Adil Najam
This is an amazing picture (click on picture, or here, to see an enlarged version). Here are just a few of the giants of Urdu literature in this group: Majnoon Gorakhpuri, Mahirul Qadri, Maulvi Abdul Haq, Hasrat Mohani, Saqib Lakhnavi, Seemab Akbarabadi, Hafeez Jullandhari, Dr. Taseer, Josh Maliahbadi, Behzad Luckhnavi, Raja Sahib Mahmoodabad, Tilok Chander Mehroom, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Col. Majeed Malik, Ghulam Rabbani Taban, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Chaudhri Mohammad Ali, A.D. Azhar, Ishwar Dayal, and many more.
That is a breathtaking list is there ever was one. And it is a breathtaking picture.
Unfortunately, we do not know much about the picture in terms of its details. It has been floating over emails, and I received it from Naveed Riaz. A number of people in the picture remain unidentified. We do know that the picture was published in LIFE magazine, but do not know when and in what issue. If we could find the answer to that, I think a lot of other details will become known too. For example, when was this taken (most likely, this is pre-1947)? And why was this taken? What brought all these giants of literature together? Where? And why?
If anyone knows more about this picture, do please let us know.
Thanks Aqeel for that information. Glad to have this mystery solved.
According to TFT(The Friday Times, Lahore) 26 Feb- 4 March 2010, this photograph was taken in 1941 at Delhi’s Chelmsford Club on the occasion of a mushaira.This photograph was part of an article “Men of letter in the real world” written by Horoon Siddiqui
ہمیں افسوس ہے ، ہم نے اس کی تفصیلات کے لحاظ سے ڈاؤن لوڈ کے بارے میں زیادہ معلوم نہیں ہے. یہ ای میلز پر کیا گیا ہے رواں ، اور میں یہ نوید ریاض سے موصول. تصویر میں کئی لوگوں کا نامعلوم رہتے ہیں. ہم جانتے ہیں کہ تصویر زندگی میگزین میں شائع کیا گیا تھا ، لیکن پتہ نہیں کب اور میں کیا مسئلہ. اگر ہم اس کا جواب تلاش کر سکتے ہیں ، مجھے لگتا ہے کہ دیگر تفصیلات کے ایک بہت مشہور بھی ہو گا. مثال کے طور پر ، جب گیا تھا اس نے (سب سے زیادہ امکان ہے ، اس سے پہلے 1947 ء ہے)؟ اور ایسا کیوں کیا گیا؟ یہ سب کیا ادب کا یہ کمپنیاں جمع کئے جاؤ گے؟ کہاں ہے؟ اور کیوں؟
اگر کسی کو اس تصویر کے بارے میں زیادہ جانتا ہے ، براہ مہربانی ہمیں ضرور بتائی
Google translate comes of age for Urdu!
http://translate.google.com
And this is a wow! A straight translation with no effort but copy and paste. And this is a very decent translation too. Especially for Alpha version. And if someone spends time with it, they will make the translation process better. (Please Urdu newspaper-walas, stay away. They do not need ‘aksford experts’.)
Thank you Google!
These are indeed best of the times.
Folks, now get your favorite books from other languages in Urdu. You can even make the large fonts and publish them for those with weaker eyesight.
Good times are here for Pakistanis and all those who yearn to learn more from other nations and clutures.
Folks, let us start a translation project somewhere. There are so many books in public domain that you do not even need a copyright permission. Others, I am sure, will be more than happy to work this out.
At any rate, there are always fair use copyright permissions available. And there are always abridged versions available for translations. Good God, there are entire websites that can translated into Urdu. All for the effort of copy and paste.
GOP, is there a reason to hold back progress? Stop spending money on toys for big boys and start spending money for education, good education. You have no excuse anymore.
Very interesting photograph. But no clues yet in the comments on its source or origin.