ISRAEL CELEBRATES HINDI DIVAS

Israel celebrates Hindi Divas

PTI | January 17, 2007 | 12:19 IST

The International Hindi Divas has been celebrated here by hundreds of India enthusiasts with absorbing cultural performances.

Students sang Hindi songs, recited famous Hindi poems and enacted Hindi film-scenes as part of the celebration held at Tel Aviv University.

Kicking off the programme, the first year students of Hindi at Asian Studies department of the University sang Mera Joota Hai Japani from movie Shree 420. They were followed by second year students staging several scenes from films like Souten, Koi Mil Gaya, Baazigar, Malamal Weekly and Lage Raho Munnabhai.

The muted scenes from these films could be seen in the background as they delivered the film dialogues.

Two girls from the department performed Rajasthani folk dance with the crowd in the university auditorium cheering them all through.

Pushp ki Abhilasha by Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Basanti Hawa by Kedarnath Aggarwal and Atal Behari Vajpayee's Geet Naya Gata Hun were the prominent poems read out in the celebrations but a student also translated a famous Hebrew song into Hindi titled 20 Saal ka Pyar.

Indian Ambassador to Israel Arun Kumar Singh gave away prizes to the winners of an essay contest in Hindi and also read out Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's message on the occasion.

Explaining the growing interest in learning the Indian language, Hindi teacher Genady Shlumper said people were interested in India and they knew it was not enough to just know English for a proper understanding of the country.

"Hindi Diwas this year is being celebrated amid two important events, the forthcoming Republic Day celebrations of India and the completion of fifteen years of diplomatic relations between our two countries", Shlumper said.

"India is our old love, a friendly country with a glorious history and we hope with a glorious future", Shlumper added.

In view of the growing interest in India, the department has introduced a third year course in Hindi.

The Head of the department, Zvika Serper, an expert on Japanese Cinema, surprised a cheering audience by starting to speak in Hindi from a script he had prepared in Hebrew for the special occasion.

A student of Hebrew University, Yotam, who won a prize in the Hindi essay contest said, "India fills a void that I think no other culture can in my life."

Hindi is being already taught at Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University in Israel. Haifa University recently announced its plans to start a course in Hindi as well.

Noted Bharat Natyam performer in Israel, Ofra Hoffman also performed at the celebration.