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)

End of a Controversy

By Raza Elahi

Often-sung verse, ‘Na kisi ki ankh ka noor hoon, na kisi ke dil ka qarar hoon, Jo kisi ke kaam na aa sakey main woh ek musht-e-ghubar hoon’ (I’m the light of no one’s eyes, the throb of no one’s heart, I’m that fistful of dust that can be of no use to anyone), was wrongly ascribed to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal king.

It was actually written by Muztar Khairabadi (1865-1927), grandfather of Javed Akhtar, who said at a Jashn-e-Adab function here recently that the Devnagri version of the former’s collection of selective poetry would be released soon.

“Though some literary critics had earlier argued that this verse was not found in Zafar’s complete works, published in 1887, it was the discovery of this ghazal, written in Muztar’s own handwriting and the manuscript while shifting my house in Mumbai ended the controversy,’’ he said.

The last couplet of this ghazal attributed to Khairabadi reads: “Na main Muztar unka habeeb hoon, na main Muztar unka raqeeb hoon; jo bigad gaya woh naseeb hoon, jo ujad gaya woh dayaar hoon.” (Neither is Muztar her dear, nor is he her confidant; I am the fate that turned bad, the house that got destroyed).

Last year, Akhtar had released ‘Kharman’ (harvest), a five volume collection of Muztar’s poetry.

The complete ghazal is as follows:

Na kisī kī aañkh kā nuur huuñ na kisī ke dil kā qarār huuñ

Jo kisī ke kaam na aa sake maiñ vo ek musht-e-ġhubār huuñ

Maiñ nahīñ huuñ naġhma-e-jāñ-fazā mujhe sun ke koī karegā kyā

Maiñ bade birog kī huuñ sadā maiñ bade dukhī kī pukār huuñ

Merā rañg ruup bigad gayā mirā yaar mujh se bichhad gayā

Jo chaman ḳhizāñ se ujad gayā maiñ usī kī fasl-e-bahār huuñ

Pa.e fātiha koī aa.e kyuuñ koī chaar phuul chadhā.e kyuuñ

Koī aa ke sham.a jalā.e kyuuñ maiñ vo bekasī kā mazār huuñ

Na maiñ ‘muztar’ un kā habīb huuñ na maiñ ‘muztar’ un kā raqīb huuñ J

Jo bigad gayā vo nasīb huuñ jo ujad gayā vo dayār huuñ

While moving out of Bhopal in 1923, Muztar -- a magistrate -- left many of his papers, which a friend kept safely but could return that only to his son Jan Nisar Akhtar. The carton, carrying those papers would later be sent to Javed Akhtar. But it took many years before Javed Akhtar would find the time to go through its contents.

(elahi.raza82@gmail.com)