Durban - Zakia Ahmed Siddiqi, the widow of renowned Urdu poet Safee Siddiqi, hopes that more parents will realise the value of sending their children to language schools.
“Language has so much to do with our culture. It is part of who we are. Learning your mother tongue should be a necessity rather than an option.
"As a Muslim, I would go to Madressa from a young age and believe that every child should go to a linguistic school to learn his or her mother tongue.”
Siddiqi can speak Urdu, English, Afrikaans and Hindi.
Her 27-year-old daughter and 24-year-old son, she said, spoke only English.
She said she would have loved for them to converse in Urdu but they did not take to the language as she and her husband had.
Siddiqi said, other than her parents, who spoke Urdu, Indian movies also helped increase her vocabulary.
“But despite all that, I think I have a natural flair for Urdu,” she beamed. “Urdu was something I thought was a beautiful language. Nothing puts things the way Urdu does.”
She said the real passion for Urdu stemmed from her husband, who was instrumental in keeping the language alive in the country. He was also the chairman of Urdu foundation, Buzme Adab.
“He had done a lot. He wrote lyrics for many people and taught Urdu whenever he could to make sure it was at the fore.”
Siddiqi said they were going to publish his book of poems and Urdu literature but he passed on in 2012 before realising that dream.
“I am hoping to complete the book. I’m actually on the brink of completing it. I want to keep the language alive through the Safee Siddiqi Foundation because, to be honest, it is a dying breed.
"I want to get the younger ones writing and singing in Urdu. We have got to start with the younger ones if we want to keep it alive."