Joseph Héliodore Sagesse Vertu Garcin de Tassy (1794 –1878), a French Orientalist, has often been called the first historian of Hindi and Urdu in Europe. His texts on Hindi, Urdu and Islam brought new insight into French public discourse. He translated one of Urdu's first poets Vali Deccani into French and called him 'Hafez' of India.
Now, for the first time, Kishore Gaurav has translated 'Literatures of Hindoustan' (1850-1860) by Garcin de Tassy into English and Hindi, published by Sampark & Vani Prakashan, respectively. The 14th episode of Kitaab Kaulum features Kishore Gaurav in conversation with presenter Achala Sharma.
In the trivia on books, Pervaiz Alam looks at some of the most popular characters from books such as Robinson Crusoe and Elizabeth Bennet.