CiNaRe, an Urdu poet in his own right

CiNaRe with Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.

He who can write. He who can’t criticise. He belonged to the first category. Poet, lyricist, playwright, educationist, administrator, Rajaya Sabha member — a truly multifaceted personality. But, not many know that Dr. C. Naryana Reddy was also an Urdu poet in his own right. In fact, he made people go wah wah over his Urdu ghazals.

CiNaRe, as he was popularly called, seized life by the poetic side. For him, poetry was not the purpose, but a passion. Like the kavi sammelans, he also set afire the mushairas with his soul-stirring verses. How he turned an Urdu poet is a story by itself. As a famous Telugu poet, he was often invited to chair mushairas. But Dr. Reddy felt uncomfortable being a mere spectator. “I decided to become an active participant and started penning verses in Urdu,” he told this writer a few years ago.

Urdu was not an alien language to him as he had studied up to B.A. with Urdu as medium of instruction. All he needed was just to polish the language and get into the groove. With a little effort he started composing verses with consummate skill.

Ji raha hun mout ko lori sunane ke liye
Kho raha hun mast dhun mein khud ko paane ke liye

Dr. Reddy, who set a new trend in adaptation of Urdu ghazal in Telugu poetry, however, chose to be different in his shayari. He steered clear of ‘ishq-o-muhabbat’ stuff. He did not want to meddle with romance of which Mirza Ghalib and others had written a lot. CiNaRe’s Urdu ghazals revolve around humanism, national, religious and linguistic integration. There is also a touch of optimism in his poetry as this couplet shows:

Bagh mein afwah ke murjha rahen hain phool
Gul huye ghaib, arey phal bun ke aane ke liye


CiNaRe adhered to metre, motif and other rhetorical features of ghazal. His Telugu adaptation of ghazals was also complete with poetic nuances — matla, makhta, khafia, radif and takhallus. For him, writing in Urdu was to satisfy his creative urge.

- J.S.Ifthekhar,

Hyderabad based journalist.

Article published in Telangana Today

Dated June 25,2017.