Author Huma Khalil tells Christy Varghese, after the launch of her illustrated coffee-table book, The Allure Of Aligarh, that no other place can boast of such a rich poetic history
Huma Khalil, an alumna of the Aligarh Muslim University, where she studied English Literature, is an author, translator, and the editor of Bazm-e-Adab — an Urdu magazine wherein women writers contribute from around the globe.
A member of the advisory board of the Rekhta Foundation, the largest online website for Urdu language and literature, Huma regularly translates short stories and articles from Urdu into English for several publications.
Her latest book, The Allure Of Aligarh: A Poetic Journey Into The University City is an illustrated coffee table book that captures the majestic history of Aligarh's poetic landscape.
The book highlights and talks about the memories the city holds, the inspirational people who took inspiration of their life from the city itself, while talking about its poets and their poetry. Read on for excerpts of the interview, provided along with an extract from the book to share Huma’s nostalgia with you:
As an alumna of AMU (The Aligarh Muslim University), you were bound to develop an affinity towards Aligarh. India is replete with locations that are defined by its literary landscape. If not Aligarh, where else would you have preferred being?
Being an ardent admirer of a culture which is a melting pot of the best of the old and the new, I could not have preferred being anywhere else, than under these Victorian columns infused with the heady fragrance of sher-o-shayri (poetry), hosh-o-khirad (awareness and intelligence), ramz-o-kinaya (metaphors and symbols), tanz-o-mizaah (humour and satire) and above all, ishq-o-mohabbat (love and adoration).
Aligarh is a space where poetry, passions and patriotism are interspersed with modern science and technology. I don’t think there is any other place in India that can boast to be even close to Aligarh when it comes to its spirit of camaraderie, such a rich poetic heritage and keeping up with its traditions in this age of advancement and industrialisation.
Your love for Urdu and poetry, did that emerge during your childhood? Or is it something that came to the fore much later?
So, the name of my home in Aligarh since 1971 is ‘Urdu Bagh’. We have a collection of many rare books as well as magazines that were published from India and Pakistan since the early 1940’s and many were later discontinued due to language and regional politics.
We always had more Urdu books than even the essential furniture in our home. It was a hub of literary giants. Prominent poets, writers, artists and journalists would gather over endless cups of tea (which they say runs like blood in the Aligarian system) sharing exquisite expressions of freedom and exalted love.
Both my parents Khalil Ur Rahman Azmi and Rashida Khalil spent their life serving the Urdu language and have contributed to it immensely as long as they lived.
We came to know that you lead Rekhta Foundation’s project of creating audio-visual media on the life of Urdu poets. How is that coming along and what will the final product look like?
I am writing scripts and directing biopics on the life of Urdu poets and Rekhta foundation is producing this series. Its coming along well and I am thoroughly enjoying reliving that era. We have completed shooting the first biopic and are about to complete its editing as well.
I have created these biopics keeping in mind the relevance of these poets and their writings in today’s world. How can their life and times influence and inspire the younger generation today and instil in them an interest in the world of our literature and culture, as they are the actual torchbearers of this Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb which is a hallmark of the writings of all these poets. They were extremely progressive and ahead of their times and much can be learned from the silver linings they left on the literary sky.
How different is this book from the many written on AMU and the history of Aligarh?
The poetic landscape of Aligarh was never captured in English language before my book, The Allure Of Aligarh: A Poetic Journey Into The University City.
Aligarh’s fiza (air) has always been redolent with sher-o-shayri (poetry) and a treasure trove of Urdu Poetry spans the city’s various facets and campus life. Almost every event at Aligarh was being simultaneously recorded in Urdu poetry in its appreciation as well as its criticism. This poetry can be read and understood by people who are fluent with the script as well as the understanding of Urdu which is majorly missing in the younger generation, even at Aligarh now.
To make it accessible for the alumni, students, their children as well as anybody who wants to have a glimpse of this city steeped into poetry, I have transliterated these poems in Roman and translated them into English, synchronising them in the historical backdrop of the culture when they were written along with the photographs that portray the many moods, seasons and life at Aligarh.
What is it, that has not changed in Aligarh as you see today?
Irrespective of the changing climes the focus on tehzeeb (culture) remained a non-negotiable feature of life at Aligarh, even today, as we progress into the 21st century and into a post-pandemic world. In the words of Anjum Azmi,
‘Apne har daur ki tareekh ka aaina liye
Phir uthata hai Aligarh, nai duniya mein qadam.’
(Taking in hand the mirror of each era’s campaign into a new world, Aligarh steps forward again)
