Urdu museum in India

Soz lays foundation for Urdu Museum

Hyderabad, Apr 27: Union Minister for Water Resources Saifuddin Soz today complimented Moulana Abul Kalam Azad National Urdu University here for its remarkable progress in promoting Urdu language.

He was speaking after laying the foundation for Urdu Museum in the university campus.

Stating that Urdu language had played a vital role in the country's freedom struggle, Soz asked university authorities to adopt two-language formula to survive in the competitive world.

The proposed Urdu Museum, being constructed at a cost of Rs 2 crore, would have three divisions covering Urdu literature, culture and an exclusive gallery dedicated to Abul Kalam Azad.

In his speech the Vice-Chancellor of the University Prof A M Pathan said the university would soon launch a series of vocational courses.

http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=50039

Summer Urdu Program in Washington DC

JHU SAIS Summer Urdu Program in Washington DC

Johns Hopkins University is proud to host another summer of Urdu courses in Washington DC. Urdu is one of the major languages of South Asia and the national language of Pakistan. Urdu is the dominant language of Muslim culture in South Asia and incorporates Persian and Arabic influences as well as sharing many characteristics with Hindi. JHU's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies through the South Asia Studies program is excited to offer this opportunity to professionals and graduate students to study Urdu at their Dupont Circle campus.

Instruction is multi-functional, allowing students to read and write in Urdu exclusively through the Nastaliq Perso-Arabic script. Students are also asked to build their speaking and listening proficiency through exposure to modern Urdu media and group activities. Instructional materials foster a communicative approach to language learning and reflect real-life
circumstances. The courses are taught at the university level and are comparable to one semester's equivalent of Urdu.

Urdu Class timings for Summer 2006

June 3rd to August 5th

Elementary Urdu Saturday 9:30AM-12:00 PM, Tuesday 5:30PM-8:00 PM
Intermediate Urdu Saturday 12:00PM-2:30 PM, Wednesday 5:30PM-8:00 PM

Seating is limited and closes June 3rd

To register please refer to the following link:
http://www.sais-jhu.edu/programs/asia/southasia/sa_language/urdu/urduregistration

If you have any questions please email the instructor Rubab Qureshi:
rubab@sas.upenn.edu
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Please note that this program is a separate program from the Hindi-Urdu
courses offered through the Summer Language Institute at SAIS this year.
***********************************************************************

We will hold two registration/workshops prior to the summer classes commencing.
April 29th at 9:30 AM
May 6th at 3:00 PM
These workshops will introduce the language and answer questions regarding registration, class structure, materials, and some script lessons. Workshops will be held at the SAIS campus off Dupont Circle in the Rome Building Room 200. Please email the instructor to RSVP at
rubab@sas.upenn.edu

Muzaffar Ali : making Urdu movies in Bollywood

Not all bollywood movie are Hindi movies, in fact one of the classical "Umrao Jan" was in Urdu and the director of that movie is Muzaffar Ali. I am glad that we have not seen last of Muzaffar Ali with Umrao, though there has been a long hiatus but good to see that he is coming back for more.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He has gifted Indian cinema one of its all-time classics, and artist-filmmaker-fashion designer Muzaffar Ali is all set to repeat his act. In Calcutta with wife Meera on Tuesday to attend an interactive session hosted by the Ladies Study Group, Muzaffar shared his plans of making a movie of “epic proportions”.

The man who explored the “feminine feudal structure of Awadh” in his legendary film Umrao Jaan, is now working on Rumi, based on the life of the 13th-century Sufi poet by that name. “Rumi is about a small but very difficult journey, from the mind to the heart. I want to present it through the greatest screenplay of the world,” smiled Muzaffar.

And he wants the “global message” to be presented by “global players”.

“If I could convince Al Pacino or Johnny Depp to play Rumi, that would be my dream cast. Indian actors are so trapped in the loud and mundane expressions of Bollywood that I’m not sure they can carry the message of this film,” he felt.

Muzaffar has been penning the script of Rumi for the past four years and foresees the film to be ready in another couple of years.

For now, the “poetry-driven” filmmaker is working on a television serial for Doordarshan titled Ghazalnama, which explores the lives of 13 Urdu poets. “Each poet opens up a whole new world and we see it through his eyes,” explains the man for whom “shayari is the petrol” that drives him.

If the filmmaker has his hands full for the moment, so does the designer. For, Meera and Muzaffar are among the six designers chosen to represent India at the Arts de la Mode et de la Photographie, the international fashion and photography festival at the Villa Noailles in France from April 28 to 30. This takes the designers a step closer to showcasing at the Paris Fashion Week.

“Our aim always is to go global and this is a very good opportunity. We have sent our audio-visuals for Paris Fashion Week and will love to showcase there if chosen,” said Meera.

But designing for Meera and Muzaffar is not all about going global. After all, their label Kotwara, credited with catapulting the Lucknow chikan to fashion street, was born to offer employment to the “helpless” women of Muzaffar’s native village Kotwara way back in 1990.

“We had discovered magic in the hands of the local rural women. Today, we have 600 women working for us and we are offering them dwar pe rozi (employment at home),” she added. The couple also runs a school for the children of Kotwara, which imparts vocational training and humanist education.

Starting his career in Calcutta as an advertising professional and moving on to become an artist, a filmmaker and a designer, Muzaffar’s new love is Sufism. But his strongest passion still remains filmmaking. “Film is a very powerful medium to reach out to people and touch their lives. But we have to keep on reinventing cinema over and over again. In India, cinema is trapped by market forces and individualism. We need to liberate it.”

And in his strong criticism of Bollywood, Muzaffar doesn’t spare son Shaad Ali, who gave Bollywood one of its biggest hits of 2005, Bunty Aur Babli. “Shaad was born on the editing table and brought up in the dubbing studio. From his childhood, the camera has been his life. So he knows what I had to suffer as a filmmaker because of the clash of Bollywood with my personal sensibilities. And he of course knows that if he follows his father’s way he won’t survive,” shared the father.

But he added: “I feel very happy with his career and I hope some day we are able to work on a project together. But I will never be swallowed by the Bollywood agenda.”

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060426/asp/calcutta/story_6144227.asp

Urdu in the land of Urdu

It is safe to say that govt. of UP is not interested in promoting Urdu and will do anything to halt its progress.

Centre's Urdu teaching initiative gets a raw deal in UP


THE Union Government may talk of promoting Urdu language and may also have allotted a good part of the budget for the cause, but the Urdu Teaching and Research Centre of the Central Institute of Indian Languages, being run under the aegis of Department of Secondary and Higher education, Ministry of Human Resource Development Government of India, is practically without any work. The employees of the centre say that although they are getting funds from the Centre, the impediments lie in getting the funds released through the state which seems more interested in promoting its own Urdu Akademi.

Situated at the Madan Mohan Malviya Marg opposite P K Bhawan, the centre was opened to give training in Urdu language and also initiate research work in the language. The project began way back in 1969 and Lucknow was one of the cities selected for the project. The centre appointed teachers to train students in Urdu language through workshops throughout the state. But today, the centre hardly has any work.

Said Rekha Kumar, an employee of the centre, "we are having a tough time maintaining our activities which includes appointing teachers and arranging for workshops as we hardly have any funds with us. A lot of fund is being alloted to us, but they get stuck at the state treasury level and by the time they are released, it is late to organise workshops." A look at the activities of the centre in the past two years betrays inactivity. In May 2004, the centre organised orientation course in script writing for radio & television in Urdu for the scholars of MA (Urdu) in collaboration with the Department of Journalism & Mass Communication, AMU, Aligarh, followed by a Seminar on Urdu fiction with special reference to contemporary Urdu novel in collaboration with the Department of Urdu, GMPG College, Rampur, in September 2004. A few smaller workshops for Urdu language followed but no workshops for Urdu teaching could be organised that year. Even in 2005, there were no teaching workshops due to lack of funds.

Said Ghaznafar Ali, one of the coordinators of the workshops at the centre, "We don't really suffer from fund crunch as a lot of money is released from the Union Government to organise such programmes. But when it comes to getting that money through the state treasury, we find it tough and are made to run from pillar to post to get what is due to us. "

Upgrade Urdu: Muslims must not get left behind

Upgrade Urdu: Muslims must not get left behind
(COMMENTARY)
By Firoz Bakht Ahmed

The head of a government-run primary Urdu medium school made a shocking revelation in Delhi recently: Urdu books are not available till mid-September although schools open in summer and although Urdu is a second language in the city along with Punjabi.

And this is just one of the many problems confronting Muslims aspiring education.

Year after year, the abysmally low results in Urdu schools are indicative of the confusion among the managing bodies, principals, teachers, students and parents. This has resulted in a sharp decline in the academic levels of Indian Muslims.

As things stand, education is not a priority for Muslims for three reasons.

First, most of them are primarily agriculturists. Second, their belief that they are discriminated against in employment acts as a deterrent to higher education. Third, Muslim girls, till not so long ago, were not sent to school owing to social taboos.

Sparsely lit, dilapidated classrooms, poor sanitation, broken and decrepit furniture, unhygienic drinking water, lack of teachers, unconcerned parents and uninterested students are some of the features of the 10,000 beleaguered Urdu medium schools in India.

There seems to be a sort of conspiracy to downgrade Urdu by associating it with communalists and terrorists, forgetting that it is a language deeply entrenched in the composite heritage of India.

Ironically, Urdu has been kept alive by Hindi cinema, FM radio, madrassas and the occasional recitation of couplets from Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz in parliament. A language does not prosper through such methods alone but by people who love it with sincerity.

More people should subscribe to Urdu newspapers and journals rather than getting these freely via mailing lists. Many popular children's Urdu magazines like Shama, Khilona, Toffee, Chandanagri and others have ceased publication for want of interest. They should be revived.

Urdu officers could be appointed in the government's nodal agencies like municipal corporations, police departments and so on. Besides, there should be more Urdu learning centres and Urdu should be part of the syllabus of Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas.

The pass percentage in Delhi over the last two decades in the board exams in Urdu-medium schools fluctuates between 20 percent and 30 percent. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the failure rate is identical to Delhi's 77 percent. The only state where Urdu-medium students do really well is Maharashtra where the pass percentage stood at 64 percent this year.

Most teachers in Urdu schools are found to be lackadaisical and unconcerned about both their jobs and students. As if this were not enough, the management bodies of those already victimised and harried backward institutions act as parasites rather than working towards rejuvenating the system.

The hapless students feel that their schools are completely responsible for their disastrous failure. Instead of doing something to upgrade Urdu and secure a better future for students, Muslim leaders keep diverting issues concerning Muslims in educational, social and economic fields to more political matters.

The Muslim intelligentsia is to be blamed for this poor showing in their community's schools.

Children belonging to privileged Muslim families never study in Urdu schools. Rather they opt for missionary schools. Even those championing the cause of Urdu and occupying top positions in Urdu departments in universities and government offices prefer English-medium schools for their children.

Except the likes of Sir Syed, Muslims in general never bothered to establish good schools or colleges unlike the Christian missionaries.

Countrywide, every Urdu school has 10-12 vacancies in teaching jobs. No effort is made to fill them. A few Urdu schools do not even have their own buildings and are run in the open air.

Most schools do not have Urdu textbooks in subjects like science, geography and mathematics. Each year, textbooks fail to reach the market in time. When they finally do, the exams are over.

As India's largest minority, Muslims can't afford to be mediocre and spiritless. True, they should love Urdu but they must also make sure they are conversant in English and Hindi or one other regional language.

India is forging ahead but its Muslim population is still largely uneducated. More than anybody else, it is the responsibility of the Muslims to see that the community marches to a secure future.

( Firoz Bakht Ahmed is a commentator on educational and social issues. He can be reached at firozbakht@rediffmail.com)

Urdu in Mauritus

It's great to see young people taking control in making Urdu's condition better everywhere. This news is from Mauritus.

Ending the shortage of Urdu books

The USU chairman, Shehzad Abdullah Ahmed, wants to give a boost to reading.
The world will soon be celebrating reading and books. The Urdu-Speaking Union (USU) is seizing the opportunity to launch its first book fair in Mauritius. This sale-exhibition has already started and it will be held this week in Port-Louis. All books remaining from the fair will go to Caudan for the World Book Day.

“We have realised that there is a shortage in Urdu books so we have taken the initiative to try and satisfy the demand and give a boost to reading,” explains the chairman of the USU, Shehzad Abdullah Ahmed. The whole idea came from this question: if there is a lack of books in Urdu on the market, what is in a better position than the organisation aimed at promoting the language?

For this first edition, the organisers have chosen the educational side because this is where the need is the most important. Most of the books have been supplied by the Educational Publishing House in Delhi; about 1,000 come from the National Language Authority from Pakistan. There will be books for primary, secondary and tertiary levels as well as children’s books, dictionaries, general books and religious books.

After the opening at Indira Gandhi Centre for Indian Culture (IGCIC) in Phoenix last Friday, the exhibition has moved to Port-Louis at the ‘Parcours Culturel’ in Vieux-Conseil Street. It will be open every day from 10am to 7.30pm until Friday. As from Monday, the USU has reached an agreement with the national library so that its books will form part of the exhibition for World Book Day held at Caudan Waterfront. If this first edition of the book fair proves successful and as its mission is to promote Urdu language, the USU doesn’t intend to stop there. Forthcoming activities are part of a global strategy started in December 2002 when the union was established. The creation of an Urdu website and a 15-minute programme in Urdu on MBC-radio are in the pipeline…

We earlier reported about the World Urdu Conference in Mauritus :

http://www.urdustan.com/manzar/2003/urduconf.html

Archealogical Urdu

If you are thinking that Urdu has become so history that we need to use archealogical tool to excavate it, then you couldn't be wrong more. Urdu is well and alive and has the ability to present complex subjects in a language that is easy to understand.





Stalking Harrappa’s history

By Wasim Ahmad Qadri

The book Ravi Kinaray Ki Harrappee Bastian (Harrappa settlements on the Banks of River Ravi) is the fourth of its kind written in Urdu on the subject of archeology and is recently launched with the cooperation of Research and Publication Department of the National College of Arts Lahore. The author went through the details of the mysterious history of Sandal Bar and brought its seamy sides to limelight.

Zubair Shafi Ghauri, who did his MA in history from the University of Punjab Lahore and MA Urdu from Bahauddin Zakaria University Multan, has already written two books on “Uch Sharif “and “Multan “ which were widely acclaimed.

The author took two years to write the book, covering a dozen of archeological sites (Tilas) near Nankana Sahib and Jaranwala. The sties still await research and excavation.

Mr Ghauri claims a civilisation lost at the bank of old Ravi when the river changed its course.

Water is the necessity of life and scarcity of water might have compelled the inhabitants to leave the settlements. The author, however, did not rule out the possibility of unspecified calamities behind this desertion. “Only excavations of these sites will help establish final opinion”, he suggests.

The author, after thoroughly examination and analysis of potsherd, mud bangles, stones, bones, beads, toys and other articles collected from the Tilas, claims that they belong to pre-historic age (from 3,500 BC to 1,200 BC). In this way, he substantiates the version of renowned scholar Dr Mohammad Rafique Mughal that Harappan Civilisation was native, already existed and well flourished while the foreign invaders subjugated the Sapt Sindhu (the land of seven rivers e.g. river Ghughar or Hakra, Satluj, Beas, Ravi, Jhelum, Chenab and Sindh) valley.

The author draws the attention of the Archeological Department to excavate and preserve this national heritage to resolve the unsolved questions of post-Harappan age. The world should not be deprived of this great treasure of civilisation, he says.

The author mistakenly called the land between the Ravi River and the Chenab River as Gunji Bar. The land between these two rivers is called Doaba Rachna and most part of Doaba Rachna situated in Sandal Bar. Especially the area of Nankana Sahib and Jaranwala is an integral part of Sandal Bar, not the Gunji Bar as described by him.

Nonetheless, the author has summarised and analysed the ancient history of the area, by explaining archaeological terminology and defining various civilisations. In addition to intelligentsias, common readers could also benefit and enjoy it.

The book is decorated with scores of colourful pictures, maps and illustrations that contained valuables material. The paper quality is very fine, which enhances the beauty of the book a lot. However, its price is a bit high but it is fine keeping in view its standard.

source :

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/

Voice of Urdu

Urdu has the most beautiful script nastaleeq which is steps advanced than script commonly used by Arabic and Farsi. Urdu computing has lagged behind because of the complexity of Nastaleeq and common Urdu fans are not willing compromise anything less than nastaleeq. Some progress has been made in this regard and as a result we can see fonts looking amazingly closer to nastaleeq.

Like its script, Urdu's sound is also beautiful and that's why there is a continued tradition of Urdu poetry being read by poet, and the tradition of dastaan-goi is seeing a revival.

Online you can see lots of sites that offer Urdu for your liseting pleasure. Check the link below for these sites and have an earful!

http://urdustan.net/u-hoo/

Jalal Moradabadi passes away

Urdu poet Jalal Moradabadi dead

Moradabad (UP), April. 5 (PTI): Urdu poet Jalal Moradabadi, who was a senior fellow of the Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy, died here today after a protracted illness. He was 90.

Born Abid Husain, he assumed the name Jalal Moradabadi after he took to writing and was known for religious and romantic poetry.

A bachelor, Moradabadi had written four Urdu poetry books, including "Tapish-e-Gul" and "Lab-e-Khamosh", which delved into the lives of prophets and waxed eloquent on beauty and lovers.

The senior fellow of the Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy was buried at the Sarkari Takia cemetery here and local journalists and academics took part in the funeral procession.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200604051967.htm

Bengali babus learning Urdu

Bengali babus learning Urdu language in less than five dollars

By Soma Mitra, Kolkata: The soul-stirring poetry of the renowned 19th Century Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib is best read in Urdu Mirza Ghalib instilled an urge to learn Urdu among many including Bengali Babu Sukalayan Roy of Kolkata.

Roy, 34, is a resident of Kolkata and employed with a State-run transport firm. For a long time, he wished to learn Urdu language. But it was only recently that he could fulfil that long-cherished wish by enrolling into West Bengal State Urdu Academy for a diploma course in Urdu language.

"Urdu is a very rich language. The inscriptions on the Taj Mahal and poetry by Mirza Ghalib are all in Urdu and we could not read that. I always regretted this. But when I came to know that the West Bengal State government had started this course, I got myself enrolled into it," said Roy.

Besides Roy, there are many who have taken up this Urdu language course. Some of these wish to fulfil their childhood wish and others who are attracted to the idea of reading couplets in their pristine original.

The Urdu language course is being offered at a meagre sum of rupees 200 (less than 5 dollars) for the entire year, making it an easy option for poor students as well.

Since its inception last year, the West Bengal State government Urdu Academy has trained more than 150 people in the language.

Academy officials say of the 155 students who enrolled for the basic one-year course last year, about 75 per cent were non-Muslims. This year of the 79 enrolled students about 70 per cent are non-Muslims.

Secretary of the Academy, Mohammad Iqbal Islam says Urdu is such a language that lends itself beautifully to poetry and prose and thus becoming popular among Bengalis too.

"Both Bengali and Urdu are very rich cultures. We also have a Bengali learning centre where we have a large number of Muslims enrolling to learn Bengali. So it's actually a two-way process where both are learning more about each other", Islam said.

The State is currently witnessing a revival of Urdu language with its increased usage in popular soap operas.

Kashmiri Lal Zakir

Miles to go...
K L Zakir, winner of this year's Padma Shri Award, is anything but
content with his innumerable achievements
Parul

Chandigarh, March 31: So much to do, so little time, worries Kashmiri
Lal Zakir, the renowned Urdu writer. Nothing can stop him from what he
does best and loves most — writing. ''Yes, there's lots to do, I'm
fighting against time and I rush through many things,'' admits the
writer, now in his eighties, but always on his toes, be it organizing
seminars, mushairas, spreading literacy and of course, penning down
his feelings. It's been a long journey, and a fulfilling and
fascinating one at that, says Zakir, but awards, accolades,
recognition, honours haven't made him complacent. ''They've encouraged
me to do better and more,'' smiles the writer, who was awarded the
Padma Shri by the President, APJ Abdul Kalam on March 29. ''It's a
great honour and when my name was called, there was such a loud
applause by the entire gallery of Urdu people, that it took the
dignitaries by surprise. This one was for Urdu, and I told the
President that I was the senior-most Urdu writer in both India and
Pakistan, and also that I would love to write something about him in
Urdu and he said that would be wonderful,'' recalls the proud Zakir.

The appreciation and love that his readers give him, says Zakir, is
what he cherishes the most, ''especially when they say that I've done
so much for Urdu. After I received the award, someone came up to me
and said, that after reading my books, they felt educated, that's a
big compliment,'' adds Zakir. As to what sets him apart, Zakir says
his writing is for the common man, ''I get my inspiration from the
common man, his pathos, struggle, poverty, sorrows, ignorance. You
have to write about reality, something everyone can relate to, and not
just imaginary stuff,'' asserts Zakir.

Right now, Zakir is working on a novel on the devastation caused by
the earthquake in Kashmir. ''My roots are there and you'll find
Kashmir in all my stories,'' he tells you. As for his dream novel,
Zakir says he still has to write it, a novel that will begin from the
history of Kashmir and end in today's time. ''Everything's changed,
except the condition of Kashmiris,'' rues Zakir.
Till then...

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=176051