Monday, September 15, 2008

What's the meaning of Rooh Afza?

Hamdard launched Sherbat Rooh Afza in 1907. Even the blokes at Hamdard don't seem to know how their founder Hakeem Abdul Majeed chanced upon the name. One theory is it's the name of a character from a 13th century book named Masnavi Gulzar-e-Nasim. Since the purpose of this post is not to pinpoint the origin, we shall not dwell on this now. Instead, we shall shift focus to the meaning of this urdu phrase. Rooh is soul in Urdu. And Afza means that which nourishes. So the rose syrup actually means that which nourishes the soul.