Urdu Markaz: Single Platform To Refine Language Studies

Mumbai: Urdu Markaz, which organises the Bhendi Bazar Urdu Festival, and Guru Nanak College, Sion, have announced a collaboration to provide students with a forum to get community support to refine language studies and share their work. Urdu Markaz will have similar projects with other colleges.

The project, which was discussed at a meeting at the college on April 20, will be inaugurated on April 29 at the Guru Nanak College Language Centre. As part of the project, the college will be part of the Urdu Markaz Aaina Poetry Circle, set up in 1999, which has been part of the Bhendi Bazar Urdu Festival.

Professor Amrin Mogor, who is the coordinator at Guru Nanak College’s Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia and Mass Communications section, said, “We are initiating a Multi-language Poetry Club. We provide certification in multiple languages, including Gurumukhi and Sanskrit. The project is being done as a part of the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) under the Ministry of Education (MoE),” said Mogor. The IKS cell was set up to promote interdisciplinary research, preserve, and disseminate the knowledge for further research.

Mogor added that Urdu Markaz will help students develop their skills in the Urdu language by being a part of a poetry-reading club. The Bhendi Bazaar Urdu Festival has featured writers like Javed Akhtar, Sohail Akhtar Khan, and actor Sachin Pilgaonkar who writes in Urdu.

“The idea is to get non-Urdu speakers to develop interest in the language. The project will not be limited to Urdu but other languages that are familiar to a learner. The Sion-Koliwada area will not give students enough experience of the Urdu language, so poetry clubs are important,” said Mogor.

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The project will not be limited to Urdu, but it will be available in other languages like Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, English, and Kannada. Advocate Zubair Azmi, director of Urdu Markaz, said, “Guru Nanak College is just the first (in the project). The collaboration will go to more colleges, including Rizvi. The ultimate aim is to take the multilingual poetry project to more colleges. The academic year will start in June and I thought why not break the ice before this.”