By Asit Srivastava

Lucknow, Dec 7 (IANS) Patience fuels ambition. A Muslim academic from Uttar Pradesh has for 30 years wanted to translate the Bhagavad Gita into Urdu. While he has achieved that with 40 'shlokas' or verses so far, he has now set the bar even higher by aiming for a lyrical translation of the Hindu scripture.

A. Jalalpuri, a resident of Ambedkar Nagar district, some 200 km from Lucknow, has for the last five years been translating the Bhagavad Gita into Urdu in a manner that it can be recited like a song.

"Though translation of the Gita into Urdu is not that difficult, translating the holy scripture in a way that it can be recited like a song is a tough task," Jalalpuri told IANS on telephone.

"It's quite challenging for me, but I am quite sure I would succeed in my project. I am eagerly waiting for the day when I would translate the entire Gita lyrically in Urdu," he added.

Jalalpuri, who is the vice principal of the government-run Narendra Dev Inter College (NDIC) in Ambedkar Nagar, feels he would be able to finish his project within some months, provided he is able to devote his entire time in the translation work.

"You may ask why I was able to translate only 40 shlokas of the Gita into Urdu in the last five years. The reason for that is, being a government employee I am not able to devote myself completely to this work," said Jalalpuri.

He teaches English at the college.

"But I am happy that soon I would be able to completely dedicate myself to the project, as I am going to retire next year. People have several post-retirement plans, but I have only one, which is to complete the translation at the earliest," he added.

Asked what prompted him to undertake an Urdu translation of the Gita, Jalalpuri said: "It was in 1979 that I enrolled for a PhD in Urdu from Faizabad University. As I always wanted to stand apart, I wanted to choose such a topic that would be unique."

"So I chose 'Poetic translation of the Gita in Urdu' as a topic. However, after some days of starting the research, I found that there was hardly any reference material available on the same. I consulted my teachers, but they also could not be of much help and asked me to visit a number of old libraries in the country," he said.

After facing a lot of problems, Jalalpuri ultimately decided to leave the research.

"However, the problems could not dampen my spirit to work on the project and finally, a few years ago I thought with the translation I can contribute towards promoting communal harmony."

Terming the holy scriptures as human heritage, Jalalpuri feels irrespective of their religion, people should come forward to disseminate the teachings of the Quran, Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads.

"Holy scriptures guide human beings, their behaviour towards the individual, family and society. Taking this into account, people from different religions should not hesitate in joining hands for spreading the message of the holy scriptures," said Jalalpuri.