KARACHI: Zia Mohyeddin not only impresses but also inspires with his rendition of Urdu poems. He makes you want to read literature, an attribute which is not easy to inculcate in a society that is increasingly becoming inconsiderate towards liberal arts.

On Sunday night, during an exclusive performance at the Arts Council, Mohyeddin added another dimension to his repertoire: apart from impressing and inspiring his admirers, he educated them just as effortlessly to make them realise the significance of the Urdu language and its nuanced usage.

This was the reason why he began with Shanul Haq Haqqi’s brilliant prose piece on the efficacy of Urdu, especially the auditory value of some of its letters. The essay was a prime example of how intellect and humour can combine, nay blend, to form an academic work.

Mohyeddin said as for poetry he was only going to recite Hafeez Hoshyarpuri’s ghazals in the show. So he did, and the first one set the tone of the poetic part of the programme quite well.

Then came Intizar Husain’s masterful take on his first visit to Karachi in an article titled ‘Gud ki gajak’. Mohyeddin read out with a lot of heart, which meant that Karachi was used as a metaphor for the changing world around the author; and the artist uttered each line in the essay with the correct stresses and pauses.

Hoshyarpuri’s famous ghazal Be zabani zabaan na ho jaey was next, followed by Dr Aslam Farrukhi’s insightful account of Maulana Mohammad Hussain Azad’s last days when he had become a tad churlish owing to old age and the fast-changing times.

To change the (linguistic) mood of the show, Mohyeddin talked about the famous music conductor Sir Thomas Beecham and his witticisms for a while. Some of his famous one-liners that he presented included ‘The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes’.

The programme then went back to its original format with another Hoshyarpuri ghazal, ‘Wafa ki daastan’. After that came the turn of legendary daastaango (raconteur) Mir Baqar Ali. Mohyeddin read out a daastaan penned by Mir Baqar himself.

How could the artist have forgotten Hoshyarpuri’s oft-sung ghazal ‘Muhabbat kerne waale?’ It was one piece that almost all members of the audience knew by heart, at least its first two lines.

The scene then shifted to pure humour with Dr Younus Butt’s hilarious spin on ‘Doosri beewi’ (second wife). It had the attendees, who had packed the Arts Council auditorium in no time, in stitches.

The penultimate act was Hoshyarpuri’s ‘Tamam umr tera intizar’, which Mohyeddin recited in a wistful voice. Finally came the turn of Ibn-i-Insha and the writer’s backhanded compliment to one of his teachers. It was a craftily written piece laced with delectable humour, and Mohyeddin did justice to it.

At the fag end of the essay, Mohyeddin felt a little dizzy and ended the programme a bit early, but not without making the lovers of literature acknowledge, yet again, what a cerebral treat it is to listen to him.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play