why is the group silent on faizs centenary many of our senior members are in lahore and around this time we dont get a theatre venue easily reasons ramesh talwar director of sheeshon ka masiha however another senior member of ipta says nobody showed any interest in doing anything for faiz sahib we could have put up a show had someone sincerely initiated iturdu writerjournalist sajid rashid attributes the amnesia visavis faiz to the growing islamisation of urdu over the last few decades there is an attempt to downgrade the tradition of progressive writing in urdu a term islami adab islamic literature is being popularised says rashid a leftist who has often drawn flak from islamists political scientistpeace activist zaheer ali who met faiz in mumbai a couple of times echoes rashid islam has intruded into urdu and islamists will not appreciate a poet who is antiestablishment and marxisminspired mumbai once provided a launching pad for a galaxy of progressive writerspoets including mulk raj anand ali sardar jafri kaifi azmi sahir ludhianvi majrooh sultanpuri rajinder singh bedi and k a abbas whenever faiz visited mumbai progressives would make a beeline for his hotel room if this city does wake up and finally pay tribute to faiz it could explain its belated homage in the poets own words mujh se pehli si mohabbat mere mehboob na maang my beloved dont ask for the kind of love i gave you earlier