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A beautiful Coincidence: Sahir’s Birthday and International Women’s day

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Nimrat Kaur
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A beautiful Coincidence: Sahir’s Birthday and International Women’s day
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A beautiful Coincidence: Sahir’s Birthday and International Women’s day. More alive today than ever. Sahir Ludhainavi was a poet who could see, feel and rewrite the pain women endured. From Brothels to closed doors of a marriage,  everything he wrote about about women felt nothing less than reality on papers. It is indeed a heart filling coincidence that International Women’s day coincides with Sahir Ludhianvi’s birthday. A man deeply empathetic to women, and yet, remained single and, as they say, unfulfilled throughout his life. They say words are the most powerful weapon, and Ludhianvi proved it right. He wrote for the freedom of women, for their rights, their power and the very essence of being a woman above all. His early poetry spoke of unrequited love, never more evident than in his film songs. When Ludhianvi wrote from a woman’s point of view, it felt as though he had the ability to get under the her skin, so much so that feminists would fail today. Sahir Ludhianvi Birthday and International Women’s day Perhaps Ludhianvi had seen the pain through his mother, who was a strong woman and forced to leave her feudal landlord husband so that she could raise her son away from the depraved environment at home. She lived on deficiency, on rags and with the constant threats from her husband that he would kidnap their son. He visited many brothels in Lahore to understand the oppression endured by the women working there; this took shape as the nazm "Chakle" that he later adapted for the film 
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Pyaasa. The original nazm, written before Independence, questioned the custodians of eastern piety: kahan hain who muhafiz khudi ke? (Where are the custodians of self-respect?) He blamed patriarchy and feudalism for the exploitation of women and gave us their most definitive description in Sadhna (1958) where he blames the men for turning women into commodities. Sahir Ludhianvi Birthday and International Women’s day For Ludhianvi, desire remained restricted to his verse. The poet accepted the fact that consummation of a relationship, whether it was serious or a fling, was simply not to be. He raises the curtain of the hypocrisy in society, calls prostitutes by the names of most revered women of the three religions of the time and that too in a climate of communal turmoil…there will never be a poet like him. One of his most beautiful works for women of all times is- "Aurat ne janam diya mardon ko" Here's a look at what being globally accepted and a poet of all times means - Aurat nai Janam diya Mardon ko, Mardon ne usai Bazaar diya Jab Jee chaha Masla kuchala, Jab Jee chaha Dhutkar diya Tulti hai kahin Deenaron mein, Bikti hai kahin Bazaaron mein Nangi Nachwayi jati hai, Ayyashon ke Darbaron mein Yeh woh Be-Izzat cheez hai jo, Bant jaati hai Izzatdaron mein Mardon ke liye har Zulm ravan, Aurat ke liye rona bhi Khata Mardon ke liye lakho Seje, Aurat ke liye bas ek Cheetah Mardon ke liye har Aish ka haq, Aurat ke liye Jeena bhi Saza Jin Hathhon ne inko Pyar kiya, In Hathhon ka Byopaar kiya Jis kokh mein iska Jism dhhala, Us kokh ka Karobaar kiya Jis tun se ooge kopal ban kar, Us tan ko Zaleel-o-khar kiya Mardon ne banayi Jo Rasmain, Inko haq ka Farmaan kaha Aurat ke Zinda jalane ko, Kurbani aur Balidaan kaha Ismat ke badle Roti dee, aur usko bhi Ehsaan kaha Sansar ki har ek Be-Sharmi, Gurbat ki gaud mein Palti hai Chaklon hi mein aa kar Rukti, Phankon se jo Raah nikalti hai Mardon ki Hawas hai jo Aksar, Aurat ke Paap mein Dhhalti hai Aurat Sansar ki Kismat hai, Phir bhi Taqdeer ki heti hai Avtaar Payyambar Janti Hai, Phir bhi Shaitaan ki Beti hai Yeh woh Badkismet Maa hai Jo, Beton ki sej par leti hai Aurat nai Janam diya Mardon ko, Mardon ne usai Bazaar diya Jab Jee chaha Masla kuchala, Jab Jee chaha Dhutkar diya ~ Sahir Ludhianvi -Written and Edited by Nimrat Kaur for PTC News-
international-womens-day sahir-ludhainvi sahirs-birthday sahir
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