Hindi Divas

A quick note for Hindi Divas, and some links for your enjoyment.
As part of their Hindi Divas coverage, BBC Hindi has featured me in several videos this week.

The first is Agyeya’s poem जो पुल बनाएँगे 

जो पुल बनाएँगें
वे अनिवार्यत:
पीछे रह जाएँगे
सेनाएँ हो जाएगी पार
मारे जाएँगे रावण
जयी होंगें राम ,
जो निर्माता रहे
इतिहास में
बंदर कहलाएँगे
~ अज्ञेय
Those who construct bridges
invariably
will be left behind.
Armys will cross
Ravan will be slain
Ram will be victorious
All those builders
will go down in history
as monkeys

Latrobe University Hindi students performed Safdar Hashmi’s poem for youngsters, किताबें करती हैं बातें

I absoluty love Shubham Shree’s piece “Poetry Management.” The more I look at the more think about formal features of poetry: meter, alliteration, and the like, and I wonder if she hasn’t expertly written a piece that relies heavily on these features while appearing to shun them. The original text is available here. Daisy Rockwell’s translation is excellent. 

The BBC series concludes with Vinod Kumar Shukla’s हताशा से एक व्यक्ति बैठ गया था

And finally, here’s a recording of a Laprek — लघु प्रेम कथा–written by Girindranath Jha. I’ve previously written about the Laprek genre here.