The lawns of the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi were jam-packed with exuberant admirers of iconic nonagenarian humour writer Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi who gave a standing ovation as the ceremony, presided over by poet Zehra Nigah started.
The fans of Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi were delighted, at the opening session of the seventh International Urdu Conference, with the ceremonial launch of his latest book, "Shaame-e-Shair-e-Yaaran". The book came after 24 years gap and is his fifth book in 53 years when the author published his first book 'Charagh Talay' in 1961.
The writer for the first time in his life, now 96 years old, had allowed holding a launching ceremony for any of his books, including "Khakam Badahan" (1969), "Zarguzasht" (1976) and "Aab-e-Gum" (1990).
"While writing, the humorist had to be watchful not to criss-cross the fine line between quality humour and jesting, and Yousufi had always been cautious about his craftsmanship and diction," said Zehra Nigah while praising Yousufi's works.
Literary luminaries from Pakistan, India and other countries spent the next few days discussing the state of Urdu language in the contemporary world at the seventh International Urdu Conference kicked off at the Arts Council of Pakistan last Thursday, with a session presided over by celebrated writer Intizar Hussain that deals with the general state of language, literature and culture.
'Today literature and language are not on top of society's priority list', Dr Pirzada Qasim pointed out, at the first formal session of the 7th International Urdu Conference.
Every era had its priorities, the time in which we are living is a digital age and world has become a global village. The younger generation is much interested in science and technology rather literature and culture. And if the trend continued, there would be rapid decline in intellectual pursuits, something that writers and thinkers should guard against.
'The world was rapidly moving towards a global culture. Finally, as history would endorse, the culture of the majority always made the culture of the minority diminish into oblivion. However, if the minority's culture had something inherently extraordinary in it, it could be saved from getting merged into a bigger stream. Therefore the Urdu-speaking community living in different parts of the world (not just in the subcontinent) should come up with a strategy how not to get merged,' Dr Qasim warned.
Qazi Afzal Husain, an Indian scholar said, "On a collective level it helped us communicate with one another and on an individual level it fulfilled our urge to create or be creative."
According to him language fulfils human's social as well as creative needs. We need to express ourselves and language is a medium to do so.
He said, "Since independence there were signs that our creative language had evolved as we read novels written by the likes of Intizar Husain and ghazals penned by poets such as Ahmed Mushtaq and Munir Niazi. But in India the situation in terms of quality writers is less encouraging than in Pakistan."
In old times the television was considered like a family member, therefore, dramas were written keeping the family factor in mind, said writer Asghar Nadim Syed in a session about Urdu plays.
Writer Hasina Moin, Actor Talat Husain, Writer Noorul Huda were of the view that the reason for the decline in the quality of plays and playwriting is that in the past trained and educated people used to teach and do drama. Now we don't want to learn just want to be famous as early as possible.
In the session of the conference was on 'peace in the region' Indian poet Obaid Siddiqui, Writer Masood Ashar and Iftikhar Arif shared the aspect of vested interests on both sides of the divide in any conflict, because although a good number of people wanted peace while there are also groups on either side which did not want that.
The organisers of the conference have done a great job by arranging the moot for seven years continuously and are followed by other cities of the country, now there are also conferences held in Lahore and Islamabad. They must keep the good work going.
The four-day 7th International Urdu Conference concluded last Sunday evening with the passage of a resolution that Urdu and other national languages be given due importance to create a national character and develop national integrity; and to introduce a hassle-free process of exchange of books between India and Pakistan as part of the efforts to defuse tensions between the two countries, presented by Ahmed Shah, Secretary Arts Council.
Before the concluding session, Zia Mohyeddin recited Urdu nazms and read out excerpts from Urdu prose, which was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience.
Earlier Ahmed Shah, Secretary Arts Council welcomed the guests and said; "The conference was an academic event and a cultural congregation."
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