Indian book trust, Urdu promoter relay their stirring stories at SIBF
- 10 Nov 2023
Constant (book) gardener National Book Trust, India (NBT), is marking its participation in the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) yet again.
Its stall at SIBF’s 42nd edition was being manned by Mohammed Imranul Haque, Deputy Director and S R Veenesh, Assistant Director (Productions).
Haque and Veenesh have had to shorten their visit to Sharjah, leaving colleagues to take over, but before they left, they talked to Gulf Today about what makes the NBT offices hum. “This year’s gathering is better,” Haque said, running his eyes across the throbbing SIBF crowds. “We have brought 400 titles, which includes volumes on children, history, social science and science. Our books are in Hindi, English and Urdu, besides many other Indian languages.” NBT represents the work of 25 Indian publishers, including authors from its own presses.
Haque said NBT policy is to promote Indian books and also invite publishers to participate in the New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF). NDWBF is the largest book fair in the Afro-Asian region and has earned a high reputation for itself in the last four decades, with features such as CEOSpeak over Chairman’s Breakfast and the New Delhi Rights Table. The next edition of NDWBF is scheduled to be held February 10 – 18, 2024. NBT has been organising the annual event since 2013.
The Trust was established in 1957 and in recent years, it has been designated as the Nodal Agency of Government of India to co-ordinate the Guest of Honour Presentation of India at Paris Book Festival 2022; at Guadalajara International Book Fair 2019 and at Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2019. NBT also put up an Indian National Stand at Frankfurt Book Fair 2023, in association with other stakeholders, as a collective presentation of the Indian publishing industry. Haque has been long coming to SIBF and is the go-to person on how the fair has evolved. “I have seen that more and more countries are taking part in SIBF and it is no longer an Arab, but global affair,” he said. Veenesh said that this time, NBT has brought many new books.
“We have titles from the YUVA (Young Upcoming Versatile Artists) series,” he said. “They are books by people who are less than thirty years old. There are books related to the Indian freedom struggle and of people and places.” He said that NBT was publishing the best entries it received and had published 70 books so far in YUVA, in many Indian languages. India @ 75 is another series, where books have been published and last year, NBT published 17 bi-lingual books in the series.
The Bazm-e-Urdu (Assembly of Urdu) Dubai (BEUD) place at SIBF is where passionate volunteers and lovers of the Urdu language from all over the UAE are doing their best to promote it. They are professionals, intellectuals, students, besides others, who are immersed in the charisma and love of Urdu. BEUD is a non-profit, non-religious and non-political organisation working for the propagation of Urdu language by organising Urdu cultural events in Dubai. It is the first and the only social club working for the upliftment of Urdu licensed by the Community Development Authority Dubai.
Farzana Mansour and Sarwat Zehra, who are regulars at the BEUD stall, gave a guided tour of the organisation. “Our committee has fifty members,” Mansour said. “They take time out from professional and family responsibilities to work for Urdu. Our members come from Pakistan, India, Nepal and even the UK and USA.” BEUD brings out Mujallah, a yearly magazine, and also hosts Mehfil-e-Urdu, an annual programme of performances (‘Mehfil’ meaning ‘Gathering’). BEUD has distinguished writers on its rolls, including Shadab Ulfat, who has authored three books so far, Ehya Bhojpuri and Asif Sarosh who have authored a book each and Muskan Riaz, Hina Abbasi, Masood Naqvi, Tarannum Ahmed and Tabish Zaidi.
The organisation hosted the first inter-school competition in the UAE for schools which teach Urdu and also the Tamseeli Mushaira (poetic meet of power and expressiveness), Baitbaazi (a spoken parlour game or ‘the game of the ending letter’) and Dastangoi (Urdu oral storytelling art form). On Iqbal Day, which commemorates the birthday of Muhammad Iqbal, Urdu poet and philosopher, an international competition is organised for students who recite Urdu poetry in videos and send them online. Prizes are given as acknowledgement of their efforts.
Theatre events have been held for students with the participation of well-known names in the Indian and Pakistan cultural field like Nawazuddin Siddiqui (actor), Shabana Azmi (actress) and Kaifi Azmi (poet), all from India, and poet and playwright Wasi Shah (Pakistan). BEUD has played host to Ahmad Shah, the viral cute kid from Pakistan, at the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF). Mansour, in her message to Urdu lovers in the UAE, reminded them that “when a script is no longer read, it dies. So, read and work in Urdu, to make it live.” Zehra quoted an Urdu couplet which said that “we learnt to speak beautifully through Urdu/And we learnt etiquette through it too.” Urdu is spoken by millions of people in India and is the national language of Pakistan. It is widely spoken and understood as the second language in Nepal, Bangladesh and the Arabian Gulf and is considered a lingua franca in the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.
Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer
