Punjab Notes: Irshad Taunsvi gone: birds would miss him!

Byline: Mushtaq Soofi

Short in stature he looked ordinary but would appear quite the opposite when he talked. No verbosity, no bombast. Cutting through verbiage he would turn an erudite dialogue or discussion into a conversation giving it a human touch and aura of intimacy.

He had the art of conversation which was both inherited and cultivated. The inherited part came from the oral tradition prevalent in the Baloch dominated periphery of the Punjab where spoken word held sway. He would subtly pepper his conversation with literary and cultural allusions without making his listeners - that increased in number with the passage of time - stand in awe of him. He was an affable and peace-loving person by temperament, almost a pacifist in an area where every Joe loved to flaunt arms. But Irshad wasn't a dry man wallowing in self-importance and self-righteousness. His voice would rarely drip sarcasm when in conversation with people who knew much less than him about the subject under discussion. If he had to say something that could bite someone, he would use his wit. Despite his persona of seriousness he was a much loved wit and raconteur. A man of wit and wisdom, he would not reduce people with his display of erudition as most of our half-baked intellectuals, 'PaParhey' in the words of Baba Bulleh Shah, tended to do. He would rather like to employ his witticism to make them helpless with laughter. His dialogue with whosoever talked to him had an air of bonhomie. He along with Abid Ameeq, an inimitable intellectual and sensitive poet, was staying at my place in Lahore in 1980s. Both being generous by nature and not well-organised, knew next to nothing on how to manage their money. So they would run short of money.

One morning at breakfast Irshad pointing to me said: 'Abid, we don't need to flatter him today. I have already borrowed Rs500 from his wife'.

But the art of conversation as we all know has its limits. And that's reason that he turned to written word. Abid Ameeq and Irshad Taunsvi were the poets who pioneered the modern Sariaki verse in 1970s. Both took their cue from a group of the forward-looking Punjabi poets and writers in Lahore who had chosen their mother language for their creative expression against all odds. They interacted with the group and the relationship thus formed benefited all at the personal and creative level.

Irshad wasn't prolific. He composed words when he felt absolutely compelled to do so. He spent a lot of time...