The four designated stages inside the crowded stadium complex in the heart of the busy capital weren’t enough. So poetry lovers also took to the footpaths and the spaces in between, turning them into ...

If you happen to run across a toddler singing Urdu nursery rhymes of yore, like ‘Dhobi Aya’ (Here comes the washerman) or ‘O Baba Duddooa’ (O froggie!), chances are he may have learned it from a ...

They call it char bait, a form of instant Urdu poetry where two teams compete in rhyme. Verses are created at a second's notice on subjects as diverse as romance and politics, patriotism and rain. NEW ...

Nursery rhymes… wow, the nostalgia! Growing up, we were undoubtedly surrounded by a lot of them. Some of them are still catchy enough to get us humming even today. However, despite being a fun way for ...

“Go on, run a search for visuals for Hindi and Urdu poetry,” says illustrator Shiraz Husain, over the telephone from Delhi. “What did you find? A hand crushing a rose, blood drops, a single tear ...

A few months ago, at the launch of a book of Urdu poems—Hukm E Safar Diya Tha Kyon by Shantiveer Kaul—a poet in his mid-60s said he rarely got a chance to attend such events now because “ab us peedhi ...

Words rush into verse, tumble into rhyme and flow into poems. Ramnath could put pen to paper and come up with verse on any subject. After several years of wordplay, versification and journalling, the ...