Speaking Globally

On February 27 and March 6, those of us in Kusumji’s Hindi classes had the opportunity to meet with girls from the Delhi Young Artists Forum (DYAF) and their supervisor Sadre Alam. The girls’ ages spanned from 9th grade to PhD students, so we got to hear many different stories of life and lockdown in India. I and a lot of other Duke students really appreciated being able to get their perspectives, and the girls were very open in sharing their experiences. Gulafsha said that she missed a train and got stuck far from home for two months (due to India’s pandemic restrictions on internal travel). We also learned that the pandemic has destroyed jobs in India and made it difficult for many people to afford necessities like food, sanitary supplies, and school stationery. These are three things the young women work to distribute through DYAF. They also make masks and encourage mask wearing and hand washing. We were all really inspired by how invested they are in helping their communities.

First, we met in a large group where everyone introduced themselves. It was great to listen to native Hindi speakers our age and see how they talked. A girl named Farzana sang a beautiful song for us. Duke students were much shyer about singing, but after much prompting from Kusumji we eventually sang a few song choruses. Following the group discussions, we were put into small breakout rooms to talk. I got to speak to Farzana, who expressed surprise that foreigners were learning Hindi songs and asked me to sing for her. I sang "Ho Gaya Hai Tujhko To Pyaar Sajna." Farzana sang with me too which I really appreciated because I was blanking on the lyrics from feeling self-conscious. “Sharam se sab bhool gayi,” I said. Farzana said this happened to her too and we laughed. We then talked about other songs and films, and I was amused to learn that Farzana likes fight films and has no interest in romantic comedies. It was lovely to talk to her, and I know the other Duke students also found these small group conversations very rewarding. 

When we returned to the common group and said goodbye, Kusumji asked me to remind her the name of an Urdu-dubbed Turkish TV series I had been telling her about, "Pyaar Lafzon mein Kahan." When I told her the name, a bunch of girls who had not yet signed off started chiming in that they watched it too. This delighted me because I had not imagined that girls in Turkey, India, Pakistan, and America were watching the same TV series. This could potentially be a great way to bond over shared experience and an entry into discussing relationship norms and gender roles in our respective cultures; I was sad that this only came up at the end of the meeting. On a funnier note, I later discovered that the Urdu-dubbed version had been edited by censors, so it’s possible that girls in Turkey and South Asia and America were not watching quite the same show after all. At any rate, the opportunity to meet with the DYAF girls was a really thought-provoking and rewarding experience, and I would love to do it again in the future.

This workshop was supported by Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Duke Service-learning.