Students taking the ‘Sindhi Sikhiya’ course at Habib University experienced a novel learning session on poetry written in the Sindhi language
HABIB UNIVERSITY, November 23, 2015: Students taking a Sindhi language course at Habib University were treated to a music and song session featuring Bedil Masroor – a renowned singer, composer and TV producer. The special class was conceptualized by Dr. Sahar Shah – Associate Professor with the Arzu Center for Vernacular Languages – as a way to make Sindhi poetry interesting and accessible for students taking her ‘Sindhi Sikhiya’ course.
Bedil Masroor composed various works of well-known Sindhi poets like Mirza Qaleech Baig, Muhammad Siddik ‘Musafir’, Imdad Hussaini, and Shaikh Ayaz using a musical keyboard, and invited the students to join him as he sang the verses. A choir of students stood with Masroor, clapping and humming along as he varied the rhythm and tone of his voice. Most were familiar with the lyrics, as Masroor had selected poems that were already part of the course readings for Sindhi Sikhiya.
A large number of students and faculty attended the session to experience poetry animated with music and song. Dr. Deborah K. Fitzgerald from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was on a campus tour before she stumbled on the class, also joined for a short while and was heard later telling the instructor how thoroughly she had enjoyed the experience.
About the Guest
Masroor was born in July 1947 in Shikarpur, Sindh. His father, Faqeer Ghulam Ali Masroor, was a great Sufi poet who used to sing his own ‘kalam’. Masroor inherited this tradition from his father. After completing his master’s degree from the University of Sindh, Masroor joined Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) in 1974 as a producer. He worked on many TV programs over his 33-year career at PTV, of which some of the more popular ones were “Hathen Gul Mendi” (a docu-drama), “Dil Ji Duniya
(a 13 episode serial), “Mohabatoon Ke Safeer’ (an Urdu documentary about Sindhi poets who also wrote in Urdu), and “Roshan Tara’ (a children’s program). During his posting at PTV Quetta, he produced many programs in the Brahvi language as well.
Masroor has authored more than a dozen books, with work spread over the short story, novel, novelette, poetry and column formats. He has also translated fiction and compiled his father’s “Mathnavi Heer Ranjho” and “Kuliyaat” in 2 volumes. He is the recipient of multiple awards from various literary and cultural organizations, as well as the state television network.
