Everybody has some sort of news to communicate. But most of us are forgeting that what we cannot see is sometimes more important: the way that you’ve got to say what you say.
The’Musalman’ is probably the last hand written newspaper in the world. It has been published and read evryday in South India’s Chennai since 1927 – in almost the same form,because now its deceased editor Fazlulla believed that handwritten pages were crucial to the paper and to the tradition of hand written Urdu. Its tough for the die-hard artists of Urdu calligraphy.But the story we tell here is not just of their deaperation and deapair but of a passion that has kept this paper alive in almost impossible circumstances. And yes, they have a host of supporters who believe with them that handwritten Urdu is an art form that need to be encouraged,preserved and practised as a living tradition. But this has to be done through active financial encouragement – as a consciously run sponsorship scheme to revive and resusciate a dying art called – calligraphy.