https://monsoons-blog.github.io/tags/notes/ Recent content in Notes on Rumuuz Hugo -- gohugo.io en-US Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/jeopardy/ Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/jeopardy/ Shayari jeaopardy is an annual end of year tradition. The following boards represent year-in-reviews for all the poems we’ve covered each year. 2025: Create a Jeopardy Game with JeopardyLabs! 2023: Online Jeopardy Maker - JeopardyLabs! https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/zine/ Thu, 13 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/zine/ The above presentation was given at our zine launch event, providing the context for how we designed and compiled the zine as a palimpsest. https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/guide/ Sat, 10 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/guide/ Ghazals 🔗Overview Originating in 7th century Arabia, this form of shayari has historically focused on matters of love (spiritual or worldy), with a particular emphasis on separation and reunification with the beloved. While the technical constraints are strict, ghazals do not need to have a single topic running through the poem. Rather, they emphasize a tone or a mood more than any narrative continuity. Often abstract, ghazals employ contradictions, opposites and multiplicities of meaning. https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/calligraphy/ Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/calligraphy/ We often draw whiteboard calligraphy (خُوش نَوِیسی) to accompany our sessions. A few recent ones: https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/magazines/ Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/magazines/ https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/origins/ Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/origins/ Legend has it that Urdu began with the Mughal invasions of the Indian Subcontinent. Bred in diverse war camps – the word is derived from the Turkish ‘ordu’ meaning army – Urdu has often been portrayed as a khichri of Turkish, Farsi, Arabic and Hindi originally used for military communications. Growing up, a friend of mine liked to recount that Urdu began with the poetic genius of Amir Khusrao, who wove verses from Farsi and local dialects into language forming ghazals. https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/diagram/ Sat, 14 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/diagram/ The world of Urdu shayari is deeply interconnected - and in constant conversation with the wider world. https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/metapoetics/ Thu, 18 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/metapoetics/ Urdu shayari has a long history of reflexive verse. Classical ghazals are known to contain verses that adulate and praise the Urdu language. Here we will focus on modern works that reflect how words and language are signified, as well as on the form of poetry itself (metapoetry). We’ll then think together about what we conceive of as ‘poems’, using that as a place to start writing our own work. https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/intoxication/ Sun, 03 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/intoxication/ — Allegory of Worldly and Otherworldly Drunkenness, Divan-e-Hafiz Introduction 🔗Wine poetry has a long and fascinating history in Urdu, Hindi, Farsi and Arabic. The genre of khamirriya in pre-Islamic Arabia is an early instance of wine imagery and symbolism constituting an entire subgenre of poetry. The genre would take on new meanings with the introduction of Islam in the 7th century. Alongside khamirriya, the Farsi saqinama was developing in Persia, represented in Firdawsi’s Shahanama, Hafiz’s Divan and Khayyam’s rubaiyaat, among other works. https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/garden/ Thu, 05 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/garden/ The Garden is a recurring theme in Urdu shairi. From serving as a metaphor of paradise to acting as a container for other motifs (the rose, the nightingale, the moth), gardens hold varying symbolisms in adab. This week we’ll explore the garden through a writing workshop. First we’ll read a collection of ashaar where the garden and its elements play differing symbolic roles, followed by working on our own poetry using the imagery discussed. https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/community/ Sat, 11 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://monsoons-blog.github.io/notes/community/ Reading is a solitary activity. On the subway, over lunch breaks, during layovers, curled up in bed – no matter where we are, the written word allows us to escape (if only momentarily) into our own world. While reading circles can provide forums for discussion and sharing the worlds we imagine with others, in my experience they can feel stuffy, require assigned reading, and become transient as people come and go.