Loading ...

From Left to Right, Ejaz Mahmood, Gulzar Ahmad Qureshi (Late), Syed Akhtar Hussain Akhtar (Late), A Guest.

My dear Ejaz,

Assalam-o-Alaikum,

It was a pleasant surprise for me to see you in Lahore soon after my return from USA. Now that you know I live in the neighborhood of your brother’s residence in Gosha-i-Ahbab I will expect that you will call on me , Whenever you visit Lahore next time. I feel we had a very useful discussion on the future of the development project of SAANJO.

Relying on your good memory I will request you to recap the highlights of the discussion and prepare an action plan for the promotion and propagation of the SAANJO. Do not be discouraged at this stage all pioneers have had a common experience of braving the hardships and insurmountable odds. Historically speaking the future success has always belonged to the pioneers. They are the ones who convert an obvious defeat into a sure victory.

The MOTTO should be “MARCH” ON and attitude should be “stick to the gun till the battle is won.”
Now that the ball is in your court I expect that you will send your action plan to me for developing a strategy for implementation. The proposed action plan should be tiered into Short Term, Medium Term and Long Term plans. These plans can also be tiered into three geographical levels i.e. Local, Provincial and Central To help you in your Herculean effort to develop the action plan for successful SAANJO propagation I am putting down, from my memory, some salient features of the discussion of the subject.

1. To promote learning of SAANJO we should devise a system of recognition and incentives and issue certificates on the successful completion of certain levels of learning of SAANJO.

2. For this purpose we agreed to divide the SAANJO learning courses into various levels. The prospective learners will therefore be classified and categorized according to the level of learning to indicate proficiency in SAANJO.

a. The first stage is for those who can learn the SAANJO alphabet in short courses of two weeks or less depending upon the requirement of the individuals.

b. The second stage (level): The students will learn to from words within the prescribed course period.

c. The third level students will to form and write sentences in SAANJO within prescribed course period.

d. Fourth level student will learn to communicate in writing in SAANJO and learn to compose paragraphs and write letters in SAANJO.

e. The fifth level students will learn to do the basic rendition from Gurmukhi, Urdu and Shahmukhi in to SAANJO.

f. The sixth level students will be required to learn to write/compose letters, applications, articles contribute, after approval and corrections, to the SAANJO Magazine.

g. The seventh level will require the students to do original research Punjabi or Urdu literature in SAANJO. This should be highest stage where the course would require a student to author a book of short stories, a novel, a book of verses. A book in SAANJO may be a commentary on contemporary events or in the fields of politics, societal behavior and economics.

h. From the point of view of the public it is important to give formal names to the stages/levels of learning as indicators of proficiency in SAANJO.

3. The initiative may come from your side and a beginning should be made by holding a session for the first batch of trainers.

a. These trainers should hold classes of trainers so that you have a good number of volunteer trainers.

b. These trainers will perform the task of recruiting learners at various levels.

4. The target area for teaching SAANJO should be divided in local units, UC units, District units, Regional units and provincial units, and national level if need be.

5. We should develop unit organize at all levels and train the local office bearers to handle unit problems locally and coordinate with central SAANJO Authority.

6. The SAANLO community should be knit together through a system of membership and affiliations. The affiliation process should be prestigious enough to earn respect from others and arouse their envy.

7. The interest of the SAANJO Community can be maintained and kept alive with frequent communications, ceremonies, and social interaction at local or higher levels.

8. A News letter can be published at regular intervals about the activities of SAANJO community. The News letter can project the growth, activities of the community and developments on the SAANJO script front.

9. Actually, in the final analysis we will have to work on SAANJO community development plan and try to make them self-sufficient financially and seek support for the Center as well to cover printing, development and dissemination of teaching materials.

10. You will evolve a system of rewards recognition and award certificates ceremonially to all participants on completion of a level.

11. These are some of thoughts I wanted to share with you as part of the exercise of recapping our discussion in Lahore.

Hoping to hear soon from you.

Cordially
Gulzar Ahmad Qureshi Ji (GAQ)