Between words and their meanings…

– City dwellers spend their Friday amidst the legends as Zia Mohayyuddin and Zehra Nigah brace LLF as idols of eloquence

As the Lahore Literary Festival formally initiated its business at 2:30pm on Friday, legendry Zia Muhayyudin and Zehra Apa braced the podium with Apa as the moderator.

Apa in her witty style introduced Zia Muhayyudin and kept giggling throughout the discussion. She said that when the organisers contacted her, she was confused and surprised because she was of the opinion that to conduct such an interactive session, they should have called some of his friends.

But then she said, “I changed my mind and thought to myself, if I am not his friend then not an enemy either.” And she laughed…

Together they pulled the organisers’ leg and said, “We were shocked to find that they named our session as ‘Odds to Urdu Poetry’. But we ‘being amazing’ diverted from norms and re-named it as Tarz-e-Ada.”

The session highlighted the importance of pronunciation in delivering a verse or poem. Throughout the session, Zia was in his best form. Not for a second he lost his grip over entertaining attendees with his signature humour. They laughed at his wits as he narrated several verses and poems from renowned poets including Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Allama Iqbal and Ibn-e-Insha.

During the session, Zehra Apa said that acting was a crucial part of the art of poetry renditions. Zia seconded her opinion and emphasised that the people should learn how to read Shakespeare.

Zia and Apa rather seemed confused in understanding Faiz’s verse, “Ishq dil mein rahay tau ruswa ho… Lab pe aaye tau raaz ho jaaye.”

They left the verse with audience to perceive it as per their understanding.

Zia said, people should read poetry with the understanding of the underlying meaning of the words which he called the sub text of poetry rather than pronunciation of the words.

Zia further shared his Hollywood experiences and shared the birth of narrator in him. He also mimicked certain qawwals who, according to him, ruin the spirit of a verse, poem or ghazal.