Acting locally, thinking globally

By Zaib Azkaar Hussain
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

A renowned British primatologist and researcher, Jane Goodall, is of the view that the disregard for nature and disrespect for animals on the part of humanity caused coronavirus pandemic.

She warns that the world must learn from past mistakes to prevent future disasters. She holds that everyone should think about the consequences of little choices and in this way everyone can make an impact every single day. 

She suggests "So what we can do in our individual lives does depend a little bit on who we are, but we all can make a difference, everybody can." 

Here comes a promising poet and writer, Kamran Mughal, who in his recent Urdu prose poem, has portrayed the 'agony of a sparrow' under the title of "Churria ki faryaad'. 

He is not only an emerging poet but also a well-known journalist, presenter and social worker. 

When he recited his prose poem at an online literary meeting of Halqaa-e Arbaab-e Zaqu (HAZ) Karachi, the critics and scholars highly appreciated him for his diction and meaningful thought the poem discussed.

In his poem, he has tried his best to paint (in words) the 'grief of a sparrow' that has been deserted by the human beings suffering from coronavirus.

The people have deserted themselves (living in isolation) due the fear of spread of disease, the birds who were in habit of coming to their houses' windows and balconies for eating seeds, now were facing a helpless situation due to the closure of gates and windows. 

He says although the suffering of mankind in present times seems to be bigger than the hunger of a bird but it was an irony that the poor birds were being completely ignored and no one was there to serve them with seeds and foods. 

Interestingly in his latest prose poem titled "Churria ki faryaad' he has tried to paint the 'grief of a sparrow' that has been deserted by the human being suffering from coronavirus.

He says though the suffering of mankind in present times seems to be bigger than the hunger of mankind, it was a great irony that the poor birds were totally ignored and no one was there to serve the birds even a seed (food).

The poem says in a sarcastic tone, while depicting expression of a sparrow, that the mankind was facing dire consequences for his bad actions he committed in the past, but he was still unwilling to realize and rethink on living life as was not ready to take pity on weak creatures. 

The poem concludes that irony of the time was to stop the supply of food to the poor birds. 

Kamran Mughal is experiencing interesting ways and treatment to respond towards the issues and subjects as in one of his prose poems titled "Baghdad ki sarrak", he discusses the burden of the travellers, trucks and other vehicles on a road which leads to Baghdad. 

Very interesting and rather heart-touching is the description of tragedy of an inorganic object (road) which has got more 'blackish', 'pathetic' and rather 'pitiable' as it was being used as a mean of carrying weapons and other things by warriors to harm and kill each other. The poem laments that a road has become a source of annoyance to humanity.