After mystery, adventure and whodunits, it was time for Hyderabadis to give in for full-throated laughter. Soon after the two-day seminar on Urdu’s top detective writer Ibn-e-Safi, the city was in for two days of fun and amusement. The eagerly-looked-forward-to annual programme of the Zinda Dilane Hyderabad lived up to its expectations.
It was mirth unabated all the way. Be it the essay recital session, jokes or humorous ‘mushaira’, there was none in the audience who did not giggle, chuckle or break into laughter uncontrollably. Even the inclement weather did not dampen the spirits. Humour lovers turned up in good numbers for a shot of the laughter therapy.
" Laugh and the world laughs with you
Weep and you weep alone"
That seemed to be the guiding principle. The king of humour, Mujtaba Hussain, set the ball rolling with his funny remarks at the ‘Adabi Ijlas’. Hyderabad, he felt, had become the humour capital of India since new jokes took birth here almost everyday. He saluted the ‘zinda dil’ spirit of the people.
“It is better for one to turn back and look,” he went on recollecting his half-a-century of humorous journey. “Whether one sees something or not, this exercise does a lot of good to the neck,” he remarked, sending everyone into peals of laughter.
Dr. Abbas Muttaqi stole the literary session with his essay on second marriage. Drawing upon his personal experience, he drew loud applause as he dwelled on various aspects of ‘aqde sani’. Faiaz Ahmed Faizi, Dr. Haleema Firdous and Hameed Adil also regaled the audience.
The ‘mahfil-e-lateefa’ proved to be a laugh-a-minute session. Though some of the jokes were not new, yet the way they were narrated amused everyone. Dr. Ram Prasad, a practising doctor, explained how his telephonic talk with his poultry farm keeper sent his patients helter-skelter. “A large number of birds perished,” the farm keeper informed. “What, five dead...,” as a surprised Dr. Prasad inquired, his patients fled fearing for their lives.
Old hand Daulat Ram, Fareed Sahr, Dr. Anandraj Verma and Iqbal Shana had everyone in splits with their jokes. Hamid Kamal did a fine translation of the Urdu proverb, ‘Begani shadii main Abdullah diwana’. In English, it is called ‘outsider marriage, Abdullah in garage’.
The heated parliamentary debates also figured in the joke session. Explaining the difference between mistake and blunder, the opposition leader told the minister: “If you accidentally fall into a manhole, it is a mistake, and if someone pulls you out, it is a blunder.”
The ‘Mizahia mushaira’ on Saturday evening was also a roaring success. Mustafa Ali Baig, who recites English-Urdu poetry and Popular Meerathi and Sarfraz Shahid of Pakistan regaled the audience with their witty poems evoking demands of encore.
