A Lover’s Collection

In the Urdu world and in the world of Indian culture in general Sanjiv Saraf needs no introduction. He is the man behind Rekhta, the organization that has become synonymous with all things Urdu. Apart from its annual festival, the Rekhta website has become the go to site for all lovers of Urdu and now it is also attracting students and scholars. Through their digitization programme they are preserving books in private and rare collections all over the world. They spent weeks in my father’s library filming all the important books and manuscripts he possessed. The Rekhta site also contains rare books, manuscripts, private papers and of course, poetry of all descriptions. They are also now bringing out a dictionary. The dedication and enormous labour put in by Rekhta is more than evident if one takes a mere glance at its website.

The book under review provides us with a peek as to how an industrialist with businesses in many parts of the world grew interested in Urdu. Here is a unique collection of Urdu poetry, straight from the heart, with couplets form a vast variety of poets divided into different subjects like Love, Beloved, Face to Face, Kiss, Interplay, Tryst and so on. These subjects then have further ramifications to them. For instance, the synonyms for ‘beloved’ in Urdu are listed for the benefit of the non-Urdu knowing reader.