Preserving national heritage: IBA vows to revive the pledge of loyalty with Urdu

The students enact Aangan Terha, a popular Television serial in the 80s. PHOTO COURTESY: AL-RASHID STUDIO

KARACHI: Recalling the charms of Urdu literature of yore with nostalgic vibes, 25 youngsters of Institute of Business Administration’s (IBA) literary society proved that today’s youth were not averse to their language or literature.

Earlier in the week, the society organised a Tajdeed-e-Ehd-e-Wafa [revival of the pledge of loyalty] to revive the love for Urdu literature at the institute’s main campus auditorium. The event, much to the amazement of the organisers, drew large number of students from different departments.

“It turned out to be much better than we had expected,” said the manager of the literary society, Zauraiz Ahmed. “Much as we tried, we could not organise this event over the past three years.”

The event was designed to project the richness of Urdu language via a plethora of performances, which ranged from skits and dramas to recitals and renditions of literary masterpieces from the era of Amir Khusro to the contemporary writers and poets. The presence of stars like Tina Sani, Arshad Mehmood, Fatima Suraiyya Bajia, and Salman Alvi was also an achievement in itself.

Perhaps, this mix of variety kept the packed auditorium enthralled for the length of the event that was extended to eight hours with ghazal performances on the poetry of Amir Khusro and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a reenactment of Imtiaz Ali Taj’s “Anarkali”, recitation of poetry of Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Ghalib, Ahmed Faraz, Perveen Shakir, and a reenactment of Anwar Maqsood’s famous humorous TV serial “Aangan Terha”. Much to everyone’s surprise, all the performances with the exception of Tina Sani’s performance of Allama Iqbal’s “Shikwa” were presented by IBA students.

A cursory observation of the quality of performances given by the students would lead one to believe that IBA has more artistes than entrepreneurs in the pipeline. “I would take the liberty to declare IBA as an outstanding institute of bilingual arts,” the manager of IBA’s literary society announced during his closing remarks amid tremendous applause from the audience.

“Regardless of how long I had to stay back, I must admit I was spellbound by the level of creativity shown by the cast and crew alike,” said a coordinator of national talent hunt programme at the IBA, Rizwan Bukhari.

Meanwhile, Komal Jafri, a business administration student, was of the view that she had been to a number of events at IBA before but this one was exceptional.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2012.