|
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The Urdu Academy of North America held its regular monthly literary session on April 17, 2016 at the Chandni Restaurant, Newark, CA. The session was dedicated to the life and work of two prominent Urdu poets, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan and Shohrat Bokhari.
The literary event was presided over by Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Siqddiqui.
The first session of the literary event was dedicated to the life and work of Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. Prominent poet of Bay Area, Arshad Rashid, MC for the first session, presented a well researched paper on the life and work of Raja Mehdi Ali Khan who was well-known for his songs for Hindi/Urdu movies.
As usual, a number of Urdu lovers recited the poetry of Raja Mehdi Ali Khan: Abdus Sattar Ghazali, Almaas Shabwani, Mobeen Khalil, Hatim Rani, Khalid Iqbal, Khalid Rana, Zeeshan Abbasi, Dr. Priya Satiya, Nagesh Avadhany. Almaas Shabwani, Dr. Priya Satiya and Nagesh Avadhany .
Raja Mehdi’s early tutoring was under his mother Hebay Saheba soon after he had lost his father at the age of 4. Later on, their family friend, the famous poet Dr. Allama Iqbal became his mentor/tutor. Dr. Iqbal has acknowledged Hebay Saheba as a leading Urdu poet. Probably his association with Dr. Iqbal had initiated the poetic creativity in Raja Mehdi.
In the early forties while working at All India Radio, Delhi, Raja Mehdi got a call from his friend Sadat Hasan Monto, the noted Urdu writer, who had joined Hindi films. Raja started as a dialogue writer and did a role in Ashok Kumar’s 8 Day’s but writing dialogues and acting was not for him.
Raja Mehdi’s poems and short stories regularly appear in Urdu magazines like ‘Beesween Sadi’, ‘Shama Bano’ and ‘Khilona’. He is survived by a wealth of songs and Urdu ‘Diwans’ like ‘Andaaz-E-Bayaan Aur’ and ‘Mizraab’
Raja Mehdi Ali Khan breathed his last on July 29 1966 leaving behind a treasure of songs that are still cherished by all lovers of poetry in film songs.
Urdu Academy pays tribute to Shohrat Bokhari
The second session of the literary was dedicated to the life and work of Sohrat Bokhari, a renowned Urdu poet. Moiz Khan was MC for the second session. He presented a well researched maqala on the life and work of Shohrat Bokhari, born as Syed Muhammad Anwar on 2 December 1925 in Lahore.
As usual, a number of Urdu lovers recited the poetry of Shohrat Bokhari: Arvind kumar, Abdus Sattar Ghazali, Hatim Rani, Kausar Saiyed, Khalid Iqbal, Mobeen Khalil, Nagesh Avadhany, Syed Aslam, Zafar khan and Zeeshan Abbasi.
Shohrat Bukhari did his graduation from Islamia College Lahore and received his MA Urdu and MA Farsi degree from Punjab University.
He worked for some time in Majls-e-Zaban-e-daftar, after which he joined academics and had been the head of the Department of Urdu and Persian at Islamia College of Lahore.
He was the disciple of Abid Ali Abid and Ehsaan Daanish.
His notable literary works include Khoe Huwon ki Justuju, Taaq-e-Aabru, Deewar-e-Girya and Shab-e-Aaena.
According to her daughter Barrister Maqsooma Bukhari, her father had donated all his books to the library of the Islamia College Civil Lines where he used to teach.
Prof Shohrat Bukhari was mainly a ghazal poet. He left a deep impact on his students during his teaching career.
His association with the Halqa Arbab-i-Zauq dated back to his days as a student in the Islamia College.
He passed away on October 11, 2001 in Lahore at the age of 75.
At the end of the program, Tashi Zaheer, President of the Urdu Academy thanked entrepreneur Syed Sarwat for patronizing Urdu in the Bay Area.
See More Pictures
|
