Mir’s ghazals translated into Polish

Brussels, Sept. 22, INEP -- Urdu poetry is now making inroads in Poland. The Urdu ghazals of famous 18th century Indian poet, Mir Taqi Mir, have been translated into Polish.
A collection of Mir’s ghazals, illustrated by Gholam Mahdi, an Iranian artist, and translated by Polish intellectual Janusz Krzyzowsky and an Indian writer based in Warsaw, Surender Bhutani, was released by the Indian Ambassador, Anil Wadhwa, in a ceremony in Warsaw Wednesday.
The ceremony was attended by about 100 Polish writers, poets, journalists and intellectuals as well as diplomats at the Indian embassy residence.
On this occasion, Janusz Krzyzowsky and Surender Bhutani read out about twenty short ghazals in Urdu and Polish and also played ghazals of Abida Parveen to introduce the audience to the beauty of Indian ghazal singing.
For many of the Polish guests, sources at Indian embassy in Warsaw told INEP Thursday, this was the first initiation into ghazals.
This is the first time that translation has been done from Urdu to Polish of ghazals into a ghazal form, a task rendered extremely difficult due to the fact that Mir was not a simple poet.
Basically a poet of love, Mir Taqi Mir lived from 1723-1810 and was a specialist in ghazals. He has left behind six poetical collections called ‘Diwans’, containing a total of 13,585 couplets.
Mir’s chief strength lies in expressing deep thoughts in a simple language, seemingly artless, yet representing the acme of poetic skill and perfection. He is also believed to be one of the early architects of the Urdu language.
Many Polish intellectuals expressed their appreciation at being invited to this unique event, and expressed the hope that this event will lead to similar translations of Indian literary work being translated into Polish, for which there was a widespread demand in the country.
Poland has a strong tradition of Indology, and a few days ago, the Indian Embassy at Warsaw hosted a unique conference on Indology for the central and eastern European region.

http://www.indianewsineurope.com/

Meer in Polish : http://www.orient.jkrzyzowski.pl/poezje/04_mir_taki_mir/gazele_mir.htm

information about Meer : http://www.urdustan.com/adeeb/shaayar/meer.htm

jisski paintings urdu ki tarah

Saba Hasan is an India based painter and she gives prominent place to Urdu in her paintings. Text written in Urdu script dominate in her paintings. She says "Urdu is an inalienable part of the many layers of my identity and our larger Asian culture; we barely find it in Indian contemporary art. So its use here is a conscious choice.."

Here you can see one of her painting and see how she is using Urdu in her work.



visit Saba Hasan's website : http://www.sabahasan.com/

Hiroshima Ki Kahani, Urdu ki zabaani

By R. C.Sahu, Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A student delegation from Tokyo University in Japan performed an Urdu play titled “Hiroshima Ki Kahani” in Bhopal recently.

The intensity of the play was heart-rendering and succeeded in reminding the audience of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy of December 3, 1984.

The play, which deals with a somber theme, has been penned by Nakazawa Keiji and was produced by Professor Asada Putoka from the Tokyo University.

Using computer projection, the play poignantly described the events in Hiroshima after the American bombing in August 1945 as seen by a six-year-old.

General Ishii Ymiko, Masui Akiko, Hasmito Megumi, Koide Yumi, Sakai Rinko, Shimooka Takuya, Maruo Shino were among the actors who mesmerized the audience with their theatrical histrionics and their command over Urdu.

“The idea of this play was to combine the two tragedies, Hiroshima and Bhopal Gas Tragedy as they have some thing in common. Thousands of people suffered through it without any of their fault”, says Ummi Fo, one of the performers.

The actors, their love for Urdu and their sheer commitment to bridge the cultural gaps was overwhelming.

The plays were greatly applauded by the audience.

“We are here with a message of peace. The tragedies were upsetting but now we should leave them behind and form a beautiful world,” said Professor Asada Putoka, Tokyo University.

In the same event, Professor Asada Putoka of Tokyo University also released a book “Bharat Ka Hiroshima”.

http://www.newkerala.com/newsdaily.php?action=fullnews&id=23969

Nepal seeking India's help for Urdu education

Urdu will grow only when the number of people who know Urdu, grows. Pakistan in this case is guilty of letting go of a good opportunity in playing a role for the development of Urdu in Nepal. We can just hope that India helps Nepal, since Urdu is one of the official languages of India. NCPUL should help Tribhuvan University.

Read the story below:


KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 12: With an ‘‘indifferent’’ Pakistan not responding to its request for help, first made four years ago, Nepal’s Tribhuvan University is now turning to India to revive its Urdu department.

The department has been shut since 2001 ever since Pakistan stopped sending Urdu professors—it had been the practice since 1985 with Islamabad even paying salaries.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=78067

Urdu Banking

Standard Chartered, one of the leading international banks in the UAE, has added Hindu and Urdu to its phone banking interactive voice response (IVR) service - the first international bank in the Emirates' to do so.


Recent figures from Standard Chartered show that in the UAE, the Bank receives approx. 500,000 phone banking calls a month of which 65% calls are for its automated banking service that are currently offered in Arabic and English.

Standard Chartered's phone banking representatives are trained to answer all banking questions, provide further information on the Bank's products and service offerings and ensure all customer queries are answered.

'Our phone banking team currently comprises of staff from 14 countries and we anticipate scaling this up even further, later this year to cater to the increased demand for both automated and personalised banking services,' said Owen Belman, Head of Consumer Banking, Standard Chartered UAE.

'We believe in putting customers at the heart of our business, and by launching our automated banking services in Hindi and Urdu, we aim to make banking easier for a large number of our customer base.'

Catering to the UAE's extensive Asian community, the Bank's Hindi/Urdu phone banking services can handle balance enquiries, transfer fund between accounts, make utility bill payments, TIN changes, chequebook and statement requests, make credit card payments as well as provide foreign currency exchange rate information.

Standard Chartered employs 38,000 people in 950 locations in more than 50 countries in the Asia Pacific Region, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the United Kingdom and the Americas. Standard Chartered is one of the world's most international banks, with employees representing 80 nationalities.

Standard Chartered PLC is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and is in the top 25 FTSE-100 companies, by market capitalisation.

It serves both Consumer and Wholesale Banking customers. Consumer Banking provides credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, deposit taking and wealth management services to individuals and small to medium sized enterprises. Wholesale Banking provides corporate and institutional clients with services in trade finance, cash management, lending, securities services, foreign exchange, debt capital markets and corporate finance.

Standard Chartered is well-established in growth markets and aims to be the right partner for its customers. The Bank combines deep local knowledge with global capability.

The Bank is trusted across its network for its standard of governance and corporate responsibility as well as its commitment to making a difference in the communities in which it operates.

Premchand is still relevant

Premchand is still a popular writer in Urdu and Hindi, this years is 125th birth anniversary.


On Premchand’s 125th birth centenary, his grandson Alok Rai argues for reinventing the master’s classics
Moonis Ijlal

New Delhi, September 3: Alok Rai teaches Shakespeare in Delhi University. He’s in white linen trousers. He plonks on the Lodhi lawns. Reclines on the grass as one would on some regal diwan. Then he bounces back and sits. Folds right leg above his left knee. Sits like a yogi. The grandson of Premchand looks comfortable.

‘‘This is what I inherited from my roots,’’ says the Professor. Rai has translated Premchand’s Nirmala into English. This year it’s the 125 birth anniversary of the writer.

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‘‘To understand the tamasha around Premchand on his birth anniversary it is important to understand his function. In north India, there aren’t many secular symbols of the ganga-jamni tehzeeb. He is a very obvious symbol and can be mobilised to play the role in our cultural politics.’’

The government had taken Rai to Lamhi —the village where Premchand was born on July 31, 1880. They had gone there with big names and a bigger promise — to make a memorial to a secular symbol. ‘‘It was pointless and unearned. I have as much claim to him as you do. I noticed the villagers, who Premchand felt closest to, were sidelined among the big people.’’

They ended up promising a personal memorial. ‘‘It was stupid. Premchand’s not Gandhi that you make a museum out of personal memorabilia — his chappals, his glasses. He is an ordinary man. He needs a museum of ordinary life. Can they make that for him?’’ asks Rai

This question can be asked at several levels, says the writer. One on Premchand as a symbol for cultural politics. The other as a literary figure. ‘‘As far as I am concerned, the challenge to us was that as a literary figure, he has become stale — a part of the standard syllabi, a classroom author.’’

For today’s generation he’s a slightly boring writer who writes idealistic stories, says Rai. ‘‘I would not be surprised if people of your age would be disgusted saying he doesn't speak to us. He’s writing Gandhian stories about change of heart and all. But if he was really like that, he would not have attracted attention. He was a classic, a fresh voice with andaaz-e-bayaan. He began saying things which nobody else saw.’’

‘‘Hindustan ki ghurbat (poverty in India)’’ says Rai was not invented by Premchand. He saw it when others were writing idealistic, sentimental stuff. Why did he shift to Hindi? Rai says that Urdu had an established tradition. It was difficult to smuggle new content, new realities which Premchand was talking about — his world of ordinary people. But he didn’t give up writing in Urdu.

‘‘Anything which becomes a part of compulsory classroom text becomes stale. We need more exposure to his work. More readings of his stories. ‘‘Shakespeare didn’t write because he knew there would be an exam conducted on his works. He was melodramatic, writing about blood and gore for ordinary penny-throwing people. And all that has been so restricted to a textbook reading. That’s a kind of a pedagogic challenge which Premchand too faces. The challenge to recognise the freshness of a classic.’’

In Nirmala, he talks about female desire, the way it functions within constraints of marriage. ‘‘Nirmala, a young girl married to an old man. There is a terrific sexual tension between her and her step sons, which is not read. Nirmala has been interpreted as a polemic against dowry, mis-matched marriages,’’ says the animated professor.

‘‘Classics need to be revisited, every generation re-invents classics. We owe that to Premchand, not hagiography. That I am his grandson has nothing to do with it.’’

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=146899

More about Premchand :
http://www.urdustan.com/adeeb/nasr/premchand.htm

Urdu gaining ground in Tagore's land

Express Nerws Service

kolkata, August 30: Encouraged by the popularity of the Urdu language among non-Urdu speaking people, the West Bengal Urdu Academy, under the state Government’s Minorities Development Welfare Department, is expanding the diploma course in the language to seven districts of the state.

The course, currently being held on the premises of the Academy in the city, has been a big draw among sections of the people like professionals.


Ishalaque Islam, secretary of the West Bengal Urdu Academy, told Newsline that the new correspondence diploma course would be run in association with the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language under the Human Resources Development Ministry of the Union Government.

The new centres will be in districts of Howrah, Hooghly, Malda, Murshidabad, South 24 Parganas, Cooch Behar and Darjeeling.

Those who successfully complete the course will get a diploma award in the Urdu language.

The students will have contact classes at a nodal centre.The West Bengal Urdu Academy feels that there is a revived interest among the people in Urdu.

“The Urdu language holds charm not only among those for whom it is the mother tongue. A wide cross-section of people in society are becoming interested in the language”, said Islam.“This increase of interest in Urdu is due to a variety of reasons,” Islam said.

“The popularity of ghazals may be one of the reasons. Many people in the state are fascinated by the Urdu language,” he said.

“Our present course is widely appreciated. Those who had enrolled included IAS officers, bank officers, teachers and other professionals. We even had a foreigner enrolled in the course. The trends show that there is plenty of scope for starting more centres in the state,” he added.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=146319