اردو "اہلِ زبان" کے بارے میں ایک رائے، کولمبیا یونیورسٹی کی اردو کی مستند استاد اور اسکالر محترمہ فرانسس پرچیٹ کی، جو انہوں نے
اردو عروض پر اپنی کتاب کے تعارف میں لکھی ہے:
We said at the end of Chapter 8 in the original print edition (1987) that real
ahl-e zabaan were made and not born. That may have been only partially the case then, but it's all too true by now. Traditionally-educated ustads are a dying breed. Classical Urdu poetry, like so much else, belongs less and less to those who simply inherit it, and more and more to those who seek it out and adopt it for their own.
The very forces that have deprived us of traditionally-educated ustads, however, have brought us the internet. Now Urdu poetry is international, and we can share with each other across time and space. And of course we still have Mir and Ghalib, and so much else besides. So dig in, you
ahl-e zabaan of the future, and learn to use the tools. Classical ghazal poetry is an astonishing delight. The rewards are so rich that you won't exhaust them in a lifetime.
Fran Pritchett
New York, July 2003
