Muhammad Mujahid Syed Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – "During my school days I was impressed by the poetry of Ghazal maestro Ghalib. I started writing his couplets in my diary. The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings made me a poetess. Integrity, sincerity and truth are the perennial springs from where my poetry comes out. I was very young when I started composing poems,” said Fatima Hassan in an interview with Saudi Gazette. Hassan's family name is Sayyeda Anis Fatima. She was born in Karachi, Pakistan on January 24, 1953. Her grandfather, maternal grandfather, father, Syed Tahzibul Hasan and mother Sayyeda Kaniz Fatima migrated to Pakistan from Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, India. She received her early education in East Pakistan. After the fall of Dhaka, Hassan's family settled in Karachi. She did her PhD in mass communication and started her professional career in 1977 in the information department, retiring as director of public relations, training and research. Her husband Shaukat Ali Zaidi is a chartered civil engineer; and the couple have a daughter. Hassan was in the Kingdom to participate in the All Pakistan Mushairah organized by the Consulate General Pakistan, Jeddah on March 6 at Pakistan International School - English Section (PISJ-ES), as part of the Pakistan Day celebrations. Hassan, like famous Indian novelist Qurrat-ul-Ain Haider is socially and politically conscious and has a deep interest in feminist consciousness. “Every literature has soul of its times, without it the poetry or literature will be worthless like a dead body. The historians and journalists put the incidents in a straight forward way but the poetry has different layers. It has its own perspective; there is a cosmos between the lines. Every literature bears testimony to its times,” said the poet. As professor Karrar Hussain said: “I was much impressed by the intensity of Fatima's emotions. The restrained expression creates wonderful images in her poetry…in her allusions the eyes and lips have their own expression. The eyes' writing is more meaningful than the expression of the tongue." According to Qamar Jamil, “Not the poetry, but only science, will prevail in an atmosphere devoid of mysterious things. Romantic poetry emerges from the mysterious and wonderful experiments of the life. … (Fatima's poetry) is deals with the contradiction of light and darkness.” Hassan, is known throughout for her Ghazals, has three poetry collections to her credit — "Bahte Hue Phool," "Dastak Se Dar Ka Fasila," and "Yaden Bhi Ab Khwab Huin." She has also published a collection of stories "Kahaniyan Gum Ho Jati Hain." Her research thesis was regarding Zahida Khatoon Sherwaniyah. "I was impressed by the poetry of Fahmida Riyaz and Kishwar Naheed Pakistan's famous poetesses. Faiz, Jazbi, Majaz, Sahir, Nasir Kazimi, Mustafa Zaidi, Irfan Siddiqui, Munir Niyazi too give me inspiration," she said. A couplet from Hassan's poetry Dastak se dar ka fasila hai etemad ka Per laut jane ko yahi taakheer hai bahut Baitha raha wo pas to main sochti rahi Khamoshiyon ki apni bhi taseer hai bahut
