Why Gulzar has to wait for DLitt

This story stripped to the bare bones is prosaic The Union Education Ministry did not respond to the University of Allahabadrsquos letter seeking permission to confer on its convocation day an honorary DLitt degree on poet lyricist and filmmaker Gulzar The ministryrsquos silence kindles hope that Gulzar might still be honoured on another dayBut the details of the story beguile It can be read as an example of the cussedness of bureaucrats or as a testament to Hindutvarsquos disregard for syncretism or as evidence of the fading away of a multicultural multilingual India Or it can be read as a tribute to the admiration of an aficionado of Urdu poetry for one of its most famous exponentsThe story began on July 20 when Professor Prashant Kumar Ghosh dean of the Faculty of Commerce wrote a letter to Sangita Srivastava chairperson of the Academic Council suggesting that the Allahabad University should bestow a DLitt degree upon Gulzar Ghosh attached the poetrsquos biodata with his letter stating that Gulzarrsquos real name is Sampooran Singh Kalra who was born to Sikh parents on August 18 1934 in Dina Jhelum district now in PakistanGhosh presumably did this to ensure nobody mistook Gulzar for Muslim Surprised Remember Allahabad is in Uttar Pradesh the cradle of Hindutva On August 4 the Academic Council unanimously endorsed Ghoshrsquos proposal Srivastava then asked Ghosh to seek Gulzarrsquos consent for accepting the degreeGhosh called up to tell Gulzar that there were tears in his eyes as his cherished dream had been fulfilled Could he have Gulzarrsquos consent for the DLitt degree No shot back the poet A pause later Gulzar said it was Ghosh who must give the consent on his behalfmdasha poetic way of saying yesOn August 17 the universityrsquos Executive Council too assented to honouring Gulzar at the convocation scheduled for September 23 Within days the varsity wrote to the Union Education Ministry seeking approval for its decisionSure our bureaucracy is considered Kafkaesque because of its tendency to inexplicably reject the most reasonable request Sure there was only a month between the request made to the Education Ministry and the convocation Really who could imagine bureaucrats unlikely to know the Alif of Urdu sitting in judgement on Gulzarrsquos oeuvreThe September 23 convocation was postponed to November 8 because of the sudden unavailability of the Chief Rector the Governor of Uttar Pradesh The ministry now had 45 additional days to grant permission The letter never came before November 8 the university was denied its tryst with Gulzarmdashand Ghosh the opportunity to offer gurudakshina to his guru Gulzar as guruWhen Ghosh was in his early 20s he had gone to Bombay where one Saturday he and his cinematographer friend Ashfaque Ahmad called on the latterrsquos brother Meraj then the chief assistant director to Gulzar in hospital Gulzar was due to visit Meraj the same evening Already a budding poet Ghosh decided to meet the master Audaciously Ghosh requested a onetoone with Gulzar who agreedOn the following day at 10 am Ghosh appeared at Gulzarrsquos residence They had tea together then breakfast then lunch then dinner A relationship was threaded together by the novicersquos admiration for the master who was generous with his time and responses and it deepened with time as Ghoshrsquos love for poetry too deepened a love he seeks to imbibe in studentsEvery academic year to the new batch of undergraduate students Ghosh writes four spellings of the Urdu equivalent of the word ldquochainrdquo on the blackboard Zanjeer janzeer zanzeer and janjeer He asks them to choose the correct one Most get it wrong He tells them the difference between kamar waist and qamar moon To students he explains that the knowledge of Urdu will ensure they do not make mistakes in the civil services examinations which most of them will write in HindiTo fathom how an icon can reciprocate his admirerrsquos devotion cut to December 2002 when the University of Lucknow requested Ghosh to introduce Gulzar before an interactive session with him After the session ended Gulzar was felicitated with a pashmina shawl Gulzar requested ldquoPrashant and Bahu Rani the professorrsquos wiferdquo to come to the stage Gulzar wrapped the pashmina shawl around Bahu Rani and clasping her and Ghoshrsquos hand asked to be photographedThe Allahabad University still hopes to host a reception for Gulzar whenever the permission to bestow on him the DLitt degree is granted But that might entail a long wait for poets like Gulzar keep alive the mellifluous thrum of Urdu which the ruling regime believes is a religious marker of Muslims whom it never tires of demonisingGulzar also embodies Bollywoodrsquos syncretism that has been under attack from the Hindutva brigade A child of Partition Gulzar in the 2017 Amritsar Literature Festival hoped ldquoWe will cross the manmade borders one dayrdquo The Allahabad University where poets like Firaq Gorakhpuri Dharamvir Bharati and Harivansh Rai Bachchan once taught forgot that it is no longer supposed to bridge the deliberately created HindiUrdu or HinduMuslim chasm in Uttar Pradesh Gulzar must therefore wait to be honouredThe writer is a senior journalist Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper