Delhi to witness 'jashn' of Urdu poetry

Urdu lovers are in for a treat as renowned poets from countries like the US and Japan besides India will converge here on Friday and recite their verses at the annual 'Jashn-e-Bahar' poetic symposium.
Poets like Waseem Barelvi and Javed Akhtar from the country will share the stage with Fahmida Riaz from Pakistan, Hiroji Kataoka from Japan and Max Bruce from the US at the 15th edition of the event which will also see modern calligraphy by the late M F Husain adorning the stage.
'Jashn-e-Bahar', which claims to be the country's biggest unofficial, non-political mushaira, aims at nurturing Urdu poetry and the syncretic traditions the language stands for.

"Poetry unites cultures like nothing else does and the tradition of Mushaira is as old as poetry itself. It empowers us to serve our beautiful language," said Kamna Prasad, founder of Jashn-e-Bahar Trust and organiser of the mushaira.
"As it is, Urdu has always represented the best in the multi-cultural panorama that is India. We want to present the diversity in the practise of Urdu verse and its now global richness, to our audiences," she said.
Japan is being represented for the first time.

"In fact, we have invited three foreign poets whose madari zabaan (mother tongue) is not Urdu," Prasad said.

'Nazir-e-Benazir', a collection of verses of Nazir Akabarabadi, known as a people's poet and also as the 'Father of Nazm (a genre of Urdu poetry)', will be released at the event which will focus on contemporary and emerging aspects of Urdu's poetic expression, according to the organisers.
The mushaira, which has already travelled to several places across the country, celebrates creativity as expressed through the Urdu verse.
"It continues to be organised with the sole objective of keeping alive and nurturing the traditions of Urdu Ghazal and Nazm that were born in and have flourished in the soil of Hindustan," the organisers said.

The purpose is to keep alive the tradition of a poetic dialogue between poets and their audience and also to contribute to the efforts of taking Urdu to a wider cross-section through filming and audio-visual documentation of the event, they said.
Communication and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal and Press Council of India Chairman Markandey Katju would be present at the function, they said.
Kishwar Naheed and Harris Khalique from Pakistan, Omar Salim Al Aidroos from Saudi Arabia, Mona Shahab and Farhat Shahzad from the US and Zakia Ghazal from Canada are other poets who will be participating in the event.

Indian poets also include Sheen Kaaf Nizam, Mansoor Usmani, Popular Meeruthi, Nusrat Mehdi, Aqeel Nomani and Aalok Srivastava.