Languages – Funny things they are…

I have started to learn Welsh (as part of work, we get to do a course for free) and I just finished learning numbers. I cannot help but see the similarities between the pronunciation of those numbers in Welsh and Hindi (even though Hindi ain’t my native language). Here is a table where I list the way the numbers are pronounced in Welsh and Hindi. In Welsh, the vowels are different from English and the actual pronunciation is in the brackets.

Number	Welsh (pronounced as)	Hindi
1	un (een)	ek
2	dau (dai)	dho
3	tri	theen
4	pedwar	chaar
5	pump (pim)	paanch
6	chewch (quekh)	che
7	saith	saath
8	wyth (aith)	aat
9	naw (nau)	nau
10	deg	dhus

Not much different are they? Wonder how they got to be this similar in pronunciation of the numbers. Will I find any more similarities the more I learn the language?

It is always a Dangal.

[Dangal can mean competition, wrestling, or wrestling arena]

Recently we watched the movie ‘Dangal‘ (a Bollywood movie). We liked it very much, even though it was a bit longer than normal. The story is very uplifting, sometimes cliched, based on a true story of course, and it is about women in wrestling in India. Not a small feat especially in a very patriarchal society. I have been waiting to write about it, but then I stumbled upon this article in womenweb.in by a young writer. She portrayed my thoughts very well. It was as if she read my thoughts, my doubts and in spite of those doubts she still liked the movie, just like me. So I thought it best to share her views (not a review, she says) and leave it at that.

Last year, I happened to see three very good movies in Hindi. One was Pink, the other Dear Zindagi, and the third one was Dangal (Since we saw Dangal over Christmas Bank holiday, I am counting it in the last years account). And surprisingly they were all women related, more uplifting, more positive and did well at the box office too. Changing trends? If only these kinds of movies could prevent the kind of incidents like mass molestation and such. It is such a shame, really and very sad too. We still have a long way to go.

Close to home

Recently I saw a movie and read a book which involved incidents much close to home (mine at least). Let me start with the movie

Pink (Hindi) – My friend and I went for this movie. It was a total cry fest for her. I managed to hold it until the very end and the last scene where a lady constable shakes the hand of the lawyer appreciating him silently for stating the obvious and standing up for all the women, I lost it. This movie is very much appreciated by all. I am sure the scenes could have been done a bit better. Sometimes it felt like there was too much silence to increase the dramatics which wasn’t really necessary in this movie. The dialogues are the best. It also shows clearly how women are treated in this society (may be in many societies) It also introduces us to some of the unknown legal terms like Zero FIR. It is a must watch for all. I know some of my colleagues who have the same mentality as the guys in this movie. I wish they would watch this movie.

Exhume (Dr. Schwartzman #1) – One of the Kindle Unlimited discoveries. A women who escapes an abusive relationship and becomes a forensic expert is given a body to examine and that throws her off badly because it looks just like her. When she thought she was far away from her narcissistic husband apart from his occasional flowers and cryptic messages, here is a proof that things are getting much darker for her. Is she just imagining the relationship between this girl’s death and her husband’s involvement in it or has he really gone to an extreme to kill someone to threaten her. This story follows Annabelle and her quest to be free from her abusive husband who is not ready to leave her be. It was quite gripping and are left to wonder along with Annabelle if it is indeed her husband or is it just coincidence. As always in such cases, there are some good friends of hers who come to her rescue. Gave 4 stars in Goodreads.

 

GoT – Full Hindi Theme Song

This was hilarious and I couldn’t help but share it. It would have been great if they had subtitles so that people who don’t understand Hindi also can enjoy this.

Holly-Bolly Mash

Found her mashups while browsing some other song and loved every single one of them 🙂 It is just not Hindi songs that she mashes up with popular English pop songs. She has done some Malayalam, and Tamil songs too. Loved her voice.