'I took my father for granted'

'I was attracted to Javed because he was exactly l ike my father.'

On Kaifi Azmi's 102nd birth anniversary on January O14, his daughter Shabana Azmi goes back in time to celebrate him. My father was a gorgeous looking man with this beautiful voice. Kaifisaab's poetry remains relevant even today.

As a daughter, I have always taken Abba for granted. But as a lover of poetry, I continue to be overwhelmed by his work as a poet and a lyricist. His lyrics were for a given character in a given situation, but he gave us immortal songs like Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam from Kagaz Ke Phool, Kar Chale Hum Fida from Haqeeqat, Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe Ho from Arth and many others.

He used to say humorously that in his time, the tune was composed first and then the writer had to fit in the words... 'It's like first digging a grave and then finding a corpse to fit into it. So sometimes, the head would stick out, sometimes the legs. But people started giving me work because they thought 'Main murde achche gaadh leta hoon!' In Hindi cinema, along with Sahir (Ludhianvi), Majrooh (Sultanpuri), Jaan Nissar Akhtar and Shailendra, my father raised the standards of film lyrics.

As a film lyricist, he was a mixture of simplicity and poeticality. Take these lines from Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Satyakam: Kissi ka na ho jiss pe saaya, mujhe aisi din aisi raat do, Main manzil to khud dhoond loongi mere haath main zaraa apna haath do Qadam-do-qadam tum mera saath do. When Lataji (Mangeshkar) sang these lines, what can be said?You know what was exceptional about my father?

What?

He never spoke about his work at home.

Tell us your earliest memories of your father.