Some years ago I had written the following fan mail to Justice Tahir Mahmood, for his article on the applicability of Urdu language in post independence India. He wrote in this middle piece of the Rashtriya Sahara an Urdu daily i subscribe, that while the teaching and learning of Urdu in India has been stymied, it still has hopes because its poetry would not let it die. He mentione dmany instances of MPs in both the houses making their cases with the help of Urdu couplets and Judges corroborating their points again by citing couplets. To top it all he proposed a toast to Bollywood which patronizes Urdu writers for its cinematic endeavors.
Dear Sir,
Asslam Alaikum
Hope this finds you in the best of health and spirits. If not then I sincerely wish and pray the same for you. I am writing this to u because reading your article this morning in the (Rashtriya Sahara editorial page 7) was an eye opener for me. May I have the opportunity to communicate with you how your erudite analysis of my mother tongue Urdu has immensely helped me? Before I begin please excuse me if this becomes too lengthy for you to read and if by now you are loathing me for writing to you in English while I just admitted Urdu is my mother tongue. Actually, the idea of writing Urdu in any other script gives me a cringe. It is like hitchhiking on a lesser vehicle when you actually own a vintage Rolls Royce! And I do not have Urdu script email facility. Besides, I would be ashamed to risk my broken Urdu in front of the finest Urdu columnist of the subcontinent (My personal unequivocal belief).
Sir, if I may have your attention, I live with my family in Aligarh district where my children go to a convent named Our Lady of Fatima Secondary School. Under the three language formula in this school the students are given the option to take either Urdu or Sanskrit as a third language in addition to Hindi and English in VI standard. I persuaded my son to opt for Sanskrit because he gets home tuition in Urdu and Arabic from a Maulvi sahib and by studying Sanskrit an addition to his repertory of languages would be made. Now, yesterday I was having an innocent womanly chit chat with a group of some friends when my friend Rajni asked my friend Anjana what language her son would opt for as he comes to standard VI this year. Anjana replied that there were no second thoughts about it that he will take Urdu because at least Urdu has better scope than Sanskrit. At this Rajni made a very bad face and replied that even Urdu has no scope while Sanskrit is much more scoring. I am very sensitive about my love for Urdu and I curtly contradicted Rajni. I told her that scores in this third language at school do not matter because the marks obtained by a student are not considered in his/her overall ranking and only qualifying marks are required for promotion to next level. Rajni sensed my emotions and changed her tone beginning to extol the virtues of Urdu poetry which she learnt in Abdullah Women’s College at AMU and how it helped her participate in baitbazi et al. The discussion came to an end with the intervention of a senior friend Seema Gupta who told us how it would be clever to let our children learn some Urdu if they had to draw benefits from getting in to AMU schools and then grab a medical or engineering seat as an internal who has claim to 50% seats reserved for this category. However, I had pent up feelings. I believe Urdu is much more than that - it’s the essence of the composite cultural heritage of this country. But overwhelmed by my emotion I could not say much and upset with my lack of advocacy to convince them I walked back home with a little thorn in my heart.
Then I read your article this morning. After reading it twice and learning by heart all the couplets you have quoted, I worded a little conversation with all my skeptical friends bogged by the question of making their offspring study Urdu at school or not. I would say, “in future your children might want to make a career in Bollywood, politics or judiciary. If so do let them take Urdu. Actually, MAKE them take it up because what I am saying is bolstered with well researched evidence from a very knowledgeable social observer and commentator”.
And I have to thank you for that, Sir.
All the very best for all your future endeavors and I am proud that I too am an Alumnus of the St. Andrew’s College Gorakhpur (B.Sc. 1995), because you too have earned some of your knowledge from the same premises.
Khuda Hafiz,
Faiza Abbasi, Ph.D.
Guest Faculty
Department of Wildlife Sciences
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh – 202002
Residence: 4/1263 – A
Behind Venus Tower
Opp. Jamia Urdu
Medical Road, Civil Lines
Aligarh – 202002
Phone: (Res) +91 571 2700777
(Off) +91 571 2701052
(GSM) +919760011520
Email: faeza.abbasi@gmail.com
Justice Mahmood not only acknowledged my mail but also based his middle piece of the forthcoming week on my observations. I am ever so grateful to him. I will try to reproduce the two articles in JPEG here.
Well, governments have changed and they will keep shifting butts on the same chairs - some times struggling cheek by jowl, but this reality of the Indian parliament has not changed. LS proceedings on TV sometimes include special half hour programmes on lighter moments of the Houses. Mostly they are packed with renditions of Urdu couplets and even long poems ie Nazm. The people's representatives in the houses also seem to be enjoying the same. There are giggles and thumping of tables at every #shair airing the plights of the oppressed.
However, it was amusing to strike one obvious difference between the ghazal, nazm, naat read by an Urdu #shayar at a mushaira. The poets have to read their own creations. They compose, write and recite an original poem. Mostly they appear in Mushairas without a piece of paper or a diary. Almost always they do not fumble for words. If they do they suavely cover it up in an impressive flow involving repetition of verses - which is allowed for making the delivery effective.
Secondly, they do not have to keep taking permission form the chair of the house for more time. They do not even reassure in between that they will not take much time. The Urdu #Shayar, while offering his self written poem to a mushaira has burnt his emotion and pain. So during a mushaira he performs only when invited honorably, he does seek permission from the sadar e jalsa (president of the function), but the latter never intervenes with a court yet firm 'please conclude'. Moreover the audience are good enough to make the shayar feel whether he is wanted or not. A constant in flux of daad and wah wah keeps his adrenaline rushing in the absence of which he retracts to his poetic cocoon. In his very own takhayyul ki duniya, he toils with human emotion for long after that.
And last, but not the least the payment from the public! A politician in the Parliament is at least ten times more expensive than a poet, for his time to the state exchequer. Further, the poet lifts up the men without any jeering and booing of the crowds. He may have even faced opposition from close family members. And he works in extremely insecure conditions where his family suffers economic deprivation. The world knows that Ghalib was under the debt of the whole world and Josh Malihabadi went to Pakistan long after his family had left because his children had no jobs in India. All this despite Pt. Nehru's special request to Josh sb to stay on! Still a poet from within will consume himself on the flame of poetry like a moth. Shama - parwana (do i need explain even that?)
So where the poets jostle with each other for honour in a low paid event the MPs call it a memorable day when they have fought with each other with hammer and tongs. Albeit, as long as we have urdu poetry being read on our screens in charged atmospheres - mushaira or pandal - happy viewing.
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