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By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Urdu Academy of North America held its monthly literary event on August 16, 2015 at the Chandni Restaurant Newark CA. The event was dedicated to the life and work of a great Urdu poet Mohinder Singh Bedi. Lubna Manzar, was the MC of the program. 
Visiting poet from Pakistan Jazib Qureshi presided over the event.
As usual, Urdu lovers recited Mohinder Singh Bedi’s poetry: Shehzar Basir, Hatem Rani, Khalid Rana, Mobin Khalil, Abdus Sattar Ghazali, Dr. Esmat Kamal, Tasadduq Hussain Attari, Dr. Priya Satia and Nagesh Avadhani.
Lubna Manzar presented a well researched maqala on the life and work of Mohinder Singh Bedi. Jazib Qureshi also spoke about the distinguished Urdu poet.
Mohinder Singh Bedi’s pen name Sahar. He was born in Sahiwal, Punjab, now in Pakistan and after partition of India-Pakistan his family shifted to Fazilka, India.
His poetry is varied and includes traditional themes of love and yearning but also themes of unity, peace between India and Pakistan and humor. His poetry is considered to belong to the same trans-religious and transnational tradition as that of other well-known poets from the Indian subcontinent such as Muhammad Iqbal, Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Ahmad Faraz. Sahar's first book of poetry was T̤ulūʻ-i saḥar was published in1962.
A poet being equally loved in both the countries, his poetry become a symbol of love and peace between India and Pakistan. His poetry was sung by many famous singers like Mohammad Rafi, Jagjit Singh and Chitra. Jagjit Singh launched his Gazal album "Forget me not", to mark tribute to this veteran poet. Haryana Urdu Academy constituted an Award to the name of "Kanwar Mohinder Singh Bedi."
At the end of the program Khalid Rana, a senior member of the Urdu Academy, thanked the audience for making this event successful. He particularly thanked Syed Sarwat for patronizing the Urdu Academy and hosting its monthly meetings to promote Urdu.
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