With his book, Nava-e-Sarosh, Sanjiv Saraf, founder of Jashn-e-Rekhta festival, furthers his passion for Urdu poetry. He tells Christy Varghese that every regional language could use something like his initiative
Through the ages, Delhi has had a tremendous effect on its inhabitants. Steeped in a rich history of cultural mingling and periods of creative exchange, the city provided fertile ground for poetic synthesis. Delhi established a legacy of poets whose words set hearts ablaze for the times to come and keeping in mind the love, with all its wine-infused passions and experiences of yearning, that preoccupied classic poets of the city, Sanjiv Saraf has compiled an anthology of 65 ghazals by 10 classic Urdu poets from Delhi. Featuring works by Sauda, Dard, Meer, Mushafi, Zafar, Zauq, Ghalib, Momin, Shefta and Dagh, Nava-e-Sarosh also offers to the reader rhymed English trans-creations of the selected ghazals so that the work can be enjoyed for the rhythm that the original Urdu-language embraces.
As a patron of Urdu poetry and a resident of Delhi, the book is the fruit of Saraf’s tireless efforts at preserving and furthering the significance of Urdu poetry in a fast-paced world. His careful curation and trans-creations render these ghazals readable to novices of classic Urdu poetry. The selection of works that made their way to this book caters to a wide readership—those who want to experience Delhi of the past, those who wish to engage with the musicality of rhymed verses and, most significantly, those who like to explore the themes of love, as conceptualised by classic poets.
Entrepreneur, investor and mentor, Saraf juggles many roles, but his passion for Urdu poetry is what is closest to his heart. As the founder of the Rekhta Foundation—which hosts the world’s largest and most popular resource for the Hindustani language and literature— it can be claimed that he has been the focal point of the revival of the popularity of the Urdu language. Read on for excerpts of the interview:
When was the first time you read or heard an Urdu poem, do you remember what it was?
Back when I was a child, my father would love listening to ghazals on his record player. Even though I could not understand the meanings of most words, the music was in the air and I would listen in as well, and could not help but fall in love with its soulful, melodic nature. When I grew up, I recognised the music, he played, as ghazals by Mehdi Hassan, Farida Khanum and Begum Akhtar. While I could not understand Urdu when I was younger, I always had this sense of familiarity with sung ghazals. But reading Urdu poetry came much later, during my college days. I could not help but fall in love with the language employed, after all, it is considered to be most apt to convey romantic notions. When emotions stir in your heart, you will find that it is the perfect language for communicating those feelings, and with those realisations, I got engrossed with Urdu poetry. And of course, back then, during my college days, I was not familiar with the Persian script, I was reading Urdu in Devanagari (Hindi).
Some choice works of some renowned poets have been selected for your Nava-e-Sharif, but on what basis did you shortlist them? Was it just based on pure sentimental value?
Oh, no, not really. When I started doing this I thought that the book must have some kind of common theme between the different poets and so, all these poets — that I chose to feature in the book — are from Delhi. That is the common thread... whether it be Meer or Ghalib.
Do you have a personal favourite among the poets you selected for your book?
I have no hesitation in saying that my favourite is probably everyone else's favourite; Mirza Ghalib's work is absolutely phenomenal. One feels he has got something for every emotion, even if it is a fleeting emotion or an obscure thought, the way he describes it so beautifully in his ghazals is simply breathtaking. You have to read his works to know what I am talking about. (laughs)
After being a fairly successful businessman, you founded the Rekhta Foundation. What's the story behind the conceptualisation of The Rekhta Foundation?
I was very bored and pretty much tired of being a businessman. It's very taxing to set up a facility and then one more and another. The rigmarole was becoming very repetitive, to be honest, and while I did experience some level of success, I thought that as long as my family's needs were being taken care of, I could take it a little easy and pursue something close to my heart. And thus began my second tryst with Urdu poetry, I started learning the script around eight years ago, when I was 55. In the course of studying Urdu, I realised that there must be millions like me who love poetry but are not able to pursue their interest because there is a dearth of resources and time and, back then, there was a dearth of quality content on the internet. I thought if I could set up something which provided the resources to people, it could help in the preservation of our amazing heritage. We started this foundation on a very small scale, I think there were not more than 50-60 people in the beginning, but here we are! Now it has become so widely popular that The Rekhta Foundation has grown to become the world's largest repository for Urdu poetry. It has become a tremendous resource for anyone who wishes to have something to do with Urdu poetry.
The last time Jashn-e-Rekhta was held in Delhi, was back in 2019. With the recent conclusion of Jashn-e-Rekhta UK, over the internet, is there any chance we will see the Jashn in Delhi, any time soon?
Well, we did run some online programmes but that doesn’t compare to the physical festival, by any means. There are some conversations underway and I hope we should be able to host Jashn-e-Rekhta in Delhi sometime in 2022. As much as we wanted to organise it this year, if we did, it would have turned out to be a super spreader considering the popularity of the festival. The sheer magnitude and the energy of the Jashn in Delhi are immense. '
Urdu is very much a part of Delhi's ethos, so there is a very strong affinity for Urdu poetry over here. The last time we organised the festival in Delhi, we registered a footfall of over 1,20,000 people over just two days, so I hope you understand our concern. Hopefully, by next year, things will be a little better and everyone will be vaccinated.
Aamozish was launched by Rekhta Foundation to promote Urdu literature. What led to the launch of Aamozish?
Yes, as a matter of fact, during the lockdown people had a lot of time on their hands which prodded them on to engage with learning something; right after the first lockdown, I am sure you remember how easily and extensively people took to online classes. See, I learnt the script the conventional way but I know not everyone can afford to devote their time and energy to do the same. That was the thought which led to the launch of Aamozish, back in 2017, so that people could learn the Urdu script at their leisure, wherever they are, whenever they wish to. Subsequently, we have come up with a vocabulary learning online model called Alfaaz, which teaches over 100 commonly used words in Urdu poetry.
Is there anything else that you would like to add for our readers?
Yes, I think it is quite unfortunate how people normally link language with religion. It is erroneous, if you see over the years, the biggest people who have done something for Urdu have nothing to do with religion. There was Munshi Naval Kishoreji in Lucknow who was the biggest publisher of his times and he has printed everyone from Ghalib to Amir Hamza and hundreds of other authors. He is considered to be the father figure of Urdu publishing in India. So many people are doing so much for Urdu, there are people like the ones from the DCM-Shriram family who organise the Shankar-Shad Mushaira. So many people are doing their best to promote Urdu poetry and literature. Urdu is primarily a Hindustani language, it was born here and developed here. It is such a beautiful language, no wonder people are drawn to it. I am fortunate to have kickstarted the work done by the foundation. We had no plan or vision, it was just a journey where every day we discovered new things and incorporated those new things. Our website gives us access to data that enforces the thought that this language has nothing to do with religion, people from all across the world frequent our platform.
I also feel that this is just the beginning of a journey. All the languages in India could use something like Rekhta. That is something I cannot lay enough emphasis on. After English emerged as the standard for the mainstream, every other language has taken a backseat. There is some brilliant literature in Bengali, Tamil, Malayali, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi cultures. I would love to work with people who are passionate about these languages and am eager to support platforms along the lines of Jashn-e-Rekhta for other languages.
We need to provide the relevant tools to the masses so that they can learn the vocabulary or the script. In these times where technology provides us with the means, we should not let this opportunity pass us by.
That is what I have in mind now, to reach out to people who share my passion. I don't know the other languages so I cannot take the lead, unfortunately, but I would be happy to provide the assistance and the processes to enable that.
