneera and said, "Come meet me tomorrow ... don't put it off!" She met him the next day and he showed her the letter from Sri Nagar and started crying openly. Muneera wept with him and tried to console him. He said, "I don't know why, but it feels like even you will not be able to ease this pain!  My mother is free of all woes now but has left me enchained in sorrow!"  He loved his mother with all his heart and her loss became an abiding sorrow in his life.  Muneera and Ahmed Shamim's love for each other prevailed against all odds and Ahmed Shamim married Muneera in 1964.

 

  

Mrs. Muneera Ahmed Shamim has published all the love letters her husband wrote to her as a collection entitled "Hawa Nama Bar Ho" (If the wind were my messenger) which is the first line of yet another famous Ahmed Shamim poem ("Safar Kee Khaahish" or Wishing for a Journey) set to music by Amjad Bobby and sung by Nayyara Noor.  Mrs. Muneera Ahmed Shamim describes the first meeting she had with Ahmed Shamim:

In one of his letters to his wife-to-be, Ahmed Shamim explains his immense love for his mother and what torment it was to leave her in Sri Nagar and migrate to Pakistan for the cause of Kashmir:

     Ahmed Shamim was never able to visit his mother in Indian Occupied Kashmir. Ahmed Shamim is said to have composed the poem "Rait per safar kaa lamhaa" (A moment of journeying through sand) whose opening line is "Kabhi Hum Khoobsoorat thay" ("We were adored once") in memory of his mother. This free verse poem became his crowning achievement and a symbol of his poetic identity.

 

In another one of his long letters written to his wife Muneera, Ahmed Shamim describes his father :

 

      Ahmed Shamim had risked everything in his life to struggle for the liberation of Kashmir from Indian occupation. In his mind, this was only possible if Pakistan remained a strong country.  When Pakistan faced a civil war and the eastern half of the country became an independent country (Bangladesh) in 1971, Ahmed Shamim took this news as a major set back to his life's goal and suffered his first heart attack.

       After becoming Director, Department of Information in the government of Liberated Kashmir, Ahmed Shamim faced many challenges. He was an honest and upright idealist who had risked everything in his life for the cause of liberating Kashmir.  During the era of President Ziaul Haq's rule, Zia visited Liberated Kashmir and the expenses incurred by the Department of Information for this trip were to be reimbursed by the government of Pakistan. However, a corrupt government official in Islamabad asked for a kick back of Rs. 10,000 if Ahmed Shamim's department wanted the funds released without any hassles. Ahmed Shamim refused to pay the bribe, the funds were eventually released with much difficulty but the Islamabad official initiated a governmental inquiry on trumped up charges of corruption against Ahmed Shamim.  The Brigadier in-charge of the government inquiry became convinced of Ahmed's flawless character and absolved him of all charges. However, the corrupt official in Islamabad kept up his intrigues and got Ahmed demoted to Assistant Director. This was the time that Ahmed Shamim suffered his second heart attack. Ahmed appealed to the High Court, won his case and was re-instated as Director. However, the endless bickering with high ups in the Pakistani establishment began to take its toll on Ahmed's health. He had to travel incessantly between Muzaffarabad and Rawalpindi and he eventually suffered his third and final heart attack and breathed his last on 7th August, 1982. His last words to his wife were "Muneera, I can't see your face!"  Pakistan lost a great poet, a brave activist working for Kashmir's liberation and a warm and honest human being that day.

    None of Ahmed Shamim's creations (poems, ghazals, long poems, short stories) had been published in his lifetime ... a sad reminder of the neglect and apathy our society directs towards our foremost poets and writers !!  Ahmed Shamim's widow struggled on with her life and the responsibilities of raising four children (Aksee, Sameera, Faayeza, Adeela).  She succeeded in this endeavour (Aksee is now a foriegn qualified medical doctor and all three daughters are happily married) and also kept  the memory of Ahmed Shamim alive by systematically and painstakingly publishing all of the writings left behind by this great poet.  Muneera Ahmed Shamim deserves our highest praise and the warm and loving support of Urdu poetry lovers all over Pakistan and around the world, wherever Pakistanis dwell.  The list of Ahmed Shamim books published by Muneera Ahmed Shamim include:

1.   Rait per Safar Kaa Lamhaa  (short Urdu poems of Ahmed Shamim),  Aksee Publishers, Rawalpindi.

 

2.  Ajnabi Mausam Mein Abaabeel  (long Urdu poems of Ahmed Shamim), Aksee Publishers, Rawalpindi.

 

3.  Hawa Naama Bar Ho  (Ahmed Shamim's personal letters to his wife Muneera), Aksee Publishers, Rawalpindi.

 

4.  Ahmed Shamim: Shakhseeyat aur Fun (Essays and Critical Reviews about Ahmed Shamim's poetry), Aksee Publishers, Rawalpindi.

 

5.  Kulliyaat e Ahmed Shamim   published in June, 2013 by  Sang e Meel Publishers, Lahore. This collection, painstakingly collected by Mrs. Munira Shamim and compiled diligently by Sang e Meel Publications comprises all of Ahmed Shamim's poems, long poems, ghazals and even his Kashmiri language poetry.

 



 

       Dareechah has come across a Facebook Group entitled "Ahmed Shamim"  dedicated to the memory of this great poet which has been set up by Ahmed Shamim's grand daughter, Maryam Abbas.

 





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