Rediscovering Rahi: Language-Identity Mix in Rahi Masoom Raza's Fiction

Rahi Masoom Raza is one of those rare breeds of Indian writers who advocated Hindustani, over and above Hindi or Urdu. For Rahi, the language of people is the one that they speak in their homes, with their souls and soul-mates, in which they express their dreams, desires, pleasures and grief, and not the one which ideally they should be speaking. From Rahi's fiction, we gather how those ideals are politically, religiously and racially manufactured and how characters, becoming a mouthpiece of Rahi, belittle those ideals with their brazen frankness. From the critically-acclaimed Adha Gaon (1966) to lesser known works like Os ki Boond (1970), Rahi's advocacy for home-spoken dialect over and above the nationalized Hindi or Urdu comes to the fore

Combining Melody Processing and Information Retrieval Techniques: Methodology, Evaluation, and System Implementation

The article describes the project on music information retrieval that has been carried out at the University of Padova, Italy. The research work has been characterized by the synergy of the modular integration of sound techniques of melody processing and of statistical information retrieval. After illustrating the background from which the project has originated, we describe the complete process, from methodology design through evaluation and system implementation. Conclusions, impacts on research in music information retrieval, and future directions are also described