HYDERABAD: Prominent poets of the country have said that poetry was an effective mean of expressing emotions, which can greatly affect human life as it is easy to convey one’s message to the people effectively through rhyme.
They said that the interest of youth in poetry was declining due to non organizing of public poetry festivals by the concerned organizations while the poets read and listened to their own poetry at most gatherings without public participation; however, they said that such programmes were useless.
They expressed these remarks during a poetry recital ceremony (Mushaira) organized by the Department of Sindhi, University of Sindh at Sheikh Ayaz Auditorium of Arts Faculty Building to mark the World Poetry Day on Monday.
The Mushaira was presided over by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Muhammad Siddique Kalhoro, while Sindh Minister for Culture and Education Syed Sardar Ali Shah and renowned Urdu poet Amjad Islam Amjad attended the event as guests of honour.
Addressing the participants, the Vice Chancellor said that Seraiki poetry along with Sindhi and Urdu was also presented in the mushaira which although most of the young people sitting in the hall were incomprehensible, yet all the audience was enjoying the
recital of poetry because of the poet’s style of delivery of words.
“In fact, this is the perfection of poetry that when you do not understand it properly but you still resonate and rejoice”, he said and appreciated the efforts of provincial minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah for doing a great job by organizing fairs and poetry recital events.
He informed that the minister of education had recently recruited thousands of teachers on merit, which was a commendable initiative, it will improve education at the grass root level and the talented youth will come to seek admissions in the universities in the days to come, he hoped.
He said that a pleasant environment had been created in the University of Sindh for the students, especially the female students, due to which 9000 girls were present on the campus at the same time.
He said that female students in Sindh University were as safe as they were at their homes. “We are taking full care of the girl students because they are our responsibilities, ” the Vice Chancellor said and added that the university was the only institute of higher learning in Sindh wherein more than four thousand female students resided in girls’ hostels and they had also been provided with sports facilities so that they might remain mentally fit and healthy.
Addressing the ceremony, the provincial minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah said that the gatherings in which the poets themselves sat, read and listened to their poetry were of no use. “Only those poetry recital gatherings are vital where there is much public
participation: , ” he said and added, “ Let’s give the opportunities to youths to fully participate and listen to the poetry and give heartfelt appreciation to the poets as it is happening here today”.
He said that there were many famous universities in the world including Oxford, Cambridge and Yale, but the focus of poetry had been on the rocky land of Jamshoro and Sindh University adding that this all was because of the romantic and poetic
temperament of Sindhi people.
He said that he also wrote a poem while passing out from Mehran University as a graduate that “Jamshoro pirein j paarat athai” (O Jamshoro! Kindly take care of my beloved), which later became very popular among the youth.
He said that due to the pressure of parents and lack of proper career counselling, the youth studying in the universities of Jamshoro were often sad and they had no one to take away their sadness. Art and music were very important for a happy life and the
youth could not spend a better time without loving poetry and melody, he added.
He said that incidents of harassment in universities were unacceptable, if any case was defunct, it should be strongly dealt with, even the teacher if found involved in such things should also be expelled.
He said that the Sindhi society was not extremist but liberal and there was tolerance in it adding that communication with the world was no longer a problem these days. “If after effective communication, the girls from abroad can reach Jamshoro to get
married, then reading and understanding world literature is not a big problem”, he said on a lighter note”, he added.
The minister said that it was important to read and understand modern literature of the world so as to get new ideas and novel things for composing better Sindhi poetry.
Among others, renowned poet Amjad Islam Amjad and Commissioner Hyderabad Nadeem ur Rehman Memon also spoke on the occasion. The poets Ali Dost Aajiz, Mor Mugheri, Khalil Kunbhar, Kishore Humerani, Dr. Pasand Ali Khoso and many others also attended the function.