Diet Urdu

One of my favorite characters of all time is Mirza Ghalib. He is the greatest poet of Urdu language but I like him more because of the amazing sense of humor that he possessed, as evident from his letters. If you read his letters you will realize, we don't speak or write the same language any more. We have replaced and given up so many of the beautiful and wonderful words that used to represent respect, politeness and love. When you read the words in Mirza Ghalib's letters you get a strange buzz; I get the same buzz when I drink a "chilled coke in a glass bottle". I am sure some of you know what I am talking about :-).

Going by the same analogy, what most of us speak and write these days is “Diet Urdu”. Like “Diet Coke” there is no taste or flavor to it (Sorry diet coke lovers, but that is true). So many of the beautiful words in Urdu language have been replaced, while a lot more have simply been kicked out of our day to day conversation in the name of changing times.

By taking out the gems from Urdu language, we have also become some what less polite and respectful towards others. After all, we show our respect and politeness with words and if you take out the words which best represent those feelings, it does affects your level of intimacy with others. Some might even argue
that It has even affected the fabric of our society in general especially our relationships with our elders including our parents and Grand parents.


Maybe I am being nostalgic, but some of us do remember different choice of words used by our parents when speaking to their parents and grandparents and vice versa. Some people might say that the times have changed, but I'd say to them, its not the time but the words that have changed. Bring back those words and we will get our time back.


Respects,

Syed H. Abbas