Syeda Amtul Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — A team of Urdu Toastmasters from Dammam organized an event recently to launch “Urdu Toastmaster Club” in Riyadh for Urdu speaking expatriates under the banner of “Hindustani Bazm-e-Urdu (HBU)” at a local restaurant. President HBU MAR Saleem” said: “We observed many Urdu speaking expatriates who love Urdu language, so we then decided to start a ‘Urdu Toastmaster Club' in Riyadh.” He said “Urdu Toastmaster Club” provides the perfect platform for those who want to upgrade their communication and public speaking skills. Saleem said HBU, initiated in 1990, has organized more than 100 programs to promote Urdu language in the Kingdom, such as Mushaira, speech contest in various schools. TM Nayeem Javed highlighted the journey of HBU. He believes that each and every youth should join and groom their language skills. According to Javed, Toastmasters International is a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to bringing about better human understanding across cultural borders through better communication and leadership skills. He said: “Urdu is one of the decent languages of the world. Earlier people were very familiar with Urdu language as they are able to read, write and speak but the current generation is overlooking the mother language and Urdu language has become extinct nowadays.” TM Shiraz Madhi, the Toastmaster of the day, gave presentation on how to learn Urdu language through Google Urdu Transliteration. He said now more than four million Toastmasters exist worldwide. Table Topic session started with Mir Ahmed Ali, Omar Khan, Rayees, Dr.Uzair Ahmed, Abdulaziz Shamim Khan, Mohammed Quaiser, Syed Mubashir Ahmed, TM Waqas and Aliuddin Aqeel. Evaluation Session was conducted by the TM Syed Mansoor Shah. One minute Toastmaster was TM Mohammed Mubin, language evaluator was TM Syed Mansoor Shah, AH Counter was TM Syed Ateeq, general evaluator was TM Faiz ur Rahman, vote counter was TM Waqas, time manager was TM Aijaz Rafiuddin and joke master was TM Rafeeq Agole. Education Session winner Tajamul Ali Khan was awarded by Saleem, Table Topic session winners were awarded by Mohammed Quaiser to Mansoor Shah.
