Wednesday, May 30, 2007

12, 16 and 20


Fort william College ke zamane ki urdu ki aik kahawat hai:
"Bare Budh, Solhe Saan, Weehe Waan - aawi to aawi nai to gai"

means

"If you don't get wisdom by age 12, beauty by age 16 and grace (or personality) by age 20, you will never have it in life"


(What you think?)

4 comments:

Lazybones said...

I totally disagree, not only with that saying but also with your statement that its an Urdu saying, where its first half is totally Panjabi and the second 80% (or the actually saying) is still Panjabi. :)

Yes, I dont agree, since wisdom has nothing to do with age,beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and personality changes throughout our lives. So none of that is related to a specific age.

You didnt give your opinion, do you believe in that?

mystic-soul said...

Interestingly, one of my friend send me an email, telling me its a gujarati kahawat.

I think, more than 200 years ago, when fort william college was founded, urdu was still in infancy taking influence from all languages. Actually, urdu was called 'hindustani' along with Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit and Bengali. Later, urdu (as we know is a language of camp) became mainstream language as distinct entity from hindi. I am sure it took influence from punjabi big time !

I think, this kahawat is true upto the point that if you don't see any sign of wisdom by age 12 (as Ghalib said burhe huwe hain, buzurg nahi) or beauty by 16 or grace by 20 - its unlikely you will have geniune seed of it.

I think wisdom is an entirely different virtue from knowledge and intellect and its a lot God-gifted which flowers with experience, knowledge and time.

(Its not necessary that knowledgeable person become wise too)

And I agree, beauty lies in the eyes f "beer" holder !!

Lazybones said...

OK. I admit, I didnt understand what that saying was saying until I read your translation. The words 'Barhe, Weehe and Solhe' sounded like Panjabi so I thought the rest was as well. So your friend must be right then.

Yes I agree, knowledgeable person and wise are not synonymous. Not sure about 'the eyes of the beer holder' though..

mystic-soul said...

I am still not sure which dialect its truely belong, may be to all !!