One of Iqbal's classic

 

Ishq!

عشق کا لفظ عشقہ سے ماخوذ ہے

جو اس بیل کا نام ہے

جس کو عربی میں "لہلاب"

اور ہندی میں "عشق پیچاں"

اردو میں (امر بیل)

اور پشتو میں جسکو (نیلا داری) کہتے ہیں

یہ بیل جس درخت سے لپیٹ جائے

اس کو بے برگ وبار کر دیتی ہے

پھر زرد ہو جاتا ہے

اور کچھ دنوں بعد بلکل خشک ہو جاتا ہے

اس طرح جب عشق ؛ قلب عاشق میں پیدا ہو

تو غیر محبوب قلب سے فنا؛ خود عاشق کی ذات فنا اور معشوق ہی معشوق رہ جاتا ہے۔۔۔ 

Life goes on!!

 

One common mistake on Meer Shyr

 Everyone reads

Actual Shyr is

One common mistake

 Most of people, even publications, speak/write the following shyr of Ghalib:

The actual radeef is:

I agree with that

 

Agree?

 

Inflation or Greed?

 I go to 'Whole Foods' regularly, which means once every five years!!!

It is called Whole Foods because it costs you a whole paycheck.

I ended up in Whole Foods this time because I had to return stuff to Amazon. I met an elderly gentleman who was almost 85-90 years old. As I complained under my breath about unreasonably high prices on the shelves, he smiled and said:

"Our Federal government thinks it's all due to inflation. No, my son, this is all due to the greed of big chain corporations and business owners who jacked up prices in the pandemic, digested all government loans without paying them back, and now don't want to bring prices back down. It's not inflation; it's all greed." 

One great shyr

زُلفیں ، سینہ ، ناف ، کمر

ایک ندی میں کتنے بَھنور

"جاں نثار اختر" 

Doctor

I feel particularly privileged to have had good teachers from elementary till post-graduation. During my internship (house job) back in my previous life in Pakistan, one of our junior professors, who had recently returned from England after pursuing MRCP, had an immense passion for teaching. Once he said,

"As a doctor, you are obliged to teach and pass on knowledge to the juniors. The word doctor derives from the Latin word “docere,” meaning "to teach."

A common literary mistake

 Most people read Daag Dahelvi shyr wrong as:

Actual wordings are:

Aesa confidence chahiye

 

Kintsugi

 

Life!

 

حاصل زندگی حسرت کے سوا کچھ بھی نہی 

یہ کیا نہیںُ وہ ہوا نہیں یہ ملا نہیں وہ رہا نہیں

Mirza Ghalib ka ghar

 

Money vs Relationships

One lesson I learned—and advised children in the family to understand—is that sooner or later in life, they will be presented with situations where they must choose between salvaging a relationship or walking away with (some) money. It sounds strange, but it is true.

It may be a friendship, marriage, or another relationship.

Alas! I have seen people fight for money at the expense of relationships. Siblings not talking to each other for decades, getting divorced, blocking friends - It's all not worth it. Even if you have to sustain some loss, take it. 

It is absolutely not worth going to the extreme stage on the pretext that he said this, she said this, He did this, she did this.

Even if you have to give up on your rightful stand, do so. Let things go. Move on.

Later, as years go by, you will learn that money vanishes, good jobs end, cars get depreciated, and houses get sold - but heartache and memories stay.

*

Urdu (and Luckhnow)

 

On Pakistan

I landed at NY JFK airport on April 13. That day, I was full of Pakistaniat. As I get boiled in the melting pot of humanity in the USA, it still sometimes hurts me to see my previous homeland not doing well.

 

 

Paranoid

 As I work at a quarternary medical center, we get the sickest of sickest patients transferred from outside hospitals. A wrong clinical judgment in that split of a second can kill a patient. I have a very close friend who is a very senior physician and a mentor for me. He reviews cases of bad or unexpected outcomes. The following conversation occurred two days ago.

(phone rang)

"What did I do wrong this time?"

"Nothing! I called to check on your shenanigans outside of work."

"I am now getting paranoid whenever you call."

"I am glad. We need to be paranoid. We deal with human lives. It is a prerequisite. Have a good day."

(Call ended)

On Eid

‏عیدگاہِ ما غریباں کوئے تو

‏ایں بہ ساعت عید، دیدن روئے تو

Your street is Eid-gaah for us poors 

The glimpse of your face is the moment of Eid 

 - Amir Khusrau

عیدگاه ما غریبا‌ں کوئے تو

ایں بہ ساعت عید، دیدن روئے تو 

کعبۂ من، قبلۂ من روئے تو

سجدہ گاہ عاشقاں ابروئے تو 

صد ہزارا‌ٓں عید قربانت کنم 

اے ہلالِ ما، خم ابروئے تو 

دست بکشا جانب زنبیل ما 

آفریں بر ہمت بازوئے تو 

یا نظام الدین محبوبِ خدا 

جملہ محبوبان غلام روئے تو

(کلام حضرت امیر خسرو)