The End Of An Affair When I say stop making assumptions, here's what I mean - look at what's there before you.

1) Nazia falls in love with Fahad (and vice- versa?) - OK

2) He tells her he's going to leave his wife Myra, so they can get married. And she's ecstatic - ummmm OK

3) She meets Myra, and Myra is supposedly clueless as to what is going on between Fahad and Nazia, or Fahad's intentions to leave her. - OK

4) Nazia tests Fahad and sees that his actions are selfishly motivated. She gives an astoundingly clear speech and says this ends now. OK! Finally!

And so that chapter ends. And yeah what's missing is more of the thought processes between #3 and #4. That would help. But I fail to see the objections of those who think that Nazia would be "incapable" of thinking clearly and expressing such thoughts. She could have been devastated, and still reached a decision that she could have delivered in such a way. So it does make sense. It would have made more sense if more fully developed, that's all. This whole women "falling in 'deep' depression bit" would probably happen here, yeah, I mean it's true that losing someone you love means your heart dies just a little - but the story "ends" here with her saying this is it. Who knows how Nazia will bounce back?

Taji, I hope you do take this as constructive criticism, because that is the spirit in which I offer it. :)

The End Of An Affair "most women would be devastated and unable to articulate themselves as clearly as she did." - nb

Maybe Nazia is not most women? Even if she doesn't see the truth right away?

--

I think Taji could have done more with what was going on in Nazia's mind which is why I said I liked what she wrote about, but this IS fiction. Stop making assumptions about what she should go through . . .

The End Of An Affair iron mask: I read this more than once, and I don't see a problem with what Taji wrote about. You begin by critiquing this as womanly and then use the word feminist as if it were a gaali - which I understand is not unusual for you. Womanly and feminist are not quite the same thing. And this is not exactly Ibsen.

Here's the thing: if you think it would be better the other way around, please feel free to write that yourself. I think we could do it just as well, but it just wouldn't meet your high standards. :)

The End Of An Affair Taji:

This is a good story - I don't see it as particularly "feminist" as iron mask does. A woman having intelligence and good sense doesn't necessarily a feminist story make, par khair . . . not against feminists I am (pardon the Yoda speak). Just the mask's perception.

I think this would read even better if you kept an eye out for tenses, like the confusion between past and present. It won't be a little jarring then.

Good as always to have you here! :)

Story of Hindustani That's what the discussion is about tho, VRV, the hybrid - Hindustani. Not primarly Urdu per se. And whether there should be one script for it - not two as we have now.

Story of Hindustani VRV: no one is denying that Sanskrit was far far richer than any other language around.

The topic at hand, outside of politics, which I know is impossible, is what the similarities are between Urdu and Hindi, since we can understand one another when we speak, and Rahul is actually arguing against the idea of making it "one script one language" that would make it easier for us all to communicate. He is using "izaafat" as an example for his view.

So do not beat up on Rahul when others already are.

Story of Hindustani vaisay, if you take standard Arabic here at American schools, the idaafa, or izaafa (what we refer to as izaafat) is taught within the first quarter, if I recall correctly. That of course is standard, not common spoken, but it helps to know the standard in order to communicate in the spoken. :)

Story of Hindustani razia: from what I remember, besides some gardaanaiN and muzakkar monis and all that, teachers did not go into so much detail re: grammar from Class V-XII. Perhaps that depends on what schools we went to as well - English medium vs Urdu, I don't know. So we just learned that there were three tenses present, past, and future.

I recall taking a Romance Linguistics class at uni - concerning the Romance Languages which are French, Italian and Spanish (and I think Romanian). It was interesting to see how the languages which all began with Latin changed over time with declensions, and how those affected the Romance Languages. I didn't learn more about tenses until I learned other languages either. These languages have the same root, as well as much the same grammar, and of course they vary from region to region.

I don't know how much of that can be said for our languages.

Story of Hindustani razia:

Okay, you and shoaib have made your point about spoken vs. what should be spoken, but grammar is a part of linguistic study as well, and what I think rahul is trying to do is to show that even the not-so-minor differences in grammar make two languages similar, not one.

jaaneman can well be classified as a hindi as well as an urdu word, it is a borrowed word in either language, but I think rahul is trying to get to other differences in grammar that don't necessary overlap, and are not spoken in both languages. It's not so much a question of whether they should be spoken or not, they aren't by a number of folks.

I hope I'm not distorting too much of what he is trying to get at, but this is what I understand.

Story of Hindustani shoaib:

In order to speak a language, one has to learn it, no? Does one not learn it in school, as well as at home?

And if one learns it in school then the ministry of education or whatever does have something to do with it.

Story of Hindustani addendum to #79

and the goal is to see how these overlap.

Story of Hindustani I think some of you are focused on different linguistic fields - it seems that some of you are fighting for grammar, while some of you are in favor of meaning, or semantics, and this is an argument that is not easily settled, because both sides have good points.

Story of Hindustani I think that just as it was for rahul in the last article, so will it be in this one.

Story of Hindustani jang LOL. must you derail every serious conversation?!

Story of Hindustani I can't even remember if izaafat is taught in Urdu grammar? Is it? (If it was, it wasn't that emphasized)

Apologies for my lack of seriousness here.

Story of Hindustani Razia:

You are correct in saying Persian-based/influenced. I think what I meant was in Hindi being more Sanskritized now.

And to answer your question, I don't think Urdu poetry has completely left Bollywood yet, and I've yet to read Kabir (I know, I am missing out on something) but the "if" people have the will is a big IF. I have to give your question a little more thought rather than a knee-jerk response, but I do appreciate that you have given some of us, particularly those who love languages and communicating in them food for thought. :)