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Steta Publishers was a writing and brand language consultancy that ran from 2012 to 2016. We are no longer available for projects. Our founders now work here and here. 

Olympics: Keval Hindi Mein

31/7/2012

2 Comments

 
Picture
Ravi Chaturvedi, a prolific Hindi commentator and recipient of the Padma Shri
Watching the Olympics is a treat one can avail of only every four years. Even if one is not a hardcore sports enthusiast, it's awe-inspiring to see these humans with such grit, determination, commitment, and perfection in performance. The Olympics is one of the few truly global events. It's dedicated to pure sport. 

We usually watch events on ESPN, or Star Sports. Occasionally, we go to good old Doordarshan. Sometimes they telecast a sporting event no one else is showing. Watching events on Doordarshan is a different sort of experience, because the commentary is in Hindi. And it's good Hindi. I realized it's been ages since I watched TV in Hindi. It pleasantly exercised my mind to listen to and recall the meaning of Hindi terms such as pratiyogita, khiladi, rajat, muqabbla, mukkebaazi and so on. I was struggling to understand out what kansya padak meant. The context  helped; it is the word for bronze medal. These wonderful words took me back to class 10, the only time I had developed a reasonably strong Hindi vocabulary.  

One rarely gets to hear this kind of good, or should I say shudh Hindi in this part of the country. The last time I heard people using such words was in Ahmedabad, when a friend hailing from the Himalayas talked. Her spoken Hindi was so good, to novices like me it felt as if a sage was reading an ancient granth. The true Hindi of north India has a beautiful vocabulary, and is pleasant to hear. The Bambaiya Hindi (freely used in Mumbai and a lot of Pune) is a bhel-puri of Hindi, inflections of other tongues, Marathi syntax and grammar, the occasional Gujarati slang, and just about anything thrown in. It's a language of its own, with jewels such as tu kai ko karta hai?, hum wahan jayenga and so on. It's both hilarious and insulting to those who uphold the 'pure' Hindi, but it works for the great masses such as myself. It lets us communicate. To get our dose of the good stuff, we turn to DD. 

Armeen Kapadia
The author is co-founder and Director, Content Design at Steta
2 Comments
Sambit Kumar Pradhan link
14/8/2012 06:06:04 am

Lovely and might I add, a heartening post Armeen. I viewed the maximum of my Olympics on DD Sports and almost reveled in the Hindi commentary. Besides, I tuned into 'Akashwaani' or AIR as well. Hindi there is of even better quality. 'Shudh' or pure Hindi is very, for the lack of a better word, dignified and to a large extent alien to people outside of the Master's degree classrooms of the Universities of predominantly Northern India. However, the Hindi we generally term as 'shudh' is more aptly called 'Hindustaani'- a combination of Hindi and Urdu. When spoken by a master, like Gulzar sahab or Javed Akhtar, even normal conversations sound lyrical. Even tough India is not an English speaking nation, vernacular languages do not enjoy have the commercial, even literary popularity and success that of English. I am awaiting the day when Hindi and other regional language writers are accorded the same respect, popularity and perks enjoyed by their English counterparts. Hope its soon too!

Reply
Armeen
15/8/2012 12:33:19 am

Yes, I too hope that day comes soon. The last time I had a decent Hindi vocabulary was in Class 10. After that lack of practice just led to it all being wiped out of my mind. It is a real treat to listen to a master such as Gulzar speak Urdu and Hindi. Hopefully not a dying art.

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    Steta's founders, Urmilla Chandran and Armeen Kapadia author this blog. 

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