Sanjiv Saraf ('80): Saving India's Urdu heritage, one book at a time
Outlook India (August 26, 2020)
Saving India's Urdu heritage, one book at a time
New Delhi, Aug 26 (PTI) Priceless pieces of Urdu poetry and books on art, literature and history confined to dark corners of private homes and public libraries have found a new home – all 1,00,000 of them digitised and ready to access for students, researchers and bibliophiles.
The world’s largest repository of Urdu books is the brainchild of Sanjiv Saraf ('80), the man behind India’s first and largest Urdu festival Jashn-e-Rekhta, who took it upon himself to collect and digitise books that were otherwise destined to be lost forever in the ruins of time. (Rekhta.org Website)
Childhood memories of listening to ghazals on vinyl records kindled love for the language. And then, as he grew up, the strong urge to read the masters of Urdu poetry in the original script inspired Saraf to start learning the ‘rasm ul-khat’ (Urdu script).
But to his dismay there were virtually no resources available on the internet. Saraf told PTI. (Read More)