Urdu -Lets Honor our Creative Fraternities

Urdu Poetry is incomplete without Mirza Ghalib’s creative, romantic and philosophical poetic expression. Ghalib died exactly 141 years ago but, he is still alive with his thousands of admirers, who consider his poetry a piece of sophistication and eminence in the Urdu Poetry.

Ghalib during stay in old Delhi resided at Haveli, in Gali Qasimjan in the Ballimaran, which is now being used as, wedding place for people. It is painful to see Indian Government’s coldness, being numb about brutal happening with last belonging of the history’s renowned poet. At some time, Ghalib Fans were happy on Government initiative of undertaking Haveli as Government property to design a monument. However, there was nothing more than painting and evacuation of belongings. This overall situation has led aggression and disappointment among the Ghalib followers. In no means nothing has been done so far to Honor Ghalib for his quality Urdu Poetry. 

It is evident from the history that nations who honor their writers and poets are always rewarded with wisdom and knowledge. Urdu poetry is full of creative work. Its versatility and expression have targeted every subject concerning youth, society and world. Employing our findings we can make lives more productive and creative.

It is our collective benefit if we learn Urdu to portray ourselves as awake, intellectual and friendly nation to the entire world.

There are different means which can help us promoting Urdu language. For the purpose we can start with arranging gatherings at city and town levels to share and explore Urdu literature.

Easy Ways of Learning Urdu Online

There was a time when there was nothing on the internet for the Urdu enthusiasts. However, now time has changed. For the people who want to learn Urdu online, there are many possible ways.

Some of the easiest ways of learning Urdu online are given below.

•          Using the Urdu to English dictionaries online

A simple search on any of the web search engines will generate the links to many online Urdu to English dictionaries. Enter any word from the English language and it is possible to see the Urdu counterpart, its pronunciation, and its usage in the sentences etc.

•          Using the work sheets online

The internet also provides one with the worksheets to learn and practice Urdu writing. Most of the work sheets are designed for the kids. Nevertheless, the adults can also use them.

•          Viewing YouTube videos

YouTube is a great resource for learning Urdu. It has Urdu reading and writing tutorials. It also has Urdu movies and Urdu songs etc. which are great sources for learning Urdu.

•          Hiring tutors for formal learning

Did you know that it is now possible to hire tutors online to formally learn Urdu? They communicate on the Skype and use a screen sharing software to convey things. The charges are also nominal as compared to the charges for learning other languages.

•          Learning from the Urdu forums

The Urdu forums online are also great for learning Urdu. These forums are used to discuss various aspects of learning the Urdu language.

The Quality of Online Urdu to English Dictionaries

With the advent of the internet, the lives of many people changed for good. It can help one with literally anything. There was a time when there was nothing much on the internet for the people who speak Urdu and for the people who want to learn Urdu. However certainly, the times have changed now.

There are so many resources regarding Urdu present on the internet. The internet is replete with a variety of the Urdu to English dictionaries. Fortunately, there are many options to choose from. The dictionaries also offer almost countless features.

The quality of these Urdu to English dictionaries on the internet remains questionable. The language experts are constantly raising their concerns on this matter. They say that often the dictionaries do not generate accurate results linguistically.

For any word in any other language, the Urdu language has a variety of options. The difficulty level also varies widely. Other than that, some words might have different connotations. However, the dictionaries generate the most basic of the options. Often, many dictionaries generate no more than two meanings. Along with that, the linguists also complain that the meanings are sometimes not the most appropriate ones.

So from this situation, the real question that arises is that who can use these Urdu to English dictionaries? Well the answer is that many people still use these dictionaries and they are beneficial to them. Many people who do not Urdu can use these dictionaries for basic communication with Urdu speaking people.

Urdu short story: Yesterday, today and tomorrow

The Session on Urdu short stories was one of the finest the Karachi Literature Festival had to offer, for two reasons. One is, the well-moderated discussion actually revolved around literary debates rather than fundamentalism and politics with the panelists sticking to the assigned topic. And the other and second reason is that, the panel included some of the best known writers of the Urdu world namely Fehmida Riaz, Intezar Hussain and Hassan Manzar, with writer Asif Farrukhi, editor of the literary journal Dunyazad, and co-organizer of the festival, moderating.

The past and literature’s relation to a culture’s history was what Hussain focused of his discussion. He showed some trends which are used in Urdu story writing to the progressive writer’s movement and modernism.

Riaz said that many new writers had emerged in Aaj and Dunyazad. She mentioned Ali Akbar Natiq among others and lamented that people sidelined good writers and appreciated second-rate ones.

Hussain continued by pointing out that the feminist movement was one of the biggest movements in current literature. “Having passed through periods of great rebellion, the phase that we have entered… in that great meaning is being born in Urdu short story and verse,” he said.

Contemporary Growth And Development In Urdu

The word “Urdu” is basically originated from Turkish word “Ordu” meaning “an army”, “a camp”, or “a legion”; justifying its multicultural and diverse origins, can truly be regarded as a living language still undergoing changes and expanding its bases to new horizons.

It is a fine amalgam of three culturally and orally very rich and diverse languages, i.e. Turkish, Arabic and Persian, three of the languages with very rich culture and history harmonizing with each other to develop and originate a new language called “Urdu”. So, we can say that it is the nature of this language to engulf any convenient elements of other languages and fit them in like its own indigenous elements.

Though, it has changed and evolved a great deal all through its history, now spanned well over some 900 years, Roman Urdu is one such recent example of how it expands itself. It is basically the name given to the trend and practice of writing words of Urdu with Roman alphabets.

As is this common with majority of changes, they are not conveniently welcomed by the convention lovers; so is the case with this instance as well. The advent and propagation of this new found trend is not embraced with open hearts and minds by convention lovers and many acclaimed scholars claim that majority of “Arabic Script” lovers of the language find it quite offending to them and language.

As a matter of fact, the advent of Roman Urdu has been made possible with the advances in Information Technology and other contemporary technological developments, and it is most widely used in text messages over cell phones or in the form of “chatting” through internet.

The fact of the matter is that with the passage of time this new found innovation is making its mark on the language itself, and perhaps to the good of it.

First appearance of Urdu & Arabic courses

In Indra Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) introduced two new programmes in Urdu and Arabic languages. Students can get admissions in two sessions January or July.

The School of Humanities has launched BA (Elective) programme in Urdu adding to its certificate and diploma programmes while the School of Foreign Languages has launched a certificate programme in Arabic language in the University.

The course introduces pronunciation skills, Script writing, communicative Urdu and comprehension of Urdu prose and poetry. Each course has eight credits to improve the communicating, writing, reading and comprehensive skills of students. The maximum duration to complete the diploma programme is three years while the minimum duration is one year.

The certificate programme in Arabic language aims at acquainting beginners with the essentials of the Arabic language. In this programme includes four essential components: reading, writing, listening and speaking. This programme provides students to learn simple, friendly and innovative material with audio support. This programme’s syllabus divided into two parts, course one and course two. Course one basis on basics of Arabic language with reading and writing while course two comprises on listening and speaking.

We got no funds to hold meet, says Urdu Academy

Bangalore: World Urdu Conference started on Wednesday to celebrate and discussed about some major issues of Urdu language. Organizers complained the many letters to chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, asking for support to hold the conference, fell on deaf ears.

Though the letters were forwarded to the Kannada and culture department from August, the pleas were not recognized by the department. "We had written several times to the CM and the Kannada and culture department, but nobody took any interest. We did not get any financial support either. We had requested for Rs 3.5 crore to organize this international meet. On the contrary, the department decided to dissolve our Academy," said chief patron, All India Urdu Manch, Khaleel Mamoom.
The meet saw several Urdu poets from different countries including United Kingdom, Pakistan, Bangladesh and US. Governor H R Bharadwaj appeared in completely different mood on Wednesday and addressed luminaries of Urdu literature and poetry and also told the audience how integral Urdu was to the culture of the country.

Former chairman, Sahitya Academy, Gopi Chand Narang also said again that the message of Urdu should reach the people. "We should give the pluralistic message of Urdu to Karnataka. It goes along with Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Rajasthani or Punjabi. We will not allow politicization of language here," he said.