At the age of 16, Akmal Lewaney used to approach educated people with a request to write down the rhymes that came to his mind because he himself could not read and write. Some of his facilitators would laugh; others were surprised and impressed by his poetry considering he had never attended a formal school.

“They would sometimes tell me that I was mad as my mind continued to produce poetic lines. This prompted me to choose ‘Lewaney’ (mad) as my pen name,” says Akmal Lewaney, today a recognised Pashtu poet hailing from Katlang area of Mardan district.

Akmal had started composing rhymes at the age of 16. His first book, titled Yau Su Guloona (A few flowers) was published when he was 18 years old. Later, several other books came out.

Later he also decided to learn to read and write. He got admission in a school and passed the first two grades. “After passing the second class, I could write and read Pashtu and Urdu. After that I started writing my verses myself,” he recalls.

His poetry books include Tortam (Darkness), Ajeeba Paigham (A strange message) and Chapawuna Lewantob (Madness).

Akmal claims that he is a poet by birth. He says he discovered his ability to compose verses at the age of 10.

Akmal has a physical handicap. “I used to fetch twigs and fodder for cattle from nearby hills. In 1991, I was climbing a hill when I suffered a bad fall. The accident confined me to this wheelchair,” he says.

He says that an acquaintance advised him to visit the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar to seek treatment. “A doctor prescribed medicines that I took for some time. Later when I visited a hospital in Islamabad, a surgeon advised surgery.”

Akmal says before the surgery, he used to walk using a stick for support. “Later, when I found that the stick was no more enough, I started using a walking stand. But a time came when even that was not helpful and I was forced to use a wheelchair. The trauma is reflected in my verses,” he says.

Akmal has a son who is a junior government employee and looks after his parents. He also receives a small stipend from the Pakistan Academy of Letters. “The amount is meagre. Although, I appreciate the Academy’s gesture,” he says.

He says medical treatment has been a great financial burden. At one point he was forced to sell even the personal copies of his books. He has appealed to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to help with his treatment.