Punjabi Poet Dr. Javed Zaki Passed Away By APNA

By APNA

Date:18-10-05

Source: APNA

(Dr. Javed Zaki and Dr. Khalida Zaki - March, 2004 at an APNA function)

Dr. Javed Zaki, a prominent Punjabi poet and dedicated activist for the promotion of Punjabi language and culture passed away in East Lansing, Michigan, during the early hours of October 18, 2005. Dr. Zaki was teaching as an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department of Michigan State University. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Khalida Zaki, and son, Amir.

While a student in the Punjab University, Lahore, in the early seventies, Dr. Zaki emerged as the leading Punjabi poet of resistance against all forms of oppression by the powerful and oppressive military, political and landed classes of Pakistan. A prolific writer, Dr. Zaki continued to write poetry in his unique style and diction to highlight the social injustice in Pakistani society even after migrating to the USA. A collection of his poetry, Kangaan, was published in 1995 in Shahmukhi script and his poetry was later also published in Gurmukhi script. His poetry was regularly published in many of the leading Punjabi Magazines.

Dr. Zaki was an active member of Academy of the Punjab in North America (APNA). During the past many years, he posted most of his new poems on APNA Discussion Forum. The last poem he posted was on August 28, 2005:

Dard hijar da taa, O Yaar
Rehmat da miNh paa, O Yaar

Teri tahNg di shikhar dopehriN
Mera ander bhaa, O Yaar

Dil de boohe khholi beThhaN
Bharam cha rakh, laNgh aa O Yaar

Bhar bhar noor khazaane waNdiN
SanuN vi lup paa, O Yaar

Dil de shouq adhore reh geye
Fer na muRyoN, jaa O Yaar

Tera mukhhRa dhuNdla dhuNdla
Mere khaab sawah, O Yaar

Sarmad te Mansoor treeqat
JinhooN shoh da chaa, O Yaar

Selections of Dr. Zaki's poetry both in Shahmukhi and Gurmukhi scripts can be read at the following URLs:

Shahmukhi: http://www.apnaorg.com/poetry/zaki/zfront.html

Gurmukhi: http://www.apnaorg.com/poetry/zaki-g/

Following are some reviews on Dr. sahib's poetry:

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KANGAAN By Dr. Javed Zaki:

Shafqat Tanvir Mirza, the Dawn.

The sixth poem of the book under review is about the indiscriminate police firing on the agitating laborers of the Colony Mills of Multan during the early days of Gen. Zia's regime.

Many different versions of the firing were current at that time. The most popular was that the Martial Law regime was afraid of the labor class and enacted the bloody drama in Multan to terrorize it. Those were the days when the poor followers of Bhutto in the Punjab were setting themselves on fire as a protest against the atrocities of the Martial Law regime and its PNA supporters. The posts and intellectuals of the Punjab were writing and publishing resistance literature. Javed Zaki was one of them who through his poetry advocated the case of the Punjab as well as the people of Pakistan.

Some of the titles of the poems included in the book speak for themselves - Nabhar Sik, Sandal Bar tha Dhola, Ik Nabhar Shaheed da Dhola, 1983, Dulla Bhatti dee Var, Mehran Manu da Dhola, Jamhoriat da Pandh, Apney Haqqay lai laran walian Nabhar Aurtaan da Gaavan, Karra Kararri Rut da Vain, Kaaltay Narid (1977-1988) and Hirakh.

The book is divided into four parts. The first starts with Aa Laam Laggi aa Dhola (Come my friend we are in battlefield), the second includes songs, the third contains Kafis and the fourth has six ghazals. In the poem titled reejh, the poet assigns this role to the poets:

On behalf of the Kamis (workers, low castes, land tenants and laborers, etc.) he says that we should not be forced to react (Do not throw us a challenge. We may in desperation throw our boat in stormy waters. We will hit you hard and catch you by your neck. When we will attack cities, jungles, deserts and bars, then poets will write our Dholas and Vars).

In the first part of the book, Zaki has taken upon himself the mission of writing Vars and Dholas of those who were resisting the state oppression let loose by the military dictator along with his religious and political fellow-travelers. He gets the inspiration from the folk Vars of Dulla Bhatti, Bhagat Singh, Mirza Kharal and Ahmad Khan Kharal. He is also inspired by our rebel poets like Bulleh Shah and Shah Hussain who were deadly opposed to the establishment and its tamed religious leadership which provided religious and moral support to oppressive and anti-people policies.

Zaki uses almost all rebel symbols and characters found in our romantic tales like Heer Ranjha, Mirza Saheban and Sassi. He also talks of Shah Latif with reference to the state oppression of 1983 when the movement for the restoration of democracy (MRD) was launched. In the poem Mehram Manu da Dhola, he says: (Time gives consciousness; They face whatever the challenge is thrown to them. They advance with their glittering ayes carrying their cross on their shoulders. They are completely awake. Shah Latif has sent messages that the mad lions have occupied the ferry station. We have no friends now. We are burning in fire, but time gives us real insight.)

Zaki is basically a poet of Dholas and Vars and, incidentally, belongs to those areas of the Punjab which have along tradition of resistance against invaders and oppressive rulers, particularly the Sandal Bar which produced warriors like Dulla Bhatti, Ahmad Khan Kharal and Mirza - the tragic hero of a love story who was also used as a powerful symbol by another poet, Nasreen Anjum Bhatti, in a poem she wrote on the hanging of Z. A. Bhutto:

Main Mirza Mehran da, mairi Rawal janj charrhi. (I am Mirza of Mehran. My marriage party came to Rawal where death was my bride).

Zaki knows the art of poetry and in spite of the political themes he uses, he never indulges in sentimental versification. One of his poems is about the Women's Action Forum whose members were brutally hit by state force in Lahore during Zia's regime. Its lines are:

(The sparrows are out to fly. They will no doubt fly and fly high in the sky. They will fly high and will certainly achieve the highest place.)

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