KARACHI, Jan 13: A mushaira was held in the small auditorium of the Jinnah University for Women. The auditorium that had space for not more than 150 seats was jam-packed with students, eager to listen to their favourite poets reciting their verse.
With enthusiasm written all over their faces, girls were seen frequently standing near the stage to have autograph of poets and the anchor who happened to be a radio-jockey, Talat.
Twenty-nine poets were invited to the mushaira, which was presided over by Sahar Ansari. Among them, Rashid Noor, Anwar Shaoor, Arif Shafiq, Abbas Tabish, Tabassum Siddiqi, Qaisar Wajdi, Maqsood Wafa were prominent.
Keeping in mind that the event started quite late, most poets tried to be as brief and quick as possible. Some even left before the programme ended.
Remarkably enough, the common theme of the day was that of love and dejection, which needless to say, had been the most popular subject matter for poetry that had been famous among youth.
The mushaira left an impression that it had been Urdu medium institutions that had rekindled the flame of love for Urdu poetry.
What seemed quite out of place was the shields distribution that took place twice -- once for the guests in the middle of the programme and then in the end for the faculty members that had made the event possible. Apart from that the aura created by beautiful verses of the-well known poets was broken often by the loud chatter of teachers and students as well as the cell phones that were forgotten to be switched off.
