For These Youngsters, Urdu is Dear Zindagi

By Raza.Elahi

Contrary to the belief that Urdu is dying, some aficionados of the language have, in fact, helped it in gaining ground among Delhi’s youths -- both Muslim and non-Muslim. The younger generation's love for the language can easily be gauged by their presence in a huge number at recently held mushairas (poetry recitation), baitbaazi (verse competition), dastangois (story-telling) and dramas like Ghalib ke Khatoot and Bol Ke Lab Azaad Hain Tere etc.

The city’s youths attentively listened to actor Tom Alter’s recitation of Mirza Ghalib’s poetry at the recently concluded Jashn-e-Adab at India International Centre. They equally enjoyed Sham-e-Sher, an evening to celebrate poetry of renowned romantic poet Akhtar Shirani, in November last year.

While Vishal Bagh, a young poet, got acclamation for his couplet Daanishmandon, raasta batla sakte ho; Deewana hoon, virana tak jaana hai from renowned poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, Shiraz Husain -- a young artist –showed his effort to revive the forgotten poetry of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Ismat Chughtai and Majaz Lakhnawi etc., at Jashn-e-Adab. Shiraz makes paintings, diaries, post-cards and T-shirts, etc., with couplets of these legends on them.

Another budding talent Khaja Qausain Hashmi, a B.Sc student at Jamia Millia Islamia, is quick enough to write 12-line composition about the real essence of life after watching the newly-released movie Dear Zindagi. He recites, “Jab koi lehar chu kar guzar jaye; Jab koi rang char kar utar jaye; Jab koi shaam has kar mukar jaye; Tab zindagi hoti hai Dear zindagi …”

While Shiraz has a portal called Khwaab Tanha Collective (solitary dream) to showcase his love for the language, Qausain has a group of friends in their 20s who write, recite and literally inhale Urdu. There is a crop of budding talents like Vishal, Qausain and Shiraz, who help keep Urdu alive in the city.

“There are so many brilliant writers among us but they don’t get the exposure. We bring them and the established scholars, poets, writers and journalists on the same platform through various literary forms such as storytelling, plays, baitbazi, mushaira and ghazal,” says Kunwar Ranjeet Chauhan, secretary of Jashn-e-Adab festival.

Another young and avid lover of Urdu, who writes under his pen name Bezaar Khizr-e-rahwi, divides his time between his high pressure job of marketing communication and holding adabi nashishts (literary sittings) with the lovers of this language. He says that many young non-Muslims approach him to learn the nuances of Urdu language.

“Urdu is certainly the sweetest language and the poetry of Ghalib, Faiz, Iqbal and Meer is definitely one of the best and powerful in the world,” says Hemant Mishra, who is pursuing graduation from Jamia Millia and regularly attend Urdu programmes.

Appreciating the inclination of today’s youths towards this beautiful language, Javed Akhtar, however, feels that they need to read more of Urdu literature. “Read literature as much as you can so that you can enhance your Urdu vocabulary,” he suggested youngsters interested in shayari at an interactive session in the Capital last month

Whether one hears an upcoming poet Nitin Raja saying, "Urdu sa hai wo yaar mera; Nafasat bhi hai nazakat bhi hai or an established poet Manish Shukla, reciting, “Baat karne ka hasin taur-triqa sikha; Humne urdu ke bahane se saliqa sikha”, it is now generally felt by many Delhi-based Urdu lovers that the language is moving ahead with times.

Besides Jashn-e-Adab and Sham-e-Sher, the recent past has seen the city hosting a lot of activities to promote the Urdu language.

Events like Jashn-e-Rekhta, a three day Urdu festival, Jashn-E-Qalam, a storytelling event showcasing Saadat Hasan Manto’s Padhiye Kalma, Pierrot’s Troupe’s Jashn-e-Ghalib, showing three plays based on Mirza Ghalib, young poets’ meet and mushairas like Jashn-e-Bahar and Shankar-Shad have played their part to encourage youths by bringing country’s most distinguished Urdu litterateurs, poets, critics, Journalists, lyricists and ghazal singers, etc. to the city.

Jamia Millia Islamia, Ghalib Institute and Delhi Urdu Academy also hosted many mushairas last year which were widely attended by students of all streams.

(elahi.raza82@gmail.com)