1) What is the idea behind creating such a page?
Eimal Dorani: - Pashto-Landay is a very special form of poetry. It is a single-couplet poem that exists only in Pashto language. Landay is known to be short yet meaningful and heart-touching. It is not only a part of our rich literature, but also of our rich culture and tradition. It is the expression of the identity, the history and the feelings of the Pashtun peoples.
Why Pashto Landay is our history and identity?
There are many old Landays which date back to thousands of years ago. Some very old Landays were composed during times of ancient wars, or during a very ancient Pashtun‘s tradition and culture. In this way Landays narrate our story, and they are very important documents of our history.
I as a Pashtun, as a big fan of Pashto Landay, as a lover of Pashto language and as Herati who had been always under cultural and linguistic attack from neighbouring countries¬, decided to collect all the collected Pashto Landay in the form of pictures, to be easy for sharing, distributing, commenting and make it more attractive than it already is.
That is why I made all Pashto alphabets in form of pictures to be albums cover for Landays categorised alphabetically. I did not face any problem in collecting Pashto Landays and making Pashto alphabets in the form of pictures. I selected a very nice background for Pashto alphabets, "a faded flower”, which itself were talking about Pashto language and its current situation in Lar aw Bar Afghanistan. But it was really hard to find a background pic for each and every Landay to express the meaning of the Landay in the form of a pic. Pashto Landay is a huge ocean which contains Pashtun‘s history, Pashtun identity, Pashtun’s feelings and pashtunwali "the code of living”. So, it was extremely hard for me to find distinct pic for each and every Landay. I was also busy with my studies because I am a student. An idea came to me that we should invite people to share a piece of this huge work with us instead of doing it all by ourselves. People seem to have loved the idea and we got many fans and admins on the page posting and commenting on Landays. In this way, later on we saw very beautiful, professional, and attractive collections of Pashto Landays in the form of pictures. The success of the mission, begun by me and followed by many other friends, made me grateful and delighted.
2) How do you find Landay posted in the page every day?
Eimal Dorani: - Pashto Landay page is one of the most active pages among Lar aw Bar Afghans (Loy Afghanistan "both side of Durand line”) daily we have Pashto Landay chatting in the form of competition either Admins or fans post a Landay and other try to answer his/her Landay by posting another Landay as a comment under his/her post. We used to announce the best Landay teller in the end of chatting daily, but we changed it later to weekly, and it is a fortnightly now.
Posting of many new and interesting Landays gives us the chance to collect new collection of Pashto Landay, create new Landays according to the current situation and current feelings of youth.
Posting Landays on the Pashto Landay page created a very friendly atmosphere among different people especially among young Pashtuns, who exchange their feelings "romance, love, separation, grief, melancholy, delight, happiness, patriotism and … "through Landays.
3) What do you think, why youth are interested in saying Landay and commenting on the post?
Eimal Dorani: - If we go through the definition of Landay and , we would find that Pashto Landay is nothing but two short verses of poem in which the first verse is only nine syllables and the second is thirteen syllables but this short couplet is very meaningful and heart- touching which is used to exchange the feelings of Pashtuns, especially young Pashtun and pashstana. We believe that a Landay is worth than a thousand words; Landay can carry the sense of a long story, thousand words and …, and if u go through the anthropology of Pashtuns u will find them very sensitive, romantic, patriotic and … people, who love poetry and literature. Even the illiterate Pashtuns use poems, proverbs, short stories related to their speech in their conversation for better understanding and beauty of speech. All these are the strong reasons behind the interest of Pashtuns especially youth to post many Landays on the Pashto Landay page daily.
4) How does this page contribute in promotion of oral tradition, particularly Landay, of Afghanistan?
Eimal Dorani:- The Khyber pass is only the way to going and coming; Afghan in Kabul and Peshawar is one. Pashto Landay page is a page for all Afghans on both sides of Durand line and abroad. Afghans from everywhere post thousands Landays weekly on the wall which contains very new Landays according to current situations, new way of relationship through modern technology "e-mail, SMS ,Facebook ,mobile- and …,we are witness of very new and romantic Landays about e-mail, SMS ,mobile miscalls and very new patriotic Landays about current situation of Pashtuns, which did not exist before at all” and very old and ancient Landays to remind each other how dignified ,rich traditions and way of living Pashtun had and remind each other of the very painful current situation of Afghans especially absolute majority population of Afghanistan and Pashtuns on other sides of Durand line.
5) How do you see youth’s contribution in promotion of oral tradition, particularly Landay, of Afghanistan?
Eimal Dorani: - Pashto Landay or Pashto tappa itself means feelings of Pashtuns especially young Pashtun and pashtana. Youth are very active in the page exchanging their romantic, emotional and patriotic feelings through a Pashto Landay on the Pashto Landay page; Youth believe that a romantic Landay is worth than a thousand words to say to their beloved. The best way to propose to a girl can be a romantic Landay, a Landay to show some love and loyalty!
A best way to motivate patriotism in youth can be a patriotic Landay. Short but very meaningful and can talk about ancient history and braveness of heroes. Pashto Landay page gives a chance to those Pashtuns who were either born abroad or are living aboard since a long time to stay connected with the tradition by reading Landays and/ or posting Landays. Pashto Landay page has some very big fans that were totally unfamiliar with Pashto Landay and its beauty, but now they are part of our active users, reading and writing Landays daily in the page.
6) Did you face any challenges while creating the page, accessing Landay or finding individuals to help you in start-up?
Eimal Dorani: - No doubt, that in the begging and starting of every new work there are some problems and challenges, as I mentioned my biggest aim was to collect all the collected Pashto Landays in the form of pictures, which needed various pictures, collection of Landays and enough time to edit and design. I could find few very nice books and many useful websites to collect Landays, but never could find distinct pictures for each and every Landay to express the real meaning of particular Landay. Besides I am a student and do not have a lot of time. I thought of initiating some people into sharing their ideas and collecting the various Landays people share on the page. Here we are with more than a 1000 posts every week.
Obaidullah Almas helped me in the making of pictures a lot, so I want to thank him here for the effort he put in. Later on for better management of the page, friends everyone Ms wafa khan, Asad Afghan, Shahpoor Ahmzai, Dr. Abdullah Akbari and Abdullahshah Zhwandoon became admins and worked and are still working a lot for the betterment of the page; That each Admin has had new and better ideas for betterment of the page especially Shahpoor Ahmzai and Abdullahshah Zhwandoon.
Ms Leena Sadat, Ms Huma Durrani, Mr Obaidullah Amarkhailýý, Muhammad Ayub Dawoodzai, Shah Mahmud, S Shah Khalil, Abdulwahid Safiýý, Nizar Yousafzi, Mashkor Muramýý Ms Hijab Aman, Mr.Lemar khan, Majnoon Jaan, Ms Nagina Rahmanzai and some other friends that I don’t remember their names now, are among very active users of the page who help us a lot in the promotion, management of the page and the way to chat and competition.
In the end I want to thank all friends and fans that helped us a lot to create a nice and a very active page!
7) What are your futures plans regarding the page and youth’s involvement?
Eimal Dorani :- we are planning to collect best Landays posted on the page, in the form of a book, and soon we will request all the fans to send us at least their favourite Landays with its English meaning so we be able to print and have a translated collection of Pashto Landays in English so others can enjoy the very meaningful and heart-touching Pashto short couplets and in this way can involve youths in their culture, traditions, identity and history movement.
It is our responsibility to keep our tradition ,culture, history and poetry alive.
Bilquees Daud senior student of AUAF
.www.afghanmellat.eu
