Embrace Urdu once more

Baldev Singh 

In 1998, my wife and I went to Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi, for shopping. She bought a sari and I bought two books from a bookshop. When we were paying the bill for the books, the man at the counter said to me, “Sardarji, if you are interested in Urdu poetry, you may go down to our basement. Ali Sardar Jafri is releasing his latest poetry book.”

 The audience comprised about 150 persons — 15 women and the remaining elderly men. We sat in the last row. Sitting behind a beautiful table was the famed poet, with a lovely bouquet in front of him, and a plump man of around 65 behind the podium. He first introduced himself as Mr Gupta, a former Air Force man who wrote poetry in Hindi. Then, he introduced the poet such: “Ladies and gentlemen, Jafri saheb was born in 1913 in Bikrampur, a small town near Lucknow. His earlier college education was in Aligarh and later he finished graduation from Delhi. In 1942, he shifted to Mumbai, where he wrote scripts and songs for several Hindi films. During the past 60 years, he has written eight books of Urdu prose and nine volumes of Urdu poetry, including Mera Safar, which is being released today. His contribution to literature was acknowledged by the Government of India which honoured him with the Jnanpith Award. Only two other Urdu writers have been given this award — Firaq Gorakhpuri (1969) and Shrimati Quarratulin Hyder (1989).          

 “I now request Jafri saheb to recite some poems from Mera Safar.”

Ali Jafri went to the podium and thanked Mr Gupta for the function and the nice introduction. He then recited some poems. He took 40 minutes to complete his narration.     

When he finished, I raised my hand and said, “Sir, I need five minutes.” Mr Gupta replied, “Sardarji, we are already late, there is high tea waiting outside, you may discuss your point with Jafri saheb while taking tea.”    

 I got up and said, “Mr Gupta, we all have been listening to both of you for the past one hour without yawning and showing any sign of boredom. And now, when one of us wants to say something for just five minutes, you are not prepared to listen. Don’t you think it is unfair?” 

Before Mr Gupta could speak, Sardar Jafri started laughing and said, “Guptaji, today I am highly pleased; a gentleman has taught us an important lesson that the audience deserves respect. Sardarji, let others go for tea, we will sit here and I will listen to you for an hour.” I told him that I did not want to discuss anything with him, rather I wanted to talk to other members of the audience. He invited me to the podium. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, I want to remind you that Urdu is a very sweet, rich and beautiful language which, unfortunately, we have disowned,  placing it in the lap of Muslims and telling them that it is their child. We have thus deprived ourselves of the pleasure it gives when we read its lyrical prose and tantalising poetry. Queen Victoria learnt Urdu for 13 years from her cook, Abdul Karim. I request all of you to own Urdu, embrace it and help it reach its rightful place. And, for that, janab, let us start reading Urdu books again by buying them and not by borrowing them from libraries. How else will Urdu authors be encouraged to write?”