World Exclusive: Lost Verses of Iqbal

C.M Naim sends along a world exclusive to the CM audience about a copy ad written by none other than the Muhammad Iqbal. This is big, folks. If Walt Whitman had endorsed a New England Clam Chowder company, it wouldn’t be as big:

While looking around in a forgotten public library at Shimla I came upon a file of an equally forgotten Urdu magazine called Nairang-i-Khayal for the year 1929. That is nine years before Iqbal passed away. One of the issues had an advertisement for green tea. I reproduce it below:

کيا فرماتے ەيں ملک الشعرا

جناب علامە ڈاکٹر سر محمد اقبال صاحب اسکي تعريف ميں

چاے سبز است کيمياے شباب پير صد سالە را جواں سازد

مشتهر: حاجي محمد دين فيروز دين ، چاينە ەاوس ، ڈبي بازار ، لاهور

Translation

See how it is praised by the Poet Laureate

Janab Allama Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal:

“Green tea is the Elixir of Youth + It makes a hundred year old man young again.”

Advertiser: Haji Muhammad Din Feroz Din, China House, Dabi Bazaar, Lahore.

A rejuvenation of Mashriqi Mard into Mard-e Kamil via Sabz Chai. Brilliant. My thanks to Naim Sahib. (Dabi Bazaar is in Old Lahore, Rang Mahal. )

Time for a cup of tea at a store in the old city of Peshawar, Pakistan.