The Thorn Birds

Few novels have changed my perception or understanding of the intrigue of human relationships and life. "The Thorn Birds" is one of them. It took a while to finish this book as I was simultaneously watching a TV serial made out of it (said to be the most popular TV serial after 'Roots').

The plot revolves around a life of a girl called Meggie who falls in love with a much older person who is a handsome priest and is not allowed to marry a woman. The basic theme of the novel revolves around human's constant fight with God and the pain of losing loved ones and trying to figure out - Why me? Is God merciful? It is a story of human integrity, ambitions, the power of religion, love, lust, triangles of relationships, realizations, and accepting life as it is. It is a tale of how a woman never forgets her first love and sometimes suffers forever, how a boy cannot accept a stepfather, and how a mother loves one child more than another and creates a rebellious teen. And, How a man's ambitions can't see eye to eye with a woman's desire.

Just putting two quotes here:

1) Ralph de Bricassart (Priest): [telling the legend of the thorn bird to Meggie] There's a story... a legend, about a bird that sings just once in its life. From the moment it leaves its nest, it searches for a thorn tree... and never rests until it's found one. And then it sings... more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. And singing, it impales itself on the longest, sharpest thorn. But, as it dies, it rises above its own agony, to outsing the lark and the nightingale. The thorn bird pays its life for just one song, but the whole world stills listen, and God in his heaven smiles.

Young Meggie Cleary: What does it mean, Father?

Ralph de Bricassart: That the best... is bought only at the cost of great pain.

2) After the big fire at Drogheda, which kills Maggie's father and brother

Grown-up Meggie Cleary: That dear and gentle God who has taken from me everyone that I've loved most in the world. One by one. Frank, and Hal... and Stuie... and my father. And you, of course. Always you. If God is merciful... left me no one else to grieve.

Ralph de Bricassart: He is merciful, I know you can't see that now, but he is. He spared the rose. He sent the rain.

Meggie Cleary: (Sarcasm) Oh Ralph... who sent the fire?

Wikipedia link

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7 sisters, A bhai and Greek mythology - 2

"Will you believe if I tell you I am pregnant despite being on birth control. I believe I am getting my brother back"!

Tu Shia Main Sunni

(one true incident from a life of a person)

"...I may never forget the incident while I was a kid...... an eleven or twelve years old. We were trapped in a relatives house when violence erupted in one part of the Karachi..We were total 7 kids(I was the eldest one) & five ladies inside the house...the youngest one was only few months old.The smoke from the teargas shell was all over the place & all of us had wet towels in our hands. Then suddenly we heard people climbing on the rooftopย yelling " Shia ka gher hay aag laga do".

They did not even realized that victims were few innocent children & women. They started throwing stones inside the house. Our mom, grandmother & aunt put their hands on the mouth of all the children. Our eyes were burning & we were like dead corpse.... nobody was crying; not even my infant brother. There was pin drop silence, then we heard someone saying "lagta hay ghar ke under koi nahee hay, aag lagana beykaar hay".

They stayed on the roof for sometime.....then we heard a police van & some firing in the air & all of them vanished. We remained inside the house for many hours & then police helped us to get out of the affected area.."

7 sisters, A bhai and Greek mythology

(An email reply I received after a 29 year old brother of my colleague died in a car accident. He was youngest of seven sisters).

"I am a very christian person. I go and take my kids to church every Sunday. I asked, cried and protested to God without any answer. They say Greeks have a word for everything, and there is no human situation the Greeks didn't describe.The Greeks say it's a sin against the Gods to love something beyond all reason. Our love killed him. We are seven sisters and he was our only brother. And when someone is loved so, the Gods become jealous, and strike the object down in the very fullness of its flower. There's a lesson in it. Its profane to love too much..."

Lower Middle Class

Zindagi main kum hi baap apni aulad ka haat tham ke rote honge or maafi mangte honge. Hum Karachi ke aik neechle mutawassat (lower middle class) ilaqe main reehaish-pazeer hain. Abbu ki bank main aik naukri hai. Hum 4 bhai-bahen hain - sub parhte hain. Bari mushkil se sufed-poshi ka bharam qaaim hai. Abbu hum logon ko rozana choti choti khushioN ke liye tarasta dekhte hain. Aik sham hamari sab se choti laadli ne pizza hut jaane ki zid ki.. Hum sab 'living room' main bethe the. Abbu ka dil bhar aaya. Abbu bilak bilak ke rone lage. Abbu ne mera haat thama aur kehne lage:

"Aesa nahi ke mujeh tum logoN ki khushioN ka aehsas nahi.. Jaanta hun tum sab ka bhi dil kerta hai ke mobile phone hoN. Naye computer hoN. Pizza hut, McDonald jao. Baqi logoN ki tarah achhe kupre pehno. Meri betiyoN ko rozana subah bus stop pe jin nazroN ka samna kerna parta hai uska bhi aehsas hai magar kiya karun. Woh himmat kahan se laaun jis se log haram ka paisa kama lete hain. Mere bachhon mujeh maaf ker do ke main is mehngai aur zaalim zamane main tum logon ke liye kuch nahi ker sakta...."

Aik choti se prem kahani

(Shared by an old friend. We met after many years and spend hours catching up)

"Main pakistan se F1 visa pe aya. Student life ka zamana bahut mushkil tha. Aik waqt woh bhi tha jub bread ke saath ketchup sandwich bananae ke liye ketchup McDonald se free uthaya kerta. Pehli baar jub meri biwi ko main khana khilane le gaya (before marriage) to - I told her: 'Look! I have only 5 dollars so we need to be selective in menu'.

Shadi ki 15th anniversary pe main ne apni biwi ko 50,000 dollars ki ring gift ki. Yes I have made tons of money later in real estate business. Main ne apni biwi se poocha" 'Lunch pe kahan chalo gi?' She said: 'Usi jagah jahan pehli dafa 5 dollars ki date ki thi'!

Spiritual teaching and life

Yaad nahi parta ke is blog pe ye baat kubhi likhi ya nahi magar jawani main jub apne daheriye (atheist) khayalat ke baad main sufism ki taraf maail hua (kher ab to us ka bhi shaibaa kum ho chuka) - to aik baat sikhi aur zindagi ke kai mor pe woh baat sach saabit hui ke:

"Zindagi main pehle ilm naazil hota hai, phir tajarba warid hota hai aur phir dubara ilm aata hai us ki toseeh kerne"

"In Spriritual teaching of life first knowledge gets revealed to a man, than comes experience from events and than comes knowledge again to attest it"

(Spooky..weird..confusing..??)