"Highway' is the translation of Qamar Jamali's short stories into English. Qamar Jamali is a well-known Urdu fictionist of Hyderabad, Telangana. she is a live writer and continues to write. I personally met the writer and liked the thought behind her stories. The charecters of her stories aptly display the burning problems of the society which relates to the present scenario. They are not fictitious, they appear very much real and we find them in our day to day life. This appealed to me a lot. I translated her stories with the intention of making her known to the non-Urdu readers. "Highway" comprises ten stories.There is a variety of theme in her stories. Woman's emancipation is one of her themes. According to her a woman occupies not only a place in domestic field but also diverse positions in society.No doubt she speaks about the anguish of a woman, she doesn't do any oration instead she opens many doors for the characters to act and the readers to think. Her stories are her experiences and observations.The technique of dialogue explains the incidents in the stories."Lifeline" id one such very impressive story. The development of the story is by logical dialogue though it also has a psychological element in it.In her stories, "Aankhen", "Khwaab Tabeer" and "Tera Naam kya hai", we find characters, incidents,scenario,and dialogue move simultenously together. In 'Baandh Do' she gives a different perspective to Saadat Hasan Manto's,'Khol Do'. She gives a positive outlook to the story, apart from portraying the treachery of men. She tries to say that there is good along with the evil in the society. In the story, 'Highway', the writer aptly conveys the message of inhumanity in the society, through the words of the road. 'Shelter' is the story of adolescent crime. All through the story the protagonist is seen in search of love. 'Adam's Offspring', speaks of the helplessness of a brother to help out his sister and an ever risky situation of a woman in the hands of lustful men of the society. 'The Velvet Mite' is a pathetic story which depicts the stark reality of the days of Kargil war. The book, 'Highway', is the realistic image of the social mileu of the times. The writer not only picturizes the flaws of society but also suggests the measures to rectify them through the characters.

An astonishingly rich oral epic that chronicles the early history of a Bedouin tribe, the Sirat Bani Hilal has been performed for almost a thousand years. In this ethnography of a contemporary community of professional poet-singers, Dwight F. Reynolds reveals how the epic tradition continues to provide a context for social interaction and commentary. Reynolds’s account is based on performances in the northern Egyptian village in which he studied as an apprentice to a master epic-singer. Reynolds explains in detail the narrative structure of the Sirat Bani Hilal as well as the tradition of epic singing. He sees both living epic poets and fictional epic heroes as figures engaged in an ongoing dialogue with audiences concerning such vital issues as ethnicity, religious orientation, codes of behavior, gender roles, and social hierarchies.

Were it simply a collection of fascinating, previously unpublished folktales, Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales would merit praise and attention because of its cultural rather than political approach to Palestinian studies. But it is much more than this. By combining their respective expertise in English literature and anthropology, Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana bring to these tales an integral method of study that unites a sensitivity to language with a deep appreciation for culture. As native Palestinians, the authors are well-suited to their task. Over the course of several years they collected tales in the regions of the Galilee, Gaza, and the West Bank, determining which were the most widely known and appreciated and selecting the ones that best represented the Palestinian Arab folk narrative tradition. Great care has been taken with the translations to maintain the original flavor, humor, and cultural nuances of tales that are at once earthy and whimsical. The authors have also provided footnotes, an international typology, a comprehensive motif index, and a thorough analytic guide to parallel tales in the larger Arab tradition in folk narrative. Speak, Bird, Speak Again is an essential guide to Palestinian culture and a must for those who want to deepen their understanding of a troubled, enduring people.

Examining materials from early modern and contemporary North India and Pakistan, Tellings and Texts brings together seventeen first-rate papers on the relations between written and oral texts, their performance, and the musical traditions these performances have entailed. The contributions from some of the best scholars in the field cover a wide range of literary genres and social and cultural contexts across the region. The texts and practices are contextualized in relation to the broader social and political background in which they emerged, showing how religious affiliations, caste dynamics and political concerns played a role in shaping social identities as well as aesthetic sensibilities. By doing so this book sheds light into theoretical issues of more general significance, such as textual versus oral norms; the features of oral performance and improvisation; the role of the text in performance; the aesthetics and social dimension of performance; the significance of space in performance history and important considerations on repertoires of story-telling. The book also contains links to audio files of some of the works discussed in the text. Tellings and Texts is essential reading for anyone with an interest in South Asian culture and, more generally, in the theory and practice of oral literature, performance and story-telling.

This book shares important findings on the application of robotics in industry using advanced mechanisms, including software and hardware. It presents a collection of recent trends and research on various advanced computing paradigms such as soft computing, robotics, smart automation, power control, and uncertainty analysis. The book constitutes the proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Application of Robotics in Industry using Advanced Mechanisms (ARIAM2019), which offered a platform for sharing original research findings, presenting innovative ideas and applications, and comparing notes on various aspects of robotics. The contributions highlight the latest research and industrial applications of robotics, and discuss approaches to improving the smooth functioning of industries. Moreover, they focus on designing solutions for complex engineering problems and designing system components or processes to meet specific needs, with due considerations for public health and safety, including cultural, societal, and environmental considerations. Taken together, they offer a valuable resource for researchers, scientists, engineers, professionals and students alike.

Annemarie Schimmel, one of the world's foremost authorities on Persian literature, provides a comprehensive introduction to the complicated and highly sophisticated system of rhetoric and imagery used by the poets of Iran, Ottoman Turkey, and Muslim India. She shows that these images have been used and refined over the centuries and reflect the changing conditions in the Muslim world. According to Schimmel, Persian poetry does not aim to be spontaneous in spirit or highly personal in form. Instead it is rooted in conventions and rules of prosody, rhymes, and verbal instrumentation. Ideally, every verse should be like a precious stone--perfectly formed and multifaceted--and convey the dynamic relationship between everyday reality and the transcendental. Persian poetry, Schimmel explains, is more similar to medieval European verse than Western poetry as it has been written since the Romantic period. The characteristic verse form is the ghazal--a set of rhyming couplets--which serves as a vehicle for shrouding in conventional tropes the poet's real intentions. Because Persian poetry is neither narrative nor dramatic in its overall form, its strength lies in an "architectonic" design; each precisely expressed image is carefully fitted into a pattern of linked figures of speech. Schimmel shows that at its heart Persian poetry transforms the world into a web of symbols embedded in Islamic culture.

Drawing on insights from theoretical engagements with borders and subalternity, Beyond Religion in India and Pakistan suggests new frameworks for understanding religious boundaries in South Asia. It looks at the ways in which social categories and structures constitute the bordering logics inherent within enactments of these boundaries, and positions hegemony and resistance through popular religion as an important indication of wider developments of political and social change. The book also shows how borders are continually being maintained through violence at national, community and individual levels. By exploring selected sites and expressions of piety including shrines, texts, practices and movements, Virinder S. Kalra and Navtej K. Purewal argue that the popular religion of Punjab should neither be limited to a polarised picture between formal, institutional religion, nor the 'enchanted universe' of rituals, saints, shrines and village deities. Instead, the book presents a picture of 'religion' as a realm of movement, mobilization, resistance and power in which gender and caste are connate of what comes to be known as 'religious'. Through extensive ethnographic research, the authors explore the reality of the complex, dynamic and contested relations that characterize everyday material and religious lives on the ground. Ultimately, the book highlights how popular religion challenges the borders and boundaries of religious and communal categories, nationalism and theological frameworks while simultaneously reflecting gender/caste society.