HINDI DIVAS CELEBRATIONS

Hindi Divas celebration.
Sector 34 Library

10.30 AM on 13th September 2009.
Main Speaker: Dr Giriraj Sharan Aggarwal
Chair: Prof MP Bhardwaj

Dr Giriraj Sharan Aggarwal, editor of Shodh Disha, located in Bijnore, spoke passionately of the need to champion the Hindi language in the face of govt apathy. He stressed the fact that Hindi has a rich vocabulary and is used by people all over the world. Why, then, should it not be used in all institutions in India. Computer programmes are available in Hinda and Wikipedia too has information in Hindi. Besides, with the help of Unicode it is now easy to translate any language on the basis of phonetics. For these reasons, according to Dr Aggarwal, there is a crying need in our country to focus on the development and promotion of the Hindi language.
Prof MP Bhardwaj, in his presidential remarks, endorsed Dr Aggarwal's views but stressed that the development of Hindi should not be at the cost of other languages. Languages can learn a lot from each other and be mutually beneficial instead of hostile to each other.
Prof Jagmohan Chopra and Dr Gurmeet Singh of Panjab University also spoke on this occasion. Both had a positive approach to the issues raised and reiterated that languages do not exist in isolation; they can be developed simultaneously and we in India can gain a lot by being open-minded towards the languages and customs of people outside our own cloisters.

Hindi Divas 2009

Hindi Divas celebration.
Sector 34 Library

10.30 AM on 13th September 2009.
Main Speaker: Dr Giriraj Sharan Aggarwal
Chair: Prof MP Bhardwaj

You are invited.

Farooq sheikh speaking of stories on the silver screen

Indubala Singh's introduction to Farooq Sheikh:

Farooq Sahib actually needs no introduction, nor do I think he is an artist in 'Search of an Audience' because, it is the audience which actually seeks him out. Farooq Sahib is a man of abundant aptitude, an intellectual, and above all a man of great personal charm without any hypocrisy or any sort of self-deception. He is in fact a trained lawyer but never followed the profession. He was born to a lawyer father and mother in a village in Baroda district , Gujrat which to this day he visits and takes care of his lands there. He had his schooling in St Mary's and went to St Xavier's College after which he joined Siddharth College of Law, Bombay -- mainly because attendance wasn't compulsory there and he could rehearse and act in the IPTA plays. In fact he is a gift of IPTA to Indian Cinema and he entered the film world as a committed artist in 1973 in Garam Hawa, directed by MS Sathyu, senior director of IPTA. In the film he enacted the role of Sikander. Based on theme of the partition of India, the unsentimental directness of the film was remarkable. It was highly acclaimed and also screened at the Cannes film festival. It ran into trouble with the Indian censors but neverthless was awarded the National award for National Integration in 1973.

Farooq Sahib had no intention of being a professional actor but after the film's acclaim he was noticed by Satyajit Ray who called him up and offered him the role of Aqueel in Shatranj ke Khiladi in 1977 and in 1979 Muzaffar Ali offered him a lead role in Gaman of a migrant from UP who becomes a taxi driver in Bombay. After that in 1979 itself, came his first commercial hit -- Noorie against our own Chandigrh beauty, Poonam Dhillon. Even though the film was a huge success , he was embarassed as he felt he was not cut out for song, dance, and fight kind of sequences. After that he did not do any film for two years but in 1981 Sai Paranjpaye called him to read the script of Chasme Budoor,a romantic comedy. He enacted the lovable Siddharth Parashar. In 1992 he did a naughty mishievous Hare Bashudev in Hare -Tortoise story. Sai had great fondness for weaving humorous fables and both of the films constitute two of the best comedies of Hindi cinema.

In I981 Farooq Sahib did Umrao Jaan with Muzaffar Ali again and the film turned out to be a memorable one not only for its excellent adaptation of Mirza Hadi Rusva's novel in Urdu by the same name but also for its art direction and outstanding performances of Rekha and Farooq Sahib. Interestingly the rendition of the beautiful song 'In aankhon ki masti' which is picturised on both of them had extremely sensitive close ups of Farooq Sahib accentuating his poetic eyes. In fact Naseerud din Shah, who was one of the characters, conceded that it was Farooq Sahib who brought the real senstivity to his role of all the male leads in the film.

In 1982 Farooq Sahib portrayed another sensitive character of Sarju in Saagar Sarhadi's film Bazaar. There after he did a classical comedy with Hrishikesh Mukherji as Prof Jeet Saxena in Rang Birangi. In fact he learnt a lot from Hrishida and decided to do less films and moved on to Television as it was opening up contentwise. He enjoyed doing Shrikant for 2 years on TV and after that became the ribbling host of Jeena isi ka naam hai which was a huge success as he looked into the lives of achievers without a definite script.

Another land mark was the play Tumhari Amrita he did with Shabana Azmi which was adapted from A.G. Varney's Love Letters and directed very ably by Firoze Khan. The play was planned as an experimental show for Jennifer Kapoor Festival in Feb1992 and it to have 4-5 shows but it had more than 250 shows and was staged almost all over the world except Australia.Recently Farooq Sahib was seen in Saas Bahu and Sensex.

Farooq Sahib has been rather a cinematic epitome of the common man and the buoyant boy nextdoor. With his near-natural acting he enriched every role he essayed with sincerity and conviction, revealing the full range of his versatile acting talent in almost all the genres.

the author in search of an audience

KAHANI DARBAR

Chandigath Sahitya Akademi organised a trilingual Kahani Darbar in the conference Hallof the State Library in Sector 34 today. Dr Rajinder Kumar Kanaujia presented his short story, "Two Minutes' Silence," based on a Communal outburt. Shri N.S. Rattan read his story, "Bhanwar," based on the after-effects of Operation Blue Star, highlighting the psyche of the people near Golden Temple. Mr R.D.Sharma Tasseer's story in Urdu spoke of the treatment being meted out to elderly parents abandoned by their children, forced to live with hunger - "Bhookh".

The conference hall ws packed with an appreciative audience, Presiding over the occasion, Dr. Renuka Nayar, in her concluding remarks applauded the presentation of the writers and the efforts of the Akademi.

HASYA KAVI SAMMELAN

CHANDIGARH SAHITYA AKADEMI organized a HASYA KAVI SAMMELAN at the Govt. Museum Auditorium, Sector 10, Chandigarh, this evening. The participating poets were:Dilbar, Yogendra Maudgil, Jangvir Rathee, Master Mahendra, Sufi Jagjit, and T.N. Raaz.

The atmosphere remained light-hearted throughout and it was evident that the large audience gathered at the venue was greatly enjoying the show. Satire, wit, humour and laughter reigned supreme. But wit was tempered with thought and there was a free sprinkling of intellectual content throughout. Truly, the fare offered was an example of a unification of sensibilities!

Mrs Vijay Lakshmi, former principal of GCG-11, presided over the event. She lauded the efforts of the Akademi and stressed the need for such cultural get-to-gethers in the city.

Mr Madhav Kaushik, Secretary of the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi, ably compered the show. Also present on the occasion were Prof Manju Jaidka and Dr DS Gupt, Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of the Akademi respectively. Prof Manju Jaidka, announced that the next event of the CSA would be a Kahani Darbar on the 26th of this month, which will be held at the Akademi's auditorium in the State Library of Sector 34.
In August a National level seminar will be organized, the medium of which will be English. Those interested may contact the Akademi through email: sahitakad2008@gmail.com

Hasya Kavi Sammelan

LET'S HAVE SOME MIRTH WITH SOME VERSE!
CHANDIGARH SAHITYA AKADEMI
cordially invites you to a

HASYA KAVI SAMMELAN
Venue: Govt. Museum Auditorium, Sector 10, Chandigarh
Date: SUNDAY, JULY 12, 2009
Time: 4.30 PM
Participating poets:
Dilbar
Yogendra Maudgil
Jangvir Rathee
MastervMaherndra
Sufi Jagjit
T.N. Raaz
·
rsvp: sahitakad2008@gmail.com