Last Days of The Raj - The end of British rule in India

I just watched an interesting dramatized documentary on the last days of the British in India. The documentary starts with the arrival of the emergence of independent Pakistan and India. Viceroy Mountbatten, sent to India to formulate and execute a plan to end British rule in India and transfer power. The film tracks the violent events through till the birth of independent Pakistan and India. The film is available HERE.

The Rise of Khalsa - Punjabi Animation

Its been 14 years since I had my original epiphany on how the web would change the world, and I must say, I'm continually surprised at how rapidly things can change on the Internet. It was a little over a year ago when I wrote about the difficulties of finding kids content in Hindi. Today I did a YouTube search for Hindi cartoons and found a bunch of good content. I thought certainly there couldn't be much Punjabi content, but then my Punjabi cartoons query revealed a bunch as well.

So while searching, I ran across this animation called The Rise of Khalsa in Punjabi. Someone posted it on YouTube in 7 parts. You can also purchase the DVD HERE. The YouTube link to the first part is HERE. I have so far watched the first 3 parts, and it seems to be fairly well done. The video depicts Banda Singh Bahadur's rise and conquest of Punjab by the Khalsa army starting in the early 1700s; the Sikh victories contributed to the ultimate fall of the Mughal raj.

There are some violent images, so be aware if watching it with your kids. Unfortunately, there are no English subtitles in the YouTube video.

Goodness Gracious Me: Christmas Special Part 1

And another great episode of Goodness Gracious Me from the BBC. Enjoy.

Goodness Gracious Me - Typical Indian Parents

Here is another great clip from the BBC's Goodness Gracious Me episode Typical Asian Parents. What Indian child can't relate to this on some level? This episode reminds me of a week I spent in the 7th grade trying to convince my parents to let me play the bassoon. My parents were convinced this would lead to me being one of those sleepy haired guys wearing Scottish outfits playing for weddings in Punjab. Ultimately they relented, which is a good thing, since I would say a good chunk of my work ethic and ability to focus came from my early music instructors.

Spoofs: Dil Luteya and Bulla Ki Jana

Here's a hilarious spoof on Dil Luteya and Rabbi's Bulla Ki Jana. If you don't speak Punjabi, my appologies; unfortunately there is no translation and this sort of thing doesn't translate well anyway.

Rabbi Shergill's Bulla Ki Jana Video

For those of you have never heard Rabbi, a lovely Sikh singer from Punjab, I highly recommend his debut album Rabbi. I had never seen a video of his; I really like this video for Bulla Ji Jana. Some nice street and life scenes from all over India.

Rabbi's lyrics remind me of the Sufi poet Rumi for their blend of mysticism and love. Here's the roman characters and english translation for Tere Bin courtesy of Wikipedia:

tere bin / besides you

sanu sohnia / my love

koi hor nahio labhna / i shan't find another

jo dave / who'll give

ruh nu sakun / peace to my soul

chukke jo nakhra mera / and indulge me

ve main sare ghumm ke vekhia / i have gone and seen it all

amrika , roos, malaysia / america, russia, malaysiana

kittey vi koi fark si / there wasn't any difference

har kise di koi shart si / they all had some condition

koi mangda mera si sama / some asked for my time

koi hunda surat te fida / some were fascinated with my face

koi mangda meri si vafa / some demanded my fidelity

na koi mangda merian bala / none wanted my demons

tere bin / besides you

hor na kise / no one else

mangni merian bala / wanted my demons

tere bin / besides you

hor na kise / no one else

karni dhup vich chhan / shall shade me in the sun

jiven rukia / (the) way you paused

si tun zara / slightly

nahion bhulna / i shan't forget

main sari umar / all my life

jiven akhia si akhan chura / you said, looking away

"rovenga sanu yad kar" / "you shall weep in my memory"

hasia si main hasa ajeeb / i laughed a strange laugh

(par) tu nahi si hasia / but you didn't

dil vich tera jo raaz si / you had a secret in your heart

mainu tu kyon ni dasia / why didn't you tell me

tere bin / besides you

sanu eh raz / none shall tell this

kise hor nahion dasna / secret to me

tere bin / besides you

peerh da ilaaj / what druid

kis vaid kolon labhna / has the cure to my ills

milia si ajj mainu / i found today

tera ik patra / a note of yours

likhia si jis 'te / on which you had scribbeled

tun shayr varey shah da / a varis shah couplet

park ke si osnu / upon reading which

hanjnu ik duliya / a teardrop fell

akhan 'ch band si / what was locked in the eye

seh raaz ajj khulia / was revealed today

ki tere bin / that other than you

eh mere hanjnu / these tears of mine

kise hor / won't be kissed by

nahio chumna / none else

ki tere bin / that other than you

eh mere hanjhu / these tears of mine

mitti vich rulnha / will wither in the dust

Children's Video on Guru Nanak Dev Ji

I ran across this lovely claymation video on the life of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder and first prophet of the Sikh faith. It is in English, and well suited for children. Click on the links below to view the video:

Life of Guru Nanak Dev Ji - Part 1
Life of Guru Nanak Dev Ji - Part 2

Goodness Gracious Me: Bhangra Man Comes to America

Courtesy of Youtube, Goodness Gracious Me episodes have made it to the web. My wife and I have been searching for these ever since we saw a bunch of episodes on an Asiana flight on route to Delhi. Basically, GGM is like an Indian In Living Color put on by the BBC. Hopefully I'm wrong, but my guess is Google has yet to find out these are copyrighted material, so enjoy them while you can. While much of the humor requires a desi vantage, much still makes it through, at least I think. Here are some fun episodes if you are web video enabled:

Bharat Homes
Chunky Lafunga
Indian wedding

and my personal favorite: Bhangra Man

New Punjabi Video for Kids

The wonderful folks that put together the Chalo Hindi Bolo video that our kids have watched literally hundreds of times, have just put out a new DVD. There is such an utter dearth of high quality kids Indian content. I had given up on getting something in Punjabi, but apparently Punjabi is one of the DVD languages. I highly recommend the last video, and I eagerly await the arrival of our new DVD. If you are not located in India, and fret over your kids utter cluelessness on things Indian, I recommend starting the language exposure early, ideally before english. You can get the DVD along with other stuff at: www.hindikids.com.

Kids Punjabi and Hindi Info

Sikh, Life: In response to my post Raising Sikh Children in a World of Illusion, I was asked for more detail on books/videos etc. Here is my response:

Re: children's books - there are a number of cartoon like books; one for each of the Gurus - you can find them in Delhi in nearly any book shop in Connaught Place. Occassionally we find something in the Punjabi section on main street in Vancouver. There is a beautiful book on Guru Nanak published recently in India though I can't find it here; all the pages are hand painted by a famous Indian painter whose name I can't recall now. I'll try to look it up tonight.

Re: videos - there is a kids video on Hindi called Chalo Hindi Bolay that Nayan has watched hundreds of times; it's extremely well done. In Jallandar and Chandigarh you can also find select popular movies dubbed in Hindi. We have purchased titles like Stuart Little, The Harry Potter series, etc. I have been trying, though with no success, to find a source for all of the cartoon network cartoons which are dubbed in Hindi (the ones nearly every Indian child is heavily addicted to); I'd be thrilled if anyone could identify a place to purchase these. Sadly, there are no kid related videos in Punjabi, either here, or in India that we could find. In Punjab, most kids are fluent in Hindi, and Punjabi is not treated that seriously (it's considered sufficient if kids speak it -- no need to read and write it too well). Here, most people just don't seem to care enough to expose there children to Punjabi, or if they do, it is dealt with casually and not treated with the rigor, or the all encompassing environmental exposure required for children to be truly bilingual, let alone on a path toward understanding Gurmukhi.