Arguing with God

Khaleel Mamoon is a Bangalore based Urdu poet. His poetry stands out for its animated use of everyday images, sometimes shocking metaphors and use of wit that lay bare mundane experiences. His poetic sensibilities are steeped into the sufi-mystical traditions of Indo-Persianate culture. He has experimented in the genres of both classical ghazal and azad nazam. He has published two collections of ghazals Neshat-e-Gham (2004) and Saanson ke paar (2013). He has been most prolific in the genre of nazm which he thinks is suited to articulate the changing experiences of contemporary times. His collection of nazm Afaaq ki taraf (2010) was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award. Jism-o-Jaan se door (2008), Banbas ka Jhoot (2009), Saraswati ke Kinare (2011) and La Ilah (2018) are some of his other collections. He is a prominent nurturer of the Urdu literary production in Karnataka in last 30 years. He was one of the editors of Suaghat, the Bangalore based Urdu literary journal when it came out for the third and last time in the mid-90s. He has collaborated to translate Unnees lilhai nazmein, a collection of naat (a genre eulogising Prophet Mohammed) by Sherhzade Rikhye (1990) and published a critical text Kashmiri Sufi Shayeri (2005). He has edited Kannada Adab (1994), an anthology of Kannada poetry and fiction translated into Urdu. He served as the President of Karnataka Urdu Academy in 2008-10. During his tenure, he also edited the literary organ of the Karnataka Urdu Academy Azkaar. He currently edits the literary journal ‘Naya Adab’. An edited translation of his poetry is about to be published in Kannada. He started his career as a resident artist at All India Radio, Delhi (1965-75) and was Assistant Editor of Salar (1975-77), the Bangalore based Urdu daily. In 1977 he joined the police service and served as IPS officer in Karnataka before retiring as Inspector General in 2008. 

Syed Mohammed Faisal is trained as an anthropologist from the University of Sussex. His doctoral dissertation explored trade, religion and kinship networks on the Konkan coast of Karnataka (2018). He is trying to understand the non-utilitarian significance of Urdu literary traditions. Especially, exploring ideas such as love, sacrifice and abandon and their sufi-mystical roots in the Akhlaq tradition to conceptualise an alternative theory of political economy. Faisal is currently a postdoctoral felllow at the International Institute of Information technology, Bengaluru.