LANGUAGE: The Guardian on "Learn Hindi from Bollywood Movies"

New York ad man Arun Krishnan's very funny podcast series, "Learn Hindi from Bollywood Movies," has been written up in the Guardian. The series - 52 cheeky-looking episodes so far - draw from movies like Deewar, Namak Halaal, Guru and Muqaddar ka Sikandar. Within just a few podcasts you can master such utilitarian phrases as 'For you tea will I make' (Aapke liye chai banaoonga) and  'Then your bathing water I will heat' (Phir aapke nahaane ka paani garam karoonga). Or, if it's the language of love that lures you, try these, phirang one: 'Come closer no' (Paas aao na), 'By the river side come my beloved' (Nadiya Kinaare aao jaana), or, more debatably, ''Now, at this instant' (Abhi, isi vakt)

From the Guardian, "Crib sheet":

The weekly podcasts use snippets of Hindi from Bollywood films, with English translations, to teach vocabulary ranging from the everyday (ordering tea; watching cricket) to the surreal (the Indian "Hari" Potter; a melodramatic lament about the demotion of Pluto's planethood). Each podcast is bookended with bursts of Bollywood music.

Krishnan thought it might be fun to teach people Hindi the way he learned it growing up in Mumbai. Coming from a non-Hindi speaking south Indian family, Krishnan absorbed the language from the weekend-long Bollywood movie marathons he and his neighbours watched ("the sorts of films where the characters seek revenge before breakfast").

Most of his listeners, according to the article, are in LA and New York, with a growing contingent in the UK and Middle East:

About a fifth of listeners are in India, says Krishnan. Bollywood fans feature prominently, and some listeners have made their way to a fan club on the online network Facebook, where they can post comments and discuss lessons. New Yorker Nina Rothe, who listens to the podcasts on the subway, describes them as "priceless gems that keep me amused for days". The lessons also mean she can communicate with people she meets on her travels to India.

Krishnan's podcasts can be downloaded from his website, Cutting Chai. He also has a novel called "The Loudest Firecracker," coming out in January, 2008.

To join the Learn Hindi from Bollywood Facebook group, go here.

Comments

[panditjugalkishoreshastri]

if bollywood could restore hindi to prominence it deserves it would have finally done its first 'good' in 100 years of its existence. I give you some reasons below:

1. there are eight continguous states in India that speak hindi. that means about 300 mil people. the law of averages makes it most logical to let it be the administrative language of the nation. One nation with one language is not such a bad idea in a shrinking globe whose melting pot will identify nationalities by languages. if you don't speak one language you will be treated as an inconsequntial tribe even if you come from the largest demcocracy in the world. You will lose a lot of clout. look at the scenario below:

2. 25 mil tamilians who claim periyar as the benchmark of linguistic excellence would need interpreters in cross-lingual conduct of their business if dealing with rest of india.

3. 25 mil telugus will claim thyagaraja as the benchmark of cultural superiority and recommend use of interpreters if dealing with rest of india.

4. 50 mil bengalis, tagore notwithstanding and despite india, will claim the same.

5. 10 mil kashmiris will calim sanskritologist kalidas as their shakespeare and claim the same right to be distinct from rest of india.

Result: when indian air force choppers went on a rescue food dropping mission in andaman nicobar after Tsunami the tribals there shot at the whirlybirds with arrows. why? because a disaffected indian is seen as a joke 200 miles away from his home like a patchwork quilt not evenly threaded.

here's the downside:

if conducting business in 17 languages a businessman will need 16 interpreters excluding his own. on the last count only 5% knew english well enough to conduct business in it. And most times even those conducting business in english will need interpreters because of accents. This is truer of south indians more than northerners because of the speech particularities of their native tongues.

laws of mathematical averages recommend adoption of a language that has a majority.
minorities who cry foul should ask themselves only one question: do they make cars for the blind? No they don't. But they do make parking spots for the handicapped.
There is a price to pay for the larger good and in the end analysis everyone benefits, even the handicapped.

Moral: oh lord won't you buy me a mercedez benz....my friends, all have porches, i must make amends. janis joplin at her best.

[Srinivasa Raghavan]

A certain amount of fractionalization is good for the world. No reason to homogenize. in nature evolution is more frequently divergent than convergent. India is accomodating in this regard in its great cultural and linguistic diversity. If you look in the Encyclopedia of World cultures, India accounts for about 30% of those in the book. a free and tolerant society should allow many manifestations of reality to co-exist, or since we've gotten into the business of quoting "let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend." (Chairman Mao by the way, ironically enough)

[panditjugalkishoreshastri]

Raghavan:

ideal diversity is when humans and animals learn to coexist being respectful of each other's ways because they share the planet. who knows, maybe pigs should be on top of maslow's pyramid. if pigs can eat garbage why can't humans. One exception might be the human preference for rationication. If that gives humans the reason to cohabit with their own kind and follow an ever-escalating minimum living standard of life and law, who is to judge where their own kind stops. Does it stop at the sub moeity, moetiy, tribe, state or country. If it's a country shouldn't there be something more than a utopian definition of a country not divided by a language every two hundred miles.

encyclopedias are a collection of observations and opinions comipled by people you often hate.

Moral: All diversity is good unless caucasians unite it.

[panditjugalkishoreshastri]

read ratiocination and not rationication in the above post.

[Srinivasa Raghavan]

good you clarified. I thought you were combining the words rationalize and fornication to create rationication a kind of overblown rationalizing perhaps.