By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Within three days, the New Delhi Railway Staion authorities have rectified the error in the Urdu section of the big board carrying the name of the station on the new building at the Ajmeri Gate side of the station.
The Urdu part of the board carrying name of the station in three languages was nothing short of a kid’s practice to write Urdu alphabet. Obviously it was the work of a non-Urdu knowing painter who perhaps wrote the name of the station both in Hindi and English on the board.
What was pitiful is that the new building is on Ajmeri Gate side – the only entrance to the station for people coming from Old Delhi – the birthplace of Urdu language. Just one and half kms and there is a mine of Urdu writers, painters, artists and publishers in the Walled City area. Urdu printing press units are in dozens there. But the Railways which spent Rs 25 crore on the building did not bother to hire an Urdu knowing painter in few hundred rupees from the neighborhood.
However, within 24 hours of the inauguration of the building by Union Minister of Railways, Mamata Banerjee (on September 16), the Railways sensed its mistake and the Urdu part of the board was removed. On September 19 the removed part with correct name in Urdu was installed.