Ahmad Faraz, RIP; حق مغفِرت کرے، اجب ازاد مرد تہا

If there was every a time to to invoke the old line "Haq maghfirath karay, ajab azaad mard th-haa", it is today, as we mourn the passing of a titan.

From The News:

Legendary poet Ahmed Faraz passes away
Updated at: 1720 PST, Thursday, July 17, 2008

CHICAGO: Renowned poet and literary figure of Pakistan Ahmed Faraz died of kidneys failure here at a local hospital on Thursday.

He was under treatment at a hospital in Chicago.

Update: The news report was inaccurate. The rumours of his death, to quote another great writer, were greatly exaggerated. Please see here.

Azad Karachi Radio Program 010, February 20, 2008 - آزاد کراچی ریڈیو پروگرام شمار ۱۰

Program 10 of Azad Karachi Radio is now online, the first of 2008 has guest Mehdi Hasnain join iFaqeer and Cemendtaur to discuss the American Elections, the Pakistani situation and events with Ayesha Siddiqa in California as well as a media item.

The program mentions, amongst other things:

• ABN Chicago's Urdu Talk Radio Show
• ...and of course, Cemendtaur and iFaqeer's own blogs and the Karachi Photoblog and سمندطور کی اردو دنیا (Cemendtaur ki Urdu Duniya)
  

Program 10 of Azad Karachi Radio is available here:

http://azadkarachiradio.blogspot.com/2008/02/program-010-february-20-2008.html

Formally speaking, Azad Karachi Radio is produced out of Silicon Valley and is a service of Azad South Asia, a collaborative media effort initiated by yours truly and Cemendtaur. You can reach the team at iFaqeer@gmail.com or leave comments on either this blog or at Azad Karachi Radio.

Again, please leave comments, feedback, suggestions, and other input by posting comments on our blog pages or via email at iFaqeer@gmail.com.

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Urdu - Hindi - Urdu Podcast - Pakistani Podcast - Indian Podcast - Hindi Podcast - Moderate Muslims - Progressive Muslims - Benazir - Pakistani Elections - US Elections - Barack Obama - Hilary Clinton

Poetry of Revolution

Before I forget or get distracted. I just found a post by Zaheer "Zak" Kidvai on his blog that is just a jewel for lovers of Urdu and Urdu poetry. You have just got to read it:

http://www.kidvai.com/windmills/2007/11/long-night-and-riot-of-memories.html

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Pakistan - Emergency - CrisisPKUrdu Pakistan - Faiz Ahmad Faiz

Aaj bazaar main, pabajaolaan chalo...

... so said Faiz Ahmed Faiz, probably the most popular poet of revolution in the latter half of the 20th century in South Asia; Pakistan, India, and particularly on the Left.

South Asia has a very rich tradition of poetry, one which draws on both the spiritual tradition that gave the world Rumi and Khayyam, and the revolutionary spirit of the last century or two. And because of the Sufi tradition it is steeped in, allegory, depth of meaning, and multi-faceted verbiage is the norm, rather than the exception. The words "Aaj bazaar main pa-bajaolaan chalo..." are probably some of the most recognized word. The "jewels" being described are, for the uninitiated, the ball and chain of oppression. Here's the poet himself reciting the poem, with English sub-titles, followed by one of the best renditions of the poem with music, in this case with an overlay of dramatic video:


[You can read the piece by Dr. Adil Najam, where I first found this video, here.]

But wait, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists has sent out a poster that puts these words above a poster that just needs to be seen to be believed. You couldn't, as we say, make this stuff up:

Please check in regularly at WikiPakistan's Emergency 2007 pages:

http://pakistan.wikia.com/wiki/Emergency_2007

for updates. And contribute what input you can, participate in whichever way you can.

[My previous post on the issue, introducing the Emergency 2007 wiki pages, by the way, is here.]

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Pakistan - Emergency - CrisisPKUrdu Pakistan - Faiz Ahmad Faiz

The romance of Urdu is lost in translation

http://www.livemint.com/2007/07/14001456/The-romance-of-Urdu-is-lost-in.html

All languages convey a culture but, perhaps, no other language does this better than Urdu.

Do you have regrets? I do. One of the great regrets in my life is that I cannot understand Urdu. I am reading this book called The Lost World of Hindustani Music by the late Kumar Prasad Mukherji. His floral descriptions of the Lucknow of his childhood only intensify my regret. Apparently, even the tongawalas of Lucknow spoke polished and courteous Urdu.
Languages are repositories of a culture. I know this because I grew up with a linguist. My father speaks 10 languages: French, German, Russian and several Indian languages. Now, at age 70, he is learning Mandarin Chinese.

Listening to The Magic Flute, he says, is a completely different experience if you know German; reading War and Peace in the original Russian offers nuances that are lost in the English translation.

All languages convey a culture but, perhaps, no other language does this better than Urdu. America’s exuberance, for instance, isn’t quite captured in English; Punjabi enterprise and risk-taking isn’t fully expressed in the crude bravado of its language; Mumbaiya Hindi captures the capitalist matlabi Mumbaikar but fails to represent Mumbai’s generous spirit that swells, it seems, with every monsoon flood and natural catastrophe that hits this city. Italian barely conveys the depths of Italy’s contribution to the arts, particularly opera. But Urdu... the cadences and sighs of this beautiful language seem to encompass the courtly graces of Islamic-Indian culture which flourished in Awadh.

Urdu is the language of romance; it is the language of poetry, of diplomacy. I can’t help think that if Juliet had uttered her “Good Night” and “Parting is such sweet sorrow” in Urdu, the whole Montague-Capulet quarrel would have been sorted out. When my untutored ear listens to Urdu shairi, what I enjoy is the relish with which the poem is told and the wah wahs with which it is appreciated. When I listen to a Farida Khanum ghazal, I don’t understand the lyrics, but my heart hears the longing. The Mughals were many things but they were, above all, bon vivants. They epitomized the title of my column. They lived the good life by surrounding themselves with decorative things, aromatic cuisine, soulful music and heartfelt poetry. All of this is encompassed in the exquisite nuances of their language.

Living in South India is a handicap if you enjoy Urdu. Besides Hyderabad, there is no bastion of the Urdu language in the South. Purists will probably say you have to go to Lahore or Pathankot to hear good Urdu, but for a novice such as me, New Delhi is good enough. That said, one of the wonderful things about India, though, is that you can find pink lotuses in the most surprising ponds (to slightly alter an ancient Tamil poem). You can find Bengali scholars in Mulund, Sanskrit experts in Lucknow and excellent Bharatanatyam dancers in, perhaps, Noida. In Bangalore, where I live, I know a gentleman called C.R.V. Subramaniam. A more Tamilian name you cannot find. But this gentleman grew up in Varanasi and speaks excellent Urdu. He composes Urdu shairi, usually after a drink or two and then translates it for me. CRV Uncle introduced me to the nuances and gestures of the Urdu language, the lakshan of a shairi or raga; the lilting intonation with which it ought to be spoken. Like Bengalis, who take pride in their language, lovers of Urdu are uniformly fanatical, believing Urdu to be the mother lode, the fairest language of them all. I wish I had learnt it. I wish I could understand it.

Shoba sings Urdu ghazals... with atrocious pronunciation... mercifully when she is alone. Write to her at thegoodlife@livemint.com

Technorati tags applicable to this post: [Urdu] - [India] - [Pakistan] - [Culture] - [Language]

Update on Translation: گوہر رزہ کی نظم "شامِ غریباں" ۔

In my very first post on this blog, I had mentioned a translation of an Urdu piece by Gauhar Raza that I had put on my personal blog, and had been trying to get in touch with him to submit it for his attention and maybe get his okay for. I finally got in touch with him (and his wife Shabnam Hashmi) over the last few days and got him to comment on the translation and the poem. It was gratifying to hear that he thought well of the humble effort at translation. He added:

"Though I would like the poem to be dead and irrelevant as soon as possible but since the world is not going to be peaceful in near future therefore I suppose it has some use."

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Urdu translation - Gauhar Raza

Writing Urdu for a Scottish Fair - سارے جھاں میں دھوم۔۔۔

Recently had a very interesting chance to help someone with Urdu text. I got a message from a fellow contributor to the Wikipedia, asking for Urdu text for "Festival" and "Carnival" and I sent those to him--and suggesting that he also use the word Urdu word "میلہ" (mela). He's put it up and you can check it out at. [Warning: it also kicks up a pop-up ad.]

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Urdu] - Scotland - Wikipedia

Urdu TechNews اردو ٹیکنالوجی اخبار

From Qadeer Ahmad Rana, Editor of Urdu TechNews اردو ٹیکنالوجی اخبار, we hear that because of the BlogSpot ban in Pakistan, Urdu TechNews has moved from urdutechnews.blogspot.com to to http://urdutechnews.wordpress.com.

For readers who are not familiar with it, Urdu TechNews اردو ٹیکنالوجی اخبار provides technology news, reviews, articles, downloads, links, etc in Urdu language (yes, written in the Urdu script).

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Urdu - Technology

The Lord's Prayer in Urdu

I have to admit, I have always thought that the opening lines of the "The Lord's Prayer" often repeated by a lot of Christians (or is just a Catholic thing?) have a very elegant sound to them--especially when chanted gently and in unison by a bunch of people--kinda like the "Ameen" one hears at the end of the Fatiha in congregations with enough Malikis in it (who tend to say it out loud, unlike most Urdu speakers, who usually follow the Hanafi school of Islamic practise):

Holy Father, who art in heaven
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
On Earth
As it is in heaven...

So, don't ask me how, but I stumbled on this a littel while ago and have been meaning to post it here; it's a page with the The Lord's Prayer in Urdu, together with a translation of "Ave Maria", the Catholic prayer to Bibi Maryam, The Virgin Mary, the formulation of the Trinity, and a couple of other things:

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/JPN-urdu.html

Here's the prayer itself:



I have never actually heard it being chanted in Urdu. I wonder if it sounds anywhere near as sonorous; Urdu is a rather mellifluous language generally, so maybe it does...maybe some of the folks who were pillorying me on a list I am on for (they thought) being averse to any mention of Christianity and Pakistan in the same breath can help with that...

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Urdu - Christianity - [Pakistan] - India - Interfaith

Giving One's Life in the Holy Land - ...هم مدينے مين تنحا نكل جائينگے

Just thought I would share a post on my blog centered around a very small news story in an Saudi Paper and it's evoking a spiritual poem from "back home"...

hum madinay main tanha nikal jayaingay
aur galiyon main qasdhan b-hatak jay'eingay

hum wahaan jaa kay waapas naheen aayaingay
d-hoondthay d-hoondthay loag th-hak ja'eingay

in quick-and-dirty translation:

we will venture out into The City (of Madina) all alone
and lose our way in the streets, on purpose

we go to that land, and will not return
try and try as they might, folks will tire of trying to find us

The post is at:

http://ifaqeer.blogspot.com/2006/11/giving-ones-life-in-holy-land.html

Main Blog at:

http://iFaqeer.blogspot.com

If you are in Pakistan or elsewhere where you have difficulty accessing the Blogspot domain due to censorship, etc., please use

http://www.pkblogs.com/iFaqeer

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Faith - Spirituality - Islam - Urdu

Are you sure... Qabil Ajmeri - مگر كبهي دل كي دهركنون مين ... قابل اجميري

Unaiza Nasim has a new (or at least new to me) blog where she seems to just be collecting good, really good, Urdu poetry. Here's one that had a very special place in our hearts back in college:

http://unaizanasim.wordpress.com/2006/11/08/kia-kero-gay

It's by Qabil Ajmeri...someone whose life story itself, we are told is the stuff of literature.

(And yes, I know I have used a "ray" () where I should have used a "Ray", so to speak, in the subject line/heading. But I am on a Apple OS X computer and don't have any keyboard options that type the right character. I will fix it later.)

Technorati tags applicable to this post: [Urdu] - [India] - [Pakistan] - [Culture] - [Language] - Qabil Ajmeri

rumi-o-hafiz-o-khayyam ka dhaik-ha hai kalaam

Also posted on the iFaqeer blog, with the title "Rumi. And Hafez. And Khayyam. And Of Whence They Spake.".

All the positive feedback on my post yesterday has been very gratifying.

Readers might also want to read this.

It is my desire to bring the poets and qawwals of South Asia to as wide an audience as "Rumi-o-Hafiz-o-Khayyam". We all read these these elders, and we all need to. But especially in this day and age we (all of us; Muslims and not, Sufi-leaning or not, Westerners and not) need to reconnect with the living tradition they represent--especially in South Asia. We need to connect with the zawiya, or angle, facet, of Islam that was, and still is, rooted so deep in the lands from where all we hear nowadays is "Deobandi", "Taliban", "Maududi", "Terrorism", and on and on.

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Tasawwuf - Sufi - Sufism - Aziz Mian - Sufi - Rumi - Hafez - Hafiz - Khayyam - Divine Love - Moderate Muslims - Progressive Muslims

ha'ey kambakhth thoo nay pee hee nahee! !حاءے كمبخت تو نے پي هى نهين

Strong Disclaimer: This post is written purely "for myself". I know some will be touched by it--in whatever way--but if you're put off by either metaphysics, tasawwuf (Sufism), abstractions, or weird, personal transliteration schemes, PLEASE, PLEASE, do not read on. I really don't want to get into detailed discussions of any kind.

There are moments when one just wants to let go; to be lost in something. Something deep. When that happens, I often find myself gravitating to Qawwali, the Muslim mystic musical art form of "Sama" in its South Asian incarnation.

There's one piece, in particular, that I have been promising myself I will translate, render, if you will, into English and post, but just haven't had the energy and bandwidth to sit down and apply myself to the task.

So I just got home about 11 pm tonight (technically yesterday at this point) after attending, I guess, what you'd call a political meeting. After the meeting, I got into a rather refreshingly intelligent conversation with a relatively new friend. By the time I got home, and had checked in on the kids, and sat down to dinner, like I said, I was in a mood that was definitely leaning towards mu'arfa, irfan, tasawwuf, the metaphysical, or whatever you want to call it. So I turned to one of the only two bookmarks I have in the Real Player on my Mac at home.

And the first through, I just got lost listening to this piece. By the end of it, I was definitely close to a "haal", the Sufi version of what our US brothers and sisters would call "being in the zone", "the flow", and so on. And I am not even a formal Sufi. For a traditional "desi" like me (a South Asian), that is a title reserved for some attainment in the metaphysical realm. I am just someone who, I will admit, has an inclination in that direction and, frankly, have been too chicken to formally step on the "tareeq", or Way.

The piece just captures the mood I am in perfectly; the frustration with Naseh, The Preachy Folks, and their obsession with preaching and obsessing with enjoining moral conduct; the reference to the Wine of Truth's greatest bartenders (others use the word "cup bearers", but let's get with the 21st of Our Lord, The Prophet of Divine Love, shall we?) being exactly in Karbala, Najaf, and Samarra; and, of course, the frustration with folks who interpret the references to Wine, and Love in "our" language as moonshine (how else do I translate "t-harra"?) and carnal lust...

So then I looped back and transcribed the parts of it that I think really should be brought to the Rumi- and Hafiz- and Khayyam-in-English-reading public. I am going to try and do the translation some time later. But if you care to, and understand Urdu and/or the languages around it in the linguistic geography (like Hindi and Dakkani and Awadhi and...), do take a read to the following...and/or just watch this space for a translation.

The piece is almost universally referred to as "ha'ey kambakhth thoo nay pee hee nahee!" (Oh! You Unfortunate Wretch! You have not Imbibed!) Here are my selected excerpts. First the prologue, itself one the most deliciously intense tongue twisters in the Urdu language:

samajh samajhna samajh kay samjhoe
samajh samajhna bhee aik samajh hai

samajh samajh kay bhee joe na samjhai
mairee samajh main woe na samajh hai

and then the Qawwali itself, sung at the link above by the person who people who connect with the art on a very unvarnished, unapologetic level, as about the greatest proponent of that form in the 20th Century; Aziz Mian:

lutf-e-mai tujh say kya kahoon, nadaaN
(aray) ha'ey kambakhth thoo nay pee hee nahee!

x x

bathla'ey dhatha hoon thujhay maikhaanon ka patha
batha-o-kazmain, khurasan, saamara

khurshid mudha'a maira burj-e-sharaf main hai
aik saaqi karbala main maira, aik najaf main hai

x x

mairay shairon kay haqeeqath main na maanee samjha
badha-e-haq koe thoo angoor ka paanee samjha

thoo nahee jaantha arbab-e-thariqath kay usool
thayray bayhoodha sawaalaath sar-a-sar hain fizool

thoo nahee jaantha paymana kisay kehthay hain
thoo nahee jaantha maykhana kisay kehthay hain

isthaylaahaath-e-thasawwuf kee nahee thujh koe khabar
faqr kee raah main jahaan miltha hai jahaan kaif-e-nazar

kot-chashmi say thujhai k-hotee k-haree lagthee hai
mai-e-irfan bhee thujhay laal paree lagthee hai

ha'ey kambakhth thoo nay pee hee nahee!

x x

ahl-e-daanish nay thairay zehen ko kaisa samj-ha
baadha-e-shair koe jis dhum thoonay t-harra samjha

mai-e-tauheed kee main thoe wazahath kee th-hee
thoo na samj-hay aray nadaan yay qismath thairee

rumi-o-hafiz-o-khayyam ka dhaik-ha hai kalaam
jaam-o-meena kay libadha main thareeqath th-hee thamaam

naseha thuj-hai naseehath kay siwaa kaam nahee
jaam main gharq na kardhoon thoe maira naam nahee!

x x

(yay) Allah ki inayath hai kay main saif zubaaan hoon
Aur naasay, thairay liyay main koh-e-garaan hoon

I should put that last couplet in my email signature...once I have a translation, I guess...

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Tasawwuf - Sufi - Sufism - Aziz Mian - Sufi - Rumi - Hafez - Hafiz - Khayyam - Divine Love - Moderate Muslims - Progressive Muslims

آزاد کراچی ریڈیو پروگرام شمار ۵ - Program 5, October 29, 2006

آزاد کراچی ریڈیو کے پروگرام شمار ۵ میں آئی فقیر نے گفتگو کا آغاز "آزاد کراچی ریڈیو" کی وجہ تسمیہ سے کیا۔ سمندطور نے بلاگ کی دنیا، حاکمیت جمہور کی دنیا کے عنوان سے ایک مختصر تحریر پڑھی۔ پھرآئی فقیر نے وادئ سلیکن میں پاکستانیوں کی ایک تنظیم اوپن کے حالیہ اجلاس کا کچھ حال سامعین کو سنایا۔ سمندطور نے امریکہ کی جنوبی سرحد پہ کھڑی کی جانے والی مجوزہ دیوار کے بارے میں رائے زنی کی۔ آئی فقیر نے حجاب کے متعلق اپنے کچھ مشاہد ات پیش کیے۔ پھر سمندطور نے جیک اسٹرا اور برقعہ کے عنوان سے اپنا ایک مختصر مضمون پیش کیا۔ آئی فقیر نے پروگرام کا اختتام اكبر اله بادي کے چند خيالات سے کیا اور سامعین کو پروگرام پہ تنقید کی دعوت دی۔

iFaqeer starts Program 5 a discussion of the provenance of the program's name. Cemendtaur then presents a piece titled "World of Blogs; World of Democracy", discussing blogs, democracy and globalization. iFaqeer then provides an update of an event by OPEN in Silicon Valley on the anniversary of the earthquake in South Asia and goes on to discuss some aspects of the topic of community and community building that the event focused on. Cemendtaur then discusses the proposed wall on the United States' southern border. iFaqeer then discusses his thoughts on the concept of Hijab and it's modern manifestation and Cemendtaur follows up with a short essay titled "Jack Straw and the Burka". iFaqeer concludes the program with quotes from Urdu poet/satirist Akbar Allahabadi.

Program 005 of Azad Karachi Radio is available at:

http://azadkarachiradio.blogspot.com/2006/10/program-5-october-29-2006.html

If you are in Pakistan or elsewhere where you have difficulty accessing the Blogspot domain due to censorship, etc., please use:

http://www.pkblogs.com/AzadKarachiRadio

Formally speaking, Azad Karachi Radio is produced out of Silicon Valley and is a service of Azad South Asia, a collaborative media effort initiated by yours truly and Cemendtaur. You can reach the team at iFaqeer@gmail.com or leave comments on either this blog or at Azad Karachi Radio.

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Urdu - Hindi - Urdu Podcast - Pakistani Podcast - Indian Podcast - Hindi Podcast

سمندطور کی اردو دنیا/Cemendtaur ki Urdu Duniya - New Urdu Blog

After almost a couple of years of nudging--hopefully all of it polite--Cemendtaur has launched a blog in Urdu. Do check it out and interact with it. Cemendtaur is a writer with very unique and deep thoughts, a style all his own and, of course, a group good grasp of the language. I really feel it is a very necessary and positive step to have him join the conversation online interactively in Urdu:

http://cemendtaur-ki-urdu-dunya.blogspot.com/

آداب	Adaab,
فقیر-i	iFaqeer

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Urdu - India - Pakistan - Urdu Blogs - Cemendtaur

Az Karachi asth, Radioyay Azad; Relaunching Azad Karachi Radio

About a year ago, I had started podcasting. I, we, rather, started two podcasts. One was in English and was, well, podcast, via the RSS feed for this blog while the other was in Urdu and podcast as "Azad Karachi Radio".

To which a lot of people go..."Say what?!" Are you talking about the political independence of Karachi, a la Singapore?

Well, let's explain.

Both of the members of the team working on the podcast count the city of Karachi as our emotional, intellectual and social wellspring. And thus the idea is to have an Azad--the word, say, Gandhi would have used, for "free"--voice that has a Karachi accent and speaks with the spirit of that brave city.

Thus the title of this post: Az Karachi asth, Radioyay Azad.

That phrase is my uneducated way of saying "From the heart of Karachi, this is Azad Radio". PaRhay lik-hay koe Farsi kya hai, پڑھے لِکھے کو فارسے کیا ہے؟ , as the old line of poetry went; educated people should be able to grasp complicated ideas in literary language--which, before Europe became ascendant, was Farsi, from Istanbul to Rangoon, if not further.

Another reason--and this might be a very personal eccenticity of mine--the phrase from Persian pops into my head is that, growing up abroad, my father used to listen BBC Urdu (as well as English and Hindi) regularly. And if you didn't turn the radio off fast enough at the end of most Urdu broadcasts, the next thing you heard on that wavelength was "Az London asth, Radioyay BBC" (From London, this is BBC Radio). So in my head, Urdu, Radio and the traditional roots of Urdu come together in that one sentence. And it took me decades to actually learn what the words exactly meant.

So, to paraphrase the call sign of BBC's Persian Service, az Karachi asth, radioyay azad. Cemendtaur and I are reviving Azad Karachi Radio with Program 4, a year after the last one went online.

This program restarts the discussion with Cemendtaur joining the team live and in studio. This program congratulates celebrants on Ramzan, Eid and Diwali, with some thoughts on the spirit of the season; discusses the first anniversary of the earthquake in South Asia and the role of the blogosphere in helping remember those in need; and throws out some political thoughts on matters of social concern, also discussing the
recent exchange between a seminarian (madarasa student) and Gen. Pervez Musharraf that made the rounds on the Internet.

The audio file for directly downloading and listening to the fourth program is here. You can now also stream the podcast using the Odeo (odeo/5e510de8d8638707) player from any Azad Karachi Radio blog page.
Just take a look at the top righthand corner of the page!

The new edition of the podcast is at:

http://azadkarachiradio.blogspot.com/2006/10/azad-karachi-radio-program-004-october.html

And the main Blog is at: http://azadkarachiradio.blogspot.com/

The podcast is aslo available on Yahoo! Podcasts at:

http://podcasts.yahoo.com/series?s=3d848ad579b260b163d17218e7fcbad5

and on Odeo at:

http://odeo.com/channel/34582/view

Though the directories might need a little time to register the new edition--they hadn't at the time of writing this.

You can subscribe to either the text version of this blog or the Podcast using the following the following URL/link for our RSS feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/AzadKarachiRadio

and copy-pasting that address where the software you use to subscribe to PodCasts (for example iTunes from Apple, iPodder, etc.) asks you to put addresses of Podcasts you are subscribing to manually.

If you are in Pakistan or elsewhere where you have difficulty accessing the Blogspot domain due to censorship, etc., please use:

http://www.pkblogs.com/AzadKarachiRadio

Formally speaking, Azad Karachi Radio is a service of Azad South Asia, a collaborative media effort initiated by yours truly and Cemendtaur, out of Silicon Valley. You can reach the team at iFaqeer@gmail.com or leave comments on either this blog or at Azad Karachi Radio.

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Urdu - Hindi - Urdu Podcast - Pakistani Podcast - Indian Podcast - Hindi Podcast

Pictures of Ghalib's Tomb and Khwaja Nizamuddin's Mausoleum

Just noticed this at Jahane Rumi

Na kaheen mazaar hoe tha...

Click on the picture to go the post and see more pictures.

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Urdu - Ghalib - Khwaja Nizamuddin

First Urdu Radio Station launched in India

After the launch of Doordarshan's Round-the-clock Urdu channel, now it is the turn of a 24 hour Urdu Radio Station.

On 7th September 2006, Worldspace Radio, India launched the first-ever exclusive Urdu Radio Station. It is named Falak, meaning "Sky".

Shishir Lall, Managing Director of WorldSpace India said at the launch,
"We are delighted to launch the country's first exclusive Urdu radio station and look forward to celebrating the mystery and beauty of the language of a bygone era with listeners across the country."
"Falak will now enable music lovers to go back in time and indulge in the lyrical sounds of Urdu."


Some Programs on Falak:
Taareekh Key Jharokhey Sey – An interesting peep into the times gone by, Radio Falak takes a look into the history of various important cities, places of interest, monuments etc., sharing interesting and unknown anecdotes.

Filmy Saughaat – The show showcases film songs featuring Urdu lyrics, from India and Pakistan. Sabiha Fazal, a specialist presenter who excels in his knowledge of Hindustani and Pakistani film music, shares anecdotes about singers, composers, songwriters, and film producers on this entertaining show.

Aqwaal-E-Zareen – Catch social messages by great philosophers from all over the globe that have been translated and adapted in Urdu to imbibe modesty, humility and good human values.

Bazm-E-Khanam – A special program for the ladies, the show features tips on good health, house keeping, family relations, culinary delights from Indian, Mughlai, Irani, Uzbeki, Arabic and Afghani platter – their history, the little known tricks and techniques of their preparation.

Sufiyana Kalaam – A special program featuring Sufi Qawalis, Mersias, Nohas and Baints

Ghazal Usne Chhedi – Tune in for a fascinating program featuring theme based shows on Urdu poetry

Sham-E-Farozan – Catch the very best ghazals by renowned Urdu poets on this enchanting show.

If you are looking at recapture the culture and ethos of a bygone era, tune in to Radio Falak and revel in the soothing yet powerful voices of legends like Ghulam Ali, Mehdi Hassan, Iqbal Bano, Tahira Saiyad, Farida Khanam, Reshma, Abida Parveen and the legendry Nusrat Saheb.

Sources:
1. Times of India

2. Agencyfaqs


Technorati tags applicable to this post: [Urdu] - [India] - [Pakistan] - [Culture] - [Language]

DD Urdu: Der Aaye, Durust Aaye

UkN had earlier mentioned about Doordarshan's plan of starting a 24 hour Urdu news channel in India. And finally, the channel has been unveiled.

On the eve of India's 59th independence day, the country's Punjabi/Urdu speaking (as he's a migrant from Pakistan) prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, officially announced the launch of DD Urdu, the 24 hour Urdu news channel.

The launching of this channel will definitely give fresh breaths to this beleaguered language, and will also prove to be élan vital for Urdu media which many thought is dying in India.

Urdu ke Naam wishes DD Urdu all the very best.

Click for news report: http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/16/stories/2006081618441200.htm

Technorati tags applicable to this post: [Urdu] - [India] - [Pakistan] - [Culture] - [Language]

On importance of Doordarshan's Urdu Channel

"Urdu is an important language of the country with about 52 million people having declared it as their mother tongue."

- P R Dasmunsi (Information & Broadcasting Minister, Government of India)

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1894036.cms