Chand si beti!

"khuda kare tumhare haaN aik piyari si beti paida ho"

"Mujeh beti ki bad-dua mut do"

"Aese to nahi bolte. BetiaN to bari piyari hoti haiN. Sach poocho to betoN se bhi ziyada. Bilkul phooloN jesi"

"Tum jis mulk main rehte ho wahan shayed aesa hota ho magar is mulk main betiaN aaj bhi pauN ki juti hai. Jub koi shaks tumhari phool jesi beti ko roz peete ga aur lataiN ghunse maare ga, tub tum se poochon gi ke -beti ki khwaish dua hoti hai ya bad-dua"


Related previous posts: Jhannum (Living Hell) , kalank, Beti ka Dukh

Inches and Miles

Human relationships are of 4 kinds

1. Inch long Inch deep - Its a Hi Bye kind of relationship

2. Mile long Inch deep - It appears as a very lovey dovey kind of relationship in public but breaks with even a minor shock

3. Inch long Mile deep - On face, it seems very simple and superficial but very strong in commitment. Its like, best friends apart for years but still very connected.

4. Mile deep Mile long - its an ideal relationship.

(Heard from one person, I met at Marhaba Lounge of Dubai Airport - while we discuss different dimensions of husband-wife relationship)

W

Oliver Stone did a wonderful job by making movie "W". It tells us how an arrogant, lost, low intellect, over religious man became a president of USA, even againt wishes and reservation of his own father and how he was made fool by his own people to get drag into Iraq war.

There are 2 kinds of leader. One who lead the people and the other who get led by the people. Unfortunately, George W Bush was a second type.

Just do it

I was travelling with a phyician for our little charity project.

"How you do everything together. You have a very very busy practice, you continue to publish papers, you do tons of teaching and administrative work and on top of that always have time available to travel for charity work. How?"

"I have seen thousands of ads. in my life but years ago one advertisement caught my eye and I always follow that 'Nike' ad. I don't ask too many questions. I say, JUST DO IT"

Bazeecha-e-atfal

Today I really wanted to recite this ghazal of Mirza Ghalib....
One of the best thing ever written in Urdu.

(Jagjit sung it very well too here)

Mujeh apni chadar main yun dhanp lo

A beautiful shair of urdu poet - Dr. Bashir Badar

Mujhe apni chaadar main yuN DhaaNp lo
ZameeN aasmaaN kuchh dikhaaii na de

You can listen part of ghazal here

A Professional Advise

When I was finishing residency, our program director - gave us a simple advise. It always worked for me. He advised us to take once in a while donuts, cookies, candies, pizza etc. for colleagues, staff and friends.


Try it. You will not regret few bucks and will make you popular at workplace.

Stop Sign

(Police siren)

"Yes officer"
"Papers please! You blew Stop sign"

"Did I? I am sorry officer. I was watching full moon"
(handing over license, insurance and registration)

(Looking at sky)
"Hmmmm. Interesting. I advise you to be careful next time"

"Thank you Officer"
Driving away (in my heart) "Interesting"

Chand Taare

Jub hum chote se the to makan ki chat pe raat ko khule aasman ke neeche dadi ki god main sir rukh ker jinoN parioN ki kahaniaN suna kerte. Woh kahaniaN tub sach lagti thiN. Aik hi kahani dadi se kai kai baar sunte magar hur baar nai lagti -
Woh choti si raatain woh lambi kahani

Kahani sunte sunte main chand ko dekha kerta. Duniya main agar koi cheez sab se ziyada 'mystifying' hai to woh poora chand hai. Sahil pe poore chand ki chandni ya Chicago ki barfani raatoN ke baad 'Lake Michigan' pe damakte poore chand se ziyada duniya main khubsurat cheez koi nahi!

Aik din Dadi ne bataya: "Jub is duniya main koi shaks marta hai to uske naam ka aik taara aasman pe bun jaata hai" Aur barsoN maiN Dadi ki is baat ko sach samjhta raha.

(35 years fast forward)

Me and my son looking full moon and trying to find constellations.
My son: "Do you know how stars get formed"
Me: "When someone dies, a star of his name get formed in the sky"
My son: "You don't know daddy. Its because of the clouds getting together by energy, and its true".

I smiled.

Ya to shayed science ne bohat ziyada taraqqi ker li hai ya shayed hum hi bohat bhole the!

Caves

Last week while I was in Texas, we friends embark on exploring caves and caverns. It was an amazing experience walking in huge basketball field size caves 200 feet beneath earth. As we went from one cave to another, I was thinking more and more of Prophet Muhammad and Cave Hira.

As I came back, I tried to find info on this topic from net but to my surprise most history of Muhammad's 15-20 years trips to cave hira is not available. I found few facts very interesting rather intriguing.

1. Cave Hira is on Jable-Nur. Its not easy to climb. What triggered Muhammad to take this risky adventure? I didn't find any reference of having any tradition in Arabs to go in cave and meditate (most went to Kaaba in Mecca).

2. How he survived in cave for days without food (or so little food), in darkness, little space and against snakes/bats/animals.

3. What made me sad - I found that Cave Hira and area around is now littered with garbage and graffiti. We kill people and burn buildings if someone disrespects Muhammad but see how much we respect heritage of our own religion and prophet?

Anybody out there with any reliable reference on Muhammad's life in Hira?

Of mice and men

I was in airplane finishing John Steinbeck's classic novel "Of mice and men". An old man of about 70 years was sitting beside me. He asked me - what you will do, if similar situation happens to you?

Plot: This is a story of 2 men who are best friends. One friend is mentally challenged (Lennie) and other (George) takes care of him. They travel and work together. Accidentally, Lennie killed a woman and now woman's husband and other people from ranch are sure to kill him.

Question is: Would you kill your loved one by yourself - unaware in instant -to save him from agony of getting brutally killed by others? or will you not have (or should not have) heart to kill your loved one? - He is gonna get killed anyway.

Old man beside me in Airplane said: When I read this novel at age 40, I thought of never killing my loved one no matter what but now at age 70 I have other thoughts.


(John Steinbeck was an American writer. He published Of Mice and Men in 1937. In 1962 he was given Nobel Prize for Literature. you can read whole novel here)

Advise

Those of you who are in the professional world, let me advise you again
(here, here, here, here)

1. There are no friends - you may have good colleagues but remember - "dost hota nahi har haath milane wala".

2. Speak as needed. Neither less nor more.

3. Don't gossip or say anything bad about anyone. Gossip travels faster than light, except it's a boomerang.

Woman, Man and Dog house

"How come your husband loves you so much and never even eye another woman? You may not like it but he is a very handsome as well as a successful man and many women may be looking for him"

"Because I always treat him like my prince. Ever heard: Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cathouse".

Picture abhi baqi hai mere dost

Over the weekend, I was in Dallas and was sitting with a friend - talking depressingly about few events from life. Though this may not be true but I liked it when he imitated these dialogues of Shahrukh Khan from the movie 'Om Shanti Om'. I kept smiling all my way back.

"Ladies and Gentleman. Kehtey hain, agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho to poori kaainaat use tum se milane ki koshish main lag jaati hai........aaj is baat ka bhi yaqeen ho gaya ke hamari filmoN ki tarah, hamari zindagi main bhi 'End' tuk, sab kuch theek hi ho jaata hai - Happys Ending - aur agar theek na ho to woh 'The End' nahi. Picture abhi baqi hai mere dost. Picture abhi baqi hai ...."

Try to say this line in your bad patch - "Picture abhi baqi hai mere dost" - it may help.


You can see both versions, (funny) and (serious) at youtube.

The Catcher In The Rye

The Catcher In The Rye, written by J.D.Salinger, was first published in 1951 and has since remained an all-time favorite American literature novel (so far sold 65 million copies). The novel's title, The Catcher In The Rye, is words taken from Robert Burns's poem 'If a Body Catches a Body Comin' Through the Rye.'

The plot is straightforward. It's the story of a teenager who is confused, angry, and lost. He has been kicked out of many well-known schools. This time, he is axed from an elite school called "Pencey." He worries the news will reach his home by Tuesday, so he wants to land there on Wednesday to avoid his parent's anger. He leaves Pencey on Saturday night and spends the next two days in New York City, and describes the hypocrisy of the world around him (phony people, as he says).

Beneath the plot, the central theme is "If little kids are playing in a rye field near the edge of some crazy cliff, and if they fall from the cliff, a catcher may appear from somewhere, catch and save them." Often, young blood feels lost, but if someone is there to help and guide them - it becomes the real catcher in the rye."

Holden Caulfield decides to escape from the phony world but stays against his wish to save his ten-year-old baby sister Phoebe.

If you like dry humor and sarcasm and appreciate the follies of life, you must read this novel. It helped me to understand my teenage psychological confusion and the new generation growing in front of me.

You can read the whole novel here

*

What black?

8 baras pehle main Newyork ke airport pe apne aik cousin ke phone # ke aasre pe utri. December ki sardiyaN zoro pe thi. Main immigration se bahir aai to sham ke 4 baj rahe the. Main ne public phone se use phone kiya to usne kaha: "Ye Christmas ka time hai....You have to wait till I come."

Mere paas koi chara nahi tha. Main wahin thand main beth gai...9 baje, 10 baje, 11 baje, 12 baje magar mera cousin nahi aaya. Ab to lagta tha airport bhi band hone laga hai. Ab mera cousin phone bhi nahi utha raha tha. Itne main aik bohat hi lamba aur itna kaala ke main ne zindagi main pehle nahi dekha tha, aik Habshi (black guy) mere paas aaya aur kaha: "I am seeing for last many hours, you are sitting here. I work here at airport. I am going home but its too cold and I am not sure, you may need help".

Meri to angrezi bhi tooti phooti thi. Main ne jese tese bataya ke meri bag ke andar address hai. Habshi ne kaha: "let me take you to this address and in case if it turns out to be a fake address, I will drop you to any hotel". Main akeli 25 saal ki Pakistani larki wese hi dari hui thi. Kuch samjah nahi aaya aur najane kiun us kaale pe bharosa ker liya. Woh mujeh address tuk le gaya. Woh building ke neeche wait kerta raha (note: he could have run away with my bags). Raat ke 2 baj rahe the. Shukar hai woh mere cousin ka hi address tha. Habshi ne mere cousin ko khub bura bhala kaha ke "How dare you left her alone at airport" ....

....Woh waqt guzar gaya....But in 8 years, I could not figure out why we desis always speak negative of blacks....... jubke mere liye to aik kala habshi hi Allah ka farishta ban ker nazil huwa...

....Aur main Pakistan tuk khandan main aaj bhi badnaam hun ke "Is ne to aate hi pehle din se kalle se chakkar chalana shuru ker diya tha"....

Ilm-o-Hunr

When we were in school, there was a chapter in Urdu text book of grade 5 or 6 with title, ilm-o-hunr (Knowledge vs Skill). I think, that was an important chapter but none of the teachers knew, what it was all about. Knowledge and Skill are 2 different sets of Education and serve 2 complete different purposes in life!

Knowledge is something, you contantly learn to earn your values and character - till death. Skill is something you learn over a given time period to earn your livelihood to run everyday life - making it better with experience.

You may have seen a simple plumber or a gardener or an auto-machanic, true to his value of not charging a single extra dime beside his worth of work but you may have seen many doctors, PHDs, harvard gone politicians or even teachers who are full morons.

In this new era of professional and corporate world, I am afraid - we have lost that distinction of earning knowledge and learning skills. 

The Catcher in the Rye

Nowadays, I am reading the famous novel The Catcher in the Rye" (hopefully, I will write a post once finished). Still, it constantly reminded me of one of my class-fellow who had immense dry humor, sarcasm, psychological dyslexia, "cheeni kum," but was simultaneously extremely funny. I miss you, man !! 

His famous Quote: "Meri aadhi batoN ka koi matlab nahi hota, magar un aadhi batoN ko - jin ka matlab hota hai - ko samjhane ke liye - un batoN ka janna zaroori hai - jin ka koi matlab nahi hota - Isliye zaroori hai - tum meri har bakwas pe dhiyan do"! 

My friend Arif Iqbal - now as a physician, I am sure you turned out to be one heck of a Catcher in the Rye!

*

Khush-naseeb insaan

Mujeh Hazrat Ali ke is qol ki gheraii ko samjhne main aadhi umar lag gai:

"Khush-naseeb hai woh shaks jo poora din mehnat kerne ke baad, raat ko apni biwi se ham-bistar ho kar kharratte (snore) le kar so jaata hai"

(Fortunate is a man, who after daylong hard work, sleeps snoring with his wife)

Meri aik Nazam GAZA ke naam

Gaza main jo bapi hai aaj qayamate sugra
kaanp gayi dharti, aasmaan sarak gaya

"Qatle Hussain asal main hai marge yazeed"
Islam phir zinda hoga ke hua phir karbala

Ye to taalim-e-torah ho nahi sakti kisi tarah
beh'ta khun, jalti aag, har taraf badal siyaa(h)

Ibne-maryam ko dhund ke lao kahin se yaaro
ke insaanoN ko bachaye, woh suli ka meseeha

Mujrim woh hai jo zulm dha raha hai, magar
Khamosh jo haakim hain, banao unka katehra

"sabbath' ke roz maut, khauf aur khun ki holi ?
"das aehkam" ye to na the, ke manao aashura

Barood se qaumaiN mitti nahin, batao nadaN ko
werna aaj bhi hota arz pe namrood ka basera

Duaa kerte raho dil main apne, agar majboor ho
yaqeen rakho ke raat ke baad aata hai sawera