urdustan in the news
In this blog we have been covering news and sites about Urdu, but we never thought that we can be a news too. We are honored be featured in The News english newspaper from Jang group of Pakistan. What else I can say? You can read the story:
Urdu on the inner net
Though late in taking off, several Urdu websites are out there to preserve existing literary works and encourage new ones
By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed
The Internet is undoubtedly the most effective medium nowadays to bring communities closer and mould them into a cohesive force. The technology that supports the functioning of this wonder-tool of communication defies all traditional limitations. It instantly connects members of different communities separated by distances as long as thousands of miles.
Capitalising on this strength of the Internet, individuals speaking the same languages stay in regular touch in different ways - the most effective being the creation of common-interest websites and online communities. Different Urdu-loving groups have entered the arena, though rather late in the day, and taken initiatives to preserve and promote their language. The list of such initiatives is quite long, but a review of some of them (in the text that follows) shows that significant progress has been made in the past few years.
To start with one can focus on Mehfil-e-Mushaira online, a highly popular website among the Urdu-speaking community across the globe. It is the first ever website that presents audio clips of Urdu poetry in the poets' own voices. These poetry selections have been made from poems read by different poets at mushairas held in Pakistan, India, the Middle East, Canada, Norway, the United States and other countries. The audio files are in Real Audio format and can be listened to by downloading RealPlayer software free of cost.
Like most of the websites, Mehfil-e-Mushaira - registered under the name of mushaira.org - is a non-profit website dedicated to Urdu poetry. A value-added feature of this website is that it offers an English translation of select pieces of poetry.
Other popular sections of this website include a poetry contest, readers' poetry, news, schedules and reports of mushairas and other Urdu literary activities around the globe. Besides, a list and brief description of other websites of organisations serving Urdu is also available.
Contrary to the public perception that literary websites are not much known to the masses, webmasters claim that these websites are visited everyday by tens of thousands of people, especially those based abroad. Mehfil-e-Mushaira is one such website and has the honour of being among the top 10 Pakistani websites picked by the country's leading Internet magazine, Spider. It has also been featured as a top Pakistani website on the official Pakistan page.
Other popular Urdu websites include allamaiqbal.com, faiz.com, urdustan.com, urdushairy.com, Kitaab Ghar (a place to find free books), Urdu books, Bazgasht (a collection of Urdu poetry and speeches in audio), Urdu poetry archive, Iqbal Urdu Cyber library, Urdu Nagar, Amir Khusro website and eBazm.com. Personal websites on literary figures like Syed Muhammad Jafari, Arif Imam and Shabnam Romani are also available for avid Urdu readers.
Of all these informative websites, Kitaab Ghar is a project that deserves special mention for the service it is rendering Urdu. The website distinguishes itself from others by offering full texts of published and unpublished Urdu books online and that, too, free of cost.
Sitting in Pakistan, one cannot realise the importance of what this website has to offer. But for most of those inhabiting foreign lands, where Urdu books are not available altogether or hard to find, the website is nothing less than an oasis in a lifeless desert. The selection of books to be put on the website is made by a selected panel that also takes care of piracy and intellectual property rights issues. The website promises to bring hundreds of books absolutely free of cost to its visitors for online or offline browsing.
To mention only a few, books available in PDF format include: Ababeelain lout aaien gi by Tarannum Riaz, Meri mohabbatain by Haider Qureshi, Kun faiyakoon by Aslam Badr, Rang-e-gulnaar by Sarwar Alam Raz, Har qadam roshni by Khurshid Nazir, Pahaar mujhe bulaata hai, Manzar aur pasmanzar by Haider Qureshi, Tawaf-e-dasht-e-junoon, Shokh bayani by Shaukat Jamal, Shor-e-badbaan by Akbar Hameedi and Taien taien fish by Gul-e-Naukhaiz Akhtar.
No doubt learning and enjoying a rich language is impossible without the help of a standard dictionary. The same holds true for Urdu, necessitating a quality online Urdu dictionary. Luckily, a solution to this problem has been provided by websites like ebazm. The website offers an easy-to-use dictionary in which a reader can look for meanings of different words by typing them in Roman Urdu. This makes Urdu reading easier and attractive for those who are striving to build up their vocabulary.
Last but not the least, there are websites like Urdustan.com that are fast capitalising on the highly popular 'blogging' services. It offers blogs in Urdu on countless issues including the Urdu language, institutions working for promotion of Urdu languages, Urdu jokes, lughaat (dictionaries), Urdu teaching softwares, relgious websites in Urdu and so on.
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2005-weekly/nos-11-12-2005/lit.htm#2
Urdu on the inner net
Though late in taking off, several Urdu websites are out there to preserve existing literary works and encourage new ones
By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed
The Internet is undoubtedly the most effective medium nowadays to bring communities closer and mould them into a cohesive force. The technology that supports the functioning of this wonder-tool of communication defies all traditional limitations. It instantly connects members of different communities separated by distances as long as thousands of miles.
Capitalising on this strength of the Internet, individuals speaking the same languages stay in regular touch in different ways - the most effective being the creation of common-interest websites and online communities. Different Urdu-loving groups have entered the arena, though rather late in the day, and taken initiatives to preserve and promote their language. The list of such initiatives is quite long, but a review of some of them (in the text that follows) shows that significant progress has been made in the past few years.
To start with one can focus on Mehfil-e-Mushaira online, a highly popular website among the Urdu-speaking community across the globe. It is the first ever website that presents audio clips of Urdu poetry in the poets' own voices. These poetry selections have been made from poems read by different poets at mushairas held in Pakistan, India, the Middle East, Canada, Norway, the United States and other countries. The audio files are in Real Audio format and can be listened to by downloading RealPlayer software free of cost.
Like most of the websites, Mehfil-e-Mushaira - registered under the name of mushaira.org - is a non-profit website dedicated to Urdu poetry. A value-added feature of this website is that it offers an English translation of select pieces of poetry.
Other popular sections of this website include a poetry contest, readers' poetry, news, schedules and reports of mushairas and other Urdu literary activities around the globe. Besides, a list and brief description of other websites of organisations serving Urdu is also available.
Contrary to the public perception that literary websites are not much known to the masses, webmasters claim that these websites are visited everyday by tens of thousands of people, especially those based abroad. Mehfil-e-Mushaira is one such website and has the honour of being among the top 10 Pakistani websites picked by the country's leading Internet magazine, Spider. It has also been featured as a top Pakistani website on the official Pakistan page.
Other popular Urdu websites include allamaiqbal.com, faiz.com, urdustan.com, urdushairy.com, Kitaab Ghar (a place to find free books), Urdu books, Bazgasht (a collection of Urdu poetry and speeches in audio), Urdu poetry archive, Iqbal Urdu Cyber library, Urdu Nagar, Amir Khusro website and eBazm.com. Personal websites on literary figures like Syed Muhammad Jafari, Arif Imam and Shabnam Romani are also available for avid Urdu readers.
Of all these informative websites, Kitaab Ghar is a project that deserves special mention for the service it is rendering Urdu. The website distinguishes itself from others by offering full texts of published and unpublished Urdu books online and that, too, free of cost.
Sitting in Pakistan, one cannot realise the importance of what this website has to offer. But for most of those inhabiting foreign lands, where Urdu books are not available altogether or hard to find, the website is nothing less than an oasis in a lifeless desert. The selection of books to be put on the website is made by a selected panel that also takes care of piracy and intellectual property rights issues. The website promises to bring hundreds of books absolutely free of cost to its visitors for online or offline browsing.
To mention only a few, books available in PDF format include: Ababeelain lout aaien gi by Tarannum Riaz, Meri mohabbatain by Haider Qureshi, Kun faiyakoon by Aslam Badr, Rang-e-gulnaar by Sarwar Alam Raz, Har qadam roshni by Khurshid Nazir, Pahaar mujhe bulaata hai, Manzar aur pasmanzar by Haider Qureshi, Tawaf-e-dasht-e-junoon, Shokh bayani by Shaukat Jamal, Shor-e-badbaan by Akbar Hameedi and Taien taien fish by Gul-e-Naukhaiz Akhtar.
No doubt learning and enjoying a rich language is impossible without the help of a standard dictionary. The same holds true for Urdu, necessitating a quality online Urdu dictionary. Luckily, a solution to this problem has been provided by websites like ebazm. The website offers an easy-to-use dictionary in which a reader can look for meanings of different words by typing them in Roman Urdu. This makes Urdu reading easier and attractive for those who are striving to build up their vocabulary.
Last but not the least, there are websites like Urdustan.com that are fast capitalising on the highly popular 'blogging' services. It offers blogs in Urdu on countless issues including the Urdu language, institutions working for promotion of Urdu languages, Urdu jokes, lughaat (dictionaries), Urdu teaching softwares, relgious websites in Urdu and so on.
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2005-weekly/nos-11-12-2005/lit.htm#2
1 Comments:
If you are doing good work, it can't go unnoticed. Surely it will be appreciated.
I come to this blog quite often. I also hope to bring the gems of Urdu poetry to web through my blog www.indscribe.blogspot.com
Cheers!
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home