Washington is the place to be for enjoying Urdu-Hindi poetry

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URDU-HINDI POETRY AND WASHINGTON | TheGhouseDiary.com 

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I am glad I moved to Washington, besides getting a chance to fulfill my dream of
working towards building a cohesive America, I am enjoying the fellowship and
the literary aspect of my life as well. 
I have a deep passion for the Urdu (Hindi) Poetry and Washington is the
place to be!  I just cannot rave about
the intellectual stimulation with the folks around here.

Dr. Zafar and Nuzaira Iqbal had invited a few friends for dinner, and some of
them are Poets and a joy to hear. The gathering was to honor the visiting poet Sarwat Zahra.  Dr.
Satyapal Anand was a special guest, who is a scholar with mastery in Urdu, Hindi, English and Farsi
Poetry, one must hear him, indeed, and I am encouraged and influenced by his
style of independent prose like poetry.  He
is a legend in the Urdu poetry.

Dr. Moazzam Siddiqi is a treasure of knowledge, I have heard him talk about the
father of Urdu-Hindi language Amir Khusro, and want to hear more, and last
night he spoke about Meera’s devotion to Krishna.  There is an art in telling stories that only
a few have mastered and Dr. Siddiqi has become my favorite person to hear and
learn from.

Dr. Zaheer Parvez recited two poetries – one was about the story of endurance
of African Americans, and the other was his days in UC Berkley, as Dr. Anand
commented on the poetries, I literally saw his poem in pictures, that’s how
powerful his poetry was, and his poem should be a part of the African American
Museum, he knows what integration means and I loved his poems.

Sarwat Zahra was the honored guest poet – Dr. Anand had written a preface to
her first book, and what a fine introduction that was. I wish I had recorded
it.  Sarwat’s poems are visual, a picture
jumps at you with each word in her poem, it is about the daily lives of women
and what they go thru, great expression and accurate depictions of the story of
women in the subcontinent.  What appealed
to me about her poetry was her breadth of references, she shared a poem about
Jesus, and then recited the poem about Meera and Meera’s devotion to Krishna
and how she struggled with it, and Dr. Siddiqi hung the moon by narrating the
story of Meera.  Meera was known for her
devotion and here devotional songs she had composed some 500 years ago, and per
Dr. Anand, only M. Subba Lakshmi had rendered them beautifully to the point
that Pandit Nehru paid a visit to honor her.
 

Sarwat is heading to Dallas and
Houston, she has a program on the 12th and I urge everyone to hear
her out, and I have asked her to recite Meera’s poem for my friends Surendra
Mittal, Kundan Sharma and my buzurg DD Maini, and Jesus’s poem for Javed Gill.  I am sure she may have touched upon the Sikh
life as well, if she has I hope she would recite for Dr. Harbans Lal.
More about : Sarwat Zahra on facebook and her website – http://www.sarwatzehra.com
Thanks to Dr. Amer Shakil of Urdu Ghar for being available to talk with Sarwat,
 and I hope my friend Raja Zahid Khanzada
will write about her and video tape for Geo TV.

I briefly spoke about the
Organization I am working with – The American Muslim Institution, and thanks to
Dr. Moazzam Siddiqi for such a fine and humbling introduction.

Happy Janamashtami – details about it at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/sri-krishna-birthday-celebration-janmashtami_b_1762997.html

….
Mike is a speaker, thinker, writer, pluralist, TV-Radio commentator and a human
rights activist committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic
solutions on issues of the day. His info in 63 links at MikeGhouse.net and writings at TheGhouseDiary.com  


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