A brilliant article on 'Near Extinction of Mushairas'
"Urdu poetry by its nature is composed for the stage. It is supposed to be recited and to be listened. The poet recites the first misraa of his couplet and keeps reciting till he develops a certain expectation among the audience about the content of the second misraa. And then he will surpise them all with something totally different from their expectations. The bigger the surprise, the more the applause. Imagine Ghalib reciting this misraa in a mushaira a few times, "nikalnaa Khuld se Adam kaa sunte aaye haiN lekin" and then following it up with "bahut be-aabruu hokar tere kuuche se ham nikle". This is the primary reason why Ghazal with its two line couplets is the common form of poetry recited in Mushaira. Qitaat and Rubaa’ii with four lines sometimes work. But longer Nazms usually don’t work because of obvious reasons".
----Posted by Mohib June 02, 2007, Indianmuslims.in
"Urdu poetry by its nature is composed for the stage. It is supposed to be recited and to be listened. The poet recites the first misraa of his couplet and keeps reciting till he develops a certain expectation among the audience about the content of the second misraa. And then he will surpise them all with something totally different from their expectations. The bigger the surprise, the more the applause. Imagine Ghalib reciting this misraa in a mushaira a few times, "nikalnaa Khuld se Adam kaa sunte aaye haiN lekin" and then following it up with "bahut be-aabruu hokar tere kuuche se ham nikle". This is the primary reason why Ghazal with its two line couplets is the common form of poetry recited in Mushaira. Qitaat and Rubaa’ii with four lines sometimes work. But longer Nazms usually don’t work because of obvious reasons".
----Posted by Mohib June 02, 2007, Indianmuslims.in
