r/hindustanilanguage

Don't get me wrong—Maine Royaan is an absolute masterpiece of modern melancholia. It is beautiful, the vocals are soulful, and it hits right in the feelings. I personally love the song and listen to it on repeat.

But as a urdu speaker, listening to the lyrics carefully was starting to give me an existential crisis. 😂

For those who don't know, the brilliant singer and writer Tanveer Evan is native Bangladeshi. He passively picked up Hindi/Urdu from movies and music, which is why he has an amazing ear for melody, but standard grammar rules completely went out the window.

I assume this is because Bengali doesn't have grammatical genders or the tricky past-tense transitive particle ("ne"), we ended up with a song that flips timelines and genders every three seconds.

Here are the biggest linguistic glitches that were driving my brain crazy:

1. "Maine Royaan" — Slapping a past-tense transitive particle (Maine) onto an intransitive verb (roya), and then adding a Punjabi-ish inflection (royaan). A double-whammy of confusion!

2. "Tujhe dhoonde dhoonde" — Missing the continuous action "t" sound. It should be dhoondte dhoondte or dhund dhund ke.

3. "Main so na pai / Kyun tarpa yun tarpayi" — A wild gender crisis. The song suddenly jumps from masculine to feminine forms in the exact same breath.

4. "Maine kabhi na socha tujhe" — In Urdu, you think about someone (tumhare baare mein). You can't just "think someone" directly!

Also, a special shoutout to the phrase "Yun dil ko sambhalta raha." Since sambhalta is intransitive (for oneself), using it while explicitly pointing to an object (dil ko) is grammatically broken. It needs to be the transitive "sambhaalta" (holding/managing something). The original flat "a" sound just didn't cut it.

I sat down and rewrote the lyrics line-by-line. The goal wasn't to change the track, but to create a version that is grammatically flawless while fitting Tanveer's original melody note-for-note.

Here is the Ultimate (Grammatically Correct) Edition of the song:

───

[Main Roya Corrected Lyrics]

[Chorus]

Main roya tujhe dhund-dhund ke

Roya tha main, tu na milaa

Gehri si in raaton mein

Soyaa naa tha main

Rota tha teri yaad mein, poori raat

[Pre-Chorus]

Maine kabhi na socha tha yeh

Bas roya yunhi khudse

Yun dil ko, yun dil ko

Sambhaalta raha

[Chorus]

Main roya tujhe dhund-dhund ke

Roya tha main, tu na milaa

[Verse 1]

Raat ki gehri neendo mein

Main so na paya

Dard mein yun khudko hi

Kyun tarpa yun tarpaya

Aaa.. Raat ki gehri neendo mein

Main so na paya

Dard mein yun khudko hi

Kyun tarpa yun tarpaya

[Pre-Chorus]

Maine kabhi na socha tha yeh

Bas roya yunhi khudse

Yun dil ko, yun dil ko

Sambhaalta raha

[Chorus]

Main roya tujhe dhund-dhund ke

Roya tha main, tu na milaa

[Verse 2]

Khwaishein jo thi meri

Bas tujhko paane ki

Khaweshein woh hi meri

Bus khawaish hi reh gai

Aaa.. Khwaishein jo thi meri

Bas tujhko paane ki

Khaweshein woh hi meri

Bus khawaish hi reh gai

[Bridge]

Maine kabhi na chora tujhe

Bas roya yunhi khudse

Yun dil ko, yun dil ko

Sambhaalta raha

[Chorus / Outro]

Main roya tujhe dhund-dhund ke

Roya tha main, tu na milaa

Gehri si in raaton mein

Soyaa naa tha main

Rota tha teri yaad mein, poori raat

[Pre-Chorus]

Maine kabhi na socha tha yeh

Bas roya yunhi khudse

Yun dil ko, yun dil ko

Sambhaalta raha

[Chorus]

Main roya tujhe dhund-dhund ke

Roya tha main, tu na milaa

───

Singing Tips for the Cover Artists Out There:

• The Chorus Fix: The original "dhun-de dhun-de" has four soft, bouncy vowel endings. To sing the correct "dhund dhund ke", you just need to drag out the "dhund" sounds slightly ("tujhe dhuuund dhuuund ke") and let the "ke" fall quickly right before the next musical bar hits.

• Squeeze the extra syllable of "raaton" quickly into the pause right after "in". It sounds super stylistic!

• Change his high-pitched, feminine-inflected "tarpay-ee" at the end of the verse to a clean, solid, masculine "tarpayaa".

• Use the long "aa" for "Sambhaalta" to match the slow, heavy tempo of a breaking heart.

Shoutout to Tanveer Evan for giving us a massive banger regardless. Let me know what you guys think of this fix! Did the original lyrics bother anyone else, or am I just overthinking/crazy. 😂

No !! Hindi is not India’s National Language.

As a Hindi educator,  this is one myth I want to address.

Yes, Hindi is spoken by a lot of Indians but not all. In fact no language  is India’s National Language.

Article 343 of Indian Constitution recognises Hindi as one of the Official languages not the National language .

So,Setting the record straight. This is a  common myth among many, not just expats or foreigners but even Indians.

 Hindi is the Official Language and not the National Language of India.

If you found this helpful, I share daily visual Hindi tips in my Space- Hello_Hindi

My observation: people saw the people on the internet using it before texting or even internet in India was common and started using "toh/voh/joh" etc.

I mean, spelling wise and phonetics wise, they are just plainly wrong. Yes, it is "Vah" in Hindi and "Veh" in dialects, but not "toh/voh/joh" but should be "to/wo/jo". If it is to distinguish तो from the English "to" (homophone of 2), then why "voh" and sometimes "joh"? To follow the trend of "toh"?

Damn, people just copy...

Khichari Bhasha or Sadhukkari Bhasha is language which is blend of several languages and dialects used for poetry especially in medival times

The name is given after a dish called Khichari which is mix of rice, different vegitables, lentils etc

due to being blend of several languages and dialects

And Sant Kabir Ji is one of the famous Saint and poet who wrote his poems in Khichari Bhasha

His Khichari Bhasha was mix of Braj, Awadhi, Marwari, Arabi, Farsi, Bhojpuri, Khari boli and Hindustani

Which makes poem a very unique and beautiful identity and touch to it