In ancient and medieval India, an individual’s life from birth to death was divided into four stages or periods: Brahamcharya [student], Grehastha [householder], Vanaprastha [retired] and Synnyasa [renunciation], though there was no social code or norm to enforce such a strict division. Irshad Taunsvi, a leading Seraiki poet, fiction writer and intellectual of depth, seems to believe in such a division though he has got the last two merged. Though retired from the government service, he lives an active life in a detached manner surrounded by friendly birds in an open out-house called ‘Ashram’ he built on his land near Taunsa, a far flung but reputed town of Dera Ghazi Khan district. He has published a number of books which have won him accolades from both readers and critics. He seems to have found a mantra to defy the ineluctable signs of aging. He is a poet who is firmly rooted in the tradition yet modern which is something uncommon.

Irshad Taunsvi’s latest book ‘Ishq Asada Deen’ [Love is our way], published by Sujak Publications and Adbi Sangat, Dera Ghazi Khan, coming out of nowhere, establishes him as a creative prose writer who has something serious to express on our complex multidimensional collective life. The book contains short articles, at times snippets in fact, which intellectually provoke you as much as they sooth you. The array of his topics is quite impressive; poetry, fiction, mysticism, religion, philosophy, history, literary criticism, people and places. Certain features of his writings stand out.

We find in his explorations rational thinking underpinned by insights born of experiences, reason blended with intuition and a sense of history enlivened by dynamics of contemporaneity.

His is syncretic view of life shaped by disparate strands of thoughts that are products of our long socio-cultural trajectory which make us to pause and ponder in our current societal situation where stress on uniformity and forced homogeneity borders on intellectual madness.

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Another significant aspect of his writings, which are like reflections, is defined by his holistic attitude which enables him steer clear of political expediency, cultural bigotry and intellectual narrow mindedness that opportunistically negates literary and spiritual heritage which is historically shared by diverse regions of the Punjab. He proudly retains his Seraiki identity but feels enriched by Punjab’s historical assets. Irshad does not disown what can legitimately be owned and is not afraid of appropriating what has been bequeathed by the earlier generations in terms of rich socio-cultural traditions. Punjab belongs to him as much as to anyone living in it elsewhere. He loves Khawaja Farid but loves Baba Farid, Guru Nanak, Shah Hussain, Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah no less as all these greats of our land symbolize universal humanist vision and sufferings and dreams of our oppressed people.

Our huge literary and cultural repertoire is neither a product of what is presently called Punjabi nor what has been declared Seraiki. Our classical writings employed synthetic linguistic idiom leaning towards ‘Lendhi’ and erstwhile ‘Multani’. Differentiation between the current Punjabi and current Seraiki is of recent origin. Due to excesses of power politics and uneven development, our common heritage instead of warming the cockles of our heart, rankles our mind. Irshad’s elegantly composed wise words can help the diverse people of Punjab understand each other better in a spirit of brotherhood which have inspired our sages in the past and still inspires sane minds among us.

His pieces in the book provoke our mind and stir our imagination to create humanized connections with the intangible that surrounds our humdrum existence. To create something out of mundane nothingness is the dream that permeates his creative endeavor. He touches with brevity the mundane and sublime, the revealed and arcane to make us realize that there is so much to know and experience. He loves the intriguingly philosophic and mystic world of Abn ‘Arabi [1165-1240] as much as a little noticed wisp of smoke rising from the smoldering cakes of dry animal dung in a local household. He is at his best when he writes about his home town [Nagri Pir Pathan Di/Pir Pathan’s Town] Taunsa. One wonders if such a prosaic subject can fire author’s imagination. Yes, it can if one has the capacity to love one’s people and their ever resilient life as is the case with Irshad Taunsvi who has developed, to borrow a phrase from Antonio Gramsci, as an ‘organic intellectual’. You rarely come across such a book. It’s accessible and must be on your table if you are interested in our literature, literary criticism,mystic tradition and culture.

Azam Malik is a sweet sounding poet.

‘Sain Sunehray Ghallay’ is his second book of poetry published by Sanjh Publications, Lahore. He employs genres of poem and ‘Ghazal [a unit comprising two liners arranged in a particular meter]’. The latter is borrowed from the Persian and Urdu. It is not intrinsic to Punjab’s literary tradition but is gradually being appropriated by some of the poets for their creative expression. This genre is comfortably handled by poets who have a measure of command over prosody and like to express themselves in constructed linguistic fragments which are not required to have in-built linkages while a modern poem demands less constrained but an organic structure or organically unified structure that allows you to have a sort of sustained expression of creative experience. But in Azam’s poetry the lines between genres of ‘Ghazal’ and poem appear blurred. He loves short poems. His themes overlap and so does the idioms which create an ambiance of experiential unity that makes his poetry comfortably accessible. He tries to discover some meaning in an otherwise quotidian existence.