This book celebrates the composite culture of India that gave birth to and nurtured the Urdu ghazal
Gopi Chand Narang’s study of the form links it to a flourishing liberal climate in the country.
English readers have loved Russian classic writers, the French naturalists, and the Latin American greats without even bothering to know the names of their English translators.
The Translator’s Invisibility, the famous title of Lawrence Venuti’s 1995 book, can best represent the outstanding effort of Surinder Deol in making Gopi Chand Narang’s exposition of the history, beauty, and formal intricacies of the ghazal a memorable affair and yet remaining unsung.
Speakers, both in person and via web links, in discussion at the 13th International Urdu Conference at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi | Fahim Siddiqi/White Star
One could sense a note of dejection in the voice of Ahmed Shah, president of the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, when, at the press conference to talk about the programme for the 13th International Urdu Conference, he told the media that this time round the event would be organised largely online because of the Covid-19 situation in the country. It was understandable.
The conference in the last 12 years had attracted large crowds for multiple reasons and not necessarily for the love of the Urdu language especially on its opening and closing days. To be honest, when Indian scholar Professor Shamim Hanfi and Pakistani poet Yasmeen Hameed (whom one had seen in the flesh at some of the earlier editions of the very conference) delivered their keynote addresses on the inaugural day via video link from Delhi and Laho
Saeed Naqvi | Is Naseer right? That Hyderabad more ‘cultured’ than Lucknow?
Published Dec 11, 2020, 10:10 am IST
Updated Dec 11, 2020, 10:10 am IST
Both cities were around, their culture intact, till 1947
Charminar in Old City of Hyderabad (DC photo)
I don’t know when the interview was done but I saw it on YouTube last week. Naseeruddin Shah dismissed Lucknow as a centre of culture and praised Hyderabad sky-high by comparison. Naseer’s right but there’s a reason why Lucknow lost out in the culture stakes with both Hyderabad and Lahore. Both cities were around, their “culture” intact, till 1947. Lucknow had begun to “die” in 1857, after the British exiled Nawab Wajid Ali Shah to Metiabruz near Kolkata in late 1856, triggering 1857’s Great Uprising.