timeاردو

Kamsini Mai Bohat Shareer Thi Woh Ab Tou Shaitaan Hogaye Hogi

~ Jaun Elia

👧💋😈

ibtida e ishq hai rota hai kia // agay agay dekhiye hota hai kia

~ Mir Taqi Mir

Team Chai:

Hindi - चाय (chaay)

Urdu - چائے (chai)

Arabic - شاي (shay)

Turkish - çay

Amharic - ሻይ (shayi)

Somali - shaah

Swahili - chai

Bosnian - čaj

Russian - чай (chai)

Greek - τσάι (tsai)

Chinese - 茶 (cha)

Thai - ชา (cha)

Portuguese - chá

Team Tea:

English - tea

German - tee

Danish - te

Dutch - thee

Africaans - tee

Yoruba - tii

Sudanese - téh

Hungarian - tea

French - thé

Italian - tè

Spanish - té

Team Neither:

Finnish - iltapäiväateria (also uses loanword ‘tee’)

Lithuanian - arbata

Japanese - お茶 (ocha)

Korean appears to use both 차 (cha) and 티 (ti)

My (completely unsupported, unresearched) theory is that Germanic and Romance languages tend toward the “tea” root, and other major language families tend toward “chai” especially languages spoken in largely Islamic areas (Arabic, Turkish, Amharic, Urdu) but there are many examples that break that pattern.

As a child, I was terrible at Urdu. I hated it, actually. But then, when I was in 5 class, I had a very good Urdu teacher who used to do calligraphy and basically I was not as terrible at Urdu anymore.

It’s so funny, now, that I desperately try to speak as much Urdu and find calligraphy to be soothing and fantastical. I used to want to move to ‘the West’ so I wouldn’t have to have Urdu lessons.

'Phoolon ki rani hoon main’

'I am the princess of flowers’

is what it says.

Desi posters by http://9lines.net/

Dill brai farokht , qeemat sirf aik muskurahat

Phoolon ki shezadi

Jaani zidd na kr

- Altaf Shahid

2.19.2015

Translation: ranjish hi sahi dil hi dukhaane ke liye aa If it is grief so be it, come to break my heart again

aa phir se mujhe chhoR ke jaane ke liye aa Do come, if only for the act of leaving me again

Ammi has 7 brothers, all of whom have lived outside Pakistan for at least a part of their lives. One of my favorite stories that Ammi would always tell us growing up, involves Nani Ammi talking to Baray Mamu Jaan on the phone a couple months into him being gone after he left Pakistan for the second time. Nani Ammi, yes, narrated Faraz’s ghazal, in its entirety to mamu jan, telling him how much she missed her, using nothing but poetry.

And I know, every time I talk to her, Ammi has to try really hard to not repeat history. All she really wants is for me to come back, even if I were to leave again.

—

Fav shair:

Ek umr se hoon lazzat-e-girya se bhi mehroom // Aey raahat-e-jaan mujh ko rulanay kay liye aa