RIYADH, 27 October — Fifteen Urdu poets from India regaled a jampacked audience of over 2,000 Indians at the Independence Day Mushaira (Urdu poetry session) organized here at the International Indian School, Riyadh (IISR), auditorium last night. The event was inaugurated by Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad and his wife Sunita M. Ahmad.

This year the audience were privileged to listen to the living stalwarts of Urdu poetry, who have excelled greater heights in ghazal composition and standardized diction, in this category, the names of Dr. Kalim Ajiz and Prof. Waseem Barellevi is worth-mentioning.

Then, there were poets and poetess from different schools of Urdu poetry, whose recitation showed romantic trends, satires on social and political systems besides the consequences of the partition of the subcontinent. Adil Lucknawi, Jawher Kanpuri, Dr. Nawaz Deobandi, Haq Kanpuri, Tajwar Sultana, Anwar Jabalpuri, Shabina Adeeb, Popular Merruti, Shair Jamali and Ana Dehelvi performed brilliantly before the tough audience.

Speaking on this occasion, Zikrur Rahman, first secreatry at the Indian Embassy, said that the poets enthralled the audience with rhythmic ballads, ghazal (talking to the tender sex), odes, satirical verses, humorous parodies and a range of lyrical poetry representing the whole strain of Urdu compositions. The cultural confluence on the stage probably became the success of the mushaira.

Rahman, the brain behind the show, said that the mushaira will become an annual event. He said that he is exploring the possibility of organizing similar poetry session in Dammam.

He said that he did not face any budgetary constraints because of the voluntary move on the part of the local business houses to co-sponsor the event. He thanked the national carrier Air-India, Saudi Hollandi Bank (SHB), Sona Jewelers, Unilever and the India’s Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys Association (Riyadh chapter) for extending all possible help in organizing the event. Sona Jewelers and Lipton Co. also presented some gifts to the poets.

Referring to other cultural events to be organized by the embassy, Rahman explained that the mushaira was organized within the framework of the embassy’s cultural promotion program.

In the mushaira, a large number of Hyderabadi audience in particular and those from north India in general, enjoyed the compositions of Himayatullah Dakhani, a TV artist and Talib Khundmiri, a poet-cum-architect, who has designed over 400 mosque.

Speaking in a felicitation ceremony organized by the Riyadh-based Hindustani Bazm-e-Urdu led by Abdulrahman Saleem at the local Hyatt Restaurant, Dakhani and Khundmiri sounded upbeat on the future prospects of Urdu in India. Dr. Abid Moiz, vice president of Bazm-e-Urdu said that this literary group seeks to promote the cause of Urdu on the local and international level.

He, however, lamented that the IISR managing committee denied permission for the continuation of the program of Urdu debates on the ground that such extra curricular activities impinged on the school’s working hours.