Not ‘art of writing’ but ‘writer’s name’ is more important…

Writing – is it an art or science? In fact, the question makes no sense.
Yet, it is surely an art and at the same time, it is a spiritual journey, an
emotional odyssey, which gives a series of experiences and knowledge
or understanding to someone.
But writing is an art and natural gift and writers are the true scientists of
our age, of every age. It is said that the writers compose their
compositions by reaching at the state where the normal thinker cannot
reach.
During 90s when I became a member of Sahit Sangam, there used to be
regular meetings of writers. In one such gathering, I read out my latest
composition and it was rejected by all during the course of discussions,
which was routine matter, to comment about the contents of the write
ups and in the case of a ghazal, if the same is in metric or non-metric etc.
From the very beginning, I was very much against writing vulgarity and
even I used to hold responsible both the writers – for writing and singers – for singing.
There is only one writer – Sadat Hassan Monto, a Pakistani writer,
playwright and author, considered among the greatest writers of short
stories in South Asian History – who has written the maximum short
stories –Afsanas – and who too was charged for writing vulgar. He was
the most widely read and the most controversial short-story writer in
Urdu. He was tried for obscenity half a dozen times, thrice before and
thrice after independence. Not always was he acquitted. Some of
Manto’s greatest work was produced in the last seven years of his life, a
time of great financial and emotional hardship for him.
But the plus point about him was that there were number of his fans
standing for his support in the court. In the preface of Mantonama,
Monto has written, “I am writing, whatever society is doing. Let the
society stop doing wrongs, I will stop writing wrongs – vulgarity”. He

had also shared that “Manto has so many stories in his mind and if
anyone is ready to put them in a bottle, he is ready to die”.
Frankly speaking, I cannot forget the incident, which is still alive in my
memories, when we had an annual meet in one of the hall of the
government school, where we used to meet over a monthly meeting.
When my turn came to share something new, I flatly told that I have not
written anything in the past but I have brought something very
interesting written by ‘Dutt Bharti’. When I read out the contents to the
present members of Sahit Sangam, – Is Paar Vi Chup, Us Paar Vi Chup –

its’ silence here and there also – it was applauded by one and all and I
was flooded with a number of questions – Who is Dutt Bharti?, Where
he lives?, Have we met him so far? Has he ever come to our meetings?,
Do call him, Harish, in the next meeting? Contents and ideas are really
appreciable, said another prominent writer.

When I told that it is proved today that whatever you write is not more
important now a day, but it is writer’s name. Whatever I have read out is
the same which I shared a year back, under my pen name. All were
astonished to hear these words and more dumbfounded when I showed
my old diary with the same contents and now read-out in the name of
Dutt Bharti – a fictitiously created writer.