Atha Kāljnānaprakaranam: The Knowledge of Death Related to Time (Edited by Pandit Shoe Shankar Mishra and C N Burchett)

Review by Shwetha H S

Whatever were the intentions of the editors when they began working on publishing the shlokas compilation and its translation, they have failed in it. Atha Kāljnānanprakaranam is based in the collection of ancient shlokas made by Shri Banwarilal. Maybe the shlokas actually teach us something good, but we never know because they are in Sanskrit and not everybody understands that ancient and mother of all languages. Hey! They have provided translation too in Hindi and English. But the translations are so miserable that they will make you cringe out of frustration because you aren’t learning anything from this book and it doesn’t even justify at least its title. The editors must have given the background of the book, neat translations and explanations about why such shlokas were made in the first place. This book is a complete laughing stock, that too in a pathetic way. Please don’t bother reading this unless you have some money as well as time to waste.

इश्क़ में शहर होना, लेखक: रवीश कुमार

For translation of the review in English, please scroll down.

समीक्षा: आशुतोष सिंह

पहली नज़र में किताब के शीर्षक को समझ पाना थोड़ा मुश्किल है | प्रस्तावना पढ़ने के उपरांत आपको शीर्षक का अर्थ समझ आने लगेगा | रवीश लगभग १८ वर्षों से पत्रकारिता की दुनिया में हैं, और आज-कल के सबसे प्रभावशाली और लोकप्रिय हिन्दी टेलिविसन पत्रकारों में शुमार हैं | उन्होने फ़ेसबुक पर ‘लप्रेक’ अर्थात ‘लघु प्रेम कथा’ लिखना शुरू किया | यह किताब उन्हीं ‘लप्रेकों’ का संकलन है |

सारी परिकल्पनायें दिल्ली और एन. सी. आर. के इर्द-गिर्द बुनी हुई हैं | किताब की सारी कहानियाँ आधे से एक प्रष्ठ लंबी हैं | हर एक प्रष्ठ पर दो नये और विभिन्न किरदार, उनके बीच बीता वो पल और एक शहर उनको जोड़ता और कभी-कभी तोड़ता हुआ | एक बड़े शहर में इश्क फरमाने के लिए क्या-क्या करना पड़ता है, कौन कौन सी दूरियाँ तय करनी पड़ती हैं, ऑटो वालों के ‘बेक मिरर’ पर नज़रे गड़ाए रखना और ऐसी ही परेशानियों को रवीश ने बड़े अनूठे ढंग से प्रस्तुत किया है | सारी कहानियाँ व्यवहारिक और सच्ची हैं और यही इनका सबसे बड़ा आकर्षण है | विक्रम नायक द्वारा बनाए चित्र बड़े ही चतुर हैं और हर कहानी को एक नया नज़रिया देते है |

प्रस्तावना से-

‘प्रेम हम सबकको बेहतर शहरी बनता है | हम शहर के हर अंजान कोने का सम्मान करने लगते हैं | उन कोनों मैं ज़िंदगी भर देते हैं | आप तभी एक शहर को नये सिरे से खोजते हैं जब प्रेम में होते हैं | और प्रेम में होना सिर्फ़ हाथ थामने का बहाना ढूँढना नहीं होता | दो लोगों के उस स्पेस में बहुत कुछ टकराता रहता है | लप्रेक उसी कशिश और टकराहट की पैदाइश है |’

 

Translation of the above given review to English:

Review by Ashutosh Singh

It’s difficult to make out the meaning of the title in the first go. You can understand a little bit after going through the introduction. Ravish has been a journalist from past 18 years and he is one of the most influential and loved Hindi Television Journalist in the country right now. He started writing short stories on facebook which he named ‘लप्रेक’ which expands to ‘लघु प्रेम कथा’ (short love story) All the stories are based in an around the Delhi and NCR region. Each story is a half to one page long. Every new page has two new and different character, that moment they spent and a town which often binds but sometimes breaks them. Ravish has uniquely put up the problems of falling in love in a metro city be it traveling a long distance to meet or the auto guy continuously peeping at the couple through that back mirror. All the stories are practical and truthful, and that’s the biggest attraction. Vikram Nayak has very cleverly sketched for each story and which also gives it a new perspective. From Introduction- Love makes us a better citizen. We start respecting all the unknown nooks and corner of the city. We fill those corners with life. You search a city with a new perspective only when you are in love. And being in love doesn’t just means looking for a reason to hold hands. There are many things that collide between those two people. ‘लप्रेक ‘ is an outcome of that charm and collision.

Celebrating the Best of Urdu Poetry by Khushwant Singh and Kamna Prasad

Review by Ashutosh Singh

It was not long ago that I stumbled upon an interview of Munnar Rana (one of the living legends of Urdu poetry). The most fascinating thing he stated was that ‘Urdu’ is purely a language originated in India. Also, the Urdu dictionary contains just 110 odd words of its own, the other 70% words are from Hindi and other languages. These facts kindled an urge to read more of it. The books currently present for starters are not much, most of the poetry books present right now are written in either Arabic or Devanagari scripts with no explanations to the poetry. “Celebrating the Best of Urdu Poetry” crosses these barriers and is perfect for anyone who needs an introduction to Urdu poetry. It was published in 2007. The poetry and ghazals are selected by Khushwant Singh and Kamna Prasad. Khushwant Singh was and still is one of the best Indian writer and columnist, recipient of Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awards. The poems are printed in Hindi (Devanagari) as well as in English phonetics; the same is then artistically translated and explained in English by Mr. Singh. Most of the translations are ingenious and ends up being poems in themselves with soothing rhymes. The book covers the excerpts of the masterpieces of the Urdu poetry and ghazals from 17th to the 20th century. It starts with an introduction from Mr. Singh, which talks about the rise, decline and beauty of Urdu language. The book is compartmentalized chronologically, with a brief history of the poet and then his verses. Few lines from the introduction part “Maangey Allah se bas itni dua hai Rashid main jo Urdu mein vaseeyat likhoon beta parh ley (All Rashid asks of Allah is just one small gift; if i write my will in Urdu, may my son be able to read it.)” The book is a bottle of wine, not to be gulped at once but to be savoured sip by sip. Somewhere you will definitely find verses with which one can closely relate to. Books like such may create few more followers of the intricate but amazingly soothing language, which is on the verge of its demise.

मुझे चांद चाहिए, लेखक सुरेंद्र वर्मा (Meaning: I Want Moon, by Surendra Verma)

For English translation of the review of this book, please scroll down.

समीक्षा: श्वेता एच एस द्वारा

कहानी की पृष्टभूमि एक छोटे शहर की लड़की वर्षा पर आधारित है| वर्षा स्वाभाव से अंतर्मुखी, विनम्र और शर्मीली किंतु महत्वकाँशाओं से परिपूण है; जिसके जीवन का लक्ष्य एक सफल एवं चहेती फिल्म अभिनेत्री बनने का है|

कहानी एवं उसका हर एक अध्याय कुछ इस तरह व्यक्त किया गया है कि, उसके अंत का अनुमान लगाना असंभव है| हर एक पात्र को प्रस्तुत करने से पूर्ण उसकी पृष्टभूमि का सन्छिप्त वर्णन किया गया है| लेखक ने कहानी को कहीं भी दिशाहीन नही होने दिया, किसी घटना की भूमिका बांधनें के लिए लेखक आपको समय में थोड़ा पीछे भी ले जाता है| कहानी में बहुत सारे किरदार हैं और सबकी उपस्तिथि यशोदा शर्मा/सिलबिल/वर्षा वशिष्ठ के जीवन की कहानी व्यक्त करने में बहुत महत्वपूर्ण है|

जैसा कि किताब का शीर्षक व्यक्त करता है, ये कहानी कुछ असंभव हासिल करने की कोशिश कि कहानी है| तो, क्या वर्षा वशिष्ठ सभी इच्छाओं को प्राप्त करती है? इस प्रक्रिया में क्या उसे कुछ खोना भी पड़ता है? इस उपन्यास अत्यधिक दिलचस्प है जिसे पूरा पढ़े बिना नीचे रखना बहुत मुश्किल है| हिन्दी भाषा के पाठकों के लिए यह उपन्यास एक अनमोल खजाना है|

“कोई इच्छा अधूरी रह जाए, तो ज़िंदगी में आस्था बानी रहती है।” – वर्षा वशिष्ठ

 

English translation of the review given above in Hindi:

Review by Shwetha H S

This is a story of how a small town girl, who is an introvert and shy, grows up ambitiously yet humbly, to become a successful, much sought-after, superstar in Indian film industry is narrated captivating manner. You cannot even once guess the ending of any chapter, leave alone the whole story. It is a must read for any voracious reader who can read Hindi.

Narration is in such a way that every character introduced gets his/her background explained briefly. The same goes with the situations too; if the events leading to the current situations are not explained in the flow of the story, then the author takes you slightly back in time to let you know the sequence. There are too many characters and their presence is justified by the life story of Yashoda Sharma/Silbil/Varsha Vashisht. The title of the book suggests it is a story of an attempt to gain something impossible. So, does Varsha Vashisht attain all that she desires? Does she lose anything in the process? This novel will make it hard for you to put it down.

“Koi ichcha adhoori reh jaaye, toh zindagi mein aastha bani rehti hai (If any desire is unfulfilled, then it lets you retain faith in life.)” – Varsha Vashisht