iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Friends at Harvard, I'll be presenting a paper at the annual Harvard Celtic Colloquium next Friday - would love to see some of you there!

010

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Black nightshade, called عنب الذئب ʕinab aḏ-ḏiʔb (literally, "wolf's grapes") in Arabic, ایت اوزومی it üzümü in Turkish, and سگ انگور sag angūr in Persian (the latter two literally meaning "dog's grapes")

020

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Very happy to announce that my translation of a collection of short stories by contemporary Urdu writer Rafaqat Hayat has been shortlisted for a Pen Presents award

130

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Mae'n bleser ac yn anrhydedd bod yn Fardd Mis Medi BBC Radio Cymru a Barddas Honoured to be the Poet of the Month for September for BBC Radio Cymru & Barddas یہ میرے لئے بڑے اعزاز کی بات ہے کہ مجھے ماہ ستمبر میں بی بی سی ریڈیو کمری اور مجلہ بارذاس کا بارذ ءَ میس یعنی اس مہینے کا شاعر منتخب کیا گیا ہے

041

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Thrilled to see the Indian edition of my Urdu novel Panchwen Darvesh ka Qissa at the Chinar Literary Festival, Kashmir. Also very glad to share that the book is now officially available in India. Friends in India can reach out to the publisher Matterlink Books, Lucknow, to get a copy.

020

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Delighted to be holding my Urdu novel, پانچویں درویش کا قصہ Panchwen Darvesh ka Qissa (Tale of the Fifth Dervish), which was published two months ago by City Press, Karachi. It is the Urdu adaptation of my English novel Four Dervishes. The Indian edition will be out soon.

030

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Got Plato's republic in Cymraeg for 'mond two punt in a charity shop in Llanelli... Falch iawn!

020

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

If you're in Dublin, visit Chapters on Parnell Street. It has a fantastic selection of new and second-hand books at very reasonable prices. The book I'm holding is a Finnish translation of Ulysses, and in the background you can see a set of One Thousand and One Nights in Arabic.

220

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

From the Celtic Students Conference in Dublin. In my paper, I discussed the similarities between two unrelated elegiac traditions: the Shia marsiya (in Persian and Urdu) and the Welsh marwnad. My focus was on a marsiya by Josh Malihabadi and two poems titled Cilmeri by Gerallt Lloyd Owen.

030

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Word of the day: خردماغ xar-dimāġ (Eastern/Dari Persian, Urdu, Panjabi, Sindhi), har-dimağ (Ottoman Turkish): adj. "stubborn", "stupid", literally, "ass-brained" from Persian خر xar "donkey" and Arabic دماغ dimāġ "brain" (poster of a Panjabi film titled خردماغ xar-dimāġ, starring Sultan Rahi)

010

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Stuck on the motorway. Might as well revise for the next مشاعره*. Send your favourite bayts. *(poetry reciting competition called bayt-bazi in Urdu).

040

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

میرے اردو ناول پانچویں درویش کا قصہ کا سرورق میرا ناول اس ماہ پاکستان میں سٹی پریس، کراچی کی جانب سے شائع ہو رہا ہے۔ اس کا ہندوستانی ایڈیشن بھی جلد شائع ہوگا۔ حوصلہ افزائی اور کتاب کو آپ سب تک پہنچانے کے لیے اجمل کمال صاحب کا شکرگزار ہوں۔ قبل از اشاعت خریداری کے لیے ناشر سے رابطہ کیجیے۔

010

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Cover reveal Excited to share the cover of my Urdu novel Panchwen Darvesh ka Qissa (The Tale of the Fifth Dervish) to be published this month in Pakistan by City Press, Karachi. An Indian edition will be released soon. My thanks to Ajmal Kamal sahib for his trust in my story. Pre-orders are now open

020

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

From an interview on language learning I gave on Prynhawn Da

020

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Laila Majnu aka Pak Muhabbat (Pure Love) - a two-act play in Judeo-Urdu published 1888 in Bombay Laila / Laili Majnu urf Pāk Muhabbat - nātak do-bāb kā - zabān-i Urdu bi harf-i Hibru (Hebrew) sab dāvā mahfūz hai لیلی مجنو عرف پاک محبت ناٹک دو باب کا زبان اردو بہ حرف ہیبرو (عبرانی) سب دعویٰ محفوظ ہے

000

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Delighted to share that my translation of contemporary Urdu writer Rafaqat Hayat's short story انڈونیشی سگریٹ (Indoneshi Sigret) has been published in The Dial as Indonesian Cigarettes Read it here www.thedial.world/articles/lit...

131

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Feels strange to think I had no Welsh at all two years ago Mae'n teimlo'n rhyfedd meddwl nad oedd gen i unrhyw Gymraeg o gwbl ddwy flynedd yn ôl colegcymraeg.ac.uk/newyddion/ne...

130

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

I'm starting a free online course for readers and learners in Balochistan to explore literature and translation across Urdu, Persian, and English. Places limited to the first fifteen sign-ups. Message me here or email at hammadhrind@gmail.com to register

055

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

How to laugh properly in the US of A

120

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Stumbled upon these during my stroll by the sea. I recognize образ "image"/"shape" and дом "house" from a few Slavic languages. Does anyone know what оборище and образцов mean?

100

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Two interesting things going on in this sentence: تلبرل talabrala from English liberal, “to liberalise (superficially?).” And إخونجي ikhwanji, with the Turkish suffix -ji, meaning “Ikhwan guy” in a dismissive way. Good examples of how confidently Arabic absorbs foreign element, often to add nuance.

130

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Reading an essay by Pamuk on Rushdie's Satanic Verses in Öteki Renkler. Pamuk acknowledges Rushdie’s fondness for wordplay, pointing to his use of Bostan بوستان as the name of a plane, then goes on to translate Saladin Chamcha as Samça, comparing him to Kafka's Gregor Samsa. He prob doesn't realise

110

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Ustad Qamar – rat-catcher Fee per rat/mouse 60 rupees Urdu doesn’t differentiate between rat & mouse, though the word چوہا chūhā is more common for rat & the fem. form چوہیا chūhiyā for mouse. This is similar to the usage of موش mūš in Persian & فأر faʾr in Arabic, both gen used for both mouse/rat

130

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Probably the first person from Shahpur to have made it to the Welsh Learner of the Year competition finals Hapus iawn o fod ar restr fer Dysgwr y Flwyddyn eleni شیئت میں شاہپور چ جمن آلا پہلا بندہ ہاں جہڑا ویلش سکھن آلیاں دے مقابلے دی اخیرلی منزل تائیں اپڑیاں

052

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

This is μούτζα (moutza) / φάσκελο faskelo, a traditional Greek gesture of insult and contempt. It reminds me of a similar Sindhi gesture, ٻڄو (bbujjo) - or ٻُڄه (bbujja) in Saraiki and Shahpuri - which carries the same cultural meaning.

010

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

װער װעט בלײַבן? װאָס װעט בלײַבן? בלײַבן װעט אַ װינט, בלײַבן װעט די בלינדקײט פֿונעם בלינדן, װאָס פֿאַרשװינדט. . . װער װעט בלײַבן? גאָט װעט בלײַבן, איז דיר ניט גענוג? Avrom Sutzkever "Who will remain, what will remain? A wind will stay behind. The blindness will remain, the blindness of the blind.

100

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Over the moon for Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi! A historic win on so many levels. Stories of Muslim women from South India, the first Kannada work to win the International Booker, and Deepa’s brilliant, brilliant translation!!

020

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Today I learnt - Koroshi dialect of Balochi

010

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

"آج" کے تازہ ترین شمارے میں میرے اردو ناول "پانچویں درویش کا قصہ" کا ایک حصہ شائع ہوا ہے۔ احباب Book N Art کی پوسٹ میں دیئے گئے نمبر پر رابطہ کر کے منگوا سکتے ہیں ۔ شمارے میں ونود کمار شکل، ژولیاں اور جیم عباسی کی کہانیاں بھی شامل ہیں۔

000

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

You should be able to find اتو in any modern Persian dictionary as it's the 'standard' word in modern Iranian Persian. See this entry in Dehkhoda for example. I also found out that اتی utti is the Tajik variant of the word (though the Wiktionary entry, as usual, doesn't provide a source for this)

020

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Came across this Urduized form of the word sober in an online comment. The word is fairly common in spoken Urdu, used in the sense of 'sensible,' 'serious' or sometimes even 'graceful' - though never in the sense of 'not drunk.' I found the choice of the letter ص for representing the 's' interesting

100

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Very excited about this شدت سے منتظر! #Urdu

010

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Three different realizations of the letter غ (/ɣ/ in Arabic and Classical Persian) across 3 modern varieties of Persian, acc to the Wiktionary entry for سوغات. Unsurprisingly, the Dari variant retains the classical pronunciation, while the Tajik variant is reportedly pronounced like the French /ʁ/?

000

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

I can't claim to speak for such a large proportion of Pakistanis, but speaking for myself, many of those deported had lived in Pakistan longer than I did and most probably considered it home. Some were even born in Pakistan and had never been to Afghanistan before being forcibly deported there.

110

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Ces i gyfle i siarad am nofel newydd sbon ar y teledu heddiw (had my first experience of being on live tv today) Gwyliwch yma 👇 Prynhawn Da, Wed, 09 Apr 2025: bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod… via @bbciplayer

000

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Happy belated Nauroz/Nowruz. The zebra in this painting (now in V&A museum) was presented to the Mughal emperor Jahangir during the Nowruz celebrations of 1621. The inscription in Jahangir's own hand reads استری که رومیان از حبشه به‌همراهی میرجعفر آورده بودند و شبیه این را نادرالعصری استاد منصور کشید

1176

Hammad Rind @hammadrind.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

My article on Urdu lit in translation in the latest issue of @wasafirimag.bsky.social : Divided by a Border, United in Translation reviews 3 Urdu books translated last year: Natiq’s Naulakhi Kothi by Naima Rashid, Rahman Abbas’s On the Other Side, Hijab Imtiaz Ali’s Belles Lettres by Sascha Akhtar

171