Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The Izhaar Urdu Talk Masters, an Urdu Toastmasters club from the Area 34 of Division H of District 79 of Saudi Arabia, held its 100th meeting here. TM Saji Kuriakose and DTM Marwan Dashash were the chief guest. TM Mohammed Arshad was the master of the ceremony.

TM Mohammed Sami, president of the club welcomed the audience and introduced the District Director 104 DTM Marwan Dashash, Area Director, TM Syed Nasir Khursheed, TM Ahmed Wazir, program quality director, Area 34, and ex-presidents of the club.

Sami, who is also the founder of the Izhaar Urdu Talk Masters, gave a brief introduction about the formation of this club. He said that this was the first of the three Urdu Toastmasters club to be formed in Saudi Arabia, one in Jeddah and 2 in Eastern Province.

TM Aslam Afghani revealed the theme for the tonight “Urdu Ka Safar” i.e. “the journey of Urdu Language”. During the Mogul Dynasty, Sanskrit was the only language spoken in India. Sanskrit was then devolved to a much-easier Braj Bhasha, which is also called Hindi language. The Mogul army used to either speak Arabic, Persian or Turkish, and it is believed from the amalgamation of the three Urdu was born. Amir Khusro, a renowned scholar-poet of his time is considered to be “ Father of Urdu”. Urdu is fusion of Arabic, Persian Sanskrit and Turkish.

According to a popular belief, Urdu is a ‘camp language’ or ‘Lashkari Zabaan’ because it originated in the army camps of the Moguls. In British India Urdu, along with English, became the first official language of British Raj in 1850. In 1920, Mahatma Gandhi proposed re-merging of both Hindi and Urdu naming it Hindustani written in both Devanagari and Nastaliq scripts. However, he failed in his attempt to bring Hindi and Urdu under the Hindustani banner.

In brief, Urdu is much older than just a few hundred years and its roots go right back to Sanskrit and Arabic. At least, it has been established beyond doubt that Urdu is not a camp language.

This club would not have been successful without the hard work of its founder TM Sami and ex–presidents TM Farhan Malik, Afzal Siddiqui, Mukarram Hussain who have contributed immensely.

Later an induction / oath ceremony was held where the new executive members took oath in front of the Area Director 34 TM Syed Nasir Khursheed. The new executive team for the year 2018-19 consists of Mohammed Aslam Afghani, president, TM Mohammed Moinuddin, vice president-education, TM Mohammed Arshad, vice president-membership, TM Abdul Rahman M. Baig – vice president-public relations, TM Mohammed Hanif - secretary , TM Mohammed Abdul Sami CL – treasurer and TM Mohammed Atharuddin - sergeant-at-arms.

In the spontaneously table topics session, TM Mohammed Haneef, hosted the session. TM Syed Abdul Nasir, TM Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar Siddiqui, Mohammed Nisar, Ahmed Abdul Hakeem, TM Afzal Siddiqui, TM Ahmed Wazir and TM Amrina Qaisar participated in this segment showing their imagination and humor.

TM Saji Kuriakose and DTM Marwan Dashash gave inspirational speeches. DTM Marwan Dashash said, “I am very impressed by this Urdu club and its members. He promised that he would address next session in Urdu language.”

TM Saji Kuriakose, said, “I joined this club to learn Urdu Language, I can understand Urdu but cannot express my thoughts.”

A very professional skit was performed by TM Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar Siddiqui on “materials of death”. A mini Mushaira was later conducted in which Faisal Tufail, Amrina Qaisar and Altaf Shehriyar recited some of their couplets to loud applause from the audience.

Ex-presidents of the club, TM Malik, Siddiqui, Sami and Hussain also shared their experiences and contribution towards the club during their tenure.

Mohammed Ameenuddin Ansari, editor Urdu News who was the guest of honor, said, “I feel proud to see members of the club and their interest toward Urdu language.”

Ahmed Abdul Hakeem said, that “It was nice to see a gathering of members of the Toastmasters which reflects love of the community toward Urdu.”

Fatima Ali, who attended the Urdu Toastmasters club for the first time, said, “I am delighted to be a part of this group, it is very motivating and energetic. She appealed to women to join Izhar Toastmasters club.”

Certificates of attendance were given to all the audience who attended the meeting.