Sunday, November 8, 2009

'Khwamkhwa'

'Khwamkhwa'. Well, a rough translation of this word would mean unecessary. Turns out the 70 something gentleman who queerly is christened the same, made sure that today's evening was anything but 'Khwamkhwa'.

I'd read and even heard of how old Hyderabad's charm lay in the 'Mushairas', the ' Qawallis' in short the mehfil was that of poetry, literature, verbal duets and perhaps the zenith of culture existed here in the Deccan region amidst the Azmis, Sarojni Naidus, Vitthal Raos and the elite of both Hindu and Muslim religion, who could have given their intellectual contemporaries in Delhi a run for their money with the dizzy yet vibrant atmosphere conducive to creativity they had created here

There's no doubt that, that old reality of Hyderabad - which people of my generation, the few who were born here or lived long enough to grieve the loss of a bygone era - is now only associated with a charm that is exotic and recreated in a few Muslim families' homes for a niche group of elites, the nawabas as I'd put it going by the colloquial reference a Hyderabadi makes to an intellectual or wanna be nawabs.

And that's how I got my first taste of a 'mushaira' today , all thanks to Jasween aunty though. And my one month stay in Hyderabad seems to be making up for all the lost time in the ten years, the decade that Hyderabad was the city I didn't know it to be today.

It's overwhelming to see a few generous patrons of Urdu, of cultural exchange trying to do their best to keep those aspects of Hyderabad alive across generations.

For an evening of pure joy, rediscovering the city and realising oneshould not grieve the loss of something or someone , instead move on with the essence of the best that is left in our hands....'Hyderabd kya baath hai'.