LAHORE: Mr Zia Mohyeddin will be treating the audience to prose and poetry from Urdu literature at the Ali Auditorium on Friday (today).

In its 29th year, the programme will start at 6pm sharp. The event is held on Dec 31 each year but its latest edition was delayed because of unavoidable circumstances.

This event has consistently been entertaining audiences since 1987. The choice of readings is made by Zia Mohyeddin each year from Urdu language’s vast repertoire of illuminating and at times, hilarious pieces of literature. Over the years Mr Mohyeddin has paid tribute to some of Urdu’s great writers and poets. He celebrated Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s 100th anniversary dedicating an entire evening to Faiz’s poetry, letters and prose. On Daud Rahber’s passing away, his writings were read by Mohyeddin to a packed hall. In the same way, Madam Noor Jehan was celebrated by confining the sitar recital of the evening which were set to her songs with music bringing back the nostalgia of a bygone era.

The readings have featured works by a very long and illustrious list of writers and poets: Ibne Insha, Patras Bokhari, Noon Meem Rashid, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Iqbal, Ghalib, Mir Amman, Satya Pal Anand, Mushtaq Yusufi, Intizar Husain, Daud Rahbar, Sadat Hassan Manto, Ismat Chughtai, Shahid Ahmed Delhlvi, Rattan Nath Sarshar, Radaulvi, Akbar Allahabadi, Rasheed Ahmed Siddiqui, and Muhammad Hussain Azad.

To carry on the tradition of young people’s involvement with the Urdu language, the organiser of the evening, Naveed Riaz, initiated a Zia Mohyeddin Trophy nine years ago for students to compete in reading Urdu poetry and prose and the competition is held annually in March. This year will be its 10th competition and it is being celebrated on a large scale at the Ali Institute in February with Mohyeddin as the chief guest.

Each year, the readings have been recorded and preserved on CDs for posterity by EMI, a local recording company. They can be of immense value as a resource for Urdu teachers.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2017