Emirati Doctor - Urdu/Hindi poet " Saying it with Poetry

SHARJAH — He is an Emirati. He not only speaks fluent Urdu and Hindi, but also writes
 poetry in these languages. He has published 40 collections (Diwans) and has released
 five audio CDs and three DVDs of his poetry.Saying it with poetry

Dr Zubair Farooq is a medical doctor practising dermatology and venereology in the 
UAE and he took to Urdu-Hindi poetry for the love of these languages.

His talent has been well recognised. He has been bestowed with 13 awards in India
and the UAE, 10 of them in 2010. He has been interviewed on several TV channels in 
India and Pakistan.

For a change, Zubair has also composed music and lent his voice to a CD, Sadaa-e-Dil 
(The Echoes of the Heart), having 13 of his ghazals. The ghazal comprises couplets, each 
standing alone as a complete poem. The CD was a pre-release sellout, purchased 
mostly by Emiratis.

Zubair has set records by publishing 1001 ghazals in one book and 31 books in one year, 2010.

“I think I am influenced by places. That is how I started Urdu and Hindi poetry,” Zubair said.

He said his first Urdu verse happened when he saw the tombs of Tipu Sultan and
 Haider Ali, in Mysore, while travelling from Bangalore to Ooty in 1984 at the age 
of 32. That was his first visit to India. His second verse was written in Bangalore, 
about gardens, in the garden city of Bangalore. They were spontaneous and
 well balanced.

There is an interesting story behind Zubair being an Urdu-Hindi poet. While in Delhi, 
he had a choice to either go to Kashmir or to Ooty through Bangalore.  He decided on
 Ooty cancelling his flight booking for Kashmir. And, that flight was hijacked and brought 
to Dubai.

“If I had taken that flight, I would have been back in Dubai, not able to start my career a
s an Urdu-Hindi poet,” Zubair said.

Zubair fell in love with Urdu while studying at the medical college in Karachi, Pakistan.
 “People’s friendliness and sincerity attracted me to them, and their sweet language, Urdu,” he said.

Zubair has been saying verses in Arabic and English from the age of 11. He has one collection, 
Tears – the Language of Heart, in Arabic and over 1,600 ghazals in English.

For his new CD, he is working on experimenting a fusion of his English ghazals and 
Indian subcontinent classical music using the system of ragas that are sets of pitches
 and small motives for melody construction.

The first phase of Zubair’s career runs from 1985 to 2002 during which he published 
three collections and released two albums with singer Aziz Azmi. In the next six years, 
he concentrated on composing music for two albums, one, Barsaat (Rain) with singer
 Ali Shamsheer, while Zubair himself sang the other, Sadaa-e-Dil. The third phase, his 
most active, began in 2008.

“My present poetry is intense and mature. It reflects my pain and my harsh romantic
 and other experiences. I have now left myself to time, my poetry is about what ever 
comes along,” Zubair said.

Since 2007, Zubair’s ghazals are being sung by Zahoor Ahmad, a disciple of Ghulam Ali. 
He sang for the CD, Aik Arab Jab Urdu Bolay (When an Arab speaks in Urdu), released 
from Kolkata by the city’s Mayor.

In 2011, Zubair plans to release CDs and DVDs of his popular ghazals. Three of his audio 
CDs are ready and are being marketed.

“The future of Urdu poetry is very bright. How can it die when an Arab is so interested in

 it and has achieved so much from it,” Zubair said.

source: Khaleej Times 30Jan2011