By TCN News,
New Delhi: Jamia Millia Islamia inaugurates the centenary celebrations of Janipith Award Winner Ali Sardar Jafri with a concert by acclaimed singer and composer Seema Anil Sehgal, popularly known as the Peace Singer of India, on 29th November, the 100th birthday of the famed poet.
The concert titled “Yaadon Ki Sunehri Baarish” will be held at 6.30 PM in the Dr. M.A. Ansari Auditorium on 29 November.
Seema Anil Sehgal will sing a selection from the nazms of the renowned poet that she has especially composed for the commemorative concert.
In 1999 Prime Minister Vajpayee had presented Seema Anil Sehgal’s music album Sarhad, as a national gift, to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharief, during the historic Lahore Bus Yatra.
Ali Sardar Jafri is only the third Urdu poet to receive the Jnanpith Award (1997) after Firaq Gorakhpuri and Qurratulain Hyder. He has also been conferred with several other honours and awards including Padma Shri in 1967. The Aligarh Muslim University had conferred a D.Litt. on him in 1986.
Ali Sardar Jafri was an Urdu writer, poet, critic and film lyricist. His ideals were based on Marxist teachings but not limited to it. They encompassed the humanistic traditions and compassion of the Sufi and Bhakti movements, the love of nature found in the works of Kalidas, and an assimilative vision of India’s composite culture.