Gulzar at the Jaggery Market : The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal

Ain't I Glad?

Ain’t I Glad?

“I feel like I have come to a jaggery market. My own stature has become like that of a common fly that tastes sweetness from one pack to another.”

Gulzar said that he was overwhelmed by the amount of praise he received from the different artists. I was at a private function where the eminent writer-filmmaker was honoured for winning the Oscar for “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire.

Later, to a response encapsulated by claps and whistles, he recited some of his nazms (poems set in free verse) and stories.

It wasn’t difficult to spot Gulzar seated on the makeshift mattresses with singer Bhupinder and writer Javed Siddiqi at actor Rajender Gupta’s spatial home. He was clad in his trademark white kurta-pyjama and his regular smile.

Javed said in his tribute that it was difficult to know Gulzar; he is like a fortress and you don’t know from where to attack him. Singer Bhupinder, despite his old age, sang some songs penned by Gulzar that have regaled listeners of different generations.

Singer Seema Sehgal sang a ghazal and a nazm for the poet while singer Shekhar Sen and actor Kishor Kadam presented some songs of Gulzar.

The song “Jai Ho” that brought honours to the poet remained, however, the most ignored aspect of the evening.

Most of the audience bared the rising humidity and stayed for the over-five-hour program. And when writer Atul Tiwari announced that it would take at least a week to discover the talents of Gulzar, the audiences broke into a final applause.

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