From the pens of Urdu poets

A tribute to Amrita Pritam and Shiraz Husain

"Go on, run a search for visuals for Hindi and Urdu poetry," says illustrator Shiraz Husain, over the telephone from Delhi. "What did you find? A hand crushing a rose, blood drops, a single tear rolling down or a woman looking sad. Why does the representation have to be so boring?"

The Manto tee and The Ghalib tote

It's a fair question. Husain, 31, an assistant professor in Applied Arts at Jamia Millia Islamia University, has taken it upon himself to revolutionise this representation. Enter Khwaab Tanha Collective, a visual project dedicated to Urdu poetry, started by him last year. "I have always wanted to change the visual interpretation of poetry. The literary material should be strong, interesting and as evocative as the actual poem," he says.

Sahir Ludhianvi poster

Husain, whose father was an Urdu teacher at Anglo Arabic School has grown up surrounded by Urdu literature. "We attended and watched it all, kavi sammelans, ghazal symposiums...we weren't allowed to change the channel if any of this was being screened," he says. Add to that an inclination to painting and it was natural for him to combine the two. He started gifting friends artwork that featured shayari and paintings of different poets.

It was only last year that he began to take this seriously. "I was asked to create some illustrations for Jashn-e-Rekhta, a festival celebrating Urdu organised by the Indira Gandhi National Centre For The Arts. I did three installations and a few posters," he says.

The installations featured dedications to Urdu poets Ismat Chughtai's Lihaaf - a framed patterned quilt with a portrait of the poet in the centre created using beads; Rajinder Singh Bedi - a portrait of him using cloth and fabric as a tribute to his iconic story Garam Coat and Ek Chadar Maili Si; and Akhtar ul Iman - a framed image of his iconic line, ‘Jinke ghar sheeshe ke hote hain woh doosron ke gharron par patthar nahi phenka karte' (loosely translated to ‘people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones') with a slight crack in the glass.

The response to those works got him started on the path to KTC. He began by creating posters featuring iconic lines from Urdu poems (their Hindi translation) and a sketch of the poet. Since then, he has branched out to creating his prints on T-shirts and totes. Husain is currently exhibiting his works at the World Book Fair in Delhi.

Husain also borrows from Bengali (Rabindranath Tagore), Hindi (Amrita Pritam) and Punjabi (Paash or Avtar Singh Sandhu) for his creations. "I get a lot of requests to work on poetry in other regional languages. I can't say no to them," he says. "I want more people to be aware of these literary greats."

To this end, he ensures the posters are in Hindi and Urdu (and at times, English). He gives his artwork, for free, to any event dedicated to regional literature. And, he sells his posters for Rs 100 and T-shirts for just Rs 300. This opens him up to much plagiarism, like he recently faced at World Book Fair, but he managed to resolve it. "I've been told that when people start plagiarising your work, you've become famous," he says. "I would rather these literary greats find the spotlight, not me."

Log on to: The Khwaab Tanha Collective
On: Facebook