We are back with another candid interview with one of Daastan’s latest authors. In today’s blog, we are introducing you to Saeed ul Hassan, the author of the poetry collection Tawwaquf. Without further ado, let’s find out more about Mr. Saeed and his writing journey.
Meet Saeed ul Hassan
Saeed ul Hassan is an educationist, social worker, entrepreneur and poet. Saeed is a multidisciplinary with a bachelors in economics and a masters degree in English literature. On the social front, Saeed has been a part of social welfare projects nationwide. In 2009, he received the “Commonwealth Education Special Award”. In addition to that, Saeed received international recognition through the “Government of Malaysia Award”. Saeed’s tenure as a social worker is spread over the time period of 17 years. Currently, he is working as an Executive Director with a social work organisation. By nature, Saeed is a soft-spoken, thoughtful and literary soul.
Saeed’s love for Literature
At the time when the global market was brimming with career opportunities for economics, Saeed chose to follow a path less traveled. Despite the world telling him to stick to a conventional field, he chose literature. However, his writing journey goes all the way back to his childhood. Being an empath and a sensitive soul, Saeed was always observing his environment and jotting down his thoughts.
“As a young boy, I always was in the habit of writing. I used to write on any paper I could find. Sometimes on the back of my textbooks too.”
As a kid, Saeed never enjoyed subjects that involved calculations. It was literature that resonated with him. In the progressing years, his affiliation with literature took him on a journey of self-exploration. Moreover, Saeed is an avid reader. He loves both English and Urdu literature and has explored Punjabi literature as well. “Situations with their satire and irony as presented in literature reveal to us our own selves,” says Saeed.
Literature in Pakistan
Career paths like art and literature are looked down upon in our country even today, says Saeed. Since childhood, we instil in our children to get education for the sole purpose of getting a job. Whereas, Saeed believes the purpose of education is to teach one discipline, wisdom and the ability to differentiate between right and wrong. For him, education should be a source of directing one’s moral compass and not just money making. However, our priorities as a society are misplaced. According to him, we need to share the importance of Art and literature with our future generations. As the golden saying by N.H. Klienbaum says, “Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, and love, these are what we stay alive for.”
“We have to raise awareness for the importance of arts and literature as currently there is no dialogue between youth and their elders regarding its importance.” – Saeed
An insight into Tawwaquf
Tawwaquf – in literal sense of this word means stillness or to pause. Since, Saeed published his book amidst the pandemic he named it Tawwaquf. For it is the time when the whole world was on pause. The book carries his poetry collection written over a time period of 2 decades. It talks about his personal experiences and insights on life and its different dimensions.
Stillness – A golden concept
In the end, Saeed shared with us his stance on the importance of stillness. He believes human beings are in a constant race for something. However, they never get close to arriving to their supposed success. Whatever we do in life, something always remains unknown and out of reach. It is only when we are in our old age that we come to realise certain truths.
“Old age makes us think about the mistakes we made, the things we lost and the things we gained. And how much of it was actually worth the time we put it in.”
Team Daastan wishes Saeed ul Hassan a very best of luck for his future endeavours. You can get your hands on a copy of his book Tawaquf here.
