A poet of modern Urdu poetry, a man of character, a symbol of love and loyalty, a charismatic and thought-provoking person and the proud of Pakistan, respected Abbas Tabish is One of the known poets around the world specially in Pakistan and India. He is the winner of the prestigious Pride of Performance award. His famous poetry books are “Raks Jari He”, “Agar Main Sher Na Kahta”. “Dabistan”, “Ishq-Abaad” and “Aasman”. Currently he is serving as director Majlis-e-Traqi-e-Adab (Board for advancement of literature) Lahore, Government of the Punjab.

Waqas: Let we all know When you started poetry writings and Who inspired you?

Abbas Tabish: “I started poetry in 1975.it was quite interesting incident that I was sitting in my house and different voices were coming and these were different from the voice of Mehfil-e- Milad or some address by maulana sitting in a mosque. I followed the voices and there was committee park which was little away from my house, there I found a person was reciting and others were praising him, at that time I did not know that particular person was poet and that was poetry event.   I listened that poetry and when I left, I came to know that I can do this poetry. And then I started poetry. I think that nature brings you there for what He has created you. So, I started in that way.”

Waqas: Do you think being a poet is God gifted or genetic?

Abbas Tabish:” There are two three things. Firstly, it is God gifted. And secondly, my father loved poetry and interestingly he was uneducated but he used to recite the poetry of Khawaja Fareed. He also gave me Bange Dara and the interpretation (tafseer) of surah Yousaf which was written by Maulvi Ghulam Rasool. My father gave me that book to recite. And I believe that unconsciously I got this thing. So that was the genetic things which I got from my father. My father was also a story teller as well which was normally six months of span.”

Waqas: what themes you tend to explore in your poetry?

Abbas Tabish: “I can’t say that I am writing particular theme. Its easy to say that I am poet of love but actually when a poet start this journey, he started from writing which he has studied. I have studied classic literature with great interest and I got inspired from many things. First of all, I inspired from Zafar Iqbal, then Majeed Amjad and then I went in classics and I got influenced from big names. It depends on the mood for example when you are full of feelings, u start to study mir. So, in different times, I have studied different things. Life is always in changing phases, what I think today is quite different from 40 years ago. But I believe that the way I used to live should reflect in my poetry. There are many popular names but when u study their poetry, u can not differentiate time zone or era of their poetry and this was used to happen in past as well. So, your current time should reflect in your poetry.”

Waqas: We have Poetry on love, affection and Ishq and other human feelings. How you categorise them?

Abbas Tabish: “I do believe on feelings. I used to say that any thing should be started from your feelings. Any thing without feeling is useless. It will not create any impact. A poetry with full of feelings creates effect. Some people do the acting of love but actually there is nothing like that.  Don’t play with the lives of others. If you have true feelings then do love. The sanctity of word should be prioritised. Words always pray for us and vice versa as well. many of our poets portray love but actually they don’t have love in their lives. They used the fill the gap and try to present that they actually love but its not true. Love is different thing. If they actually love, they must portray it otherwise not.”

Waqas: Do you think affection, care and Ishq are the same things.

Abbas Tabish: “Yes, its good question. Love is actually care. You can not decide at once that you have started love. It can be started at sudden and it can be felt that you were in love from long time. We used to meet someone and suddenly we come to know that we actually love her. And I understand that Ishq is all about caring someone with out expectations. If we are caring someone, its Ishq. Generation of this age do not understand caring. It demands sacrifices. If someone can not sacrifice, he must not consider himself Ashiq. We people take illusion as Ishq. People come to tell me that they are doing Ishq. I say that are you in Ishq or you got illusion. 99 % people are in illusion. This is why when some illusion is got breached, they got captured in new illusion which they call Ishq. what sort of Ishq it is which is changed on every day. Its not Ishq.”

Waqas: Is it true that Ishq demands sacrifices?

Abbas Tabish: “Yes. It demands oblation. Actually, from which generation, I used to belong, there are other meanings of Ishq which I am trying to explain.  Now in current age, the meanings of Ishq have been changed in youth. In our time or even before, there was a character called message-carrier. It can be pigeon, a child, a lady, a person, through which a letter was delivered and it was not assured whether it will be reached or not and it is difficult task at that time and we had lot of poetry on this particular subject and took times. And its long story, now the time has changed and that letter got disappeared and WhatsApp has taken its place. Within no time, we say someone that I love him and within no time we come out from that illusion. So Ishq is basically a sacrifice which is not demanded by the lover. Ishq is always mismatched as we have seen in many couples.”

Waqas: Life is beautiful. Is it true?

Abbas Tabish: “Yes, there is no doubt, life is beautiful. There are many phases and difficulties in beauty.  If someone is beautiful, it does not mean that he would not be anxious.  But as the time goes on, some worries and sorrows become your precious asset. So, life is always beautiful and I observe life with eyes of love.”

Waqas: Do u think the people live their life in a way that God has created them on earth and do they justify it or they always complain?

Abbas Tabish: “If someone has to complain, he will do so. What is grumble, it needs to understand. I have never put my failures on someone else. Never ever. I take the responsibility.  Although its normal practice. People do put things and responsibilities on others about their failures.  As general we put all the responsibilities on other things. People do complain that life itself is like that. They simply want to run away from it. Life is beautiful, do justice with it.”

Waqas: How you differentiate dreams vs reality?

Abbas Tabish: “Yes, dreams are very important. Dreams and realty make magical realism. There is kind of magic in dreams. We need to live in between them. I am 63 years at the moment. I always say that there should be sensation and thrill in life. I always live in this situation. If dreams are there, you are alive. Firstly, a man dies his inner self and them he departs this world. Live the life as it has been created. I am generally a sad person, and now I am happy that i am in this situation.”

Waqas: Any of your dream poetry event as you attend many?

Abbas Tabish: “Not yet. Even I can not explain it what I dream some event. May be that is the reason I have started my event. Even it is not for the poet to arrange some festival but I do arrange and do love them.  We did Jashan-e Jaun Elia, Jashan-e Iftikhar Arif and are going to arrange Jashan-e Parveen Shaker in April.”

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