Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 31.3.19
Urdu
I attended World Urdu Conference held
in Delhi from 18 to 20 March. Delegates from over 18 countries and academicians
including Vice Chancellors of two Urdu Universities and research scholars from
across the country attended the conference. Over 20 research papers were
presented on the status and prospects of Urdu language.
Contrary to popular and increasingly
and deliberately created perception, Urdu is not the language of Muslims. It
was a lashkari (soldier) language
(the word ‘Urdu’ comes from the Turkish word ‘ordu’ meaning ‘camp’ or ‘army’),
nourished during the period of Mughal emperor Shahjahahn. It had words from
Persian and local languages. The purpose was to make communication easy among
soldiers who were from different places: Arab, Turk and locals. Based on the
Khariboli dialect of Delhi and Western Uttar Pradesh in the Indian
subcontinent, Urdu developed under local Persian, Arabic, and Turkic influence
over the course of almost 900 years. It began to take shape in what is now
Uttar Pradesh, India during the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1527), and continued to
develop under the Mughal Empire (1526–1858).
The Persian newspapers of West Bengal
were fore-runners of the Urdu press. After the decline of Persian as an
official language, Urdu gained prominence.
The first newspaper of Urdu language
was Jam-i-Jahan-Numa, founded by
Harihar Dutta in 1822 in Kolkata (then Calcutta). He was the son of Tara Chand
Dutta, eminent Bengali journalist and one of the founders of Bengali weekly Sambad Koumudi. Editor of this three
page weekly paper was Sadasukhlal. After English and Bengali, it was the third
language newspaper in India. It continued to be published till 1888.
Urdu is spoken by large number of
people, especially Muslims in about 10 states of India. After English and
Hindi, Urdu happens to be the most pan-Indian language. The problem with Urdu
is- increasingly it is being associated with a particular religion. The
protection and promotion of Urdu is also being viewed from religious prism.
When this happens, gradually a wall grows around the language and it creates a
distance. The language gradually loses its appeal for the people of other
religions. This is unfortunate as Urdu has such vast literature to savour.
Kolkata and its Street Food
Kolkata is known for its street food.
I had recently been there and stayed at a
guesthouse at Belgachia, North Kolkata, the older part of the city. I
instructed the guest house caretaker to get me brown bread and boiled egg.
Instead he brought kachuri and potato
curry from roadside eatery. Both were not good for me as I am over weight and
diabetic.
But boy, it was delicious. I devoured it and
told to myself - ek adh bar, kuch paap vi
kar lena chahiye. Afsos sametke duniya nehi chodni hai.
The non-existent footpaths of Kolkata
I like to walk. I believe, you can see more of
a city by walking. But it is difficult to walk in Kolkata as there is, practically,
no footpath in Kolkata. In many places it has turned into bazar. Or somebody
has made a shanty on it and living with family. You can see full colony of such
shanties right on the pavement. There are tiny temples. One can find pictures
and clay idols of various Gods and Goddesses near the trees lining the
pavement. There are shops selling flowers to offer at these tiny temples on the
same pavement.
People, for whom the footpath has been originally
build walk on roads dodging the moving vehicles like in the latest edition of ‘khatron ke khiladi’.
The Rat
Story
A rat swallowed a diamond and the owner of the diamond
contracted a man to kill the rat.
When the rat hunter arrived to kill the rat there were more than
a thousand rats bunched up and one sitting by itself away from the pack. He
killed the one by itself and that was the exact one that had swallowed the
diamond.
The amazed owner of the diamond asked: How did you know it was
that rat?
He responded: "Very easy.... When idiots get rich they
don't mix with others!!!"
(Courtesy: Social Media)
***
The author, a journalist turned media
academician lives in Central Odisha town of Dhenkanal. An anthology of his
weekly column Window Seat, published
in 2018 has been published as a book. Write to him to get a free e-copy.
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