Krishna / Sufism

I have one Indian friend who loves religious mythologies. Over the weekend, I was invited to his place as his wife makes the best vegetarian dishes and sweets. He said an interesting thing:

"Krishna should be defined as a Sufi."

Interesting observation

 Someone posted this on Facebook, and I liked it.

I’ve noticed that people who are kind to animals are usually kind to their fellow humans.

Nostalgia of old days

 A friend posted this beautiful line during our group chat:

ہم اُس دور کی پیداوار ہیں جب دروازوں پر بیل بجانے کی بجائے دستک دینے کا رواج تھا اور ہر شخص کے دستک دینے کا انداز انگوٹھے کے نشان اور ہاتھ کے دستخط کی طرح مختلف ہوتا تھا۔

We are the generation where tradition was to knock on the door, and each individual has their signature mark of the style of knocking, like a unique thumbprint or hand signature.

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Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Madhubala

(A forward on WhatsApp) 

Very few Indians and Pakistanis know that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto lived both in India and Pakistan. He also owned a sprawling Mansion named ‘My Nest’ at Bandra, Bombay, which was later confiscated by the Indian Government along with his other assets in Bombay during the 1965 Indo-Pak War.

 

In the 1950s, Bhutto visited the sets of Mughal-e-Azam in the Bombay studios when the song ‘Mohe Panghat Pe Nandlal Ched Gayo Re’ was being used picturized. Bhutto was completely mesmerized by the song composition and the picturization. Bhutto was considered a special guest of Madhubala. Madhubala liked Bhutto’s charm. Sometimes they used to have lunch together, and Bhutto used to make her laugh with his wit. During those days, Bhutto lived in Bombay and used to practice law as a barrister in the Bombay High Court.

 

Bhutto was obsessed with Madhubala's beauty. But Bhutto had already wed Shirin Begum, daughter of a rich landlord of Larkana, Sind, and was also married to Nusrat, an attractive young Kurdish/Irani girl. Bhutto used to shuttle between Larkana and Karachi. And now, with Madhubala in mind, he started a three-way shuttle to Larkana, Karachi, and Bombay.

 

In the meantime, he had decided to plunge into Pakistani politics and left Bombay for good to settle down permanently in Sindh, Pakistan.

 

The exact relationship between Madhubala and Z. A. Bhutto remains shrouded in mystery. Only Madhubala's diary could have thrown some light on this subject. Unfortunately, Madhubala’s diary was buried with her. However, her grave, along with those of Rafi, Naseem Bano, Sahir, Naushad, Ali Sardar Jafri, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, Jan Nisar Akhtar, Talat Mahmood, and Parveen Babi, have all been demolished to make room for new bodies. So, what she wrote in her diary will never be known. 

Earings

 

Tim Robbins on Red Beets

 (This is from the book “Jitterbug perfume”, Tom Robbins writes almost like a lunatic but he’s hilarious.)

“The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.

Slavic peoples get their physical characteristics from potatoes, their smoldering inquietude from radishes, their seriousness from beets.

The beet is the melancholy vegetable, the one most willing to suffer. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip . . .
The beet is the murderer returned to the scene of the crime. The beet is what happens when the cherry finishes with the carrot...

The beet was Rasputin's favorite vegetable. You could see it in his eyes...

Of course, there are white beets, beets that ooze sugar water instead of blood, but it is the red beet with which we are concerned; the variety that blushes and swells like a hemorrhoid, a hemorrhoid for which there is no cure...
An old Ukranian proverb warns, "A tale that begins with a beet will end with the devil."

That is a risk we have to take.”

SACHIN TENDULKAR and Pakistan connection

Sachin Tendulkar made his international debut against Imran Khan’s Pakistan in 1989 as a 16-year-old, alright. But, did you know that the first time he stepped on an international arena as a player, he actually turned out for Pakistan?

The date was January 20, 1987. It was an exhibition match between Indians and Pakistanis to mark the golden jubilee of Cricket Club of India. The venue was Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai.

It was a 40 overs-a-side match and played before the Five-Test series, which was Sunil Gavaskar’s last.

Tendulkar, still a little over three months away from his 14th birthday, was excited when the opportunity to field came.

Recalled Marcus Couto, Tendulkar’s childhood friend and now a Board of Control for Cricket in India: “Some of the Pakistan players were going to the team hotel to rest. Imran came to Hemant Kenkre (CCI captain) and said that he was short of players and if he could get three-four players to field. Two youngsters were in the vicinity – Khushru Vasania and Sachin Tendulkar.

“Sachin saw Hemant and asked in Marathi ‘Me Zaaoo Ka?’ (‘Can I go’). Before Hemant could nod his head, Sachin was already in the field as a substitute for Pakistan. It was towards the end of the match and Sachin was on the field for about 25 minutes.”

Couto said that Tendulkar was placed at the boundary and was disappointed at not being able to catch big hits that sailed way over his head into the first tier of CCI.

Said Kenkre: “For that match, Shishir Hattangadi (former Mumbai batsman) and I were given the dressing room duties. We had to look after the requirements of the teams. Pakistan players Javed Miandad and Abdul Qadir went back to the hotel and we were asked if we had players to field as substitutes.

“Khushru was the first choice to go as a substitute and Sachin was sent as the second sub.

“Khushru, elder to Sachin, was an India U-19 player and a brilliant player, currently living in the United States. Khushru was placed on the off side and Sachin on the leg side, at deep mid-wicket. In one instance, a skier came towards Sachin and he ran as if his life depended on it. Though the ball fell out of his reach, he was very disappointed that he could not catch it.”

Then India pacer Bharat Arun, who turned out for the Indians in that match, vaguely remembered a talented youngster coming in as a substitute for Pakistan. “To be honest, we did not know that one of the boys was Sachin Tendulkar. But we were told later on that he’s Sachin and that he was very talented.”

Couto recalled: “After the match, we were returning home by local train and Sachin said to me that he was disappointed at being asked to field at the boundary line. He asked if one of those big hits was a catch and I said it was very tough as it was sailing to the first floor.”

“With all his kit bag, he got down at Dadar.” Couto said that was the last time Tendulkar travelled by a Mumbai local. However, his long journey at the international level had only begun.

(Indians, led by Ravi Shastri, chased down Pakistan’s 189 to win by six wickets, Mohammad Azharuddin scoring 80 and current selector Roger Binny, 63. Vasania took a catch as a substitute to dismiss Mudassar Nazar off Shastri in Pakistan’s innings.)

Source: Published few years ago in Indian magazine: dnaindia

Lahore

 Ye Pakistan ki khusnasibi thi ke Lahore Pakistan ke hisse main ayya. 

Magar is Lahore ko banane main jo hissa hindu aur sikh biradri ne ada kiya us ka zikar Pakistan ki taarikh se hadf ker ke hum PakistanioN ne bara zulm kiya. Saadat Hasan Manto ne aik afsane main likha tha (it was a true story):

" ہجوم نے رخ بدلا اور سر گنگا رام کے بت پر پل پڑا۔ لاٹھیاں برسائی گئیں، اینٹیں اور پتھر پھینکے گئے۔ ایک نے منہ پر تار کول مل دیا۔ دوسرے نے بہت سے پرانے جوتے جمع کئے اور ان کا ہار بنا کر بت کر گلے میں ڈالنے کیلئے آگے بڑھا۔ مگر پولیس آ گئی اور گولیاں چلنا شروع ہوئیں۔ جوتوں کا ہار پہنانے والا شخص زخمی ہو گیا۔ چنانچہ مرہم پٹی کیلئے اسے گنگا رام ہسپتال بھیج دیا گیا۔"

JubMustansir Hussain Tarrar ki kitab "Lahore Awargi" paRhi to aehsas huwa ke sach kehte hain:

"Badnaseeb hai jo Lahore main paida na huwa: aur us se bhi ziyada badnaseeb hai woh jis ne Lahore nahi dekha."

Peechle saal Pakistan gaya to kuch dino ke liya Lahore akela chal paRa. Andoorne Lahore ki galioN main subah se shaam mara mara phirTa raha. 

Dursi Qaumain apne wirse ka khayal rakhti hain - aur hum ne achhe bhale lahore ke saath wahi kiya jo Changez Khan ne baghdad ke saath kiya. Farq ye hai Saqafati nishan ukhaR ukhaR ke wahan plaze-dukanain bana diye.

A man called Otto

President Clinton once said: Only one actor can play my character as he has the emotional depth to play any biography, and it's Tom Hanks. Over the years, it also never changed for me since I watched Forrest Gump. If you ask me one actor, I will put him on top of all the actors in Hollywood. One and only Tom Hanks.

Last year was darn busy at work. It kept me away from reading books, watching movies, and traveling. Life was too tasteless. While on my way back from Montreal, Air Canada was kind enough to give me an upgrade, and I watched his last year release "A Man Called Otto."

What a beautiful love story and a story of human bonding. Clint Eastwood is the only person who could have played such a complicated role besides Tom Hanks.

It is a story that tells us why good people go on a path to suicide and how they return, as they don't want other humans to suffer pain. If they can pull their weight to make a difference in their life, they will go out of their way to do it. This story tells us how a man and a woman stick together despite one partner getting disabled and or can't have children all their life. How two fighting neighbors are the best friend. The movie also touched on the power of rising social media. How old actual intended America is dying (Manual vs. automatic cars' symbol), and how greedy real estate mafia is destroying societies and neighborhoods. All these and other complicated issues are tackled in a simple-looking storyline.

The movie starts with Ottto as an irritated suit-tie-styled man who is hard to approach and how a Mexican immigrant woman thaws that ice, and the beautiful stories start flowing to us. It tells us how an innocent young man turns into a grumpy old man.

It is an interesting storyline, where Otto's wife dies, and he losses his job – and so he decides to commit suicide but keeps postponing his suicide as he feels someone needs his help, or he can make a difference. 

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Ramzan Khan of Bollywood

(A forward on WhatsApp)

Ramzan Khan, a fifteen-year-old illiterate boy from a small town in Gujrat, always wanted to come to Bombay because of his fascination with the movies. He was brought to Bombay by Noor Muhammad Shipra who owned a stable and supplied the horses for the movies. Ramzan Khan started working as a horseshoe repairman in his stable. This was the era of silent movies. Horses were always needed in the movies because, in those days, most of the movies were based on old historical epics where horses were needed for battle scenes. Also, horse-driven tanga was the most common mode of transportation then. Ramzan Khan developed a good rapport with the horses. 

Once during the outdoor shooting, a horse got out of control. Ramzan Khan was there and was able to control the horse. Ardeshir Irani, the famous Indian movie producer, and director were very impressed by this young, handsome, and muscular man. He started giving him roles as an extra in the silent movies made by his Imperial Film Company. By 1931 ‘talkies’ were introduced. Ramzan Khan worked hard and got several lucky breaks. 

He ended up producing and directing several blockbuster movies. He, later, established his own film studio. By the way, he had changed his name to Mehboob Khan. He was totally illiterate. It is rumored that he couldn’t even sign his own name – not confirmed. He died in 1964 at the age of 56. Nehru was his ideal. It is rumored that when he heard the news of Nehru’s death, he had a heart attack (again not confirmed if he indeed had the heart attack for that reason). But, for sure, he died the next day.

Four Kinds of Men

 

یہ جو خواہشوں کا پرند ہے‘

یہ جو خواہشوں کا پرند ہے‘ 

اسے موسموں سے غرض نہیں

یہ اُڑے گا اپنی ہی موج میں‘ 

اِسے آب دے کہ سراب دے!

امجد اسلام امجد

Why man wants woman

 

Happiness is amazing....