Urdu and Urdu Literature - Online Forum

The idea of starting a forum for promoting Urdu is not a new one. But in Doha there was never a platform so artful and distinct kind of as ours (will be); a moving one as I foresee. The idea is to bring people of understanding together regardless of nationality. It is just about Urdu.

Associations serving Urdu in Qatar whether perceived good or bad are a perfect specimens of their class. One of them has not its like in Qatar as far as aspiring writers are concerned. I do not disapprove any of them. I accept them and laud their efforts in making contribution to Urdu language and literature. But I insist that originality and quality should not be compromised.

I am neither a poet nor a writer. I tried to write some poetry and short stories in Urdu a several years ago but my writings did not pass my own quality test. I thus quit. During these formative years I made attempts to
start a forum (it wasn't online) in a Western country where I lived and studied. Naturally I encountered opposition from 'like-minded' people. To many it was useless as there were no people interested in Urdu literature specifically in Pakistani community. That was not disappointing because I know 'Fikr harkas baqadr himat aoust'.. and I also know that in many cases it is the impulse and the intention that are important not the degree of accomplishment.

Nothing lost out of Urdu though it is hugely 'altered'. You must have observed how many people speak fine Urdu these days. Mixed Urdu with English is a fashion and a 'redeemer' for those who are bad at both Urdu and English.

Urdu poets in Qatar (not all).. their poetry inspite of its merit and popularity suffers from inherent weakness with the uniform attitude to so called love, lack of intellectual content, the mechanical flow of verses and the decadence of inspiration are bound to produce a trivial and surface level work. Nevertheless their poetry fulfills the 'technical' requirements i.e. they have 'wazan' in their verses.. but its trivial nature has many reverberations including philosophical ones. For example the following 'sher'

'shukar kar khada ka meray bhai
jis ne hamari gayay (cow) banayi'

Above 'sher' is in 'wazn' but look at the merit, meaningfulness and reasonableness assuming that it isn't written for children. By the way it is not from any Doha-based poet. And it is just an example. One could quote Dr Iqbal's some poems that sounded similar; but they were written exclusively for children.
The poetry as Aatish puts it is..

'bandash alfaz jurnay se nagoon kaykam nahe
shayeri bhe kaam hay Aatish marsa'a saaz ka'

The Obvious Purpose of this forum is to serve Urdu and proposed aims are:

- Sharing writings of established poets and literary icons
- Writing of poetry and short story (afsana-negari)
- Exchange of views, intellectual discussion and sharing knowledge on literature
- Islah - By some experienced and established poets to the amateurs
- Research
- To promote Urdu and Urdu literature reading
- To provide a 'lush environment' for creativity and develop interest in literature

By suiting each aim to the purpose of serving Urdu gives unity to what would otherwise have seemed an oddly assorted points.

It is sufficient to say according to the proverb that here is God's plenty; there are many people in Doha with genuine interest and ability to contribute to Urdu and in my opinion 'save' Urdu. The idea of starting an online forum is not merely occasional or conventional but the product of an inner impulse. My love for Urdu literature prompted me to offer this unsolicited idea to other like-minded people. As you know it is an idea which is often necessary to get something started and I hope Urdu lovers will nurture it and bring it to the life. Yet I would like this forum (if successful) to be an exclusive domain of mature people. I have been guilty of complacent detachment in my attitude towards people who can't make distinction between a ghazl and a song or who think Wasi Shah is a better poet than Faiz and Nasir Kazemi..

I should make one point here: Urdu is not as mature as many other world languages such as English, Arabic French etc. But the work that has been done in Urdu by some of our intellectual giants who gave sincere and passionate quality including Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz, Faraq, Josh, Premchand (list is endless) is read and appreciated by many outside India and Pakistan. I have personally seen anthologies (in Urdu script with translation in foreign languages)of Nazir Akbarabadi, Inshallullah Khan, Ghalib, Aatish and Mir in places like State Library in Berlin, SOAS library and British Library. Surprising is that these books were borrowed from the libraries mostly by Westerners.

We could start a group at QL and/or at Yahoo or MSN. I would love to hear your suggestions and comments.

Have you heard me!

Kind Regards,

Faisal

PS. I am sorry for not communicating more succinctly.