On Disease and Spirituality!

Mind blowing Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was an epileptic. Its interesting how sometime minds are blessed:

"For several instants I experience a happiness that is impossible in an ordinary state, and of which other people have no conception. I feel full harmony in myself and in the whole world, and the feeling is so strong and sweet that for a few seconds of such bliss one could give up ten years of life, perhaps all of life. I felt that heaven descended to earth and swallowed me. I really attained god and was imbued with him. All of you healthy people don't even suspect what happiness is , that happiness that we epileptics experience for a second before an attack."

I am not going into any religious arguments here but it is said that Prophet Mohammad used to have similar attack before or at time of revelation from Allah!

Love and Women

Aurat ke liye kubhi kubhi...... sirf saath rehna, uski baatain sunna aur chup rehna 'love making' se barh ker hota hai....zaroori to nahi har shaam bistar pe aakhir ho".

Sab se Bara Dukh? - 2

Last year, I wrote a little post Sab se bara Dukh? Someone left an interesting comment:

"...mujhe aik bar mere susar (father i law) ne aik bat kahi jo main apse b share krna chahta hon... he said.. "beta, ap jantay hain k hum ko olad ka dukh maa baap k dukh se b barh k q mehsus hota ha?"..main khamosh rha to woh bolay.."Q k yeh hmara khameer ha, hmaray grand father (hazrat adam) k maa baap nahi thay, unko sirf oladd mili so unki fitrat mein sirf olaad k liye feelings bn gayen aur jo genetically aj tk hm sb insano mein forward ho rahi hain"... hence proved k "olad ka dukh wakeiye boht zalim hota ha" !!!

(Thanks Tahir)

Maan!

"Tumhe pata hai 'Maan' kise kehte hain?"


"Trust ko?"


"Nahi! Trust to bohat chota lafz hai. Shayed angrezi main is lafz ke hum-palla koi lafz hai hi nahi! Jub kisi ke liye koi aehsas - aap ke andar, bahir, shaoor, la-shaoor bulke tahtash-shaoor - main yaqeen bulke iman ki had tuk chaya ho - magar khud aap ko us ki khabar na ho - aur tub khabar ho jub woh aehsaas aik dum se tute aur khud poora aap ko jhanjor jaaye, bulke tor jaaye. Us aehsaas ke liye shayed abhi koi lafz ijad hi nahi hua!"

"The Help", 9/11 and Hope

You guys may be tired of my obsession with off-beat movies, but I see them as critical intellectual endeavors. I went to see the film - "The Help"! Though it was a story of 'blacks' and 'whites' from the civil rights time, it reminded me of today's post 9/11 America and 'Muslims in it.

It is an incredible story of human bonding beyond color and status. It shows a reaction to an unfair society. This is a story of hope. Change is inevitable. It reminds us again that - discrimination based on color, gender, religion, and others is nothing - but an eternal tussle of good and evil! 

Life goes on. The only thing matters - on which side of the fence you lived your life!

 Trailer here

 Note: Emma stone proved herself in this movie as an actress

On Cooking!

"Tum roz khana banati ho?"

"Haan! Meri dadi kehti thiN - jis ghar main roz khana pakta hai - wahan khud ba khud - barkatain nazil hoti haiN, aur piyar khulus ka raj ho jata hai. Jis ghar main chulha thanda par jaaye wahan nafrataiN aur tanhaiyaN dera daal leti hain."

On Tipping!

Make a habit to tip well, even when you are not sure. Get assure, it will make you a better person.

One baby grave!

I am not a regular visitor to graveyards except if I have to go to a funeral. Last week, I had to go to a funeral of one relative. After rites were over I took a detour to read plates (kutbe) of various graves around. I saw graves of all ages but one grave caught my eye. It was a grave of a 20 days old baby from year 2006 but many new stuffed animals and flowers were lying on it, like it was visited recently and kutba read:

For moments in our arms, 

Forever in our hearts..... 

I stayed there for few moments. Ye Aulad ka dukh bhi bara harami hai, saari zindagi chen nahi lene deta

Sense of Entitlement!

I am not an option, neither a choice.. I am a PRIORITY!!.. (anonymous) - found on Facebook

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens remains the greatest of English literature. I think at psychological level 2 things makes him the greatest of all. Firstly, at the end of his writings he leaves reader with sense of happiness. Secondly, he can see simple things in life from an unusual perspective (true for all great men).

Recently, I read one of his famous work "A Christmas Carol". Conventional teaching and wisdom to all humans is to forget the past, not to worry about future and to learn to live in the present. Charles Dickens argue against it and says that - for balanced and happy life - you need to live simultaneously with your past, present and future as portrayed by characters of 3 visiting ghosts in the story. Sweet memories of past, living happily in present and keeping optimistic picture of future makes a good life.

It is so interesting to read 2 contrast characters of same person (central figure in story named Scrooge) - one with nothing but all ignorance and other after enlightenment of past, present and future. I felt like I am reading my own life and I think what makes this story great and famous as each reader feels the same way. We all have 2 ways to live life - either with sadness or with happiness. We make the choice and Charles Dickens teaches us how to do it.

You can read the full text here

Seven Days in Utopia!

As I love off beats movies, first I wanted to write my impression about Pakistani movie "Bol" but than decided to write about a less known movie "Seven Days in Utopia" - kind of a Bible belt movie but still worth mentioning.

It is an interesting plot of an young golf player who miserably play in one of Texas open championship and take a hike away from town and end up in a small town call Utopia, Texas (Yes! There is a real town near San Antonio by this name). There he met another previous golfer who teaches him not only the right way to play golf but on the way teaches him lessons of life. Some of the lessons were very powerful like - first thing in life is to do anything with conviction and how without a conviction, a simple statement, even from a passerby, can knock you off the ground. Great things can be achieve with regular rhythms (routine) of life with patience. Life will give you what you picture in your brain! You have to "See it, Feel it and Trust it" (SFT). Life is like flying a plane which can encounter any mishap any time - key is to be calm even crashing! Nothing is an accident in life.  And, you make your enemies friends by playing the sports they like! You keep eye on field not on outcome. Sometime you may have to start from again rather than getting drag further into same mess as you don't have to prove yourself to anyone! Sometime you may need a different putter to play the shot! At the end it doesn't matter to get ball in the hole! What matters is to bury your lies and live by truth.

Trailer here

Ignorance and Arrogance

If you are an ignorant - it's OK. If you are an arrogant -I can even deal with it. But if you are both an ignorant and an arrogant at same time - let me tell you, people are done with you.

Safa aur Marwah!

Tum jaante ho - "Safa" aur "Marwah" ke beech main dorne ka kiya matlab hota hai.

Ye kahani sirf Bibi Hajira aur Hazrat Ismail ki nahi hai - bulke ye istaa'rah (nishani) hai is baat ka ke - Inssaan ki saari Zindagi khushi aur dukh ke beech chalti hai. Isi se guzar ker insaan zindagi ka maqsad aur noor pata hai. Ye 'ritual' hai sabar-o-shukar ki taalim ka!

Laal Baig

Another gem of writing from Banu Apa. (Total Time about half hour)

"Hum khud apni mataye-garoor ko apni ana ki aag main jala ker maar dete hain aur phir saari zindagi uspe laal baig ke tarah reengte rehte hain"

On Eid Day

Khuda Quran main kehta hai ke woh hame aazmaye ga - dar se, bhook se, maal se, jaan se aur phaloN (aulad) ki kami se (2:155).

Kubhi kubhi sochta hun - zaroori to nahi ke - ye dar, bhook, maal, jaan aur phalon ki kami hamari apni ho. Iska ye matlab bhi to ho sakta hai ke - kisi aur ke dar ko hum kitna baantte hain, kisi aur ki bhook ko hum kitna mehsoos kerte hain. Kisi ke maal pe badnazri to nahi kerte. Kisi aur ki jaan ko kese bachate hain aur apni aulad ko kitna is qabil banate hain ke woh kisi aur ke kaam aaye!

Baqol Ashfaq Ahmad: Allah hame asani de aur saath asani taqseem kerne ka sharf bhi de!

Hum Baray Ho Gaye!

Aik hulki phulki magar khubsurat nazam. Shared from Rida's blog. Poet unknow.

Hum baray ho gaye
Muskurahat, tabassum, hansi, qehqahay
Sub kay sub kho gaye
Hum baray ho gaye

Zimma-e-dari musalsal nibhatay rahay
Apnay dukh soch kar roay tanhai main
Mehfilon main magar muskuratay rahay
Kitnay logon se ab mukhtalif ho gaye
Hum baray ho gaye

Aur kitni musafat hai baqi abhi
Zindagi ki hararat hai baqi abhi
Wo jo hum se baray hain salamat rahain
In sabhi ki zarorat hai baqi abhi
Jo thapak kar sulatay thay khud so gaye
Hum baray ho gaye

Khatm honay ko ab zindagani hui
Janay kub aai aur kya jawani hui
Jo haqeqat thi ab wo kahani hui
Manzilain mil gaein humsafar kho gaye
Hum baray ho gaye

Updated Fairy tale!

Last week we watched new Hollywood flick "Friends With Benefits". On lighter note it was a good watch to relax (though R-Rated). Just sharing one line from movie - Mother to Jamie (Mila Kunis):


"You need to update your fairy tale. You don't need a prince on horse carriage but a partner to face this world".

 Also this movie portrayed NY and spirit of NY so well!
 Trailer here

Boys' sexploitation

Few days ago, I posted my review on off beat bollywood movie "I AM" (here). Rohit is one heck of an intelligent boy from Mumbai. He send me his review. One thing striking in his review is statistics of child abuse back home:

".............The piece, “I am Abhimanyu”, is another very important one. This subject of Child sexual abuse needs more discussion in public domain. This is one area that is mostly shoved under the carpet, in Indian homes. In a survey conducted by government of India, it was found that 53.22% of children being surveyed were sexually abused, out of which 52.9% were boys, a number way higher than the girls (Source –Study on Child Abuse, India 2007 by Ministry of Women and Child Development, Govt. of India. More details are also available on Wikipedia). It is important that we build an atmosphere of confidence in our homes so that children can report such issues at least to someone......"

Also his take on movie is way different than mine (I loved his take on story of Megha). You can read his whole review here

Mid August!

On our independence days. I am sure most of you have seen this viral video but I think it would be an important post for this day as we all in perdes cant take des(h) out of us, no matter how hard we try!

Karthik calling Karthik

I was recommended this movie long time ago but remained unopened on my desk for months. Finally I saw this flick and loved it. I have written on this blog before about my interest in Schizophrenia.

'Karthik calling Karthik' starring Farhan Akhtar (also producer) is an off beat movie for which it is said that in an effort to do his role, he isolated himself in real life and turned off his phone. He also learned to solve the Rubik's Cube, Which was shown as hobby of central character - and at the end Farhan did a superb job of a schizophrenic.

This movie superbly deal with the denial, bi-polar roller coaster, intelligence, self manipulation and self-mutilation of a schizophrenic person. This movie reminded me of all schizophrenic patients and people I have met in life. If you like off beat flicks watch it.

Add.: It was more like a 'mutiple personality disorder' than Schizophrenia.....and at one point in movie they brought this point too...but I guess for the sake of movie, it was portrayed simply as Schizophrenia.