Thursday, April 2, 2009

My Fascination With امریکا ، کینیڈا یوکے کا بڑا اخبار

I have always been fascinated with the Urdu language. It began with looking at the Urdu newspapers at my grandma's house. The beautifully moulded writing, the sharp turn of line, the bend of the alphabets....all held me enthralled. The ebb and flow of it was so much more interesting than the straight, rigid- looking Hindi and English which we were made to write at school. It seemed more like Art and less like a language. Then came the revelation that it's all written from right to left and I was awed by the originality of the language. Growing up, my imagination was captured by some of the Urdu words I heard in Hindi film music and dialouges. Be it the deep throated kh or z sounds or the mysticism of words like ibadat and kaynaat, it has so much more meaning and weight(vazan) than any other language. There is a certain effortlessness about spoken Urdu which makes the best Hindi words look laboured in comparison. Its ability to convey the exact meaning of a thought in a single word is unparalleled. It is the language of poets and artists because of its inherent politeness (tehzeeb) and elegance.....which can be best expressed only by one word which sums up the language itself- नजाकत !

1 comment:

  1. urdu is indeed a heavy language with a weight in its diction. it is as difficult to speak, as it is to write.maybe that's also a reason it has always facinated intellectual minds.

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