‘Hindi and English media writing obituary of language’

Aman Ujjwal
A dedicated festival to Hindi—its poetry, prose, moods, music, ethos, conventions and innovations—was on display at the two-day Hindi Mahotsav 2017 that took place at Delhi’s Indraprastha College, in collaboration with one of the biggest publishers in Hindi, Vani Prakashan. The Principal Baabli Moitra Saraf said on the occasion, ‘I hope this association between Indraprastha College and Vani Foundation will act as a new trendsetter in the Hindi literary world and in the development of Hindi as a language’.

Arun Maheshwari from Vani Foundation added, ‘This festival recognises the importance and existence of languages from various regions of this country individually and not only as vernacular languages’. Vani Foundation had organised the first Hindi Mahotsav in association with NBT at World Book Fair in 2014.

Vice-Principal Nalini Deka, Vani Foundation Trustee Aditi Maheshwari Goyal and Hindi Department head Rekha Uprit started the festival on an auspicious note by lighting the lamp at the college hall. The inaugural session on March 3 also saw poetic presentation of Samvet by famous Katthak dancer Rachna Yadav.

A session, Kahaani Shahron Ki, saw a jam-packed house with famous academician and columnist Pushpesh Pant, poet Yatindra Mishra and Ira Pande. Pant explained how Delhi has its multi ethnic existence. He said the much famous word ‘Chhaanna’ (Deep Fried) was derived from the famous Kulsum Halwaayein from Benaras as the music used to be audible whenever she used to deep fry her kachori every evening. Pant categorised perception about people based on dialects in his typical style, ‘jo log Urdu zubaan bolte, unhe musalmaan samjha jaata, jo log Hindi, Avadhi aur Braj bolte hain unhe Hindu samjha jaata, jo log kele kaat-kaat kar khaate hain aur Hindi aur Urdu ke beech ki bhaasha bolte hain unhe Kayastha samjha jaata hai’. Pant went ahead and called himself a refugee in Delhi as his roots are in Uttarakhand. He further added, ‘after we cross a certain age no city is ours’.

Yatindra Mishra recalled his days at Ayodhya and how his hometown used to be famous more for its monkeys before the Babri Masjid demolition. He also recalled how people at Ayodhya used to get surprised when they saw his mother following Mithila traditions in Ayodhya as his family had roots in Mithila.

In another session, famous Hindi satirical poet Ashok Chakradhar addressed the audience. He was congratulated by the audience as Prime Minister Narendra Modi quoted lines from one of his poems at an electoral rally in Mirzapur. He recalled his days of struggle, saying, ‘kavitaayein khaali pet mein upajti hai.’ He said poetry depends on imagination and imagination depends on our heart. Talking about the role of social media in enhancing the poetic and literary skills of the people he said previously lovebirds used to pen their poems for each other but no one was able to see them but now, ‘kavitaayein ye bhi likh rahi hain, wo bhi likh rahe hain, par afsos sabko dikh rahi hain. Pahle jo gopan tha ab sab social media par open ho gaya.’

The next day was marked with an interesting session, ‘Media bhasha kaa samaajik khaaka’. Noted Doordarshan News reader Sarla Maheshwari pointed out how the news channels have been responsible for the deterioration in the quality of language in their urge to have more and more viewers and ‘Breaking News’. She pointed out how the used word ‘notebandi’ by the Hindi news channels is indifferent to the actual word ‘vimudran’ used for demonetisation. Noted journalist Vartika went on to add further, ‘Both the English and Hindi media are busy writing the obituary of their respective languages.’ Shyam Kishor Sahay, Editor, Lok Sabha TV recalled how Harivansh Rai Bachchan changed the name of ‘Parrashtra Mantralay’ to ‘Videsh Mantralay’ which is the more commonly used Hindi term for Ministry of External Affairs. He also recalled how the politicians from South adapted themselves easily to Hindi, quoting Jayalalithaa and PV Narsimha Rao as examples.