GRAMMER OF URDU GHAZAL

GRAMMAR OF URDU GHAZAL
( THIS PIECE IS WRITTEN IN HINDI )

DIL NE KAHA KYUN NA DOSTON KO URDU GHAZAL KI GRAMMAR SAMJHA DI JAYE.
AB, AAP POOCH SAKTE HAIN KE AISI KYA ZAROORAT AAN PADI KE AAP GHAZAL KA MATLAB SAMJHANE BAITH GAYE.ISS KA JAWAB HAI KE PICHLE KUCH BARSON SE HAMARE DOST-YAAR GHAZLEN SUNTE AUR HUM SE UNKE MATLAB POOCHTE RAHE HAIN. HAMEIN LAGA KE SHAYED AUR BHI ANJAAN DOST HON JO URDU GHAZAL KO SAMJHNA CHAHTE HON.BAS YUN SAMAJH LIJIYE KE HAMEIN LAGA
" QAIS JUNGLE MEIN AKELA HAI MUJHE JAANE DO
 KHOOB GUZRE GI JO MIL BAITHEIN GE DEEWANE DO "

HUM NE LAGBHAG PICHLE TEES BARSON SE APNE HI DESH MEIN URDU KO TIL-TIL MARTE DEKHA HAI. WOH SHABD JO KABHI AAM BOL-CHAAL KA HISSA HUA KARTE THE, AAJ MAZAQ KI WAJAH BAN GAYE HAIN. MASLAN " BANDAPARWAR " ISS SHABD KO AAPNE AKSAR FILMI GEETON MEIN BHI SUNA HO GA JAISE " BANDAPARWAR THAAM LO JIGAR BAN KE PYAR PHIR AAYA HUN, KHIDMAT MEIN AAP KI HUZOOR PHIR WAHI DIL LAAYA HUN ".AAJ AGAR HUM KISI KO BANDAPARWAR KEH KAR MUKHATIB KARTE HAIN TAU WOH HUM SE POOCHTA HAI KE KYA YEH SABZI " PARWAR " KA KOI NAYA AVTAAR HAI?

KISI MAHILA KO MOHTARMA KEHNE PAR USKA " AAP NE HAMEIN KISS KI MAA KAHA " AAP NE STAND UP COMEDIANS KE ACTS MEIN DEKHA AUR SNA HO GA HI.

1969 MEIN BHARAT SARKAR NE MAHATMA GANDHI KI BIRTH ANNIVERSARY AUR MIRZA GHALIB KI DEATH ANNIVERSARY MANAYEE THI. VARSH KE ANT MEIN BATAUR CONCLUDING CEREMONY, MUMBAI KE BANDRA MEIN NATIONAL COLLEGE KE HAAL MEIN EK MUSHAYERE KA AAYOJAN KIYA GAYA THA.USS MUSHAYERE MEIN CHIEF GUEST THIN TATKAALEEN PRADHAN MANTRI SHRIMATI INDIRA GANDHI.

MUSHAYERE MEIN BHARAT KE SABHI NAAMI-GRAMI SHAYER SHAMIL THE AUR EK KE BAAD EK GHALIB KI SHAAN MEIN QASEEDE PADHE JAA RAHE THE. AAKHRI SHAYER THE JANAB SAHIR LUDHIANVI. UNKI NAZM NE MUSHAYERE KA RANG HI BADAL KAR RAKH DIYA THA. UNN KI NAZM KE KUCH HISSE THE

" EKKEES BARAS GUZRE AAZADI-E-KAAMIL KO
  TAB JA KE KAHIN HUM KO GHALIB KA KHAYAL AAYA HAI
  TYRBAT HAI KAHAN USKI MASKAN THA KAHAN USKA
  AB APNE SUKHAN-PARWAR ZEHNON MEIN SAWAAL AAYA HAI

  JIN SHAHRON MEIN GOONJI THI GHALIB KI NAWA BARSON
  UNN SHARON MEIN URDU BE NAAM-O-NISHAN THEHRI
  AAZADI-E-KAAMIL KA EILAAN HUA JIS DIN
  MAATOOB ZABAN THEHRI,GHADDAR ZABAN THEHRI

  JISS EHD-E-SIYASAT NE EK ZINDA ZABAN KUCHLI
  USS EHD-E-SIYASAT KO MARHOOMON KA GHAM KYUN HAI
  GHALIB JISE KEHTE HAIN URDU KA HI SHAYER THA
  URDU PAR SITAM DHAA KAR GHALIB PE KARAM KYUN HAI ".
UNN DINON HUM COLLEGE KE SECOND YEAR KE STUDENT HUA KARTE THE AUR TAB SAMAJH HI NAHIN PAAYE THE EK ZINDA ZABAN SACH MEIN KUCHLI JAA RAHI HAI.

KHAIR, CHODIYE MARHOOM ZABAN KA MAATAM
CHALIYE GHAZAL KA JASHN MANATE HAIN.

SAB SE PEHLE YEH SAMAJH LETE HAIN KE GHAZAL HAI KYA CHEEZ?.

GHAZAL UNN ASH-AAR( AAM BHASHA MEIN SHERON ) KA SANGRAH HAI JIS MEIN " MATLA, " MAQTA ", " BAHAR ", " QAAFIYA " AUR " RADEEF " KA PALAN KIYA JAATA HAI.

GHAZAL KA HAR SHER APNE AAP MEIN DO MISRON KI EK MUKAMMAL NAZM HOTA HAI, JAHAN SHAYER SAMUNDAR KOOZE ( CHOTI SI KATORI ) MEIN BAND KAR DETA HAI. MASLAN:
 HAR EK BAAT PE TUM KEHTE HO KE TU KYA HAI
TUM HI KAHO KE YEH ANDAZ-E-GUFTUGU KYA HAI

GHAZAL MEIN KAI SHER HOTE HAIN AUR UNN SHERON KA AAPAS MEIN KOI SAMBANDH NAHIN HOTA HAI.GHAZAL MEIN AAM TAUR PAR ZYADA SE ZYADA 12 AUR KAM SE KAM 7 SHER HOTE HAIN.

KUCH FILMI GHAZAL SE LAGTE HAIN LEKIN WOH GHAZAL NAHIN HOTE...MASLAN FILM GHAZL KA YEH GEET:

"RANG AUR NOOR KI YEH BARAAT KISE PESH KARUN.."
YEH GHAZL NAHIN HAI KYUNKE ISS KE HAR SHER MEIN TEEN MISRE HAIN JABKE GHAZAL KE HAR SHER MEIN DO HI MISRE HOTE HAIN.

ISS KE ILAWA ZAROORI HOTI HAI BAHAR, QAAFIYA AYR RADEEF.

BAHAR KAYA HAI...BAHAR DAR-ASAL SHER KA METER HOTA HAI, JIS SE TEH HOTA HAI KE SHER KITNA LAMBA YA CHOTA HO GA. SHER KE SABHI SHERON KA EK HI METER MEIN HONA ZAROORI HOTA HAI. WAISE TAU 19 ALAG-ALAG BAHAR HAIN LEKINAASANI KE LIYE UNHEIN FILHAAL TEEN HISSON MEIN BAANT LETE HAI " SHORT ', " MEDIUM " AUR LONG BAHAR.
CHOTI BAHAR KI MISAAAL HAI:
 IBN-E-MAIYAM HUA KARE KOI
MERE DUKH KI DAWA KARE KOI

MEDIUM BAHAR KI MISAAL HAI:
NUKTA-CHEEN HAI GHAM-E-DIL USS KO SUNAYE NA BANE
KYA BANE BAAT, JAHAN BAAT BANAYE NA BANE

LAMBI BAHAR KI MISAAL HAI:
WOH JO HUM MEI TUM MEIN QARAAR THA, TUMHEIN YAAD HO KE NA YAAD HO
WAHI YAANI VAADA NIBAAH KA, TUMHEIN YAAD HO KE NA YAAD HO

......TO BE CONTINUED IF I GET EVEN ONE REQUEST

ADVERTISING

ADVERTISING, HOW IMPORTANT IT IS

ADVERTISING HAS NOW CAUGHT UP WITH OTHER CHIEF ECONOMIC STRUCTURE.

PRIOR TO THE TURN OF TWENTIETH CENTURY, AS MANUFACTURING EMERGED FROM COTTAGE INDUSTRY TO MASS PRODUCTION, IT, TOO, WAS CALLED UPON TO SEE ITSELF IN RELATION TO MANKIND'S HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS. CHILD LABOUR WAS OUT FROM ORGANISED SECTOR. SAFETY AND DECENT WORKING CONDITIONS WERE IN. TODAY A GUARENTEED ANNUAL WAGE IS AN APPROACHING REALITY. SOMEWHAT LATER, THE FINANCIAL COMMUNITY MADE ITS ADJUSTMENTS. ABSCONDING BANKERS, WATERED STOCKS AND RIGGED MARKET BECAME INTOLERABLE IN A SOCIETY WHICH NEEDED A RELIABLE AND A LARGE-SCALE FINANCIAL APPARATUS, AND MOST PERSONS STARTED LOOKING AT THEIR PAYCHECKS FOR SURVIVAL RATHER THAN TO THE OUTPUT OF THE FAMILY FARM.

TODAY, MARKETING AND ITS VISIBLE, ARTICULATE, AND PERVASIVE PARTNER, ADVERTISING, HAVE JOINED PRODUCTION AND FINANCE AS INDISPENSABLE INGREDIENT OF ECONOMIC SURVIVAL AND GROWTH. 

MEDIA OWNERS, MIND YOUR LANGUAGE

Media owners, mind your language

Language is the most important means of communication for human beings. It has been, it is, it will be. Besides verbal languages, we have non-verbal languages such as sign language, body language and so on. Without a language, no communication is possible.

When a pharmaceutical company hires a medical representative, it makes sure that the person being hired is conversant with doctor's  language; because a doctor cannot be convinced by a person who does not speak his language. When an engineering company hires a salesman to sell its equipments  it makes sure that the candidate selected is well-versed with the engineering industry.

How do media houses hire people to sell their advertising space or time? There are two types. One is the owner who does not want to invest in fresh people. Instead he looks around and finds a person who has already proved himself in the field. The is the type who believes in fresh talent ( which is really a good thing considering the number of unemployed graduates we have).

Unfortunately, the good intentions of the latter don't go much further because such media owners haven't recognised the need for professionalism.

They hire fresh graduates and push them into field with one-line brief: ' Go and get some ads '. These poor freshers who have had no exposure to marketing and advertising moving amongst advertising professionals without any direction. Worse, they don't even know language of the advertising agency, media planners or the product managers at the advertises' office.

They have been told that their job is to get some ads. So, they visit advertising agencies and advertisers and start telling literally ' give me some ads '.

Some of other demands which one often hears from media sellers are:
# How about an ad? ( just like that ).
# Give me an ad, my job is at stake ( happens about once a week ).
#You handle so many products; you must give something to us too.
# I saw your ad in X. Why was it not released in our publication or channel? ( occurs about once a day )
 
What should a media owner do to avoid getting himself the image of a " scrounger "?

First, recruit people with a marketing and \ or advertising background. In the case of fresh graduates, provide them with adequate training in marketing and advertising. This will eliminate to a large extent the reoccurrence of of the scenario mentioned earlier. When a media seller makes a fool of himself, through sheer ignorance, it reflects more on the media owner than on the person himself.

Media owners must familiarise his representative with media planning process in an advertising agency; so, when his representative visits an ad agency he is able to speak the media planners' language.

A good media seller, in my opinion, is the one who is familiar with inter-media comparisons. He is the one who understands the target audience for his client's products, understands nature and seasonal patterns of various products. And above all, he is fully familiar with the singular characteristics of the medium he represents.

Unless media owners understand the need for talking to advertising professionals in their own language, they will continue to be in a difficult situation; as most are today.

HUMOUR IN ADVERTISING

They say if you want to live long, you should laugh for at least ten minutes every day. Before you go HA, HA, let me assure you there's nothing funny behind this statement.In fact, it"s a layman version of a medical fact; laughter exercises your lungs and keeps them fit and healthy.

Humour is a very important ingredient of life. Besides bringing joy, it adds a few extra moments to our lives ( remember the medical fact ). In advertising humour is the last resort of advertising running short of ideas.  The rationale being " one can be  funny about just anything ".However, humour in advertising is no laughing matter. It should be approached with caution because the dividing line between clowning and humour is very thin. On the other hand it is also true that the ad campaigns which move into public consciousness quickest and stay there,are the funny ones.

To most, including us advertising people, humour means " puns ". But puns are the lowest form of wit. However, a good, appropriate pun is always welcome. For example, hoardings for Amul Butter are always very timely and topical. Remember " Miyan ki dad se sharma gaye " it was when Miandad hit a six on Chetan Sharma's last ball in that famous Sharjah match.

Humour in advertising can be divided into three broad categories: HAH, HMM and HA-HA.

HAH: these are humor ads which fall flat or create unintended humour or worse still invite contempt. The saddest part is that most of our " humour advertising " are of this type. I remember seeing an advertisement for stainless steel fasteners which said ( in big, bold types ), " You Could Get Screwed ". I  don't know whether writer was trying to be funny, clever or sharing his experience.

HMM: Advertisements of this kind never fail to evoke a smile. Responses range from "It's nice to","I like it".
I would classify maggi sauce T.V. commercial( It's different,series),under this category.Also the highly successful,meri jaan,meri jaan,sunday ke sunday commercial for National Egg Coordination Committee.

HA,HA: Unforgettable.That's what advertisements are under this category.But unfortunately there are not many contenders.The all time greats could be only Amul Butter.

Oflate manufacturers have started generating a good deal of humour.unintended humour off course.One manufacturer has named his range of undergarments " LYRIL".I suppose USP now will be," The freshness underwear".Another has come up with "AMUL"( utterly,butterly) under-wears.

A soap manufacturer almost launched his brand of toilet soap under the brand name of "HUG", till someone pointed out its meaning in Hindi.Boy!It would have been a stinker.

So, fellow-admen just think twice before you try to be funny. After all no one likes to do business with a clown.

Urdu poetry Urdu Poe try is richly quotable.The Ghazal, which is by far the most popUlar art form in Urdu poetry, is a string of t bought provoking couplets on varied themes of permanent human interest such as love and beauty, God and man, life and death, mortality, etc. the couplets of a Ghazal, bound together by the unity of mood, meter and rhyme, do not often generally observe the unity of thought and theme. More often than not, each couplet of the Ghazal is an independent unit, detachable and self-sufficient. Each couplet may be called a capsule of concentrated wisdom, charged with the magnetism of poetry. The themetic variety found in the several couplets of the Ghazal widens the reader's scope of selection, so that he can pick and choose his favourite couplets, treasure them in his memory, and return to them at leisure for thoughtful contemplation and quotation.

'When ignorance is bliss....'

'Advertising is a con game.' That's what the world at large thinks.A layman thinks of an advertising person as a crook and a cheat.


The Government of India,has time and again overlooked advertising from the list of worthy professionals eligible for tax concessions and other benefits.The Government clubbed advertising with real estate agents for TDS under Section 194H.Who says,"When ignorance is bliss it is folly to be wise?"


Recently I read the findings of a survey on the image of advertising profession.The findings were as expected,very disturbing.It seems the profession has an overall unfavorable image.This is primarily due to the fact that advertising is perceived as an activity that does not conform to the accepted norms of truth,decency and legality.


Who is to blame?I think we all are.It takes just a couple of dishonest campaigns to destroy the credibility of thousands of good honest ads.And in the process tarnish the image of the image-makers.


Day in and day out,we change people's attitude,modify their behavior,add to their knowledge.All this we do for our clients' products.But rarely have we done anything to change people's attitude towards advertising.Why are we loathe to campaign their behavior? Why have we not sincerely undertaken a campaign to educate the masses about the goodness of advertising?Why do we have to live up to myth of being the 'hidden persuaders'?


It's time,each one of us did some soul searching.Let's join hands and make a concerted effort to rectify past sins.

The day I heard Eus of RadEUS is no more!

Over two years back, the day began its usual way until I got a call from dear old Dulcie, our trusted right hand in Radeus. The news was not good… she said Eustace of Radeus is no more. In a flash I travelled to over four decades ago to the story of Radeus…

When Radeus started as a co-operative agency, the ‘founding members’ K. Kurien and Usha Katrak were being shadowed by a legal case of defrauding. It was slapped onto them by none other than ASP, of which they were once a part, and off whose client base they started Radeus. They called upon two trusted people Radha Khambadkone and Eustace Fernandes and used them as a front to start out their ambitious advertising communications venture. And thus was born RAD from Radha and EUS from Eustace to become one big family called RADEUS.

Having heard this story again and again in the seventeen years I worked there, it almost became a Radeus folklore. And living it out in full life was dear Eustace. My memory of Eustace is of a maverick doodler… one who I consider as one of the best art directors produced by Indian advertising. And he proved me right time and again as long as we worked together. It was amazing how, on innumerable occasions, I would be sitting across the table discussing the client brief with him and explaining what was needed in the campaign, and this maverick doodler would barely look up from whatever he was doing with his pencil on the paper and as I would come to the end of the brief and get prepared for the questions, voila! I would be shown the paper he was scribbling on, and I would get to see a perfect layout, good enough to be carried to the client, and perfect to the brief! I have never seen anyone as good then nor ever after till date, even in the super speed age of supercomputers!

To a dehati, urdu-medium educated copywriter like me, English was as alien as probably Ghalib was to Eustace. And did he ever leave a stone unturned to rub it into me! A particularly ‘enlightening’ moment was when, Eustace of many languages (he claimed to know French, Spanish and god knows what other , Greek Latin  to an untrained novice like me) flambouantly flashed a paper before me. The paper had just 2 words written on it. With great flourish he asked me to read it aloud. I innocently read it loud and clear…‘Grand Pricks’… and there was Eustace doubled up laughing hard in probably a laugh Grand Prix!

This was neither the first nor the last of such pranks that he played on me… but I shall be eternally grateful to this guy to introduce me to the ‘propah’ advertisingwallah language, and pushing me to learn it well. Maybe today with this article I shall be able to pay back my ‘teacher’ through my heartfelt tribute.

It is sad that he probably passed away sad and angry, as I gather from an article that had appeared, and I quote “ reports in a section of media sometime back claimed that adman Sylvestor DaCunha was the creator of the Amul  Girl, relegating Fernandes to the status of a mere ‘artist’. DaCunha does not deserve any ‘credit’ says Eustace. ‘The mascot was created by me without any assistance or direction from him’

‘And he’s claimimg credit as the creator of the girl and wants his name in the Guinness Book for running the longest ongoing campaign’ says Eustace in a choked voice” unquote. Whatever one may claim Eustace had more such ‘Amuls’ to prove his genius in legendary campaigns that were complete by themselves, even as sketches! Limca with its ‘Lime n lemony Limca’, Amul Girl and her ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious’, Modern Bread Lion, LIC and the list is endless…

The other side of Eustace was noble, giving and so ready to serve the needy. I have seen his relentless work with the street and underprivileged children from close quarters as he involved me in his work. The dedication, love and commitment was unquestionable and completely selfless.

He extended his professional skills to many NGOs, designing their brochures, book covers, newsletters, magazines without charging a penny. It is in his work that he will live on forever, as he will in the hearts of all those children he served, as he will from the Amul girl  as we see her live-on, on the iconic brand idea on the hoarding, the Air India Maharaja as he twirls his lush moustache…and of course for me forever printed on the cover of my first book and imprinted in my memory… sleep tight friend!

A tribute by:

Jameel Gulrays

Result-Driven Advertising and Communications Consultant