Manoj Muntashir (centre) narrates a verse to artistes (from left) Tanushree Upadhayay, Priya Ramnathan, Sushant Sharma, Neelam Muntashir, Neeraj Sachdeva, Mustafa Siddique, Jatin Dua and Thakur. Pics/Sameer markande

Though he began performing traditional Urdu poetry only in 2014, 81-year-old retired Indian Air Force personnel Dalip Singh Thakur's love for the written word dates back to 1953, when he was a student at the Government College of Ropar in Punjab. "The college would organise ghazal evenings known as mushairas on an all-India scale.