Mushaira Magic

Urdu connoisseurs in the city are in for a feast as the Mushaira Jashn-e-Bahar 2009,organised by the city-based Jashn-e-Bahar Trust,brings together eight Urdu poets from Pakistan,Saudi Arabia,India,even China and England for their 10th anniversary. “Our purpose is to keep alive the tradition of Urdu poetry,” explains Kaamna Prasad,founder of the Jashn-e-Bahar trust and an Urdu activist. Of the eight distinguished poets,the surprise package of the evening are going to be two poets — Zhang Shi Xuan of China and David Mathew from England who,according to Prasad,speak “khaalis Urdu.” Both the poets write and teach Urdu,apart from writing poetry in the language. The evening will be held against the backdrop of a 16 ft X 7 ft long acrylic-on-cloth mural of Omar Khayyam painted by MF Hussain and will have Dr Shahryar (who penned down songs for Muzaffar Ali’s movie Umraao Jaan) as one of the guests.

Mushaira Jashn-e-Bahar will be held at DPS,Mathura Road,on April 10 at 6:30 pm. Contact:26862600