Vlogging Delhi’s Dargahs inspires youth towards culture preservation & environmental protection!

Word For Peace 

SAYYARA HUN MAIN, ISHQ MERA SUFIYANA 

I’m a ‘celestial bdoy’ (a person who serves others, not himself/herself), and my love is mystical….

At a time when Vlogging series on YouTube and other social media platforms like Instagram, attract the youth especially those who are social-media savvy, forcing them to read Sufi literature in Urdu and Persian has become too gigantic a task to achieve.

In this backdrop, Aseem Asha Foundation—a Delhi-based registered educational charitable Trust which is uplifting the city’s underprivileged students especially from Okhla, Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia and Mubarakpur Dabas since 2008— has initiated a novel idea—Sayyara Hu Main Ishq Mera Sufiyana. It is a youth-oriented vlogging series which seeks to connect the community’s budding writers, artists, illustrators, painters, and young artists with the Sufi traditions of India deeply seated and rooted in the syncretic Indian culture. It is focused on the preservation of Indian cultural heritage apart from Environmental Protection, not on a particular strain of any religion.

In this series, there is also one documentary film series named “SUFIYANA QISSE BY GHULAM RASOOL DEHLVI” which is being made parallel to the vlogging series. The documentary series is presented by a young Sufi Lover, Influencer and Writer and Founding-Editor of WordForPeace.com, MR. GHULAM RASOOL DEHLVI.

Apart from the various below-mentioned activities, the volunteers also participated in Sufi Quiz and did some Indian traditional wall painting with mirrors and permanent colours on walls and calligraphy on flower pots and wrote KAKI with candles which was unique and beautiful. Recently the volunteers covered 2 more dargahs, as follows:

Vlog-1 is out on the YouTube channel namely, “ASEEM ASHA FOUNDATION”.

Vlog-2 is about the dargah of HAZRAT BAKHTIAR KAKI, which is also available online now.

Vlog-3 covers the dargah of Hazrat Sheikh Shahabuddin Ashiq Allah, which is under production at present.

This dargah of Hazrat Ashiq Allah (Divine Lover) promotes greenery as it is in the middle of the jungle. Children got an opportunity to have a heritage walk and nature walk. The partakers did the above-mentioned activities but also did some outstanding deeds to preserve the dargah. They cleaned the dargah, stacked and polished the shoes which were scattered on the stairs of the dargah.

In both dargahs, Plant Distribution Drive took place. The participants calligraphed the name of five famous Chishtis on the pots which were kept on the dargah of Hazrat Bakhtiar Kaki for the public display. The Plant Distribution Drive is being done to promote environmental activities, conserve the environment and concern about nature. It also aims to inspire the youth towards nature and culture preservation and understand the present scenario of the environment and tackle the environmental issues.

The vlogging series “Sayyara Hu Main Ishq Mera Sufiyana” is presented by 13 selected volunteers of Aseem Asha Foundation. The main purpose of this series is to preserve and promote the tradition and culture through digital inclusion mainly for the young generations. First episode of the vlogging series was made on the TEACHERS’ DAY in which the participants covered the Dargahs of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and his disciple Hazrat Ameer Khusrau and talked about “Guru Shishya Parampara”.

The participants also took part in various activities such as: Langar Distribution (Saqib, Sumaira, Tarun and Shakir), Khana (Community Kitchen of Aseem Asha Foundation) prepared food for the poor and needy and distributed Langar among 40-50 people, Chadar Decoration (Sumaira, Hiba & Adiba of Aahang Program) decorated the Chadar which was spread on the shrines of Sufi Saints, Chadar Poshi in which the participating boys went to the shrines for Chadar Poshi, Sketching and Calligraphy in which Adiba, Sumaira & Hiba of Aahang Program did calligraphy and made live dargah sketches, Sufi Singing (Prashant, Hasan, Sumaira & Saqib of Aahang Program sang some Sufi songs), Camera & Sound Handling (Shakir, Hasan, Adnan & Tarun of Sanshrey program shot the cinematic shots, cutaways, photographs, sound clips etc), Storytelling (Vlogging) (Hasan, Ilma & Shakir were the main vloggers and Adnan, Saqib & Hiba narrated the story while others shared their experiences), Heritage Walk in which all the community members explored the unexplored and neglected richness of the places.

What is Aseem Asha Foundation?

It is a non-governmental, not-for-profit and enrolled altruistic trust which is broadly working in the field of Education, Art, Literature & Culture and provides vocational training to the children. It touches different social issues like Poverty Eradication, Environmental Issues, Art, Literature & Culture etc. and tries to solve it by distributing Langar, by Plant Distribution Drive, by performing Visual Art Activities on Dargahs, etc. The main purpose of Aseem Asha Foundation is to empower the youth and address their issues very creatively and educationally.

Sanshrey (Community Media Initiative)

One of the important programs of Aseem Asha Foundation is Sanshrey through which it provides media training to its beneficiaries so that they can make documentary films on different kinds of social issues. But this time the volunteers took a unique step by making a vlogging series named “Sayyara Hu Main Ishq Mera Sufiana”, as detailed above.

Aseem Asha Usman is the founder-director of Aseem Asha Foundation, Okhla, New Delhi.