Day 31

Today's harf is "Meem", pronounced exactly as you see it. मीम in Devnaagri. The 31st letter of the Urdu alphabet. 

Here is how it is written in various positions:

Here is my attempt at writing "Meem" and the harf which contains the letter - "TamaaTar".

And this is what it means!

Day 30

Wow! It's been a month of posting Urdu words. What a fun journey this has been. So much joy packed with learning. Lucky me, to have found a space of solace and creativity.
Today's harf is "Laam". (लाम) You'd pronounce it as "alm" beginning with an L. It's a lovely word to draw: like an inverted shepherd's crook. A Laam, so to say, by hook or by crook! 

Here's how it is written by itself, in the initial, the medial and the final positions:

The word, or lafz I've picked today is "aql" (अक्ल) which is interchangeably used for "brain'' or "head'' or ''intelligence''. (Sorry, the Hindi "aql" got a little smudgy!)  

Today's she'r? 

Ishq hii isq hai duniya meri 

fitanaa-e-aql se bezaar huun mai.n

The classic head versus heart battle! 

My world is love and love alone.
I am displeased by the mischief caused by my head.

Day 29

Today it's turn of Urdu's 29th alphabet: ''Gaaf". It is written like "Kaaf", (देवनागरी में "काफ") but with an extra accent on the 'handle'. It also pronounced like "calf", except that the 'K' sound is replaced by a 'G' sound. 

Here is how it's written in different positions:

The word I've picked today is "gum" (गुम)  which means "lost", or better yet, "to be lost". Here's how it's written.

Here is the mandatory Udu couplet or she'r:
kis_se puuchhuu.N ki kahaa.N gum huu.N baraso.n se
har jagah Dhuu.Ndhataa phirataa hai mujhe ghar meraa 


And here is a song starting with the word "gum"!

Day 28

I am not making as rapid progress as I would like with the Urdu project. All I can say in my defence is that "tujh se bhii dil_fareb hain gham rozgaar ke." The sorrows of earning a livelihood entice me more than you do.... 

Be that as it may, let us operate on the "slow and steady wins the race" premise. Today's harf is the 28th one: "Kaaf". It's pronounced exactly like the English word "calf". Here's how it is written in different positions, remembering always that a letter in Urdu changes its structure depending on its overall position within a word: 

Today's lafz, or word is "kitaab" which means a book.

I found a rather lovely Shakeb Jalali couplet to go with today's word: 

Kab se hain ek harf pe nazarei.n jamii.n huyi.n

woh paDh raha huu.n jo nahii.n likkha kitaab mein...

Day 27

Today's harf is ''Qaaf''. It is pronounced pretty much the same way as "calf" is in English, except that the 'Q' sound comes from the back of the throat. It is written in a way similar to "Fey", but has a rounder bottom, and has two "nuqtas" or dots on its head. 

Here are its different forms in different positions: 

The word I have picked today is "qalam", which means "pen". In my next post, I will contrast it with a similar-sounding word, which is written differently. 

Here is today's she'r or couplet, penned by Wasim Barelvi:
Mere qalam pe zamaane ki gard aisi thi
ke apne baare mein kuchh bhi na likh saka, yaaro.N