KARACHI: A book on the stories of Sheikh Saadi was launched at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa). The book, Three Tales fromGulistan-i-Saadi, has been edited by Zarminae Ansari.

Napa chief executive Junaid Zuberi welcomed the guests and introduced Ms Ansari and said the academy had in the past too held programmes on Urdu literature, said a press release issued on Sunday.

He recalled that Napa founder Zia Mohyeddin was so particular about Urdu diction that he would often correct the management on mispronunciations.

He also pointed out that being a national academy, Napa was committed to promoting the national language.

Talking about the Joy of Urdu, an organisation committed to promote Urdu and its literature, he said it was also such a forum that was working in the same direction as they were working on children of Urdu-speaking expats who were now no more close to Urdu, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Zarminae Ansari made a detailed introduction of the Joy of Urdu and spoke about her own experience as a mother ignited the desire in her to start this organisation.

She said the Joy of Urdu was a bilingual forum because the target was the youth, who spoke mostly English though they came from an Urdu-speaking background. She thanked Dr Syeda Arifa Zehra for always being on her side during the formative times of the forum. She was also thankful to Bari Mian Farangi Mahal for guiding her in her work.

Later, a panel discussion, moderated by Ali Habib, was also held.

The panellists included Ms Ansari, Yasmeen Mozaffar, Mr Zuberi and Bari Mian Farangi Mahal.

In the discussion, Ms Ansari said the forum was primarily meant for expat families but later she had realised that it was also needed inside Pakistan.

Ms Mozaffar lamented the society that had taken away the children from Urdu. “People round the world translate foreign literature into their own language to make them accessible to their folks, but we have to use English to make our youth reach out to our own language,” she said.

Bari Mian Farangi Mahal said there was nothing wrong in being bilingual. He said his father always stressed the need to use the language that was the language of the person spoken to, even though he would hardly speak English.

Ms Ansari admitted that the book was expansive, but pointed out that her organisation did not receive any funding for this project from any source. All the work was done voluntarily by the members and expenses were entirely covered from their own pockets, she said.

She did agree that the book needed to be made accessible to schoolchildren.

After the panel discussion, Tashina Rashid Nur, aka Aunty Tashi, read excerpts from the book.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2024