Today is Kaifi Azmi's death anniversary. And I'm wondering which Kaifi I should tell you about. There are many "Kaifis", but here are some who are most dear to me, that have manifested through his poetry and kept my heart beating. A THREAD

Perhaps, given it's also Mother's Day, I should tell you about the Kaifi whose emotional quotient was pitch perfect whenever he chose to write about women; acknowledging their lived experience but careful never to speak on their behalf. Few male poets have had the sensitivity

to walk this tightrope with such humility but Kaifi passes it with flying colours:

jannat ik aur hai jo mard ke pahluu, mein nahin;
us ki aazaad ravish par bhi machalnaa hai tujhe;
Uth miri jaan mire saath hi chalnaa hai tujhe

May be I should tell you about the Kaifi who understood the essence of life so well that he could distil it in simple terms, such that it doesn't feel like poetry, but a reality that we all have to face one day. And yet,

he has the innocent defiance to ask this question so openly, without a hint of symbolism or metaphor that it catches you by surprise:

Kahte hain pyaar ka rishta hai janam ka rishta;
Hai janam ka jo ye rishta to ye badaltaa kyun hai?

Who indeed has the answer to that? Not me...

Perhaps I should tell you about the Kaifi who never failed to stand up for workers rights, was a card carrying member of the Communist Party and a Marxist to boot. It always baffles me how the Indian middle class seems to adore the songs written by him, while completely

ignoring and erasing his politics and the ideology from where these songs originated from. They would actively despise the Kaifi who wrote:

ban gaya qasr to pahre pe koi baith gaya;
so rahe khaak pe ham shorish-e-taamiir liye
aaj ki raat na footpath pe neend aaegii

May be I should tell you about the Kaifi who was still able to bring freshness to the classical tropes of Urdu poetry and "kanghi choti" shayari. Because when Kaifi described his beloved and their features, it was a different touch.

Who else could say this about their beloved, which is swoon-worthy even today:

Bhadakte sholon, kadakti bijlee se mera khirman bacha hi logi
Ghaneri zulfon ki chhaon mein muskura ke mujhko chhupa hi logi
Ke aaj tak aazma rahi ho,
Ye khwaab kaisa dikha rahi ho?

Perhaps I should tell you about the Kaifi who knew how to pen the perfect eulogy. The one he wrote upon Guru Dutt's passing was so fitting, and captured everything about him in such a delicate, sensitive & precise manner. Such that Kaifi's words have become synonymous with Dutt.

Only Kaifi could at once be so deeply personal, yet existentially matter-of-fact in the same breath:

rahne ko sadaa dahr mein aataa nahi koi;
tum jaise gaye aise bhi jaataa nahi koi

May be I should tell you about the Kaifi who had the emotional intelligence to write about heartbreak as a shared experience of anguish and not through the lens of one party who is bearing the emotional weight of the separation all on their shoulders.

Acknowledging there is another aggrieved person in the same state as you, going through the same pangs you are:

Ho ke majboor mujhe usne bhulaaya hoga;
Zehar chup ke se davaa jaan ke khaaya hoga,
Mez se jab meri tasveer hataayi hogi,
Har taraf mujhko tadaptaa huaa paayaa hoga

It's no wonder then the Kaifi that greeted me through his poetry had a completely different take on love. His take on love was kinder, less selfish, more self-affirming... dare I say even healthier in some sense? It was love... with boundaries. Unheard of in an Indian context!

He couldn't be clearer in his articulation when he said:

pyaar ka jashn naii tarah manaana hoga,
gham kisi dil mein sahi, gham ko mitaana hoga

mere ghar mein tire mukhde ki ziyaa kya kehna,
aaj har ghar ka diya mujh ko jalaana hoga

Perhaps, I should tell you about the Kaifi, who despite his kinder and healthier take on love; who despite having the enotional intelligence to understand personal relationships with such sensitivity; still knew that in the end, we must learn to be comfortable with being alone.

The post 1973 Kaifi, who had suffered a paralytic stroke, leaving his left hand and leg incapacitated, was well aware that in the end, we must learn to live with our loneliness:

sunaa karo mirii jaan in se un se afsaane,
sab ajnabi hain yahaan kaun kis ko pehchaane

But most of all, may be I should tell you that ALL these Kaifis, were in the end, part and parcel of just one man. They were all in there somewhere. And somehow, Kaifi Azmi the poet, never let that part of him overshadow his other facets: as a father, husband, ideological giant,

as a responsible citizen of the nation, his responsibilities towards his village of Mizwan, which he helped transform as long as he lived. He did all of this, AND was a poet without equal. He showed that male poets, could in fact, be positive role models too and

that you could strike the balance between artistic excellence, being a man of principles, while still being an exemplary human being. All this, while keeping a smile on your face. When, in the latter part of his life, he was in pain, he had the most Kaifi-esque mantra of all -

Only he could say, while being in the kind of pain he was after having experienced a paralytic stroke that - "dard apna kaam kar raha hai, main apna kaam kar raha hoon". Truly, life is as simple as that! They don't make them like you anymore Kaifi sahab. Thank you for everything

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