Invite for Hindustani Awaaz event

All RUMI lovers, listen up...

Fahmida Riaz, feminist, poet and writer, will speak about Rumi in our monthly series 'Why It Speaks to Me'.

Her talk will be followed by a Q&A session moderated by Subodh Lal.

Organised by Hindustani Awaaz in collaboration with the Attic.
Date: Thursday, 31 Oct
Time: 6.30 pm sharp
Venue: The Attic, Regal Building, Connaught Place, New Delhi

Please join us for Tea at 6.00 pm.

My New Book, NEW URDU WRITINGS: FROM INDIA & PAKISTAN

Another new book, a collection of Urdu short stories, edited by me. Called NEW URDU WRITINGS: FROM INDIA AND PAKISTAN, it has 30 stories reflecting the best of contemporary Urdu fiction. Published by Westland, it will be formally launched in November. Meanwhile, it is available on Flipkart and other online stores as well as major bookstores in India. Here is a link:
http://www.flipkart.com/new-urdu-writings-india-pakistan/p/itmdp45w4fk9trfy?pid=9789383260379&otracker=from-search&srno=t_6&query=rakshanda+jalil&ref=cf7e648a-8a7d-4036-9a4f-20cf09be56a6

New Urdu Writings from India & Pakistan (Paperback) Price: Rs.328

This could easily be for audiences who read in both languages: Hindi and English. Further with Sufism coming up on the charts in music and films, this anthology could well become a favorite with those who are passionate about the sensibilities in the subcontinent: India, Pakistan and even Bangladesh. The sense of a great literary tradition and emotions which are similar. As the editor of this collection, Rakhshanda Jalil makes it amply clear in the Introduction It will make very little difference if you read this book from back to front or the other, more conventional way, around and puts the 30 stories from India and Pakistan in the context of a shared language involving similar emotions. If in the Mourner of the Feet, an itinerant shoe witnesses an adulterous wife with merciless hips conducting her marital life, in Revulsion a young boy chances upon the sexual escapades of an ageing maid with young servant boys, almost mirroring the desperation of the household ; in Joginder Pauls story, the futility of war between countries throws up a tragic-comic situation involving the picture of a girl child, even as a father awaiting his sons arrival on an airplane fervently prays for his co-travellers in Mansha Yads story; Laila in Jeelani Banos Empty Bottles is urban affluent and decidedly rejects her poetic lover for the comforts in her parents home and Sonu in Tarannum Riyazs City struggles to care for his infant sister and a dead mother in their fortified and spacious flat; Farzana blames her burqa for her transgression involving the murder of her children while Noor Bano is forcibly married to the Holy Quran and defiantly.

My new book, Excelsior: The Story of Wynberg-Allen School

Here is the cover of my new book, Excelsior: the Story of Wynberg-Allen School, published by Niyogi Books. The book celebrates the history of this 125-year old institution and revisits the legacy of Anglo-Indian schools to the Indian school system:

Mera Paigham Mohabbat Hai, 26 Sept: Invite

Hindustani Awaaz, in collaboration with the Attic and SAHMAT, takes great pleasure in inviting you to an evening of poetry recitations.

THE ATTIC 36 REGAL BUILDINGS, NEW DELHI  TEL: 23746050
www.theatticdelhi.org

 


thursday 26^th september
6.30 pm “Mera paighaam mohabbat hai” organized by Hindustani Awaaz & SAHMAT

An evening with SAHMAT – to coincide with the three-day seminar on Secularism and the Arts -- where Saif Mahmood, Panini Anand and Kanishka Prasad take you through a journey of the pluralistic landscape and secular ethos of Urdu and Hindi poetry.

Saif Mahmood
Saif Mahmood is a New Delhi-based litigating and corporate lawyer, holding a doctorate in Comparative Constitutional Laws in South Asia. He speaks and writes on diverse issues ranging from law to literature. Founder of the online group, South Asian Alliance for Literature, Art & Culture (SAALARC), he remembers most of his Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz by heart, recites them effortlessly and translates them into English cautiously. Saif has been associated with both Hindustani Awaaz and SAHMAT. He blogs on besabab.wordpress.com and is currently writing a series on Urdu poets of Delhi titled “Dilli jo ek sheher tha”.


Panini Anand
A fearless journalist and courageous writer, Panini Anand, has been involved in theatre, documentaries, puppet shows, songs and poetry for mass movements and people’s struggles for more than a decade. He has frequently aroused audiences with his heart-warming recitation of prominent as well as lesser-known Hindi poets alike.

Kanishka Prasad
Architect by profession, photographer by passion, peoples’ rights activist in practice and romantic at heart, Kanishka Prasad is almost omnipresent when it comes to literature, art and culture. His mobile handset is a repository of Hindustani poetry and his calendar reads like a Delhi Diary.  Having inherited a rich cultural, literary and academic milieu, Kanishka has been involved with SAHMAT since childhood.

A Seminar on Secularism, followed by poetry readings

Friends, I have helped put together a seminar on Secularism with SAHMAT. The seminar will be from 26-28 Sept at the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. The details are given below. Do try and come for some of the sessions.

 

Also, join us on the evening of 26th September at the Attic, Regal Building to hear Saif Mahmood, Panini Anand and Kanishka Prasad recite poetry in a programme entitled 'Mera Paigham Mohabbat Hai'. This part of the programme is in collaboration with Hindustani Awaaz and the Attic.

 

 

 All are welcome.

On Faiz and the vexing issue of copyright, in The Hindu, 22 September

Here is my article on Faiz and the issues concerning his copyright...


http://www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/being-fair-to-faiz/article5149505.ece?homepage=true

Pages from Mamu's Autograph Book, circa 1947

Flipping through the pages of my Mamu's ancient, somewhat battered Autograph Book (Mamu is Masha Allah close to 75 years of age), I came across this little nugget by Sahir Ludhianvi, written in his own hand:

Hameen se rang-e-gulistan, hameen se rang-e-bahar
Hameen ko nazm-e-gulistan pe ikhtiyar nahiin

 
Btw, Mamu's Autograph Book contains gems from some of the greatest writers, thinkers, poets, teachers of his times including the one much-quoted one by Zakir sahib, 'Jo kaam karo dil laga kar karo; agar woh iss qabil hai ke kiya jaye to iss qabil bhi hai ke dil laga ke kiya jaye.'



Here's another gem from Mamu's Autograph Book; this one is by his own father, Ale Ahmad Suroor and is dated October 1947:

Kaash tumhe hum se achcha zamana mile aur uss zamane ke badalne mein tumhara bhi hissa ho. Mulk aur qaum se mutalba kum karo; usse do bahut kuchch. Yeh baat mushkil hai magar badi baat hai.

And another treasure, a sher by his father Ale Ahmad Suroor:

Har ek jannat ke raste ho ke dozakh se nikalte hain
Unnhi ka haq hai phoolon pe jo angaron pe chalte hain

Haqayaq unn se takra kar naye pahloo badalte hain
Bade hii sakht jaan hote hain jo khwaabon pe palte hain