So, still in the euphoria of the young Writer meet that was held on Saturday February 10th, at the Creativity court, Yasmin El-rufai Foundation, few weeks back, we got hold of an attendee's review, and all we can say is, He is a good story teller.
His Name is Maroof Ahmad, a writer. Please read the review below.
'Waking up a few minutes after nine, I
dragged myself out of bed with the thought of going all the way to
Anguwan dosa for the highly anticipated Young Writers Meet at The Yasmin
Elrufai Foundation. Now weekends were so precious to me considering the
daily stress I go through on weekdays to call it a night for myself,
this was the only time I could actually get to rest my body batteries.
It was like happy hour for the enthusiastic alcoholic. The usual routine
would be to have my bath before breakfast and leave this room for good,
but today things happened in reverse, I dashed into the house to grab
what i like to call breakfast, “the first scoop” together with my
regular dose of hot potion which was the code name for tea and then back
to my room for the cleansing of my body. I rushed to beat time and like
clockwork it happened to be on my side. My eyes were still very sleepy
from last night’s shift but this was an event I looked forward to with
bated breath so there was no way any kind of slumber could steal me away
from this one.
I
dragged one of the little brothers to drop me off at the venue, my mind
was in a calm place considering I was only 5 minutes late and I knew
that since we’re in Nigeria, African time definitely applied. I walked
in through the gate and couldn't help admiring the environment; clean,
calm and colorful to summarize it all. I had myself registered by
entering my details in a computer with a young lady at the reception.
Inside I made my way to the middle row and sat at the edge by the aisle
between two rows. A cyber friend I’d never met had mentioned earlier
that he might be coming in briefly so I was excited already. Little did I
know that he was right behind me and needed to confirm whether or not
the lad who just walked in was actually Maaroof. He picked up the phone
and called me then as we were talking he poked me from behind. It was
Muhammad Umar, finally his face in reality.
Samaila
Goje was all “tuxed” up and ready to roar as the main anchor at the
event. He had this special ability to employ his twisted sense of humor
that cracked many ribs yet still maintain an “expressionless” face. He
gave us a few lines and disappeared somewhere far behind. Meet and greet
was introduced by Fatima Ayefu, it kicked off with us picking tiny
sheets labeled with letters on them to break us down into groups of
A,B, C, D and E. I picked a C and made my way towards the corner where
my group members were already waiting for me. It was interesting as we
got acquainted with ourselves, rubbed minds and tried to focus on the
topic of reading to see how this could make a positive change in our
lives as well as the society we live in. However time wasn’t on our side
so the party was crashed just when we hit fever pitch. Was glad to have
met a young engineer by name Mouktar Rafindadi though as always I like
to offer code names so I decided to call him Mooky Monocles, because of
his glasses of course. It was particularly interesting to meet an
engineer with such a huge passion for writing and wanting to express
himself. This means that his abilities go beyond the fieldwork and
getting his hands dirty. There were light bulb moments when he could
pick up his pen and paper and scribble down rich words in potential
stanzas. I also met the popular writer Sada Malumfashi’s sister, Habiba
whose name escaped my head in the beginning, she talked about being a
fan of reading as well, apparently it runs in the family. Also in my
group was Usman Shamaki’s wife who was passionate about the subject as
well, seems her husband’s enthusiasm was infectious after all. Sadly the
last person on my group is another name I didn’t get to register
properly but I know that one of these days we’ll bump into each other in
a gathering like this.
I
have always wanted to have anger management issues discussed . This is
certainly one factor that triggers domestic violence and in worst case
scenarios, terrorism. Hajiya Hadiza Aliko took the stage and drew all of
that out of my head, i wasn’t surprised when I found out she’s a
specialist in that field. One of her statements in particular hit a high
note, a worthy mention which stated that 7 out of 10 Nigerians are
mentally unstable. Now this is a figure that scared me, quite alarming
and as much as it sounds ridiculous it actually is the situation in
black and white. She spoke eloquently for just a couple of minutes but
it seemed like the session had lasted an entire lecture, all because the
content of her speech was enlightening as well as eye-opening. Hajiya
Hadiza called on people with talent, specifically writers and poets for
the sake of the purpose of our gathering that morning, to ensure that
they become superheroes without capes. This is where I come in, I have
never really considered writing for anybody but myself. My journal was
personal and so was my inactive blog. My poems are hidden within the
pages of many notebooks and every article I write still remains in my
archives. There is no way one’s work could touch lives and make a
difference unless it is put out there to serve it’s purpose. To educate
and enlighten, in other cases to entertain. This is the moment it struck
me that we must all look inside ourselves to summon the courage and
start using such devices as our articles, poems,illustrations, lyrics
and books to spread the word.
Usman
Shamaki, the book bazooka as I have dubbed him, rode his hobby horse
focusing on how to make some bucks out of creatively compiled words. and
better still, he questioned why readers should pay a certain amount to
read your work as a writer. You ought to make it count if you really
want to go down the money lane. One needs to discipline himself/herself
to upgrade writing from a hobby to a habit in order to plant that money
tree. Usman shared tips and answered questions relating to earning
something reasonable from scribbling.
Fatima
Abdulrahman came onboard and made her own contributions accordingly,
she was more of a storyteller telling real life stories that related to
certain scenarios. As always the “Divorce Diaries” picture was vividly
painted to enlighten the audience and set the scene before she hit the
nail on the head. People need to know that writing is more than simply
composing words to make sense, it was more of trying to scratch someone
where it itches or create a place where one could walk in other people’s
shoes to truly understand how things work. Having a purpose to write is
very significant and aspiring writers needed to take this into serious
consideration before making a career out of it.
Abdulbasit
the stanza master anchored the poetry/flash fiction competition and
called out the winners to be Najib Kazaure and Abdulhamid Nasir. They
read their interesting pieces, indeed the play on words was amazing,
talent was speaking for itself here.
The
part I managed to participate in was the final roundtable discussion
anchored by Hafsah Sule Dauda with Sadiq, Farida, Sada and Sheefah.
Every second of this session was awesome as we heard from the pros how
to go about the ropes keeping in mind the trapdoors and loop holes. What
I loved most about this particular discussion was how they all talked
about their personal experiences of going from zero to hero. They passed
tips around like love notes to whom it may concern. We tossed our
questions and the answers were thrown back. There was a lot of
communication happening here, fortunately the light inside my head was
on the whole time. I took in what was going to serve as a springboard
for me just for the record. My curiosity on fiction met its match and
the clash was a victory. I learned how to go about writing without any
stress as before this gathering everything seemed like a circus, but at
the end of it all I felt like the ringmaster. I am grateful for such an
opportunity to meet up with a bunch of creatives to receive free tips,
and get demos on how to make money without paying money. By this I mean
there was no gate fee, no online payment, no tickets at the event, just
available chairs and a conducive atmosphere. I managed to meet Ibrahim,
an acme photographer who'd been stealing good shots and capturing candid
photos as the event was on. Finally got to exchange numbers and dub him
Cyclops. Thank you Yasmin Elrufai Foundation and Startup Kaduna for
this wonderful opportunity you have given us all. Indeed, every minute
was worth it and we do hope that there will be many more of such events
organized here in Kaduna to restore our reading culture, enlighten the
youth, guide the young and upgrade the literacy level of our dear state
to a very high platform. See you on the next episode of "Eye-write".
Maroof is a writer with Episodes he tags "Eye-write"and it is apparent he had a good time at the Young Writers Meet.
You can tweet him at him via his handle @ROaAhmadspeaks
Share your thoughts with us, what did you think of this review?
Thank you for reading.
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