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Begun 27 years ago due to the pioneering efforts of Talib Shanabadi, Director of Henry Martin Institute, Hyderabad, the first meeting of AICUW was held at Dehra Dun in 1980, and attended by renowned shairs like Yunus Sabir of Peshawar, Sardar Anjum, S.A. Harrison Qurban, Naami Nadri and Shauq Jalandhari who was also its convenor. Benjamin Rehmat, Allana Griffin, Anwar Ajmeri, Akhtar Ludhianvi, Samuel Dani, Jones Sharar of England, Majboor Jalandhari, Hariat Farukhabadi and Allama Nadir Shahajahanpuri were among the motivators.

The chief organiser of the function in Delhi was T. David Lall. The Adabi mushaira, graced by the retiring CNI Bishop, Rev. Karam Masih, was worth attending because of the galaxy of poets present. Others, however, had to hold back their kalaam for the Masihi Mushaira. The octogenarian Capt. Gill was the senior most poet who drew applause for his shairi that roped in Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. Padri Prem Assi, R.S. Singh, Sushil, Emmanuel Tasavur Nasrani, Asha Jodhpuri and David Lall “Gnayal”, added lustre to the occasion.

This is what the last-named had to offer among encores: “Bala se aur barh jaye Masih dard-e-alam mera, Tere naksh-e-qadam hi kash ho naksh-e-qadam mera, Gadam zakhmi masih ghayal ko apne choo lene de, Inko choom hi lene se mit jaye ga gham mera. (Christ be my guide. Allow Ghayal (the poet) to kiss your wounded feet so that his sorrows are wiped off).

Masihi Shairi actually began in the 18th Century and flowered in the 19th, with such poets as Alexander Heatherley Azad, the pupil of Ghalib’s nephew, Nawab Zainul Abdin Arif. George Puech “Shore” and his maternal grandfather, Francis Koine “Farasu”, Joseph Bensley “Fana”, David “Hio”, and English judge of Allahabad, Benjamin Montrose “Muztar” (whose ustad was Daagh Dehlavi), the De Sylva’s poets of Jaipur, along with Hakim Maftoon and Mallika Jan of Agra, the vivacious Lileen Gardner and other family shairs of Kasganj, Master Butler “Abid”, and the Filose poets of Gwalior. Then came a decline after Partition in 1947, to be followed by a revival in 1980. The weekend event in Delhi may be regarded as the rejuvenation of a dimpled 27-year-old Saqi on a jasmine scented evening.

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