Guest Post by Shahran Asim
I recently called up on Khalid Irfan and requested him to appear on Urdu Talk Radio, to which he graciously agreed upon. Urdu Talk Radio – now available on the internet- is one of the oldest Urdu talk show services in Noth America and airs live every Sunday from 1pm-4pm EST time. It is hosted by Dr. Mujahid Ghazi besides a few other volunteers including myself.
Khalid Irfan lives in Queens, New york and he is undoubtedly one the top tier poets of Urdu humour today. Over the years I have had the privilege of listening to him and I have always been very impressed with his poetry. In the past, he had been associated with the Pakistan Post newspaper also. He also wrote columns for this newspaper. One of his segments called ‘Mirza Ghalib Jackson Heights par’ became very popular.
As Khalid Irfan appeared on the Urdu Talk Radio show and started reciting his poetry in his own unique style, I was laughing non-stop because I found the poetry too humorous. Here is an example of a ‘sher‘ written in a North American background.
I accept your invitation but please be reminded
You can serve beer of any brand but I’d like Chicken Fried as ‘halal’ only
Another of his ‘qataa’ on the topic of asylum goes like this:
Another one on green card says:
Khalid Irfan’s humorous poetry has a tinge of satire in it. He has not only penned verses on the traditional issues, but also the current ones such as political and social issues faced by the society not only in Pakistan but also in the US.
Khalid irfan is not only a humorous poet but he has also written a very touching poem on Pakistan’s earthquake, which leads me to believe that being a poet he is a very sensitive person. Zalzalay too nay mairay baagh kay ghunchay thoray (Earthquake, you plucked the flower buds in my garden
I want to share his poetry in his voice and style which I am pretty sure would make you laugh out loud. He appears in the third hour of the show so you can download the complete file of the show and forward to listen to it. By the way, I would suggest you to listen to the complete 3 hour Radio show. This radio station offers songs , talks, interviews and many other interesting segments. The radio has just finished 10 years of broadcasting.
Click here to listen to Khalid Irfan’s interview and his poems on Urdu Talk Radio.
Click here to listen to complete 3 hour broadcast of Urdu Talk Radio on Jan 21, 2007.
About the author: Shahran Asim is a New York based Electrical Engineer and a former NEDian. Among his hobbies one is to volunteer for the programming of Urdu Talk Radio.
Pervaiz Saheb
You are right that languages are continuously evolving and rules in one region may not be same for the other. With correct pronunciation I meant basic sounds like ‘Kh’, baRa qaaf’, ‘ghain’ etc which unique to Urdu.
“If anyone wants to learn correct Urdu pronunciation, I’d recommend listening to Mujahid Saheb on Urdu Talk Radio.”
Owais: With all due respect and without getting too faraway from the subject of this post, what is the definition of “correct Urdu pronunciation”. Since many, and even most, Urdu words are of Persian, Arabic and Turkish origin should we say that their way of pronunciation is really the “correct” way. Having spent many years in the company of friends from Iran, Turkey and Iraq, the countries of the origin of most Urdu words, I assure you that the so called “correct Urdu Pronunciation” does not sound “very correct” when compared to their way of pronunciation. Then could we say that there are more than one so called correct pronunciations considering that Urdu is an international language. Perhaps we have reached at the age of “Pakistani Urdu Language” where instead of mimicking our neighbors we consider the pronunciations prevalent in various parts of the country as the “correct pronunciations” and not those prevalent in the neighboring countries. And may I suggest that Iran and Afghanistan are neighboring countries of Pakistan.
Thank you Shahran for putting Khalid Irfan’s introduction and his work on Pakistaniat.com. In fact urdu talk radio is trying to do what Pakistaniat.com is doing. Building bridges between people of same ethnic heritage. Thank you Owais for your kind words. I am flattered. I still feel that my urdu is not as good as it should be. What we are trying to do at ABN is to develope a link between people like you, Adnan and Shahran. Recently Sabahat and Ali Hasan Cementour has joined our team. They are from Silicon Valley. Shahran contributes from New York with his segment Mujalla and he also helps me in the production and programming with other young individuals from Chicago like Jibran, Zeeshan, Khurram, Hassaan, Sadia and Soha. If any one reading this blog want to join the team as contributor,
feel free to contact us at http://www.abnchicago.org.
I listen to Urdu Talk Radio archives whenever I can. For me the ‘jaan’ of these broadcasts is the host- Mujahid Saheb. He has an impeccable command on Urdu language. No matter what the topic of discussion is, I can listen to his Urdu and it sounds music to my ears. In this age where one hears plagiarised urdu on media also, it is a treat to be able to listen to grammatically correct Urdu. If anyone wants to learn correct Urdu pronunciation, I’d recommend listening to Mujahid Saheb on Urdu Talk Radio.
I was listening Urdu Talk Radio when he was on air but I forgot his name. Thank you for posting this because I want to read more about him.
Urdu Radio has a website on which they have up-to-date archive of their shows. You can listen this and previous shows at http://www.abnchicago.com
Enjoy!