When I was 14, everything seemed so Planet Telex.

http://anand-g.blogspot.com/2009/06/once-clear-thoughts-are-clouded.html

By Anand Giridharadas

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/world/asia/24iht-letter.html?scp=9&sq=letter%20from%20india&st=cse

By the same author, on Indian election. His questions about democracy and Indian future are essential.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/apr/09/russia.artsandhumanities

Stiglitz critisising Eltsin, the favourite of the Western mainstream media.

Did you know that ‘calendar’, ‘cash’ and ‘candy’ came to English from Persian? As well as ‘lemon’, ‘magic’, ‘orange’ and ‘tulip’. Albeit, not directly – of course.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Persian_origin

I wonder. In Russian we say ‘boltaet’ – disparagingly for ’speaks’ (’chatters’). ‘Boltatj’ means ‘to stir, to move from one side to another’. There is a phrase: ‘boltatj yazykom’ – ‘to move one’s tongue’. Drop ‘yazykom’, derive ‘boltatj’ – ‘to chatter’. Seems logical. But I cannot possibly believe that similarity between Russian: ‘boltaet’ and Hindi: ‘bolta hai’ (both meaning ’speaks’) is a mere coincidence…

Just to sort it out. All material taken from Wikipedia, nothing fancy. Let me know if this is incorrect:  the purpose of this post is to eliminate the confusion.

(Please don’ t try to kill me in the process of reading this.)

There is a vast spectrum of dialects spoken in Northern India,  called Hindi.

One of the dialects is a Khariboli dialect, formed around 10th century. It used to be a (prestige) local dialect of the north-western part of India and of what now is Pakistan – roughly.

During the reign of Mughals, Khariboli absorbed a lot of Persian and Arabic words. Around the 12th century the word ‘Urdu’ came into use:  Zabaan-e-Urdu-e-Mu’Allah – `Exalted language of the Camp`. Khariboli was initially the language of the soldiers serving Mughal lords, and after absorbing Mughal vocabulary, it became the court language of Delhi aristocracy.

Before 1850 the words Hindi, Urdu and Hindustani were interchangeable. From 1850, two official registers develop:  Standard Hindi - a sanskritised register, and Urdu – a persianised one. This is called a diasystem: a system of two standardised forms of one language.

Differences between Hindi and Urdu:

1) script (Devanagari for Hindi, Nastaliq Arabic for Urdu),

2) source of borrowed vocabulary (Sanskrit for Hindi, Arabic/Turcic/Persian for Urdu).

Everyday (native) vocabulary, and grammar are essentially the same (Khariboli). When spoken, and without using loan words, the languages would sound almost the same, to the extent that, when spoken in Delhi, it is impossble to say which language it is unless the speaker choses to write it down ; ) (kidding)

5 definitions of Hindi:

1. Standard Hindi as taught at school          2. official heavily sanskritised Hindi used by the governemnt etc         3. local dialects of India and Pakistan, often very different from (1)      4. neutral language of film industry and          5. neutral language of broadcast and print.

India has 23 official languages. Hindi (together with English) is the official language of the Federal Government (the Union) and 9 states. Urdu is the official language of 8 states, including Delhi (National Capital Territory). Urdu is the official language of Pakistan (together with English). 

Hindu and Muslim nationalists claim that Hindi and Urdu have always been different languages. This is linguistically incorrect.

NB: the term Hindustani implies ‘a wealth of words of both Persian and Sanskrit origin… the term has a secular flavour, the speaker is rising above Hindu/Muslim visions of India’.

I went to see a documentary called ‘Joy Division’.

I think that initiation to Joy Division a year back or so was one of the most powerful spiritual experiences. I together with the author of the film maze at how can the songs written 30 years ago sound so contemporary?

And I also maze at how the Universe chooses men to be instruments and conductors of its will, its brilliant plot. It’s mighty. How invincible is a man the moment he is serving as such an instrument, and how vulnerable he is at all other times…

Mood: dreamful, calm, optimistic.

Music: Joy Division, Sigur Ros (Hjartar Damast sounding like an Icelandic saga goes well with the snowing February Peter).

I am a bit nostalgic. Remembered Glasgow, and how I wrote essays. Remembered its ascetism. Library. My hostel room. Computers, books. Simple, clear. Tea with milk to hush hunger. The smell of books in the library. The deep fog which fell when I was reading for Growth Accounting essay. I went to the library in fog, sat there and downloaded articles in fog, went back home in fog.

And best of all was sitting on the grass, on the hills, looking at the clouds, in September.

Generally, looking at the clouds. They run so fast on the Island. Just like here.

Sitting with my back to the office, the only person I can see is Vika. Her desk is opposite mine. Right now, I know, she’s working hard, as always. She’s working at something as exciting as I’m working at. I know she’s got a headache just like me. I am seriously thinking whether I should quit the job before I’ve turned into a parsnip.

If I turn slightly to the left, then I can see Genia. He’s a tall guy in glasses. He wears a pony-tail. He looks like an IT-guy, but he’s not. He makes me laugh a lot. He has a white toy mouse in his hands and is clutching it while talking on the phone to some nuclear energy engineers in Moscow or elsewhere about the volumes of subcontracting for 2009. We reported how much project documentation we are going to buy from them, and they reported how much they are going to sell us, to our parent company. Very unsurprisingly, the figures drastically varied.

Oh, by the way, I went to Moldova last weekend! It was cool! There was a nice crowd of people, and I had a great catch-up with Violeta. Chishinau is a quiet town, filled with golden-leafed trees which smell awesome: a fresh, sweet, smoky autumn smell. I had the tastiest wine in my life at a Moldovan home.

A bank swallowed my card because it had a chip (!). They say it’s a usual thing in Moldova. Thanks God the next day with the help of Violeta I managed to get them fish it out.