PESH AWA R: Where young poets and writers are expected to compose romantic poems and sing songs to glorify natural beauty, the ongoing scenario filled with gun and violence has forced them to turn to serious notes.

Rabia Khan is keen and feels a little bit nervous to participate in a weekly literary session as this is her maiden presentation. She wants to speak out her heart at the literary session.

Till now she used to compose couplets but found no one to share her feelings with. Her heart begins to throb hard when her name is announced for making her literary debut. She comes over to the rostrum to share her feelings versif ying her dirge on the Peshawar city.

There she begins to read herliterary piece, a poem delineating the bizarre face of Peshawar plagued by militancy.

`O! Peshawar city once the city of flowers and fragrance now is overwhelmed by corpses of innocent children and women. ` It is the crux of her poetic piece, there she Knishes with her hands trembling and receives a round of applause for good piece.

A shy girl, Rabia Khan hopes she could become a wordsmith in future. The wonderful experience, she says, opens a window into future journey of her literary career. `Is the city of flowers once I read in books? But I feel explosives around me now. My city turned to endless stories of death,` she versifies.

Prof Syed Zubair Shah took the initiative to launch a weekly literary session for his enthusiast students at the historic Edwardes College, Peshawar where only three to four students showed up. The attempt, he says, was to trigger an interest in literary pursuits and also to provide a platform to young students to speak out their hearts and minds in a free environment.

First of all, Mr Shah planned to make brief visits to living literary giants of Urdu, Hindko and Pashto and conduct sessions with them attheir residences to get firsthand information from the living literati.

`The positive impact of these literary gatherings is that most young poets and fiction writers highlight sufferings of common people, plagued by terrorism and militancy. They openly condemn the so-called jihadi culture.

The poets and writers in KP and Fata bemoan cultural loss but also advocate peace and humanism and tolerance in the society,` he observes.

In the early 50s and 60s, Peshawar city was hub of literary and cultural activities. Olasi Adabi Jirga and Writers Guild`s Peshawar chapter and Halga Arbab-iZaug, Peshawar, Progressive Writers Association and Abasin Arts Council were quite functional where poets, writers, intellectuals and artistes of repute gathered with great enthusiasm in various parts of the city and carried out fruitful debates and also groom up youngsters.

Pashto, Urdu and Hindko poets and writers sattogetherandcraftedñne poetryandprose.

Also participants of different political and religious schools of thoughts would have no problem to sit at one table. Out of those healthy literary debates, large number of poets, writers and literary critics were born and they carried on the legacy of their predecessors.

Da Sahu Leekunkio Adabi Maraka, founded in 1962 by Qalandar Momand, Gandhara Hindko Adabi Board, Halga Arbab-iZaug Urdu and a few other literary organisations in and around Peshawar hold regular literary gatherings where large number of budding poets and writers present their literary pieces for critical appreciation.

Prof Abaseen Yousafzai, popular Pashto poet and patron-in-chief of Pohantoon Adabi Stori (PAS), tells this scribe that he thought young students should have a literary platform on the campus. At first, only a few students showed up but with the passing of time students with a literary taste thronged the Maulana Abdul Qadir Hall at Pashto Academy,University of Peshawar to attend the weekly literary session.

From earlier just five student writers, now every Friday afternoon, Pohantoon Adabi Stori has swelled up to around 50 participants and many of these have brought out their own volumes of poetry in Pashto.

`Almost three years ago, we founded Pohantoon Adabi Stori to groom up budding poets and writers. The experience remained quite successful,` said Mr Yousafzai.

Naila Shamaal and Raheela Bibi are the only two female Pashto poets, who regularly attend the every Friday literary session at Pashto Academy.

Ms Shamaal, a gold medalist in Pashto literature,is presently doing her doctorate thesis from Pashto department, University of Peshawar. She recites a beautiful poem at the literary session in which she categorises kinds of men according to their behaviour on the pattern of Ghani Khan, who had categorised various kinds of women in a satirical tone.

`It is not a rebuttal to great Ghani Khan but a polite reaction of a woman poet,` she explains.

Raheela opines that Pohantoon Adabi Stori provides her a platform where she can express her views in a frank manner. `My male colleagues encourage me to attend Friday literary session,` she says.

Afsar Afghan, a young poet and TV anchor from Shangla, says that provincial government has brought out around 40 quality books in Pashto, Hindko and Urdu related to art, culture and literature. Most writers and poets publish their books on their own expenses. Last year they brought out 1,500 books.

`Self-publication is a common trend,` he says, adding that despite slump book market and thin readership, books are still being published every day. He says that there are around 2,000 literary organisations across KP and Fata. `About 30 to 50 books, mostly poetry volumes, are published every week on self-publication basis. Also around 15 literarycum-cultural journals in Pashto, Hindko and Urdu are brought out on regular basis on various literary, social, cultural and political issues,` he adds.

Mr Afghan says that more than a dozen local FM radios and private TV channels including state-run radio and TV broadcast and telecast literary programmes.

On Warsak road, Peshawar Public School and College, a semi-government institution, while following in the footprints of Pohantoon Adabi Stori has recently formed a literary association -Peshawarians Literary Forum (PLF).

Students gather on every Sunday evening and recite their poetic pieces. `Perhaps militants did not have a taste for natural beauty, that`s why they killed the innocent students of Bacha Khan University,` Siraj, a young poet from South Waziristan, reads out a couplet in Pashto.Neelam Afridi, hailing from Bara, Khyber Agency, says that she is the only English poet, who is doing her master in English literature from Islamia College University.

She says that she has composed poetry in English worth a volume but doesn`t find publisher in Peshawar. `I want to publish my poetry in book form but I find no one to help me get it done,` she regrets.

Dr Salma Shaheen, former director of Pashto Academy, remarks that standard of poetry and prose has improved over the last two decades because of exposure and challenging geo-political situation in the region.

`I think poets and writers have more space and exposure to print, electronic and social media today than ever before. Even Pashto female literati participate in literary gatherings and express themselves in a befitting manner. Literary gatherings should be encouraged at all levels as they serve nurseries for budding poets and writers,` she adds.