A mystic story

(I am not sure, if this story really belongs to Hazrat Abraham, but moral of the story is worth signifying pluralism and coexistence) .

Hazrat Ibrahim was very fond of having guests at his house and particularly was hospitable to travellers. He stood near his house, and waited for travellers to pass by. Whenever he saw them, he invited them back to his house. He would everyday bring home at least one guest and without having a guest, he would not touch food himself. 

 Once it so happened that no traveller passed that way for three days, and each evening he would return to his home disappointed. After three days an old man appeared on a camel. Hazrat Ibrahim invited the old man to his home to eat with him, the old man accepted the invitation. 

The old man and Hazrat Ibrahim sat to eat and Hazrat Ibrahim recited “Bismillah” (in the name of God) before eating the food, but the old man did not say anything. Hazrat Ibrahim asked why he did not call Almighty before taking his meal. The old man said that it was not the custom in his religion, as he is one of those who worship fire. Hazrat Ibrahim turned the old man out. 

 As soon as the old man went away, the Angel came to Hazrat Ibrahim and told Him that God  had been feeding this unbeliever for seventy years. Could not he tolerate him for even one meal?

A Biostatic View on Humans - 2

Few days back I posted a little musing, A Biostatic View on Humans (here).

As I was having the same conversation with another friend, he gave an interesting example.

"Two children (let say twin) born in the same household, with same parents, same siblings, same teachers, same financial and social environment, same time period, same exposures - but they grow up with  completely 2 different ethics and personalities - so how we can agree?"

(My argument was to see underlying gene pool as a variable, but this post is just  meant to bring an opposite view)

Good night!

(Was a long day - Good night my friends)

janey us shakhs ko kaisa yeh hunar aata hai
Raat hoti hai to ankhoon main utar aata hai

main us ke khayaal sey niklun to kahan jaaun 
woh meri soch ke har rastay pey nazar ata hai


I wish I knew the poet or could have find full ghazal

Ankabut

From my last post on Surah Feel - uncle's comment reminded me a long forgotten small event of my life. I wrote about Ashok long time ago on this blog. (here). Ashok was from Hyderabad India and in true sense was my first mentor in NY - about learning nitty gritty of american life style. He was one of the sweetest person I ever met. At night, we three paying guests used to share a room. Ashok's bed was at the far corner of the room. Since my first day in that room, I noticed a spider web on the wall above his bed. When I got comfortable with him, one day I asked him that why he don't remove/destroy that spider web from the wall. His response was unique. He said in his pure sweet hyderabadi style (I will just write in our hindi/urdu way):

"Dekho Babu (He used to call me babu)! Makri baRi mehnat se apna jhala banati hai. Woh sochti hai ye usne baRi mazboot, mehfooz aur perfect cheez banayi hai. Aaj bhi scientist spider web se hairan hote hain. Uspe lambe lambe thesis likhe jaate hain - Magar - aik zara sa jhatka usko bigaR deta hai. 

Jub main is room main paying guest aaya to ye makRi ka jhala yahan pehle se tha. Main ne rehne diya. Kiun ke har shaam - jab paise kama ke - bistar pe letta hun - aur future ki planning kerta hun - to is 'spider web' se yaad rehta hai - ke main bohat kamzor hun - aur mere abba ki baat yaad rehti hai ke - beta! bara makan, gaari aur america main achha future banane ke chakkar main apni 'values' aur paramparaoN ko kamzor na ker lena. Ye spider web mujhe yad dilata rehta hai ke dekho - america ki zindagi main ulajh ke qaid na ho jaana. Bagair character aur values ke sab kuch bohat kamzor hoga".

It was almost 6 or 7 years later I bumped Quran's 29:41ayat and instantly recalled Ashok's father instructions. I doubt Ashok or his father ever had read that Qurani ayat but I guess all good and divine messages stayed same throughout humanity's course. Kiya Geeta Kiya Quran.

Surah Feel

Another interesting conversation happened while Z was here, was regarding chance, luck and opportunities in life. As we agree on Louis Pasteur saying that: "Luck favors the prepared mind", we pondered on successes of few mediocres of our medical school (like me) and failures of some mind boggling intelligent students. We dissect rather tried to dissect the definition of success etc. Don't be wrong, Z is as agnostic or atheist as I am but from nowhere he asked me:

"Did you ever read or pondered on Surah feel (chapter on elephants) from Quran?"

"Not really". I replied with slightly sarcastic smile on my face (saying seems you are now getting religious as getting old?)

"Suraf feel actually teaches us that man propose God dispose. A bigger effect occurs from simplest things in life like making wrong parking turn, calling a wrong number and so forth. Life is strange in a way that help arrive from not expected, chance appears and opportunity bump from nowhere, best made plan go down to gutter - and at the end human wonder - seriously?  One simple act of  life (call it a cause or ababeel) changes everything in life (call it an effect or makool). There is a reason, one name of divine is musab-babul-asbaab (means creator of causes). Criteria of success or failure is far from the understanding of humans themselves. Work honestly, hope for the best and just enjoy the ride".

Second skill?

Dr. Z is my senior from medical school. He came to US well before I arrived in this country. He was always a brilliant student and no wonder once he was given opportunity to show his worth, he quickly went ahead of everyone and attained the full tenure professorship in an extremely reputable university program with tons of publications to his credit.

Last week he was visiting my city and I took him out for dinner. He made an interesting comment: "I don't know, we were right or wrong to be so devoted to our profession all of our life. One and only thing we learned beside practicing medicine is to pump gas in the car. We have no second skill, God forbid if we can't practice medicine".

Do we need a backup skill in life to survive? I wondered about it for 2/3 days after he was gone.

45 Years - 2

"EyeAre" has the privilege to read my first blog post more than twelve years ago - he vanishes for months rather years and suddenly pop up from nowhere. We never met, never talked, never communicated - but I am always thankful to him.

My first blog post (february 2005) was a single question: "To blog or not to blog?" - and after few hours I saw an answer: "Blog" -~ And I start blogging!

He left message on my previous post - 45 years

First of all, I don't agree that this movie has no climax. Actually, to understand real flavor of this movie, last scene is the most important, where kate's hands go down in last dance with dismal expressions on her face.

Second, this movie also tell us that despite living with a person for 45 years, you may not know the person fully. Beauty of the movie is that throughout the movie, a viewer think Geoff is a sad victim but actually, it is Kate who suffered the real trauma.

To understand, more on this movie, see the following link.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11832861/The-true-story-behind-the-story-that-inspired-45-Years.html

45 Years

'45 years' is an interesting movie. I went to watch this movie two years ago but need to get out of theater due to an emergent text. Finally, I watched the movie this weekend.

It is a slow movie but with a little different message on spousal relationship. We all think that issues happen in marriage while husband/wife are young but once kids are grown, marriage becomes a norm. NOT TRUE. Trials and tribulations continue  and may erupt with a new face in marriage even if you are old (movie revolves around a couple in their 70s with 45 years of marriage). As they say in urdu:

"Qabar ka haal to murda hi jaanta hai" (only the dead knows the grave)

Only a man and a woman in given relationship understands the dynamic. Even very close and best friends don't understand relationship between spouses. You live with a happy face to show to the world but hidden feelings to just cruise on it.

Caution:: This movie has no real climax - rather it is a tale. It is based on a short story "In Another Country" written by David Constantine.

Trailer here 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg5cpiX18TA

How You Would Like to Be Dead

~ Duboya mujh ko hone ney

Today NY Times published readers' opinion on above topic ( How You Would Like to Be Dead ). Pick your favorite or tell yours. My favorite was:

"Don’t care. When we die, we die. We have no knowledge of it and no knowledge of what is going on in the world we leave behind. Whatever makes my loved one have an easier time coping with it."

Hue mar ke hum jo ruswa, hue kyun na garq-e-darya  

Na kabhi janaaza uthta ,  Naa kahin mazaar hota

Childhood trauma

(When one of my colleague took print out of boarding pass at airport, also had electronic pass on smartphone as well as also carried email of boarding pass from airline)

"Tum life ki har cheez main itna daRte kiun ho? Har cheez main itni 'cautious approach' ? - American passport rakhte ho, Professor level ke aadmi ho, Stanford ki ID carry kerte ho - phir bhi?

"Jub aadmi ne bachpan main bohat gurbat dekhi ho, aur har dum cheezaiN loot jaane ka dar ho to - saari zindagi ke liye 'insecurity' dimag main dera daal leti hai".

A Biostatic View on Humans

As part of our Continuous Medical Education (CME), I had to take a biostatistic class. A teacher, who is professor at Harvard, made an interesting and strong comment. I was unable to agree with him, as agreeing with the following, I don't know where to put human conscious, values, good and evil and as many say the day of judgement. But yes, I pondered on this for many hours.

"If you keep all biases away, minimize all confounding factors, chance at zero and every imaginable variable at constant - all humans will behave same in the given equation (situation)"!

Andekhi quwwatoN ke ghere main
Insaan phir bhi  ,   - kathere main

(Shackled by unseen forces, but human is still to be judged) 

Great (but mad) minds!!!

"Guftar ka Gaazi"

I came to blog something else but simultaneously received this on my phone - so posting this bitter truth

A quote

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ―  Voltaire

"Connected"

I strongly believe that  even if we meet someone for few moments  - we are parts of great divine game!

On "Negation of Self"

Khalil Jibran ki ye asan si baat samajhne main mujhe aik umar lag gai :

"Jahan tum apni zaat se ooncha bolna shuru kerte ho, wahin se tumhari zaat ki nafi shuru ho jaati hai".

(You start negating yourself, the moment you start pretending beyond yourself)

lollipop moment

Kabhi Kabhi zindagi main insaan ka ek chota sa amal kisi ki poori zindagi badal deta hai. 

I remember my nana used to carry candies in his pocket for anyone he meets on the way!

Read or listen to this one well viral TED talk video (about 3 million views)
Transcript of talk here 

On "Power, Patience and Spousal Relationships"

I have seen very few ideal spousal relationship. Only few lucky ones. I think, following quote suites best to any spousal relationship - and the best guide!!

“In any contest between power and patience, bet on patience.” ― W.B. Prescott