Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from May, 2012

Indian languages in roman alphabets

Writing Hindi in Roman Alphabets: Observations on Spelling and Consistency | Sachit Murthy Have you ever paused and really looked at a Hindi sentence written in Roman alphabets? It happens every day — in movie titles, advertisements, SMS messages, social media posts, and even news headlines. And yet, I feel very few people actually pay attention to the correctness of the spelling. Perhaps that’s understandable, because there is no standardized dictionary for Hindi in Roman letters. The variations are fascinating. Regional accents and pronunciation nuances seep into the spelling. In South India, for example, the 'th' sound is often written as in Devatha . In rural North India, the 'z' sound can become 'j', giving us words like Jahaaj . In Eastern India, the interchange of 'b' and 'v' is common — Bidya instead of Vidya . These quirks make Roman Hindi feel alive, messy, and unpredictable. Despite the chaos, I still ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sachit Murthy — Writing on Cinema, Cricket, Travel, and Life in India

This blog brings together essays, reviews, and observations on cinema, sport, travel, and everyday life in India. It moves between detailed writing on Indian and world cinema, reflections on cricket as culture and memory, travel notes from cities and small towns, and personal pieces shaped by living and working in contemporary India. Film writing on the blog ranges from close readings of classic and modern films to broader reflections on performance, narrative, and form. Cricket appears not as statistics or news, but as lived experience — a shared language of time, obsession, and belonging. Travel pieces pay attention to place, atmosphere, and the small details that define movement and return. Underlying these varied subjects is a consistent interest in observation: how people speak, perform, remember, and negotiate their inner and public lives. The author’s background as a stage and screen actor, writer, and voice artist informs the attention to rhythm, silence, and point of view across the writing. The blog is intended for readers who enjoy reflective, unhurried writing — pieces that sit somewhere between criticism, travelogue, and personal essay.