An evening of essay, short story, poetry, verses and book release, celebrated by the Writers’ Forum, Kuwait, on March 27, 2015, at the residence of Amir Diwan, was graced with several moments of cheer, humour and pride. The meeting was presided over by Umesh Sharma, a well-known Hindustani poet, and Mohan Singh, an avid patron of the Forum was requested to be the Chief Guest for the evening. Rajesh Verlekar, the General Secretary of the Forum, conducted the proceedings.
Before proceeding with the story reading session, a Book which culminated with the collaboration of two of the Forums’ writers was released. The Book titled ‘The Liar and Other Stories’, a collection of short stories originally written in Urdu by Dr. Waseem Siddiqi and now translated into English by Dr. Navniit Gandhi, was released by Dr. Mirza Umair Beg and Umesh Sharma. The Book has been published by Diamond Pocket Books, New Delhi. All members of the Writers’ Forum congratulated Dr. Waseem Siddiqi and Dr. Navniit Gandhi.
The story reading session began with the budding writer Ravin Singh reading a very touching essay titled ‘Saath’. Dr. Navniit Gandhi then read out a translated story of Dr. Waseem Siddiqi: ’The Sports Shoes’, from her recently released book. Lubna Siddiqi, briefly expressed her views on the empathy-driven writings of the stories written by Dr. Waseem Siddiqi. Shahjahan Jaffry narrated a story in Urdu, titled: ‘Pehla Gunaah’.
In the second session, the other members read out their latest creative works in different Indian languages. Those who read their poems included: Gobind Rani Sethi and Amer Diwan in Hindi; D. R. Pratyusha, Dr. Sabiha Bilgrami, and Rajesh Verlekar in English; Reshmy Krishna Kumar in Malyalam; Shahjahan Jaffery, Saeed Nazar Kadpawi, Syed Qamar Minto, and Afroz Alam in Urdu.
Towards the conclusion of the program, the Chief Guest- Mohan Singh, presented his views about the creative expressions of all present at the meeting and also recited his daughter- Parminder Kaur’s poetry in English who is a member of the Forum.
The President of the meeting Umesh Sharma recited his poem and expressed his happiness over the steady progress of the Forum and the accomplishment of its objectives. He said that he was glad to hear from the budding writer Pratyusha and appreciated her participation. He also thanked the members of the Forum for their active participation.
Dr. Sethi, Sunil Sonsi, Shammi Siddiqi and D Ventateshwar also graced the occasion with their illustrious presence.
The meeting concluded with everybody thanking the host—Amer Diwan and his family.
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