Lecturer (Indic language/s), Leiden University (Netherlands), KHS (Agra), JNU (Delhi), Hindi, Urdu, Linguistics, Lit, भाषा, भाषाविज्ञान, साहित्य 🇮🇳 🇳🇱 ✍️🚲
Leiden, the Netherlands
Joined April 2015
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Delighted to have been interviewed by Devina Sengupta for this thoughtful piece on the growing use of expletives in the workplace. The article appears in today’s national edition of Mint.
livemint.com/opinion/online-…
Packing my bags 💼👜👝🎒👜 in 1882 while visiting India
(From the practical guide for persons about to reside in India, 1882, London)
Abhishek Avtans अभिषेक अवतंस 🌐 Public Linguist retweeted
A quick analysis of the melody in this Uzbek song, and the same(!) in Karnataka music.
Sorry about singing in a very high pitch- mirrors the pitch in the Uzbek song so it would be easy to follow for even those uninitiated in music.
The Tamil movie song in hanumatodi
tanjAvUru maNNa eDuttu
youtu.be/KXM7nVYIn9c?si=YCoX…
The Syama Shastri gem in raga tODi
amba rAvE himagirikumAri
Vocal- Abhishek Raghuram
youtu.be/-Rt5l8upfKI?si=CZP_…
On the Veena
youtu.be/xw-cHprK4WM?si=_I0q…
Noticed that the starting sequence of this song is sampling - the intro of Hindi song "O re chhori" ओ रे छोरी from the film Lagaan (2001) by A R Rahman.
The words around us
I was listening to this Uzbek song by Xamdam Sobirov, and I realized what he sings peshta पेश्ता (terrace/balcony) in Uzbek is also there in Hindi in other words - पेश pesh (forward, in front as in peshkash = offer) & ताक tāq (arch, ledge, shelf) > पेश-ताक़
I have written earlier as well on Uzbek music and Xamdam Sobirov
xitter.cf/avtansa/status/1797264…
And this
xitter.cf/avtansa/status/1908288…
Mosquito boots
Mosquito boots were worn under trousers and skirts by British colonial men and women to protect their ankles and legs from mosquito bites. Made of soft brown sheep leather, they reached up to the knee.
This is unprecedented, never ever an International Airport has been named after a sitting PM in India. Better would have been to keep it named Noida International Airport, and may be name it as wished after PM steps down.
Bookmarking this for आरामले सुन्नका लागि।
नेपालका प्राचीन बासिन्दा को थिए ? हाम्रो देशको नाम 'नेपाल' कसरी रहन गयो ?
अक्सफोर्ड विश्वविद्यालयका Spalding Professor दिवाकर आचार्यसँग कुराकानी :
youtu.be/vcwMxYnAiJ4?si=RUK0…
Navi Pillay, the South African jurist of Indian Tamil descent awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, was born in Durban. Her story offers a timely starting point for exploring the history of South African Tamil and the migration that shaped it.1/n
BREAKING NEWS
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2026 #NobelPeacePrize to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay for her efforts to promote peace and international law.
#NobelPrize
South African Tamil has a particular regional history: predominantly Northern Tamil in its foundations, alongside changing social relations and sustained multilingual contact.
Its story connects the history of migration to the evolution of language across generations.10/end
References: Rajend Mesthrie, “The Origins of Colloquial South African Tamil” (2007).
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.…