Urdu poets impress expats in Jubail

Several Indian poets from the Eastern Province and Bahrain impressed fellow expatriates with their creativity at a gathering held recently.
The mushaira was organized by Hyderabad Deccan Connections (HDC), a socio-cultural organization, to entertain a gathering of 300 people. Mushairas have played a pivotal role in the propagation of Urdu for a number of decades.
The master of ceremony was Shiraz Mahdi Zia, a rising Urdu poet, who conducted the session in a lively style.
Nine poets recited their emotionally laden couplets with members of the audience calling for repeats several times. The poets included Iqbal Qamar, Suhail Saqib, Riaz Shahid, Rafeeq Akolvi, Baqar Naqvi, Saeed Gustakh and Sarfaraz Zia.
HDC has been operating in the Kingdom for 10 years. Mohammed Abdulsattar, executive vice president of the organization, likened it to a tree that needs to be nurtured by Hyderabadis to benefit everyone.
The HDC’s annual awards function is part of its Eid Milap program every year. HDC President Syed Waheed Lateef presented the annual award, “Pride of Deccan,” to Nayeem Javed. A sad moment of the event was that Dr. Abdussubhan Subhani, unfortunately died on his way to the venue to receive the “Pride of Deccan” award for his service to the community.
Mohammed Noman Ahmed received the “Gem of Deccan” award for his excellence in Islamic endeavors; and Kavya Sree Bhagavatula received an academic excellence award for scoring 93 percent in the 12th grade, and 2,400 for the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) II examination recently. The master of ceremony was Mansoor Khan who entertained the audience with his Deccani accent and maintained the decorum of the evening.
Ateeq Ur Rahman, a prominent Hyderabadi and International Indian School Jubail executive member (academic), delivered a presentation on how children could stay safe on the Internet.
Mujeeb Sultan and Mohammed Azam delighted the audience with their simple but tricky questions in their Islamic and Deccani quiz.
Event Manager Abdulrasheed Rouf conducted the awards ceremony, Mir Amjad Ali organized games for children, and Mohammed Abdulhaleem presented the vote of thanks.