Of nature trails, Urdu couplets and folktales

DHANACHULI (NAINITAL): The second day of the Kumaon Lit Fest, quite like the previous day, had an assortment of events and activities packed in – from an opportunity to meander through the many mountain trails nearby (for early risers) to listening to Kumaoni folktales rendered by author Namita Gokhale, to a creative writing workshop for rural school children organized by a village book reading club.And of course, there were a number of stimulating discussions too. At the morning session “Urdu story: From lingua franca to the preserve of the Muslim elite,” a statement by Rishi Suri, senior editor of the Daily Milap, led to a heated debate among panelists. “Urdu, I wish, had not been declared Pakistan’s national language. That might have made a difference to the fate of Urdu in India,” he said, drawing belligerent opposition from historian Rakhshanda Jalil. “That Urdu is Pakistan’s national language does not have a bearing on the fate of the language in India,” she pointed out, adding that she did not really think the language was of the Muslim elite.
Other speakers at the session spoke of how the language should not be identified with any particular community, since besides Ismat Chughtai and Saadat Manto, there were writers like Premchand, too, who used it. Lawyer Saif Mahmood listed a whole range of words ordinarily used by Hindi speakers – namak (salt), deewar (wall), khidki (window) kamra (room) etc to show how the language was in wider use than most people realized. He further made his point by quoting poet Saghar Khayyami on coping with a long spell of meatlessness when mutton stalls are shut: “Ek maheena ho gaya band hai hum par mutton, Dawaton mein kha rahe hain bhindiyaan ahl-e-sukhan, Kha ke ghuyyian kya dikhlaaein shaairi ka baankpan, Ho gaye paalak ka patta naazuki se gulbadan, Nafraton ki jung mein dekho toh kya kya ho gaya, Sabziyaan Hindu ho gayin, bakra Musalmaan ho gaya (For a month the mutton shops have shut on us; We have ladies’ fingers at feasts, people of poetry; Eating tubers, how do we show off our poetic skills; We have become delicate, exceedingly so; And in this war of hatred, the Hindu becomes a vegetable, the Muslim mutton).
The session titled ‘Ab ki baar, Slogan war – the shifting landscape of political campaign’ which had social commentator and columnist Santosh Desai and former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi as panelists also saw arguments flying to and forth on the marketing ploys being used by political parties with PM Modi often being illustrated as a prime example of political branding. The day drew to a close with an interesting musical rendition by Vikram Sampath showcasing the life story of Gauhar Jaan, India’s first recorded artiste.
Kumaon Lit Fest is a sister event of the Times Lit Fest to be held in Delhi on November 28-30