Akil Contractor’s creative verses enthrall – Audiences spellbound at the ‘Sheri Nashist’ Mushaira held in Mumbai

31 July 2021: Akil Contractor, Founder & Chief Innovator, Print Dynamic, Mumbai, is a rare individual, whose creativity is reflected in both, ink formulations and poetry. His ability to weave magic with words, again came in the spotlight recently, when Gul Bootey, an Urdu magazine, published from Mumbai, presented the ‘Sheri Nashist’ Mushaira or poetry symposium on July 12, 2021, at Haj House, Palton Road, Mumbai.

Honoured in the 2008 edition of Limca Book of Records for the ‘Most Printing Ink Formulations,’ Akilbhai as he is known among the screen printing fraternity is a respected veteran who started out as part of a family company in the printing ink industry in 1981, before establishing Print Dynamic.

“He started writing poetry in English In 1985 and in 1986 published two volumes of poetry titled ‘Spirit song’ (verses), followed by ‘After kalinga and other poems’ which were also published in a few magazines. He is Co-founder of Poetry Circle, Mumbai with Nitin Mukadam and Ms. Menka Shivdasani. In July 2019, he started self-learning Urdu and writing Urdu poems in ‘sher-shayari’ tradition. “Poetry helps me come to terms with life, expressing myself at an emotional level. With the Urdu language you can focus on love, philosophy, and express thoughts in rhyme,” Akil Contractor emphasizes.

In ‘Sheri Nashist’ Mushaira, the host introduces various poets who then share the poetry written in their individual style of writing, it enables the audience and participants to experience one of the purest forms of literature. In addition to Akil Contractor, this session featured various leading pets like Naseem Siddiqui, Hameed Iqbal Siddiqui, Dipti Mishra, Pragya Sharma, Dev Main Pandey, Naveen Joshi, Musheer Ansari, Riyaz Munsif, Nayyar Hassan, Khushi Gangadiya and Madhav Noor, with Dr. Qasim Imam presiding.