A book being presented to Mumtaz Rashid.

By Umer Nangiana

Carrying on with its decades old tradition of providing a platform to local talent to explore their literary prowess, the oldest Urdu literary organisation of Qatar, Bazm-e-Urdu Qatar recently held its Annual Mazahia Tarhi Mushaira (comic poetic symposium) at Bin Hajar Libraray Bin Omran.
While Qatar-based Urdu poets presented their recent work and gathered applause from the audience, Mumtaz Rashid, a well-known poet who lived in Qatar for over 30 years, presided over the mushaira. Rashid had especially come from Pakistan to participate in the annual function.
“Tarhi mushaira is the one where all poets are given one line from the works of some famous poet and are asked to write their poems or ghazals around it. So the words and ideas are original but they follow that one line in rhyme,” Muhammad Tahir Jamil, the Media Secretary of Bazm told Community. He also delivered the welcome note at the mushaira.
Beside the local poets, some poets from all over the world sent their comic poetry through e-mail and social media and they were recited at the mushaira. A renowned Qatar-based poet Azizi Nabil was the chief guest and Bazm-e-Urdu vice-patron Habibun Nabi was the guest of honour.
Deputy Media Secretary Athar Azmi conducted the first half of the mushaira, while Bazm-e-Urdu President Syed Faheemuddin conducted the rest of the evening in his typical style, reciting and quoting comic poetry from famous Urdu comic poets.
Those who presented their poems included Tahir Jamil Raqim Azmi, Ather Azmi, Faizi Azmi, Athar Zia, Syed Fartash  Mansoor Azmi, Syed Faheemuddin,  Qaisar Masood, Yousaf Kamal, Nadeem Maher, Aziz Nabeel, Shaukat Ali Naz, Shafiq Akhtar, and Amjad Ali Sarwar.
At the conclusion, Athar Azmi received an award for best comic poet. A book was presented to Mumtaz Rashid, Aziz Nabil and Habibun Nabi.
“We annually organise some four mushairas. Besides the mazahia (comic), we hold Hamdiaya (Poetry praising God), Naatiya (Poetry in the praise of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)) and Nazmiya (poems only) mushaira every year,” said Jamil.
The audience left the Bin Omran library completely entertained. Some prominent Urdu enthusiasts present at the session were Dr Tauseef, Dr Attaur Rehaman, Shamsuddin Raheemi, Khalid Dad Khan, Ibrahim Kamal Khan and Riyaz Mansoori.
The musharia ended with a late-night Biryani dinner sponsored by Syed Faheemuddin.
Established in 1959, Bazm is one of the oldest Urdu literary organisations of Qatar with members from India, Pakistan and other countries.
The organisation has played a key role in the promotion of Urdu language and literature in Qatar. The forum invited various poets from outside Qatar in 1984 and paved the way for international mushairas in the country.
From 1991 onwards, the forum has been holding objective seminars on legendary maestros. The seminars included Mir Seminar (1991), Iqbal Seminar (1992), Ghalib Seminar (1993), Afsana Seminar (1994), Amir Khusro Seminar (1995), Mir Anis Seminar (1996), Akbar Allahabadi Seminar (2003), Hali Seminar (2006), Zauq Seminar (2007), Nazir Akbarabadi Seminar (2009) and Bahadur Shah Zafar Seminar (2011).
Bazm’s office bearers include Amjad Ali Sarwar (chairman), Syed Fahim-ud-din (president), Mansoor Azami (senior vice-president), Ijaz Haider (vice-president), Ahmad Ashfaque (general secretary), Anwar Karim (senior joint secretary), Qaisar Masood (joint secretary), Tahir Jamil (media secretary), Fakhruddin Razi (PR secretary), Mahfuz Hassan (treasurer) and Salal Yousuf (media adviser).
Shaukat Ali Naz, Shafique Akhtar, Aziz Nabeel, Zawwar Hussain Zair and Ashfaque Deshmukh are members of the advisory board. M Sabih Bukhari is chief patron, Habibun Nabi is vice chief patron while Hassan Chougule, Shakeb Ayaz, Rana Ayub, Bilal Khan and Khalid Dad Khan are patrons.