Javed Akhtar's poetry book launch

Everyone's familiar with the scriptwriter Javed Akhtar, whose dialogues are part of the collective Indian psyche (kitne aadmi thay?, mere paas maa hai), or the lyricist Javed Akhtar, who even today gives words to a 20-something's romantic feelings. But Sunday saw a different side of him. It was the kavi Javed, whose shayari renditions on stage won innumerable waah waahis from the Delhi audience, and who couldn't get enough of him.

The launch of Javed Akhtar's second book of poetry, "Lava", (his first was "Quiver", 14 years ago), saw vice president Hamid Ansari and eminent Urdu poet and scholar, Professor Gopichand Narang, as the special guests.

It was clear that Narang holds Akhtar's poetry in high regard. Not only did he introduce him on stage with, "Poochte hain ke Ghalib kaun hai. Koi batlao, ke hum batlaayein kya?".

When it was Javed's turn on the podium to read out some of his poetry, Narang kept instructing him to read out just one more, while Javed dutifully complied. And well, we didn't see anyone complain!

When he recited the poem "Mela", which is dedicated to son Farhan Akhtar, Shabana called out from the audience, "Javed saab ab beti ka bhi haq banta hai ki aap uski kavita sunayein."
So then it was the turn of "Doraaha", a poem dedicated to Zoya. After Narang made Javed recite many of his poems, including "Kainaat", Narang said, "Ab ek Shabana ke liye," to which Javed quipped, "haan mujhe ghar toh jana hi hai!"

And so, with the poem "Shabana", his expression of love for his family was complete.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> Entertainment> Filmi Parties> Bollywood / by Arushi Nigam / TNN / March 21st, 2012

Farukh Dhondy unravels Rumi’s Sufi verse

Farukh Dhondy unravels Rumi’s Sufi verse

Indo-British writer Farukh Dhondy hadn’t read Persion Sufi poet Rumi, until he was given a translated anthology of Rumi on a flight to Australia., “After reading the translation, I realized that this was all junk! It was just random writing by people – it was neither poetry nor Sufism.”

Rumi was one of the greatest Sufi mystic widely read across the world. He was recently named the “most popular poet in America”.

Quite disheartened by what he read, Dhondy took it on himself to present a more accurate transalation of his poetry. I went to an uncle who reads Sufism in Persian,  and asked him to interpret Rumi for me. I also picked up the devanagiri and urdu versions, during my search for the right meaning. Translating the verse into lyrical English was a learning curve for me because I learnt the history of Sufism, about Rumi in depth.”

While most people have heard about Sufi music, Kabir’s dohas, Meerabai’s bhajans, Dhondy feels that there’s a vague idea floating around about Sufism.

He illustrates further, “I have tried to bring out the philosophy of Sufism in the book. Though I have used a modern language, I haven’t tried to give it a modern context – I  have stuck with the philosophical idea of Sufism  that humans should be in the service of the higher  being who is actually inside you. In India, the same idea comes to me in the Bhagwad Gita –you’re a drop in the ocean and our consciousness has distorted  reality…if you lose this consciousness you can merge with the reality.”

The author, who is a staunch atheist, had an almost divine experience while translating the poems, “The first time I read the poems, I was stuck by their beauty and meaning. I have taken random bits from Rumi’s main works, Masnavi and Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi and translated them into English lyrical renditions. You can classify them as biblical and philosophical love poems – not the love of teenager but love of human beings for Gods, he says about his translation of Rumi’s poems.

After this divine rendezvous with poetry, does he see himself penning verses, “Hmmm… I have never written poetry as such, it’s even presumptuous to call your verse poetry, except love letters to girls in sonnet forms.  Though, I can see myself writing translations of other Indian poets.”

source: http://www.books.hindustantimes.com / by Sonakshi Babbar / November 28th, 2011