Poetry (Nazm): mafhoom, markazi khayal and sanaat-e-sher
Nazm questions in the Kerala SSLC Urdu paper test three things: mafhoom (what the lines say), markazi khayal (the one controlling idea of the poem), and sanaat-e-sher (the devices that make it poetry). A candidate who paraphrases well but cannot name the device loses the device mark; one who names devices without explaining the transfer loses the explanation mark. Poetry answers are shorter than prose answers but need a precise term in them.
Devices the paper asks for
- Tashbeeh: a comparison with a linking word - jaise, maanind, ki tarah. Dil jaise aaina is tashbeeh.
- Istaara: the link is dropped and the borrowed noun carries the quality directly - dil ka aaina toot gaya.
- Qafiya is the rhyming word at the end of the line; radif is the word or phrase repeated identically after it in every line. Order matters: qafiya first, then radif.
- Behr is the metre. At SSLC level you are usually asked whether lines share a metre, not to name the behr.
Worked example
Line: Umeed ki shama dil mein jalti rahi. Question: Kaunsa sanaat-e-sher hai? Reasoning: a shama (lamp) is not literally inside the heart, and there is no jaise or ki tarah to signal comparison, so the lamp's quality - light held against darkness - is transferred straight to umeed. That is istaara, not tashbeeh. A complete answer names the device and states the transfer in one sentence: umeed ko shama kaha gaya hai kyunki dono andhere mein roshni dete hain.
Traps that cost marks
- Calling every comparison tashbeeh. If the linking word is absent, test for istaara.
- Summarising the poem when the question asks about a device or about radif-o-qafiya.
- Omitting the poet's name when the question says shair ka naam bhi likhiye.
- Misplacing or mis-spelling the radif, which makes the whole answer wrong even when the idea is right.