By Irfan Ahmed for TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: Virtual and real worlds, the twain never meet, it is said. But this group is different. From meeting and discussing and debating in the virtual coffee house, members of this WhatsApp group called the ‘Coffee House’ huddled together in the capital on a cup of coffee to celebrate the first foundation day.
“The ‘Coffee House’ group aims at promoting a discussion platform for constructive, positive and creative debate,” said the group’s administrator Dr Khalid Mubashshir. The group met at Abul Fazal Enclave, Jamia Nagar here on Friday, June 5.
“The beauty of the group lies in its not being a monotonous and humdrum band of people, rather it is kaleidoscopic in its content and quality of discussion. Every member’s opinion matters and freedom of expression is upheld religiously,” said Dr Mubashshir.
WhatsApp group called the ‘Coffee House’ met in the capital on a cup of coffee to celebrate the first foundation day on June 5, 2015.
“In spite of all this, the group never resorts to cheap and vulgar content,” he averred.
On this occasion, other members of the group too shared their experiences and bitter-sweet memories with the group. An expert analyst on social media, Mohammad Mazin suggested ways as to how to make a WhatsApp group meaningful and productive. He emphasized: “In a group setting, two people should never keep chatting between each other ignoring other members; no member should be added without his/her consent; no messages and content of any type be it a video/audio clip or images should be shared which may give rise to prejudice to members of certain creed, colour, race, caste etc.”
Adding to his views, Sharjeel Islam said that for every audio/video clip, a caption describing it must also be accompanied so that the members may know what the clip is about. “If the content interests them, they would download, otherwise they will not need to waste their precious time and internet data on downloading something, which is not useful for them in the first place,” he added.
The event was also marked by a cultural programme. Two budding Urdu poets, namely, Salim Saleem and Azhar Nawaz presented their modern ghazals. Saqib Fareedi read out an essay while Wahajuddin recited a ghazal by Shahryaar prompting the audience for an encore.
The group is known for its debates on issues ranging from politics to socio-economic matters to literature and religion which, the members claimed, is a reason behind its popularity.
Other members including Ashraf Bastawi, Editor of Asia Times; senior advocate Tabrez Alam; prominent student leaders Alif Shakoor and Anees Ahmed; famous columnist Sharib Ziya Rahmani; Abdul Qadir, AIITA’s secretary; Faizan Shahid, Sarvodaya Vidyalaya’ teacher; Abdur Rahman, senior research scholar; engineer Abdul Kalam, journalist Shams Aaghaz apart from Abdul Azeez, Nazir Anwer, Nisaar Ahmed and Raees Azmi also offered their views. There are 50-odd members of the group who live in Delhi. Of them, 35 attended the meeting.
The group is a potpourri of people from various nationalities, backgrounds and tastes. Notable of them are: from Tehran, Iran noted poet Shahram Sarmadi; from Saudi Arabia noted journalist and professor of King Fahd University, Asif Anwer; from London HRD expert Mahtab Azad; professor from Turkey Dr Syed Mohammad Rashid; chairman of Oxford International School Najmul Huda and principal Tafheemur Rahman; professor from Aligarh Muslim University Dr Moidur Rahman; poet and litterateur Burhan Shaiq; youth leader Tauqeer Alam, well-known journalists and activists Abdul Waheed Azad, Mohammad Asad, Afroz Alam Sahil, Adnan Yousuf, Dr Ahmed Kafeel, Iftikharuz Zaman, Inamur Rahman, Irfan Waheed, Tariq Ahmed Siddiqui, Osama Warsi, Dr Shah Iyaz Ahmad, Dr Jawed Akhtar, Hussain Ayaz — to name but a few.