Don’t neglect Urdu: Gulzar

Hyderabad: Renowned lyricist, poet and film maker Gulzar visited Maulana Azad National Urdu University today to grace the inaugural of one day national seminar “Gulzar: Ehsaas Ka Safeer” (Gulzar: Ambassador of Emotions) organized in his honour by the dept. of Urdu, MANUU.

Dr. Mohammad Aslam Parvaiz, Vice-Chancellor presided over.

Gulzar, in his speech, said, "Writing is an automatic process and often when one writes, the writing process is inevitably influenced by others. But it’s important to discover one’s own style. Language like culture is not constant. Cultures innovate, so should the art of writing."

Speaking on Urdu he said, ‘Urdu had taken a lot of words from Prakrit, Sanskrit and even English. No doubt, Urdu is an Indian language. It was born here. Don’t neglect it. It’s Hindustani. He added that Urdu is used extensively in Bollywood. Almost 90 percent language used in Hindi movies is Urdu, he revealed. It’s important for Urdu speakers to reach out to the non-Urdu speakers. Urdu language needs to simplify itself more so as to endear itself to those who want to study it. Drop similar sounding alphabets, simplify it for the non-Urdu speaking population, he suggested.

‘Popularize Urdu through other scripts also including Devnagiri’, he opined. He gave the example of yesteryear’s heroine Vijayantimala who used to write Urdu dialogue in Tamil script.

A book entitled ‘’Gulzar ki Taqleeqi Sinf ‘Triveni’, Tashreeh vo Tajziya’’ (Gulzar’s creative genre ‘Triveni’ interpretation and analysis) by Dr. Taqi Abedi was also released.

On the occasion, Gulzar also enthralled the audience by rendering some of his famous poems ‘Kitabein’, ‘Yeh kaisa ishq hai Urdu zaban ka’, ‘Table Lamp’, ‘Balli Maraan’ in his unique & imitable style. Gulzar whose love and affection for famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib is well known, read a poem ‘Galli Qasim Jaan’ to pay glowing tributes to the famous Urdu poets. Gulzar regards himself as the ‘third servant’ of Ghalib.

Among the other speakers of the seminar, Prof. Naseemuddin Farees, Dean, School of Languages delivered the welcome address. Dr. Syed Taqi Abedi, Chief Guest, noted scholar from Canada delivered keynote address, Prof. Shahab Inayat Malik, Head, Dept. of Urdu, Jammu University Guest of Honour also spoke about the humility of Gulzar. Dr. Mohammad Aslam Parvaiz, Vice-Chancellor in his presidential address thanked Gulzar for visiting MANUU and reminded that the connection between eminent Bollywood poet and the National Urdu University is quite old. Gulzar had penned the University Tarana in 2014 in collaboration with Music Director Vishal Bharadwaj and rendered by well know playback singer Sukhvinder Singh. With this, Gulzar Sahib’s relation with MANUU will continue till the University exists, Vice-Chancellor remarked. Dr. Aslam Parvaiz also read out two of Gulzar’s poem, published in his Urdu Monthly ‘Science’. Prof. Farooq Bakshi conducted the proceedings and proposed vote of thanks.