TISF

By Rameez Ahmed Khan

15^th April 2009 was witnessed as a day when TISF slot turned into an entertaining session. “Josh Sahab kay Mehmaan” was a joint project of Literary society and Drama society. The whole project and idea was proposed and headed by Syed Qamar Zaidi, Visiting Faculty member of TIP where as the costumes were arranged by members from TIP Dramatics society.

Original theme was that “Josh Maleeh Abadi” (renowned Urdu poet) invites various prominent poets of their times including Mirza Ghalib, Allama Iqbal, Bahadur Shah Zafar and Zia-ul-Haq Qasmi in an informal gathering. All of these characters were performed by the students of TIP except that of Josh Sahab which was performed by Sir Qamar Zaidi.

The first episode of the project started with the entrance of “Josh Sahab” (being the mezbaan of the mehfil) followed by the entries of Zia-ul-Haq Qasmi, Allama Iqbal, Mirza Ghalib and Bahadur Shah Zafar. Casual gathering started when all of the poets started chatting; not in normal sentences but in poetic verses. The verses selected were actually parodies of the respective poets written by Sarfraz Shahid, Zia-ul-Haq Qasmi and Qamar Zaidi himself.

The most entertaining part of the session was when Mirza Ghalib started putting taunts on his fellow poets where Zia-ul-Haq Qasmi followed him. Surprisingly; all the actors managed to speak out of the script as well and majority of the dialogues were extempore. Bahadur Shah Zafar, Josh Sahab and Allama Iqbal also did their best when they started defending themselves against the ever naughty Qasmi Sahab and Mirza Ghalib.

A real time drink was also served to make the afternoon much more real and entertaining. Program ended with a concluding speech by Sir Qamar Zaidi in which he asked for any female student to act for the character of Perveen Shakir for the next episode hosted by of Parveen Shakir.

The basic purpose of the program was to uplift the declining interest and trends towards Urdu poetry among the youth. A special path of comedy poetry was chosen just to keep the charm alive in the show and to remind and praise the great Urdu poets behind their parodies.

Following Students performed the respective characters:

1) Ali Mukhtaar Khan as Mirza Ghalib
2) Danyal Siddiqui as Bahadur Shah Zafar
3) Rameez Ahmed Khan as Allama Iqbal
4) Osama Amin as Zia-ul-Haq Qasmi
5) Yasir Ali Naeem as the real host of the program

As mentioned earlier; Josh Maleeh Abadi’s character was performed by Sir Qamar Zaidi.

Occasion was covered by APNA TV where a large number of students, faculty and staff members were present.

In the end, I would like to mention few names, without their help and support; the event wouldn’t have been possible. These include my whole team; Sir Qamar Zaidi, Osama Amin, Ali Mukhtaar (for the dresses), Danyal Siddiqui and Yasir Ali Naeem. Special thanks to Faizan Akram, Adil Farid and Mohsin Butt (Cameraman) for their help and support towards our cause and a huge round of applause for Sir Ali Hafeez and whole TISF team for making the event possible in such a short span of time.

You all did a great job…Cheers!!