Hamnashin: When a Journalist’s Pen Moves Beyond the News to Write the Voice of the Heart

The world of journalism is driven by facts, immediacy and social concerns, while literature belongs to the realm of emotions, experiences and inner expression. Only a rare few are able to navigate both streams with equal ease. Hamnashin, the first collection of ghazals by senior journalist, media strategist and National President of the Web Journalists’ Association of India (WJAI), Anand Kaushal, is a powerful example of this uncommon confluence.

For years, Anand Kaushal has been recognised as a serious, vigilant and influential figure in Bihar’s television journalism. From ETV Bihar to serving as Bureau Chief of Hamar TV, and while holding important responsibilities with several national and regional news channels, he has regarded journalism not merely as a profession but as a medium for advancing public concerns.

Despite remaining constantly engaged with power, society and people’s struggles, the journalist within him never allowed the poet in his heart to die. That sensitivity has now reached readers in the form of Hamnashin.

The book is not merely a compilation of ghazals. It gives expression to the unspoken chapters of life that people often suppress and carry within themselves. It contains love, separation, loneliness, the warmth of relationships, the ironies of time and, above all, the feeling of being human. This is why, while reading the ghazals in this collection, the reader interacts not simply with words but with emotions.

The opening lines of the book immediately draw the reader into their embrace:

“सब कुछ था पास मेरे,

एक तेरे इश्क़ के सिवा,

आज हूँ बीमार-ए-इश्क़,

कुछ नहीं हैं, बस तन्हाइयाँ…”

और फिर—

“लोग कहते हैं आवारा मेरी आवारगी देखकर,

ये बेचारगी ‘कौशल’ तेरी फ़ितरत ही तो है…”

These couplets are not merely poetic lines. They are emotions distilled from years of lived experience. There is neither artificiality in them nor an unnecessary display of words. This simplicity is the collection’s greatest strength.

One of the most striking qualities of Hamnashin is that Anand Kaushal never allows pain to turn into despair. There is loneliness in his ghazals, but no collapse; there is love, but no loud chorus of complaints; and there is hope, but no artificial optimism.

He accepts the realities of life with the same naturalness with which a journalist observes and records events.

The collection is also noteworthy for its language. It presents a beautiful balance between the refinement of Urdu and the accessibility of Hindi. Rather than relying on difficult vocabulary or elaborate literary ornamentation, it is the honesty of the emotions that holds the reader’s attention.

For this reason, the collection has the potential to appeal equally to serious readers of literature and to the general public.

At a time when social media has often turned poetry into a means of achieving instant popularity, Hamnashin reassures us that genuine literature is still born from the soil of experience, sensitivity and self-reflection.

With his very first book, Anand Kaushal has established that he is not only a skilled craftsman of news but also a powerful creator of emotions.

The collection is particularly significant for readers who seek not merely rhyme in words but the heartbeat of life. It is for those who want to experience love, understand loneliness and keep the flame of hope alive within themselves. Hamnashin will not disappoint them.

Through his debut work, Anand Kaushal has already indicated that his literary journey is likely to be both long and meaningful. Moving away from the fast-paced world of journalism, he has created a world of ghazals with remarkable sensitivity. This will undoubtedly help him establish a distinct identity in Hindi-Urdu ghazal literature.

Hamnashin is not simply a book to be read; it is a work to be felt. It gives readers an opportunity to look within themselves, reconnect with their past and rediscover their own emotions.

That is the greatest achievement of any fine literary work.

(The writer is a senior journalist from Bihar and has previously served as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Film Censor Board.)