Poetry is an effective means of expressing emotions

Prominent poets and intellectuals of the country have said that poetry is an effective means of expressing emotions, which can greatly affect human life and that it is easy to convey one’s message to the people effectively through rhyme.

They said that the interest of youth in poetry was declining due to non-organization of public poetry festivals by the various organizations while the poets read and listened to their own poetry at most gatherings without public participation; however, such programs were useless.

This they said while addressing the poetry recital ceremony organized by the Department of Sindhi, University of Sindh in Sheikh Ayaz Auditorium of Arts Faculty Building to mark the World Poetry Day here on Monday.

The poetry recital program [Mushaira] was presided over by the Vice-Chancellor Professor (Meritorious) Dr Muhammad Siddique Kalhoro, while the guests of honor were Sindh Minister for Culture and Education Syed Sardar Ali Shah and renowned Urdu poet Amjad Islam Amjad.

Addressing the program, The Vice-Chancellor Professor (Meritorious) Dr Muhammad Siddique Kalhoro said that Seraiki poetry along with Sindhi and Urdu was also presented in the mushaira which although, most of the young people sitting in the hall were incomprehensible, yet all the audience was enjoying the recital of poetry because of the poet’s style of delivery of words.

“In fact, this is the perfection of poetry that when you don’t understand it properly but you still resonate and rejoice”, he said and added that provincial minister for culture and education Syed Sardar Ali Shah was doing a great job by organizing fairs and poetry recital events.

He said that the minister of education had recently recruited thousands of teachers on merit, which was a commendable initiative, it will improve education at the grass root level and the talented youth will come to seek admissions in the universities in the days to come.

He said that a pleasant environment had been created in the University of Sindh for the students, especially the female students, due to which 9000 girls were present on the campus at the same time.

He said that female students in Sindh University were as safe as they were at their homes. “We are taking full care of the girl students because they are our responsibilities,” the Vice-Chancellor said.

He said that the University of Sindh was the only institute of higher learning in Sindh wherein more than 4000 female students resided in girls’ hostels and they had also been provided with sports facilities so that they might remain mentally fit and healthy.

Addressing the ceremony, the provincial minister and young poet Syed Sardar Ali Shah said that the gatherings in which the poets themselves sat, read and listened to their poetry were of no use.

“Only those poetry recital gatherings are vital where there is much public participation. Let’s give the opportunities to youths to fully participate and listen to the poetry and give heartfelt appreciation to the poets as it is happening here today”, he said.

He said the audience was showering appreciation and accolades from their hearts and it was not artificial as it happened in almost all other such gatherings adding that poetry originally began with a mother who silenced her crying child by singing a lullaby to him/her.

He said that there were many famous universities in the world including Oxford, Cambridge and Yale, but the focus of poetry had been on the rocky land of Jamshoro and Sindh University adding that this all was because of the romantic and poetic temperament of Sindhi people.

He said that he also wrote a poem while passing out from Mehran University as a graduate that “Jamshora pirein j paarat athai” (O Jamshoro! Kindly take care of my beloved), which later became very popular among the youth.

He said that due to the pressure of parents and lack of proper career counseling, the youth studying in the universities of Jamshoro were often sad and they had no one to take away their sadness.

Sardar Shah further said that art and music were very important for a happy life and the youth could not spend a better time without loving poetry and melody.

He said that incidents of harassment in universities were unacceptable, if any case was defunct, it should be strongly dealt with, even the teacher if found involved in such things should also be expelled.

He said that the Sindhi society was not extremist but liberal and there was tolerance in it adding that communication with the world was no longer a problem these days.

“If after effective communication, the girls from abroad can reach Jamshoro to get married, then reading and understanding world literature is not a big problem”, he said on a lighter note.

The minister said that it was important to read and understand modern literature of the world so as to get new ideas and novel things for composing better Sindhi poetry.

Well-known poet Amjad Islam Amjad, Dr Ishaq Samejo, Jami Chandio, Aakash Ansari, Naseer Mirza, commissioner Hyderabad division and others also spoke on the occasion. Renowned poets Ali Dost Aajiz, Mor Mugheri, Khalil Kunbhar, Kishor Humerani, Dr. Pasand Ali Khoso and many others also attended the function.