#hindustani

Dagar Brothers - Berlin 1964: The Lost Studio Recording

Black Truffle

I find it interesting how certain place names are pronounced with retroflex consonants in Marathi, even if they aren’t in the languages it borrowed them from, or the languages spoken in those regions:

Hindi भोपाल (Bhōpāl) → Marathi भोपाळ (Bhōpāḷ)

Hindi लद्दाख़ (Laddāx) → Marathi लडाख (Laḍākh)*

Nepali नेपाल (Nēpāl) → Marathi नेपाळ (Nēpāḷ)

Nepali तिब्बत (Tibbat) → Marathi तिबेट (Tibēṭ)*

Persian اتران (Irân) → Marathi इराण (Irāṇ)

Persian افغانستان (Afǧânestân) → Marathi अफगाणिस्तान (Afgāṇistān)

Contrastingly, Bhutan is called भुटान (Bhuṭān) in Nepali (and འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ ('Druk Gyal Khab) in Dzongkha), but भूतान (Bhūtān) in Marathi.

1954

"Babuji Dheere Chalna” is one of the most iconic songs sung by Geeta Dutt, celebrated for its sultry, sensuous tone and timeless charm.

Funky Chimes

I had to separate the legend from the map because otherwise, it would not have been legible. I am aware that the color distinctions are not always very clear, but there are only so many colors in the palette.

The legend is arranged in alphabetical order, and languages are grouped by family. Branches are represented by bullet points in which the languages within them are colored.

Afroasiatic

Chadic (Hausa): ochre

Cushitic (Oromo and Somali): light yellow-green

Semitic (Arabic to Tigrinya): yellow

Albanian: olive green

Armenian: mauve

Atlantic-Congo

Benue-Congo (Chewa to Zulu): blue-green

Senegambian (Fula and Wolof): faded blue-green

Volta-Congo (Ewe and Mooré): bright blue-green

Austroasiatic (Khmer and Vietnamese): dark blue-purple

Austronesian

Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (Fijian to Wallisian): dark brown

Malayo-Polynesian (Palauan): bright brown

Western Malayo-Polynesian (Malagasy to Tagalog): light brown

Eastern Sudanic (Dinka): foral white

Hellenic (Greek): black

Indo-European

Germanic (Danish to Swedish): light blue

English-based creoles (Antiguan and Barbudan to Vincentian Creole): medium/dark blue

Indo-Aryan (Bengali to Sinhala): purple

Iranian (Persian): gray

Romance (Catalan to Spanish) — red

French-based creoles (Haitian Creole to Seychellois Creole): dark red under French

Portuguese-based creoles (Cape Verdean Creole to Papiamento): dark red under Portuguese

Slavic — light green (Bulgarian to Ukrainian)

Inuit (Greenlandic): white

Japonic (Japanese): blanched almond

Kartvelian (Georgian): faded blue

Koreanic (Korean): yellow-orange

Kra-Dai (Lao and Thai): dark orange

Mande (Bambara to Mandinka): magenta/violet

Mongolic (Mongolian): red-brown

Sino-Tibetan (Burmese, Chinese*, and Dzongkha): pink

Turkic (Azerbaijani to Uzbek): dark green

Uralic

Balto-Finnic (Estonian and Finnish): light orange

Ugric (Hungarian): salmon

A list of thirty of my favourite Urdu words

Aab-o-Taab: Glory, brightness

Aab-shaar: Waterfall; in poetry, can be used to refer to tears

Afsoon: Magic, sorcery

Aziyyat: Torment

Baad-e-Saba: Morning breeze

Darakht: Tree

Fitnah-pardaazi: Machination; a treacherous or hostile scheme

Faaqa: Starvation

Fardaa: Tomorrow

Gulposh: Adorned or covered with flowers

Khaufzada: Terror-stricken

Khwabeeda: Dreamy

Mashq: Practice, exercise

Mausiqui: Music

Mehr-o-Mah: Sun and moon

Nasheman: Nest; often used to refer to 'home'.

Nawaazish: Kindness, generosity

Parwaaz: Flight

Raqs: Dance

Rauzan: Window

Sabaat: Permanence, stability

Shafaq: Red glow at sunset

Shagufta: Blossoming, flourishing

Sharar: Spark

Shora-e-Kiraam: Gathering of poets

Swaaneh-Umri: Biography

Talkh: Bitter

Teergi: Darkness

Tishnagi: Thirst; a strong desire or longing

Before the Divide: Hindi and Urdu Literary Culture by Francesca Orsini

Writing Partition: Aesthetics and Ideology in Hindi and Urdu Literature by Bodh Prakash

Nationalism in the Vernacular: Hindi, Urdu, and the Literature of Indian Freedom by Shobna Nijhawan

both are foreign to the average non-hindustani speaker. why suffer twice? or is the colonial hangover not gone yet? won't that make GoI just another suppressive regime minus the delusion that minority has a say in the workings of this country (which very clearly they don't) :)

Bharat or India, the name doesn't matter. our nation's 'democratic' constitution has always hid pro-colonial agendas in it. I ask, are we really independent? are we really naïve enough enough to believe a common language or culture based on the majority ethnic composition will bring unity in this nation?? (hello? Sri Lankan civil war, Bangladesh liberation war, political instability in Myanmar...) you guys really think it works? is our shared South Asian history not a proof enough to satisfy the Indians' dogmatic mindsets?

also, how does it make us any different from China or Pakistan? we just put a gold cover over an ethnolinguistic genocide and tell the world how proud we are.