Study of human history can enlighten us about many beings whose inspirational thoughts have mesmerized many people, paved the way for their success, and then taken them out from the loneliness and given them real sense of life.
A name which Balochi literature will always be proud of is Bibi Banul Dashtyari, who was the daughter of the first Baloch ‘Ghazal-poet’ Malang Shah Hashmi. Unluckily, she opened her eyes in the world after his father’s demise. Her real name was Sayada Naaz Bibi and she was born in Baghdadi Saifi Lane, Karachi. Her lovely mom taught Holy Quran in her area and Banul, in her early age, could learn a lot from her.
To extend the horizon of her knowledge, she struggled to read as more as she could. Prof. Saba Dashtyari in his book ‘Angaren wahag’ mentions that, “in that era women were just granted permission to study Holy Quran and ‘Kareema’ of Sheik Sahdi. She failed to quench her raging thirst with these only, so she started paying undisturbed attention on different things. She had learnt countless poetry of Shah Abdul Lateef Bhatai; she always made me understand with the explanation of his poetry whenever I did naughtiness.”
What could be more encouraging and inspiring for her that she initially began reading poetry of her father and undoubtedly this bolstered her confidence to be a Ghazal-poet in initial stage, later she made poetry in other genres as well. The love of literature in her heart was later intensified by the generous and stimulating support of her husband Israr Arifi, who turned out to be a poet as well. His help believed to be very much inspiring and fruitful for her.
The second teacher of her in this regard was the quintessential poet of Balochi, Sayad Hashmi. His scholarly teaching and brotherly love filled her heart with unending love of Balochi. Her poetry expresses and preaches the love of humanity as she very acutely expresses in her poetry that love is the solely source to conquer hearts as compare to guns. Her thoughts convey the hidden feelings of her as a woman, vigorous attitude against cruelty, and injustice in her works declare her the poet of reality. Pages can be filled writing on her poetry, do the best to study her poetry.
Moreover, her works in prose to boot deserve full and honorable credit. ‘Ballu Kapot’, a column got published in ‘Zamana’, a magazine lasting from Dec 1968 to May 1970, stands as the obvious evidence of her outstanding work. The column discusses the psyche of Baloch women, their nature, and etc. Absolutely, she with her thought-provoking character made people cheerful as well as sorrowful,” mentioned by Prof. Saba Dashtyari in his book ‘Angaren Wahag’. Unfortunately, the column lacks the purity of pure Balochi and is influenced by Urdu. One of the specific causes of this failure was her resident in a place where it was all but infeasible to use pure Balochi since they were the unfortunate victims of mixed language.
Eventually, there is no end of writers, just physical existing cannot remain forever. She passed away on 12thof November, 1992.
