Mushrooming news and FM radio channels have produced a steady stream of aspirants eager to polish their Urdu speaking skills and diction. At Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI), a few Urdu scholars make up to Rs 1,000 an hour teaching media professionals how to get the accent and intonation right.

Mohammad Adam, pursuing a doctorate in Urdu at JMI, coaches them regularly. One of his former students is now a radio jockey in Ranchi, while another is working with a news channel in Delhi. Adam says while Urdu is being increasingly portrayed as a preserve of Muslims in media, the language is emerging as the new form of communication in television, radio, Hindi films and film songs.

“Urdu is a beautiful language with a certain romantic lyricism that makes it pleasing to the ear. Radio jockeys and television anchors urge us to teach them the right diction,” he says. Apart from working as a radio jockey, Adam is at present teaching Urdu to theatre artists, a sculptor and an American student at JMI. He says he makes enough to meet his needs.

Anwarul Haq, who is also a Ph.D student and Jawaid Hassan, an M.Phil student of Urdu, teach diction to actors and foreigners.

While none of them have taken up tutoring as a full-time job, Hassan says he might go on to open an institute if he finds partners. “There are certificate courses for learning Urdu as a language, but none specifically for diction. Teaching brings in steady income and at a seminar held at JMI recently, many people stressed on the need for institutes to train non-Urdu speaking people,” he says.