Annual Lal Quila Mushaira 2007

Gulzaar, abruu-e-zabaaN ab hamiiN se hai
dilli meN apne ba’ad yeh lutf-e-suKhan kahaaN
(Anand Mohan Zutshi Gulzar Dehlvi)

And a meaningful couplet:
yuuN hii sar chaRh ke har ek mauj-e-balaa bolegii
ham jo Khamosh rahenge to hawaa bolegii
(Mehtab Haidar Naqvi)

na Khauf-e-barq, na Khauf-e-sharar lage hai mujhe
Khud apne baaGh ke phuuloN se Dar lage hai mujhe
(Malikzada Manzoor Ahmad)

tum aasmaaN ki bulandi se jald lauT aanaa
hameN zamiiN ke masaa’il pe baat karnii hai
(Shaa’er Jamali)

dil meN utregii to puuchhegii junuuN kitnaa hai nok-e-Khanjar hii
bataayegii ki khuuN kitnaa hai
(Shaharyaar)

yahaaN mazbuut se mazbuut lohaa TuuT jaataa hai
kaii jhuuTe ikaTthaa hoN to sachchaa TuuT jaataa hai
(Haseeb Soz)

tamaam ghar kii fizaa ko badaltaa rahtaa hai
voh ek khilaunaa jo aangan meN chaltaa rahtaa hai
(Azhar Inayti)

Dr Naresh, Makhmoor Saeedi and Waseem Barelvi also participated in the mushaira. The Laal Qila Mushaira used to be an important even in the calendar of Urdu events but like other mushairas, the standards have fallen here also. Gulzar Dehlvi’s couplet seems prophetic. Still, there are some voices (and upcoming poets) on whom rests the future of Urdu poetry.

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Sahitya Academy awards to Makhmoor Saeedi

The Sahitya Academy president Dr Gopi Chand Narang presented awards to writers of 22 Indian languages at a function in New Delhi.

Urdu poet Makhmoor Saeedi was amongst the recepient of the award for Urdu. He is a veteran poet. Personally I am no great fan of Makhmoor but he does represent a tradition as flagbearer of the Tonk school 9dabistan) of Urdu poetry.

Makhmur, a ‘kohna-mashq’ shaair, has been a permanent feature at the mushairas and poetic meets in Delhi for decades. Urdu India congratulates Makhmoor Saeedi.

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Fiftieth death anniversary of Majaz

The 50th death anniversary of Majaz Lakhnavi was recently observed. A programme was held in Aligarh where a mushaira was also organised. Here is the report:

Aaina: An Urdu web magazine

Aaina, an Urdu web magazine, which I recently discovered on the net, adds to the growing presence of Urdu media, especially from India, on the world wide web.

Yaadash bakhair! Oldies would remember that nearly five decades back, the Shama group had come up with a lifestyle magazine Aaina that was much ahead of its times.

And at the dawn of the twenty first century we have the new Aaina, a standard e-zine, which we hope would surely achieve success and have a long run. You can check the website here.

Tahsin Usmani is the editor of the webzine. The site doesn’t tell much about the publication and how long it has been on net, but the contents are interesting. Importantly, fonts are soothing to eye. (The Rashtriya Sahara group has made a mess of its website with fonts).

Aaina has several sections including News, International Affairs, National Issues, Cultural Activities and the poetry section. The best part is that it has a kids’ section, which is often neglected in Urdu papers and magazines.

The mushaira link on the site has nearly two dozen poets’ couplets/ghazals. Do they have an archive section, I wonder! Also, I felt that the site took slightly extra time to load. However, Mr Tahsin Usmani and his team needs to be congratulated for the effort for this bi-lingual webzine. Our best wishes for them.

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Sa’adi awards: Wali-ul-Haq Ansari, Waris Kirmani honoured

Eminent Persian scholars of India Wali-ul-Haq Ansari and Waris Kirmani are amongst the Indian writers who have been honoured by the government of Iran for their services to Persian language and literature.

Also, Kashi Nath Pandita, Syed Yunus Jaffery and Shoaib Aazmi were felicitated. The five authors were honoured on the 28th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran.

Waliul Haque Ansari is a well-known Persian and Urdu poet. Probably the most prolific Indian poet writing in Persian. His three collections of Persian poetry have been acclaimed by critics.

Waris Kirmani is also a renowned writer. About his recent autobiography ‘Ghoomti Nadi’, I have written a piece on this blog. He is now settled in his native town after retirment from Aligarh Muslim University.

Kirmani who is related to Qurratul Ain Haider, asked the latter, why she got so popular. Haider is said to have told Kirmani, that she wrote for the common man while Kirmani was always neck deep into the world of literature and addressed to the scholars and researchers. The awards were presented at the Iranian Culture House in New Delhi.

Hindustan Express (Urdu): A quality e-paper

At last, Urdu newspapers in India, have paid attention to the global audience and web editions are now being launched. The latest in the series is Delhi-based Hindustan Express.

The paper was launched in 2006 and has achieved success in little duration. But now the internet edition has also been launched. The website is www.dailyhindustanexpress.com

The site is neat and refereshing. The fonts are clear and unlike Rashtriya Sahara, the Urdu script used on this website is familiar to Indian eyes (not the Arabic fonts). Khalid Anwar is the editor while Sohaib Ahmad is the printer and publisher, as the printline says.

It is the beginning and so far the paper looks neat. Hopefully the website would be run efficiently unlike Urdu Times Mumbai where most supplements and other links are not updates. Inquilab has also the similar problem.

Another minor issue I noticed is that when you click on a page, either the link back to homepage is not available or the back button gets de-activated. Rest is fine. Best of luck to the e-paper and the entire Hindustan Express team.

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Sahara Urdu goes global

The Urdu daily Roznama Rashtriya Sahara, that is published from Delhi, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Patna, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad with soon-to-be-launched editions from Sri Nagar, Punjab and Bangalore, is now available on the internet.

The function was held in New Delhi to launch the web edition of the newspaper. K Rahman Khan, the Deputy Speaker of Rajya Sabha, launched the web edition http://www.saharaurdu.in

Aziz Burney, the Editor, was also present. Burney has rose in stature over the years with successful launch of multi-editions. Besides, his recent ‘special editorials’ including the series on Shia-Sunni differences in wake of Saddam Hussein’s execution and the Congress’ ‘secularism’ have been praised all over the country amongst Muslims.

He has called a spade a spade. Naturally, the newspaper is Sahara India’s venture and the tilt towards Samajwadi Party (SP) is evident. Or, is it the group that is grooming him to play a certain role!

His fiery speeches at the Muslim conferences all over the country–from Delhi to Bangalore, visits to Malegaon and Mumbai apart from the strong rhetoric on Muslims issues have been quite surprising. The newspaper has grown very strong and with Bazm-e-Sahara and weekly Alami Sahara also under his arm, the group is growing from strength to strength.

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