Launching e-book-Rang Aur Noor (Colour and Radiance): Hindi and Urdu poets of Canadian Diaspora

Rang Aur Noor Ebook launch 28th Sep14 025THE Central Library of Mississauga, celebrated culture days of Canada with the release of “Rang aur Noor” an Urdu and Hindi anthology on September 28.  The anthology reflects the Hindi and Urdu poetic talent of Canada and has two scripts side by side. Both languages when spoken are similar but have a different script.

The event opened with congratulatory remarks by Marian Kutarna of History and Arts Department of the library to the editor of the e-book Meena Chopra who is an artist, author and educator who envisioned this project along with Urdu language author Nasim Syed and Hindi language author Anil Purohit.

Kutarna said, “We are a nation of voices, sharing our own unique experiences, sharing our own languages, and sharing our wonderful traditions.  But most of all, we share this richness, and meet as one human family in this great Canada that welcomes each voice and revels in diversity. Congratulations to Meena Chopra for having envisioned this project and for being the positive voice of diversity in our Canada today and congratulations to all the eminent and creative writers who’ve lent their own unique voices to this celebration.”

The e-book having 22 poets of Urdu and Hindi languages was launched by Canada’s art patron Dr. Atul Tolia and Marian Kutarna on http://www.scribd.com and www.issuu.com through StarBuzz Media as publisher. It can be downloaded and read on the following links without any charge. http://issuu.com/starbuzzcanada/docs/rang_aur_noor11_july_24_300_1_ . Here you can find the list of the participant poets

Rang Aur Noor Ebook launch 28th Sep14 052The well known Hindi writer Tejendra Sharma from England sent a special congratulatory note that said, “It is necessary for these two languages to come together and in England a lot of steps are being taken to preserve the ethnicity of the languages and the scripts. It is wonderful to know that similar steps are also being taken in Canada and are being endorsed by the core organizations and institutions”.

Dr Irteza Kareem head of Urdu Department of Delhi University was very pleased to know about this exchange of of the literature developing in these two languages in Canada which he also mentioned in his congratulatory note for “Rang aur Noor” . Dr Karim recently visited Toronto and is involved in a research work on Canadian Hindi and Urdu literature.

Editor of the book Meena Chopra announced soon work will start on the second edition of the e-book and said that many more poets will be added to it. She said ” Canada being multicultural gives amazing opportunity to creative people to exchange ideas and read and listen to each other’s writings and this is just a small effort towards that”. Anil Purohit who has co-edited the book said that this effort will also extend to fiction as well.

A large number of Urdu and Hindi writers and poets graced the occasion with many well known South Asian community leaders like Mr. Yogesh Sharma, Tahir Aslam Gora, famous Hindi writer and blogger Sameer Lal and Sanskrit scholar Sundeep Tyagi. Sarala Uttangi in charge of Multicultural Services at Brampton Library was also present.

The program was followed by a workshop on e-publishing and blogging by Meena Chopra, Sameer Lal and Bhupinder Virdi. The program wrapped up with poetry reading by all the poets who were present.”