Hindi is going places, literally

Hindi may not be widely spoken or used by India’s urban youth. However, in spite of stiff entry barriers, the language has now found favour with Oxford Dictionary, widely regarded as the most trusted of all dictionaries.

In fact, a Hindi word for almost every emotion can be found featured in the Dictionary. Sample this: Achha, badmash, bindaas, buddhu, sadhu, goonda, neta, seth, chhi-chhi, and namkin. The more popular ones are bapu, dhaba, dharna, gherao, mahajan, jhuggi, and ‘Hindutva’. The list is merely illustrative.

Juliet Evans, publicity manager, Oxford Dictionary, said, “Increasing multiculturalism may have led to more Hindi words being incorporated into English, and therefore a steadily increasing number enter our dictionaries each year.”

She explained that whilst 274 Indian words were added to the Dictionary, 374 words of Hindi etymology are also now a part of it.

Three hundred and thirty seven words from Sanskrit, 144 from Urdu and 27 from Tamil have also been incorporated into Oxford Dictionary.

Full report here DNA

Tricity celebrates Hindi Diwas

Hindi Diwas was celebrated in some parts of the city on Wednesday. Various competitions were held on the occasion of the Hindi Diwas to promote the use of Hindi language among people.

State Bank of India
The Chandigarh head unit of State Bank of India celebrated Hindi Diwas on Wednesday by organising a Hindi Shabdavli competition. More than 70 staff members participated in it. Pradip Rai, Deputy General Manager of the Sector 17 branch presided over the programme.”

Hindi is a very simple and accommodating language because it can adopt the words of other languages easily,” said Pradip Rai.

Full report here Indian Express

Writers, teachers hail Hindi on its day

Hindi Diwas reminds citizens that they should have full regards for their mother tongue, said Hindi writer and Padmshree awardee Giriraj Kishore, while talking to TOI on Wednesday, which was celebrated as Hindi Diwas. He added that languages cannot be made 'alive' by using techniques or methods as they reside in people's heart and soul.

Kishore, also a former IIT registrar, added, "No other language in this world, except Hindi, has a day attributed to it. So Indian must pay their tributes to this language on Hindi Diwas."

On September 14, 1949, Hindi in Devnagari script was adopted as the official language of the country.

Renowned Hindi author Badri Narain Tiwari said, " Ban Ki Moon had said that Hindi is a language of harmony and understanding during the 8th World Hindi Conference on Hindi at United Nation headquarters in New York. He had surprised many by inaugurating the ceremony with 'namaste! kya hal chal hai'. Moreover, except Atal Bihari Vajpayee, no other Indian leader ever used Hindi while representing India, internationally. I want to ask why?"

Full report here Times of India

India gets comic relief

We explore how worldwide comic favourites have been given a desi flavour 

When film-crazy Raj Patel showed up in Riverdale four years ago, little did Archie Comics fans realize that their favourite freckled redhead and his pals would soon make a trip to India. In issues No. 9 and 10 of World of Archie, the gang travels to Mumbai with Raj, where they have a brush with Bollywood, get a taste of samosas and vindaloo and wear kurtas, saris and lehengas. Archie and Co. aren't the only iconic comic book characters to get an Indian flavour. Last year, the entire Tintin series was translated into Hindi; and in 2004, Spider-Man came to India in the form of Pavitr Prabhakar. But how well does giving comic characters a desi twist work?

Maha market
Suresh Seetharaman, CEO of an animation company, says this is a smart way for Archie Comics to tap into a country like India, where they have a huge presence. "I assume that India is a key market for them. It looks like Archie is aggressively getting their product out and making inroads into different markets where they have a brand presence. Moreover, one of the most influential communities in the US is the Indian diaspora. So if you've introduced an Indian character to the series, it makes sense to have the characters travel India," he says.

Full report here Times of India 

China honours Indian with top lit prize

China has conferred its highest literary award on B.R. Deepak for his book, which is a translation of 88 classical Chinese poems into Hindi.

Prof. Deepak, who is from Centre of Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, was the first Indian to receive the “Special Book Award” for his contribution to Chinese studies, translation, publication of Chinese books and cultural exchange.

The award was presented by the State Counsellor, Liu Yandong, at an investiture held in National Theatre of Performing Arts and the awards were given away by the State Counselor Liu Yandong.

The book is first-of-its-kind translation of 88 classical poems from 11th to 14th Century BC into Hindi that have been selected from various periods of Chinese history starting from Shijing of pre Qin to Xixiangji of the Yuan dynasty, Prof Deepak, currently visiting professor of Chinese and Dean of the School of Languages, Doon University, Dehradun, Uttrakhand told PTI here on Friday.

Full report here Hindu

Hindi fares well at the DBF

They brought books on Anna, but ironically it was Anna who took the limelight away. The opening day of the Delhi Book Fair at Pragati Maidan drew a lukewarm response, and publishers who had dotted pathways leading to the hall with posters of books on Anna Hazare expecting the social worker’s popularity to sweep the sales, were left disappointed because all roads in the capital led to Ramlila Grounds this weekend.
Assuring that there’s no cause for concern over the lack of crowds at the fair, V. K. Gauba, officer on special duty, at ITPO, said, “The footfall takes time to pick up. It’s a 9-day-long fair and we’ve seen in the past that the last few days have had the highest turnout. So we can expect the usual packed halls by the next weekend.”

While the focus this year will be on travel and tourism, participants also inform that alongwith English and Hindi, a sizeable percentage of books were in other 16 official languages. Raghuvir Verma of Prabhat Prakashan, says, “The 10 top selling Hindi publishers are regulars (at the fair), but vernacular languages like Urdu, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, have caught up. In fact a lot many visitors come looking for these languages and foreign stalls as well.”

Parth Kumar, Class 4 student of Vivekanand School, Vivek Vihar, was busy looking for Hindi versions of Anne Frank’s Diary and Ruskin Bond’s Rusty series. “They have a little problem following their favourite author JK Rowling in English and certain terms need to be explained. But the novels in Hindi are a breeze,” informs his mother.

Full report here Asian Age

A novel based on the killing of Rajiv Gandhi

On 21st May, 1991, India’s youngest ever prime minister and the then youth icon, Rajiv Gandhi got killed in a bomb blast at Sriperumbudur (Tamil Nadu), planned and executed by the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) because he had sent forces in Sri Lanka to help the Sri Lankan army in suppressing the violent activities carried out by that organization. The killing was executed through a human-bomb and it sent a message across the world to all the militant groups that anybody can be killed if the killer is not hesitant of losing his / her own life for that purpose.

Hindi novelist - Ved Prakash Sharma had made announcement to write a grand novel on the corruption prevalent in the Indian police system years prior to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination and its advertisement (with the title - Vardi Waala Gunda) had been carried out regularly. Perhaps the arrival of the novel was getting delayed due to the novelist’s not being able to get a suitable plot for the overhyped novel. The sudden assassination of the young political leader provided him the plot and he came up with Vardi Waala Gunda in 1992.

Full review here Mouthshut

Plots of gold

They sell in lakhs, churn out hundreds of novels in a lifetime and constantly finetune their storylines according to the latest trends. Aabhas Sharma meets the bestselling writers of Hindi pulp fiction.

Sitting in the basement office next to his palatial bungalow in Meerut, Ved Prakash Sharma makes a startling revelation in a matter-of-fact tone. “I stopped counting after 1.5 million.” Sharma is talking about his bestselling novel, Wardi Wala Gunda (Hooligan in Uniform), which is treated as a classic in the Hindi pulp fiction genre. “My books sell as they are a heady cocktail of what an average reader wants,” he says. His heady cocktail includes murder, revenge, sex and greed. Throw in book jackets in technicolour screaming murder, cheap thrills, raunchy women and a gun, and you have a sure winner.

Titles like Bahu Maange Insaaf (Daughter-in-Law Demands Justice), Aankhon Wali Andhi (The Blind Woman with Eyes), Dahej Mein Mili Revolver (In the Dowry came a Revolver) and Paintra (Move) have sold like no other genre in the country. The men churning out these potboilers prolifically might not be as famous as Chetan Bhagat, but enter the Hindi heartland and you will find that they are celebrities. Bhagat’s last book, Two States: The Story of My Marriage, has sold about a million copies — stupendous but still 500,000 short of Sharma’s Wardi Wala Gunda. Amitav Ghosh’s latest book, River of Smoke, has so far sold around 60,000; Shobhaa De’s bestsellers do around 25,000.

Take the case of Anil Mohan. This Delhi-based writer has written over 180 books in two decades. On an average, his books sell about 50,000 copies each. (He could be close to the 10 million mark now in overall sales. Though far short of the 400 million or so copies of Harry Potter books of J K Rowling, this is better than any Indian English writer can claim.) Still, he feels that he hasn’t got due credit: “When they [English writers] sell 3,000, it becomes a bestseller. What about our books?”

Full report here Business Standard

Pulp fiction is back!

It's time to rewind to regional pulp fiction as over-the-top heroes, villains and outlandish plots make for a quickie read. Anuradha Varma reports

Lyricist and scriptwriter Javed Akhtar credits reading Ibne Safi's novels for helping him creating eternal celluloid villains like Gabbar Singh and Mogambo. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap grew up wanting to be either Amitabh Bachchan or writer Surender Mohan Pathak. Actress Gul Panag even invited her favourite novelist Pathak to the premiere of her film Rann.

Besides Bengali detectives Feluda and Byomkesh Bakshi, Hindi, Urdu and Tamil pulp fiction heroes can keep many readers up at night turning pages of their slim detective novels. "Pocket books" or novellas, these became popular at book stalls at railway stations over 50 years ago.

Publishing houses are now giving the books fresh airing. Westland, along with Blaft, has published four translations of Ibne Safi's Jasusi Duniya series. Ibne Safi, the pen name of Asrar Ahmad, was once described as "the only original writer in the subcontinent" by Agatha Christie and wrote 125 novels in his lifetime.

Full report here Times of India 

Hindi Day celebrated in Russia

Teachers and students of Hindi, both Indians and Russians celebrated the day of India''s national language by reciting poems of contemporary and classical poets at a function here.

Several young Russian students recited their own poems written in Hindi by them at the Hindi Day celebrations in the D P Dhar Hall of the Indian embassy graced by Ambassador Prabhat Prakash Shukla was organised by the Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural Centre (JNCC).

Prof Shishir Pandey, Hindi professor at JNCC expressed admiration at the enthusiasm with which young generation of Russians is studying Hindi.

He noted that there were thousands of common or similar words with common meanings in Hindi and Russian and the Russian grammar is similar to the Sanskrit grammar.

Prof Svetlana Mikoyan, a Hindi teacher gave examples of common and similar words in both languages like Hindi word ''Sona'' (to sleep) and Russian word ''Son'' (dream), ''Prasar'' (expanse) and Russian ''Prostor'' with similar meanings.


Full report here MSN

Plea to save Hindi

Children need to be encouraged by parents and teachers to learn their respective vernacular language.

The comment was made by the Labasa Hindi Teacher Association president, Agya Prasad, on Hindi Diwas (Day) celebrations at Kshatriya Hall on Sep 25.

The celebration promoted the importance of the Hindi language among the younger generation by organising poster, oratory and essay competitions on the theme ù Hindi Language, Our Future.

Twelve primary and six secondary schools participated in the day-long event.

"The Hindi language is our identity. The Hindi language is our mother tongue and we have to retain it to avoid losing it.

"This language was brought here by our forefathers and it is important for parents and teachers to teach children and help retain our culture."

Full report here Fiji Times 

Eminent Hindi journalist and editor K L Nandan dies

information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni on Sep 25 condoled the death of the eminent Hindi writer and journalist Kanhaiya Lal Nandan who passed away this morning.

In her condolence message, Soni said, "Nandan's death has created a void in the field of Hindi literature and journalism which will be difficult to fill. Nandan was a thinking writer who had the ability to link the perception of different generations, thereby giving a new vision to Hindi journalism and the literary movement. Each of his works in journalism and literature created new benchmarks which served as an inspiration for budding writers and journalists. In his death the nation has lost a multi- faceted personality whose creativity was acknowledged by people from all walks of life.

Full report here IndianTelevision.com

Himachal writer awarded Hindi Sewa Samaan

S.R.Harnot has been honored with Hindi Sewa Samman for his contribution in the field of Hindi literature by Malwa Rangmanch Smiti Ujjain and Kritika Communication Mumbai jointly on the occasion of Vishwa Hindi Sewa Samaan Alankaran Samaroh & International Symposium organized in Kali Das Academy Complex Ujjain.

Harnot received this award in the presence of famous Hindi Cinema playback singer Kavita Seth, famous Indian lyricist & playback singer Swanand Kirkire & Dr.Vishwanath Sachdeva, Editor Navneet. In this occasion renowned writers, critics, journalists and other signatories from all over India and abroad were present. Harnot has authored about dozen Hindi books and also received numbers of International and National awards for his creative work.

Full report here My Himachal

Enriching Hindi literature, philosophy

'Kashi Marnanmukti', a Hindi philosophic novel based on the spiritual journey of a Chandaal is written by Manoj Thakkar and Rashmi Chhazed. The story based on the life of its protagonist 'Maha' who in the course of his spiritual journey to find his Guru, finds enlightenment and touches the height of divinity. Today Indian generation is getting diverted towards western civilization when the west itself is looking upon Indian culture and India's spiritual teachings. The novel includes messages from Vedas, Puranas and Upanishads which seem difficult to comprehend to today's generation in their original form while here that same content is much more understandable since it is available in a simpler narrative form like a story. These epics have been in existence for ages together and this book follows the same path enriching Hindi literature and philosophy in its journey for enlightening the people through its messages and would be 'amar' in the minds of people.

It signifies aloud that you are born to realize that you and the energy that created you are inseparable. 'Guru, god and self are one'. The work is permeated by what may be called as the zenith that a man can touch during his life span, irrespective of the background to which he belongs. This book does not provide any technique of life transformation rather it is an effort to enable each one of us to understand ourselves, to realise our obscured potential by constantly learning and developing insights into one's life purely with the vision to reimburse the best back to our society.

Full report here Central Chronicle 

Enriching Hindi literature, philosophy

'Kashi Marnanmukti', a Hindi philosophic novel based on the spiritual journey of a Chandaal is written by Manoj Thakkar and Rashmi Chhazed. The story based on the life of its protagonist 'Maha' who in the course of his spiritual journey to find his Guru, finds enlightenment and touches the height of divinity. Today Indian generation is getting diverted towards western civilization when the west itself is looking upon Indian culture and India's spiritual teachings. The novel includes messages from Vedas, Puranas and Upanishads which seem difficult to comprehend to today's generation in their original form while here that same content is much more understandable since it is available in a simpler narrative form like a story. These epics have been in existence for ages together and this book follows the same path enriching Hindi literature and philosophy in its journey for enlightening the people through its messages and would be 'amar' in the minds of people.

It signifies aloud that you are born to realize that you and the energy that created you are inseparable. 'Guru, god and self are one'. The work is permeated by what may be called as the zenith that a man can touch during his life span, irrespective of the background to which he belongs. This book does not provide any technique of life transformation rather it is an effort to enable each one of us to understand ourselves, to realise our obscured potential by constantly learning and developing insights into one's life purely with the vision to reimburse the best back to our society.

Full report here Central Chronicle

WSJ launches Hindi blog

The Wall Street Journal India has launched a Hindi blog, called India Real Time Hindi, which offers consumers commentary – quick analysis and insight – on developments related to politics, business, sports, Bollywood in India. The WSJ does have an English blog of the same name, but the content doesn’t appear to overlap. Some stories – like this one on Rahul Gandhi is a translation of the English post, but much of the content is unique to each blog. WSJ has national language versions of its Real Time blogs for its corresponding China and Japan focused blogs as well.

It will be interesting to see how content consumption patterns on IRT Hindi evolves. For WSJ, it will initially serve as an experiment into understanding the Indic language consumption patterns, and their access to quality writers and content would serve them well. I wonder if they have plans for other Indian languages as well.

While there isn’t lack of Indic language content on the web, it’s discovery can be a bit of an issue. Thankfully, WSJ doesn’t appear to be just publishing or repurposing wire content, but going the blog way, with opinion.

Full report here Medianama

Hindi unites Indians

Once again, it is time of the year, for us to pay our attention to the upkeep of our national language Hindi. Though Hindi may be spoken by more people from the North and Central India including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, yet it has made an unreliable  mark all over India. Though English is finding more and more place in the Hindi newspapers, it only shows large heartedness of the people. But, Hindi remains a unifying force!

The emphasis on use of Hindi during the fortnight is mainly restricted to Government departments. Hence need is for reaching out the message to more sections of the society. Especially our Bollywood stars, who are making name and fame, by acting in Hindi films, ought to speak in more Hindi terms than English when appearing for various programmes.

During this time we should focus on the progress being made by the language. Use of poetry in any language enhances the interest of the reader or the listener. Recall AB Vajpayee and the ilk. The Government would do well to train teachers for promoting Hindi language in even more effective ways and see that the language assumes even more importance in the days to come.

Some daily Hindi papers are these days giving undue importance to the use of English words in their reports and special stories. This shows scant respect for the language. For either  the writer is from an English background or he does not want to make extra effort to search the equivalent Hindi word in the dictionary. Or he is trying to lure the English readers towards its side. Or call it a fashion of the day!

Full report here Central Chronicle

Gulp this Pulp!

"Beware!" Dolly roared like a wounded tigress as she pointed her revolver at him. "Stop there, you devil! If you move even a step forward I will shoot you without any second thoughts." Lokesh fell silent. He did not expect such courage from a tender beauty.
                                                              - Shatranj (Chess), Shagun Sharma

Such is the heady stuff that Hindi pulp fiction is made of. Dishing out a tantalising, cheap cocktail of suspense, crime and sex to readers seeking respite from the tedium of everyday life, this genre of thrillers once ruled the roost in the Hindi heartland.

Made of recycled paper, the kind used for the cheap rough registers in which school students often do their homework, many of these 300-odd-page paperbacks are published from Meerut in western UP also known for its significant role in the 1857 War of Independence against the British.

At any book stand on railway platforms or makeshift stalls on the peripheries of bus terminals, across big, small and mofussil towns, these books can be found neatly stacked in the first row. With loud, melodramatic, screaming covers like box-office Bollywood posters, you just can't miss them. Several generations have grown up reading these pocket books, especially in the Hindi heartland. In train journeys, often, the book companions' are characters like Commander Karan Saxena, Indrajeet or Keshav Pandit - also turned into a crusading TV soap.

Full report here Hardnews

Hindi poet to be felicitated

Hindi Vidhi Pratishthan of Kanpur and Ramabai Nagar will felicitate noted poet Gopal Das Neeraj on the last day of the week-long Hindi programme on September 18.

Additional district and sessions judge and incharge of Hindi Vidhi Pratishthan, Kanpur, Ghanshyam Pathak said that Justice Rakesh Tewari of Allahabad High Court will the chief guest which would be held at Ragendra Swarup Memorial Hall. Several poets would recite their poems.

The judicial officials of both the districts and administrative and police officials would attend the function.

Full report here Times of India 

Shake off your linguistic shackles, save Hindi

Hindi, our mother tongue and our national language, is dying a slow death. It is losing its importance in fast-changing modern India. It is getting limited to speaking and verbal communication. Today, people prefer reading English newspapers, watching news in English and reading more of English literature than Hindi.

Hindi can be made more popular and given its due importance, but the initiative has to be taken by us. We, perhaps, have forgotten that India is the land that has produced great Hindi novelists and poets like Munshi Premchand, Mahadevi Verma, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, and many more, but today’s generation has forgotten these names and is deviating towards Western authors like Stephanie Meyer, PG Wodehouse, Eric Segal, etc.

Students should be encouraged in schools to read Hindi literature. Hindi should be made a compulsory subject up to class XII. Students can be provided with Hindi newspapers about once a week. To make Hindi popular, novels read by the youth – such as those by Chetan Bhagat – can be translated in Hindi to make the language more popular.

Full report here Indian Express