The Parsi contribution to Gujarati literature
has enriched the language
Aban Mukherji
Reading Adil Malia’s comments on one of our much loved rashtriya kavis (national poets), Kavi Ardeshir Faramji Khabardar, in "The languishing language” (Parsiana, August 7-20, 2025) made me go back in time to my school days when we sang some of the early 20th century songs of the freedom movement — a clarion call to free our beloved motherland from the yoke of foreign rule and restore India to her former glory. Our hearts would beat with pride as we sang Khabardar’s Amé Bharatbhuminaa putro … and we would lustily belt out the last line: "Amé Hindi, Hindi, Hindi, Chhè......