Alankaar (अलंकार): Ornament Embellishment Decoration
Beautification, of a contemporary language spoken by millions; born of a divine mother, Sanskrit, and used by luminaries since ages; worshiped by kings and paupers alike; voice of an aspiring billion strong nation: Hindi, a thread that binds the diverse people of 'Bharat' like pearls in a necklace.
Along with Vaibhav Garg, (a genius and a dear friend), 'Alankaar' is a humble attempt at adding sweetness to honey, calmness to water, color to rainbow, beauty to Hindi. Although still waiting to be born, there are many hopes from this project. You may consider it to be a selfish motive to promote our ideology along with the language, but the major objectives of this project are:
> Make Hindi more relevant today, in the age of digital living and Anglicization of mind. Promote awareness about Indian way of life. Find the logic behind rituals. Promote dharm (vs. religion), make it trendy for the youth.
> Keep Hindi dynamic and kicking. Re-introduce lost words. Create tech and colloquial words for everyday use using scientific framework. Create SMS lingo. Reduce foreign (English, Arabic/Urdu and like) dependence of the language and borrow, wherever needed, from local sources. Tamil, the oldest language of the world, could be a rich source to start with.
> Simplification: of language, of script.
> Making Hindi more relevant for scientific research and discourse.
> Standardization.
> Create employment opportunities for the masses ostracized today due to lack of fluency in non-native languages used for Business.
> Sharing the pride of speaking Hindi.
Its a long term goal. Its a big dream but we are hell-bent. Work on The Alankaar Blog will start soon, hopefully this month itself.
I am always mesmerized by the flow of words in each and every write-up of yours. Sometimes, I even forget to think about the thought behind your posts!
ReplyDeleteComing to Alankar , I was pretty disappointed to see the objective of "Standardization" making a place in your list after so many auxiliary objectives. No, I am not trying to be harsh or discouraging, but it hurts to see that Hindi, after being the lovely child of one of the oldest scripts of the world, has not achieved the pedestal it deserves.
Even after being the NATIONAL language, there are major part of this nation where people don't speak or understand Hindi. What is even more disappointing is that places where people speak this language, they either feel ashamed or mix it with English to come up with new words, allegedly calling the apparently cool new "lingo" as "Hinglish", thus diluting the purity of the beautiful language.
We are still gazzillion days away from making Hindi as popular in India as English is in any English-speaking nation. (That is just an example and no comparison!) Therefore, standardization has to be the prime objective. But then again, that is my personal opinion.
Speaking Hindi is certainly every Indian's pride. But then again, it is a way of life too!
Good luck with your genius project. I really liked the idea. Let me know if I can be of any help to you! :)
Hey Sushmita,
DeleteThanks for your suggestions regarding Alankaar project. We three (you, me and Vaibhav) are in this for good!
That said, I realise that this project did not get the attention it deserves. Given the Herculean task that lies ahead, I think it is best to start small and build up gradually in a sustainable manner, but at a later date...
At present, I want to channelize my energy in a different direction while keeping Alankaar alive in my mind.
As time progresses, the idea behind the project should evolve too. I hope to incorporate your suggestions and keep your opinions in mind while moving forward.