Word: urdu
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Tehelka is a delightful Urdu word, difficult to translate. It refers to that special kind of tumult provoked by a daring act, or a sensational piece of writing. And that's exactly the effect that was provoked in India's government this week by a group of young Indian journalists who last year chose the word to name their web site...
Four bearded militants warm themselves at a gas heater in an Islamabad safe house. A wireless set suddenly crackles. "Our boys have entered Srinagar Airport," a grave, distant-sounding voice announces. "Pray for them. It has now been 15 minutes." The voice, speaking in Urdu and broadcasting from deep within India's part of Kashmir, is detailing the progress of a suicide mission by Lashkar-i-Taiba, a ruthless, Pakistan-based militant group waging war to wrest Kashmir from India. The four men in the safe house, also members of Lashkar-i-Taiba, immediately go into fervent prayer. They...
...perhaps a closer analogue would be the late Robert Bingham, who did for overly rich young New Yorkers what Hamid is doing for their Pakistani counterparts. And given the focus on substance abuse, one might even call it a Pakistani Trainspotting, minus some luridness and plus a smattering of Urdu. Could this novel have been set in New York? Probably not. The corruption among the elite, the nuclear threat and the constellation of gender and social issues in Pakistan work in a constellation that would not have translated well to any other location...
Saturday night I meet a senior from the class of '99-'00 with twelve languages from Spanish to Swedish, Italian to Urdu, Punjabi to Persian at the tip of his tongue. (The other half-dozen are Hindi, French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese and, yes, English.) "I was born in India, but we left when I was six months old," he says. "Then we were in Iran for three years, hence the Persian. We speak Hindi at home, but my parents answer in English." Home? "New Jersey...
Soon, the other tongues babble forward. "My parents are ethnically Punjabis...Spanish was high school...After Spanish came French...Urdu spoken is not so different from Hindi...Mandarin I took at Harvard and then I was in Beijing for the summer...German I did at Harvard and I spent all last year in Germany...Swedish was at Harvard too...Portuguese I'm taking now." Next year? "I'm going to be a consultant." Ah, a Harvard student after...