This Friday is the time for the annual mushaira Jashn-e-Bahar. Claimed to be the biggest such event in the National Capital, the mushaira – in its 17th year now – will feature some of the best names on the firmament of Urdu poetry from across the world besides presenting the best in contemporary Urdu poets from India.
According to Aparna S. Reddy, Convenor, Mushaira Jashn-e-Bahar, the 2015 session will feature as many as 10 Indian poets including the big names like Wasim Barlevi, Javed Akhtar, Munnawar Rana and Mansoor Usmani. There will also be Popular Meeruthi , Khushbir Singh Shaad, Meenu Bakshi, Aleena Itrat, Kaleem Samar and Alok Shrivastav.
Well known names from Pakistan like Kishwar Naheed, Amjad Islam Amjad and Ambareen Hasib will also be a part of the mushaira. Besides, there will be sessions with Abdullah Abdullah from New York, Ashfaq Hussain Zaidi from Toronto, Zhang Shixuan from Beijing and Omar Salim Al-aidroos from Jeddah.Attended by thousands of Urdu poetry lovers in the Capital every year, the event has also travelled to several places across India. The aim of the mushaira, organised by the non-profit organisation Jashn-e-Bahar Trust, is to keep alive and nurture the traditions of Urdu and the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb.“The purpose is to keep alive the tradition of a poetic dialogue between poets and their audience and also to contribute to the efforts of taking Urdu to a wider cross-section through filming and audio-visual documentation of the event as well through the national media which has supported us throughout our journey,” says Urdu activist and the head of Jashn-e-Bahar Trust, Kamna Prasad.
The Trust is also involved in developing a database on contemporary Urdu poets and runs a website which has become an effective interface between poets, Urdu lovers and the media. In collaboration with its sister organisation Jiya Prakashan, the Trust publishes collections of classical Urdu poets in Devnagri with the aim of reaching the best of literary works in the language to those who have an interest in Urdu but cannot read the script.
(The mushaira is on this Friday at DPS, Mathura Road, New Delhi, 6.45 p.m. onwards. For details, log on to www.jashnebahar.org)
