Doves

Many people (me included) long for and dream about our homes we voluntarily left behind. Not a moment goes by when I remember snippets of my childhood I spent back ``home``. One can only imagine the plight and pain of the people who were forced out....even the second and third generation of refugees say `sada pind kasur kol ey, jay waheguru nu manjoor, jaa kay aawan gay`...........I saw the anguish of Lobh Singh in the face of people after 84 carnage.........only the sufferer of pain knows...the world is oblivious like Lobh Singh`s son who dubbed him `crazy`...........nature`s way of continuing

One lil correction, the town`s name is pronounced as chawinda, not chonda. :)

shobig_sifar#18:

``One lil correction, the town`s name is pronounced as chawinda, not chonda. :)``

Joginder Paul made the same mistake as Lobh Singh; he did not use zer/zabar or vowels :-)

writers and poets don`t always use zair zabar paish and the longer vowels. neither do most of us. which does make it harder for those of us to read words we haven`t come across before. i suspect that like persian, the thing is to wean us away from the short vowels (zair, zabar, paish) at least.

poets did this as part of ``poetic`` language. for example faiz, in some of his poems, did not use longer vowels. so if you read a verse with the word ``khamoshi`` but without his adding the paish or the ``vau`` and you ignored the context altogether. it would read as ``khamshi.`` (perhaps this was also done for purposes of meter. . . or khamoshi without the `vau` was how it was written in classical urdu/persian)

for students of advanced urdu the absence of short and long vowels may not pose a problem, but for those not so advanced. . . it`s still a guessing game. :)

Re: # 19
DM Sir,
Is this the same Chawinda as in Battle of Chawinda in 1971 war with Pakistan?

Bupinder:
Thankyou. I wish I could provide any url but I have none.

Beejay:
That was quite an analysis!. But how did I fair?!
;)

Khammy:
Will try. Its nice to see you keep them coming on the front page!

Dost Mittarji:
I am afraid honour is for aap janaab and welfare for qairiyat!!
Don`t tell me I have goofed up with Lobh Singh too!
I don`t think this particular story is o the internet...

Kaura:
I can see what you mean but kya kar sakte hain?
Life has to go on, here or there...
Thanks for the appreciation though...

Shobig:
Cheem-waw-noon-daal-alif came across as chonda to me!!!

Ana:
Thats a relief to know!

Regards to all,
Saman Khan.

sameena:

I don`t think that you goofed on Lobh Singh. Laabh Singh is a more popular name but it would be written differently. BTW the meaning of the two words is different as you would know from your Hindi. Lobh means greed while Laabh means profit.

The use of Kariat reminds me of the post cards in old days; no matter how many bad news were there to convey, the letter always ended with ``baaqee sab khairiyat hai``.

dw:
I do not know where Chhiwanda is situated.

#22 Sameena (part)

My analysis in #14 was given in an honest manner, and was not an attempt to get anyone (especially me) into trouble.

It is difficult to give you my comments on your translation of an original Urdu work when (1) I have not read the original, (2) I can’t read Urdu, and (3) (according to some) I also can’t read English.

Perhaps you could have separated the thoughts, letter quotes, spoken quotes, and author’s narrations in certain ways – maybe using quotation marks, italics, etc. It would have probably made it easier for me the reader to follow it along. But there is a chance that it may have been too intrusive into the original author’s style. Therefore, strictly a judgment call! A little bit of introductory paragraph of your own regarding who the original writer is, the circumstances of the story, why you consider it worthwhile to translate, and perhaps a discussion of some of the “regional” meanings of terms (discussed in other interacts) can probably enhance its usefulness further.

Beejay:
But ofcourse! How silly of me!!!
SK.