Despite being part of the same world, a poet tends to live in a world of his own. Ruled by subtle feelings and profound emotions, however, the idyllic realm of creative folk like most poets is not always the same world of fantasy that is earnestly interwoven by them day in and day out.
A poet like Dr. Syed Wasi Haider, relatively a lesser known name in the world of Urdu poetry, lived a life that many of us live away from our homes, mostly for professional obligations in quest of bread and butter. However, Dr. Haider stands out from the rest of the homesick souls merely feeling nostalgic or endlessly vying for the good old days spent at home. Dr. Haider, a committed doctor by profession and a restless versifier by passion, penned such awe-inspiring verses and poems that echo from the depths of self-isolation and reflect a heightened sense of profound solitariness that only a few bards can express with such mastery.
‘Taqazay’, a collection of poems, ghazals and couplets by Dr. Haider, is comparatively a short anthology of overall works created by the late doctor in his poetic journey. Recently published on the occasion of his 30th death anniversary, ‘Taqazay’ can frankly be referred to as a befitting tribute to a prolific poet who could not get any of his poetry published in his life due to his hectic routine as a health practitioner and because of the nomadic existence he pursued in the deserted regions of Africa as an expatriate Pakistani.
If the overarching theme of Faiz Ahmed Faiz revolves around oppression, writhing and tears, the common thread in Dr. Haider’s poetry is woven around the themes of homesickness, deeply embedded nostalgia and eternal estrangement as well as a throbbing agony of living the life of a second-class citizen away from home. Thus is along with resounding echoes of self-isolation. His metrical compositions are replete with the sound of solitude that engulfs the world that abounds with all its seclusion, scariness and alienation.
However, Dr. Haider embarks on a perpetual quest for eternal peace that is defined by the deafening noise made by both the ear-splitting laughter of the nearest and dearest as well as with vociferous sighs and sobs of our loved ones. In place of running after worldly fortune, he yearns for a seamless symmetry of body and soul as prescribed by divine forces and yearns for achieving the sought-after heavenly love, which is well beyond the licentious waywardness espoused by hedonistic beings or pleasure-seeking self-indulgent imagery which does not move out of personal orbit.
Despite a reclusive existence, the restless poet lurking behind Dr. Haider belongs to all, lives with those he is deeply connected with in spite of his physical absence and thus he is a member of every crowd and part of every social gathering that forms his world, characterized by an unending desire of reunion, conciliation, and convention.
Despite a short poetic anthology, ‘Taqazay’ by Dr. Syed Wasi Haider boasts of a wide scope of his creative inquisitiveness and lifelong intellectual reflections laced with a seamless stream of pent-up presentiments, which were beautifully translated into a flurry of poetical expressions. In a word, ‘Taqazay’ is an embodiment of poetical contemplatives, abounding his nostalgic nirvana induced from a strange environment together with absorbed sensitivities craving for a cathartic outlet.
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