NEW DELHI: Part-time musician Aniruddha Pratim was always interested in learning Urdu, believing that it was key to better understand the range of music from the subcontinent. 

For the past few weeks, the Delhi-based consultant has been spending his free time and coffee breaks glued to an app called Humzaaban, which allows him to learn the language that was for centuries used prominently in Indian culture and poetry. 

“I’ve always been a little keen about Urdu, I feel like it sounds very poetic, sounds very soulful,” Pratim told Arab News. 

“I open (the app) whenever I get a chance to … It has got a very interactive user interface with a lot of audio visual cues and everything, so it’s a fun app to use,” he said. “Maybe someday I can write a poem of my own in Urdu.” 

Humzaaban is the brainchild of Tausif and Tanzil Rahman, who set out to preserve and promote the language they grew up with at a time when interest in speaking Urdu was waning among people in India. 

Despite Urdu’s prominent role throughout Indian history, the language has been facing multiple threats from communal politics and the quest for economic prosperity in more recent decades. 

Urdu has been stigmatized as foreign, the language of India’s archrival Pakistan, while families increasingly choose to enroll their children in schools that teach English or other Indian languages to better equip them for the job market. 

While millions still speak Urdu today, they make up less than 5 percent of India’s 1.4 billion population. The language is also no longer taught in the majority of schools across the country.

“There has been a consistent decline in Urdu post-independence of India and also if you look at the you know (how) English is having all the economic value and it is you know thriving in the world,” Tausif told Arab News. 

“Urdu has lost its economic value, none of the business transactions are being done in Urdu language and because of the same reasons there are not enough jobs available, people are not choosing Urdu as a language.”

Yet the language still holds a special place for many people across India, the wider subcontinent and in the diaspora, who grew up humming songs from Bollywood musicals that draw heavily on Urdu poetry. 

For Tausif, the motivation to create an app dedicated for learning Urdu stemmed out of his own passion for Urdu poetries. 

“We speak Urdu at home and we were discussing about the future of Urdu in India and outside India,” he said. 

“We decided to create a beautiful learning app which will enable you to read and write Urdu, which will enable you to understand what is happening in the Urdu world, what are the trends that are going on, and with this idea and with this vision we started our journey.” 

After five years of research, trial and error, the brothers whose day jobs are in the corporate world launched Humzaaban in October to reach a wider audience. 

Tanzil said interest in Urdu transcended generations, as he saw diverse participation at an offline Urdu learning program he teaches on the weekends. 

“The program participation from across generations, communities and professions gave us confidence that there is a yearning to explore this language that is born out of a long process of fusion and yet is essentially Indian,” he said. 

The Rahman brothers believe that Urdu has a potential to flourish, and made a dedicated app that they claim is more comprehensive than others in the market. 

With around 3,000 Humzaaban users and counting, many said they were drawn to the app because of its interactive features and user-friendly design. 

“There are very few platforms that focus on Urdu learning … but after looking into Humzaaban app I am very much impressed that someone is taking the effort to increase the availability of Urdu from end to end and (through a) step-by-step journey,” Mohd. Azam, a Delhi-based marketing professional, told Arab News. 

“I am very much interested in poetry and all, (and) Urdu has very beautiful words … which inspire me a lot so I want to learn from this app and maybe write some poetry.”

For Sahar Rizvi, who is based in London, the app has been a bridge to reconnect with her roots. After learning Urdu as a child, she lost touch with the language while growing up and had forgotten the basics. 

“My father mentioned about the Humzaaban app and it has been awesome to catch up again. It teaches right from the beginning! I often play around with it during my time on the train,” Rizvi said. 

“I’m re-learning to read Urdu … It’s a beautiful language and I do want to incorporate it in my daily usage.”

KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban government is hoping to boost cooperation with Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom reopened its embassy in Kabul, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia was among a host of nations that withdrew its diplomats from Kabul in August 2021, following the Taliban’s return to power and the withdrawal of US-led forces from Afghanistan. The Taliban are not officially recognized by any country in the world.

Late on Sunday, the Saudi Embassy in Afghanistan announced that the diplomatic mission in Kabul would resume its work.

“Based on the keenness of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide all services to the brotherly Afghan people, it has been decided to resume the activities of the Kingdom’s mission in Kabul as of December 22, 2024,” it said on X.

The reopening of the Saudi Embassy was welcomed by Afghanistan’s new rulers.

“I consider the resumption of the activities of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Kabul as a step toward further strengthening and expanding bilateral relations between the governments and peoples of the two countries,” Zakir Jalaly, director of the second political division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Arab News on Monday.

Jalaly said the Kingdom was one of three countries, including the UAE and Pakistan, to recognize the Taliban government during its first rule from 1996 until it was overthrown by the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

“Since Saudi Arabia is an important country at the regional and international levels, the resumption of the embassy’s activities in Kabul will provide ground for expansion of cooperation in various fields,” he added.

Saudi Arabia has continued to provide consular services in Afghanistan since November 2021 and provided humanitarian aid through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.

“I think the resumption of the Saudi Embassy’s activities in Kabul is a big announcement for the government of the Islamic Emirate facing international isolation as well as for the people of Afghanistan who have been experiencing the negative effects of the political isolation in different aspects of social life,” Naseer Ahmad Nawidy, political science professor at Salam University in Kabul, told Arab News.

The resumption of diplomatic activities will also be helpful for Afghans who are living in Saudi Arabia, which number at around 132,000 people.

“It will also help Afghan traders to do exports and imports from the country. It will also have benefits for Saudi Arabia as it will extend its influence in the region,” Nawidy said.

“I hope other Islamic countries continue to engage with the Afghan government and reopen (their) diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, which will provide ground for cooperation in different areas.”