HindiLearner News

Learn Hindi with a game from the International Language School for Secret Agents! The following transcript is TOP SECRET Welcome, Agent. Let me welcome you to the top secret language school for international agents. We train the best and brightest here. We’re glad you made it. You are here because we need you to learn Hindi. We need you to be able to read, listen, and translate it. When you are in the field, Hindi needs to be second nature to you. Don’t let us down. This school is tough, and not everyone makes it through, but we’ll help you as much as we can. We’ve trained agents with far less talent than you in learning Hindi. We’ve laid out some challenges for you at this school to help you learn. You will be presented with 12 categories focusing on different areas of the language– ranging from numbers to [...]

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View(s): By Duvindi Illankoon,�Pic by Susantha Liyanawatte The closing credits are rolling and there is not a dry eye in the audience. “I never expected to feel sorry for Siddhartha,” remarks an audience member and nothing could ring more true. Sri Siddhartha Gautama is not what one expects of a ‘Buddhist film’; it is not a moral lecture, neither is it a philosophical ramble. Rather, it is the story of one man’s sacrifice for humanity. A still from the movie For Production Designer and Producer Navin Gooneratne -the making of Sri Siddhartha Gautama was perhaps the most trying challenge of his life. Camera teams walked out and he had to mortgage his assets to make the project a reality, yet he stood strong. As close friend and the film’s set designer Roshan Chandrarathne put it ‘Navin was the calm in an ocean of turbulent waters’. As the Chairman of [...]

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What is a farm owner from Australia doing with a boat at the Kumbh Mela festival in India? Andrew Turner has built the boat and is ferrying pilgrims for free at Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, where the festival is held. Millions of people bathe at Sangam in what is billed as the world’s biggest religious gathering. Hundreds of people also take boat rides every day into the middle of the waters, where the two rivers meet. The local boatmen, called mallahs, were so bemused by Mr Turner’s idea that they allowed him to ferry people for free in a very competitive market crowded by hundreds of oared and motor-powered boats of various sizes. Charges for an hour’s outing on a boat can go up to $60 (£39). An Indian family of two who went on Mr Turner’s 18ft (5.4m) oared boat called their experience [...]

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When I heard about a team from Harvard studying the temporary settlement of literally a ‘country’ on the banks of Sangam in Allahabad, I was hardly surprised. It actually calls for research, a research that covers its every aspect – from waste management to crowd management. Amitabh Bachchan, who spent his childhood in Allahabad, was bang on when he tweeted, “It is nothing short of a miracle to be able to conduct an event like the Kumbh and have management for it in place.” Outside Allahabad, perhaps it is hard to even fathom the magnitude of Kumbh as well as the faith that drives millions to the Sangam city. Till the Sunday tragedy struck the mega affair, most of my friends, who had gone to Sangam were quite ecstatic after the holy dip. “You should personally experience the bliss after the dip in the cold waters. It’s less to [...]

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He was always a bit of an outsider in the Hindi film industry. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anuradha is all many remember of Pandit Ravi Shankar’s work in Bollywood. While Hindi filmmakers were guilty of not appreciating the true genius of Pandit Ravi Shankar, the peerless Satyajit Ray commissioned some outstanding work for the Apu trilogy, thereby saving Panditji from being completely lost to the rarefied confines of classical music. But the Apu trilogy that began with Pather Panchali in 1955, and continued with Aparajito and Apur Sansar , was not Panditji’s first foray into cinema. That was Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar in 1946. Neecha Nagar, however, was to remain a single memorable venture for many a summer as Panditji spent more time with Indian People’s Theatre Association activists than at recording studios. (Panditji met Chetan Anand during these IPTA days.) He did, however, give the music score for ‘Sare jahan [...]

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Written by: Deepa Venkitesh

Hindi literature is one of the oldest in the world and we can trace its root back 5000 years ago. Hindi is also the national language of India.
Hindi literature can be broadly classified into 4 styles, namely Bhakti, Shringar, Veer-Gatha and Adhunik. It is one of the oldest form of literature of the world and therefore has helped humans a lot in understanding the earliest civilizations of the world.
The works of different prominent figures of Hindi literature have been praised all over the world. Some of the most prominent figures of Hindi literature are Kabir, Surdas, Mirabai, Guru Gobind Singh, Munshi Premchand, Jaishanker Prasad, Mahadevi Verma, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, Maithili Sharan Gupta, Yashpal, Jainnedra and Kumar Vishwas. They are the pioneers in the field of Hindi literature.
Various steps have been taken and are continuously being taken to preserve Hindi literature. The print media and electronic media have played an efficient role in this task by providing their viewers and readers with Hindi News.

Holi is being celebrated on 20 March, 2011. I’m going to enjoy this festival of colors with my friends and family. You too can join the celebrations.

Wishing you and your family a Merry X-mas and a very Happy New Year.