In every culture and for every language, there are writers, novelists and poets who write about the world, culture, society, love and the life in a way that interests people. They write about the social issues and the inner thoughts of a normal man. Some find these writings as pleasure to read, others just try to fit themselves in those lines.
They call a poet (or a writer) successful if his poems and writings depict the story of everyone who reads them. It indeed is a great great achievement for Urdu literature to have plenty of these writers who wrote about almost everything. The likes of Mirza Ghalib, Allama Iqbal, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Faraz ( and a lot more) have served Urdu literature in THE BEST fashion. Very few have managed to successfully own the art of writing at a very young age, Parveen Shakir (late) is one of them. She was young, energetic, expressive and bold in her writings. The basic theme of her writings (ghazals, poems and free verses) was women. She mostly wrote about Love and Social Stigmas using the first person feminine pronoun, which is very rarely used.
Parveen Shakir started writing when she was a kid. Her first ghazal collection Khushbu was published in 1976. This book was awarded the Adamjee Award. She was also awarded with Pakistan’s one of the highest honours, The Pride of Performance for her contribution to Urdu literature.Along with Khushboo, the other published volumes of poetry include Sad-barg, Khudkalaami, Inkaar, Maah-e-Tamaam and Kaf-e-Ai’na.
The Karachi born poetess was a well educated woman with MA in English Literature and Linguistics. She also had a Ph.D in Bank Administration. Before joining the civil services, she worked as a professor for about 9 years, at Trinity College, Connecticut, USA and University of Karachi. The most amazing thing happened when she appeared in the CSS examination in 1982, there was a question from her own poetry in the Urdu examination.
Parveen Shakir died on December 26th, 1994 at the age of 42. The great tragidy happened when her car collided with a truck, in Islamabad, while she was on her way to work. Her death was a great loss to the Urdu literature and poetry. She lives in the hearts of her fans and in the hearts of those who love Urdu and Urdu literature. May her sould Rest In Peace.
Woh jaa chuka hy,
Magar judayee sy qabl ka, ik narm lamha,
Theher gea hy, meri hatheli ki pusht par,
Zindagee mein,
pehli ka chaand ban ker!
The Parveen Shakir Trust was established after her death. The trust organizes yearly function and gives the Aks-e-Khushboo award to the Urdu poets. The trust also holds Dua and Qur’an Khoani on Parveen Shakir’s death aniversary.
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