Portraits of 40 Urdu poets on display

SD Sharma

Panchkula, October 7

‘Urdu hai jiska naam, hameen jantey hain dagh,

Saare jahan mein dhoom, hamari zubaan ki hai.’

To restore the glory of Urdu, the Adabi Portrait Gallery was inaugurated on the premises of the Haryana Urdu Akademi here today.

“It is indeed a welcome step,” said chief guest RK Khullar, Principal Secretary to the Haryana CM. Eminent art historian Dr BN Goswami was also present. Dr Dheera Khandelwal, Additional Chief Secretary, participated in the inaugural ceremony.

Madhav Kaushik, Vice-Chairman, National Sahitya Akademi, and prominent poets and authors of the region were present.

Dr Goswami highlighted the role of Urdu poets in the national literature and expressed anguish over those terming Urdu as a foreign language.

As many as 40 portraits of acclaimed Urdu poets, including Mir Taki Mir, Mirza Ghalib, Josh Malihabadi and Firaq Gorakhpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, are featured in the gallery. Photo journalist and artist Vinay Malik was lauded for creating the gallery. Eight books were released at the function.

Dr Chander Trikha, Director, Haryana Urdu Akademi, said 360 students have been so far enrolled for diploma course in Urdu.

Hindi play staged

Artistes of the Being Association, Mumbai, staged a Hindi play, ‘Radhey’, at Tagore Theatre here today. The play tries to explore the impact of war on people from different sections of society and highlights their desires, dreams, anger and changing relationships with each other.