After movie zero

My daughter is a Shah Rukh Khan fan. No wonder, I had to take her to SRK's movie on an opening day. After the movie, she asked:

"Is it true that if you break someone's heart, you lose your magic?"

"Beta! losing someone's trust is worse than losing the magic."

A quote

I found the following quote very interesting, actually, the other version is better

.

Another version: If you seduce her mind, her body will follow.

What you would have done?

I think this is the highest test of human integrity. After reading the following story, I asked myself, what I would have done? I don't know the answer.

 (And if I don't know the answer, I failed the test!)

A New York subway rider might have earned himself a spot for life on Santa's "nice" list after he turned in a purse with $10,000 cash he found on a train platform.

Link: https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/22/us/cash-subway-found-purse/index.html

A Diary from Haj

(Posted as shared)

"It is strange to see women totally covered sleeping in the mosque.
On the side note, the electricity bill of this place should be in millions at least. 
Only animals you will see are cats & pigeons.

It is weird to be stared at by men.
No one looks at you in the west.

In 2009, you were not allowed to take camera phone inside. Now as everyone has a smartphone, the authority cannot do much. The amount of selfies taken with Kaaba in the background is mind-boggling. People making videos while doing tawaaf is distasteful. I have even seen people Skype while doing tawaaf. I may sound ancient but C'mon people. It is just not right. 

As many men have their shoulders uncovered, it is rather cringe-worthy to see human flaws. Hair like a bear, moles & skin tags. Some men have their belly bare which is very unsightly. Quite unattractive. Such big wobbly bellies. 

The cloth of Kaaba is very fragrant. Very soft.

People bring food and give it to other people. Anything from tea to candy to dates etc etc. My sister in law actually thought that people are selling it. It is 3.16 am. People are giving away tea and snacks. Isn't it great? Free food.

There are ababeel like birds at Fajr time.

There is no overweight Malaysian or Indonesian woman and no underweight Arab woman that I have seen:-) I can see women with water bottles on the top of their heads just like a gaon ki aurat with matka on her head. It is very amusing to see that. Some Arab woman from a gaon of Egypt may be.

Egyptians make the largest proportion of visitors to Makkah followed by Pakistan & Indonesia. "

Trajectory

As I have lived more than half of my life, and as I try to connect the dots of various episodes, I am learning that sometimes minor incidents in our lives set a trajectory of more significant future events. We meet someone accidentally, see a billboard, read a mindless article, travel somewhere for no reason, or even make a wrong turn on a highway. Minor events and daily occurrences sometimes set a trajectory to a more immense horizon. I think I blogged the quote from Steve Jobs before:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path; and that will make all the difference.”

*

On "Good Anger"

Following has been described frequently in sufi literature:

"Gussa aag ki ruhani shakal hai. Agar qaboo main rahe to chulhe pe tuaam ka baais banti hai - aur be-qaboo ho jaaye to ghar jhulas deti hai".

(Anger is a spiritual form of fire. If stays in control, it prepares a feast - and if gets out of control, can gut the whole house.)

Over the years, I learned that actually, the post-anger phase is more beneficial! After a bout of (hopefully controlled) anger as the waves of emotions defervescence - answers to many unresolved queries hit the mind.

On "Reading Books"

I read this quote somewhere on net, and loved it:

"I don’t read books to learn from them. I read them to experience them, and to learn about myself through those experiences."

That's how books should be read.

Trump (aur hum)

I am not a big fan of Donald Trump for many obvious reasons.

Magar kabhi kabhi sochta hun: Hum sab ke andar aik Trump rehta hai jo hasbe zaroorat bahir aata rehta hai

(But sometimes I think: We all have a kind of Trump inside us, which we use as needed).

Marriage and Adat

One of my friends constantly "bitch" about his married life. One day in frustration, I said" "Than why don't you leave her."  There was a pause of few minutes on text, and then he replied: "Shayed mujhe uski adat ho gai hai," followed by this famous lyrics of a legendary musical dramatist Alan Jay Lerner.

Damn, damn, damn, damn
I've grown accustomed to her face

She almost makes the day begin
I've grown accustomed to the tune
She whistles night and noon
Her smiles, her frowns
Her ups, her downs

Are second nature to me now
Like breathing out and breathing in
I was serenely independent and content before we met
Surely I could always be that way again

And yet
I've grown accustomed to her looks
Accustomed to her voice
Accustomed to her face

Youtube link:  https://youtu.be/IewpDlwamF0

ikigai

Interesting Japenese concept

iki meaning "life (feel alive)" and kai/gai meaning "(by having an) effect"

See where you lie in this potpourri

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on Chai

My translation beow.

مولانا ابوالکلام آزاد رح، غبار خاطر میں فرماتے ہیں

وہ چینی چائے جس کا عادی تھا، کئی دن ہوئے ختم ہوگئی۔ مجبورا ہندوستان کی اس سیاہ پتی کا جوشاندہ پی رہا ہوں تعبیر و تسمیہ قاعدے کے بموجب لوگ چائے کے نام سے پکارتے ہیں اور دودھ ڈال کر اس کا گرم شربت بنایا کرتے ہیں۔

میں چائے کو چائے کے لئے پیتا ہوں، لوگ دودھ اور شکر کے لئے پیتے ہیں

چائے چین کی پیداوار ہے اور چینیوں کی تصریح کے مطابق پندرہ سو برس سے استعمال کی جارہی ہے لیکن وہاں کبھی کسی کے خواب و خیال میں بھی یہ نہیں گزرا کہ اس جوہر لطیف کو دودھ کی کثافت سے آلودہ کیا جاسکتا ہے۔ (ہمارے) لوگ چائے کی جگہ ایک طرح کا سیال حلوہ  بناتے ہیں، کھانے کی جگہ پیتے ہیں اور خوش ہوتے ہیں کہ ہم نے چائے پی لی۔

مولانا آزاد رح حیات ہوتے تو پاکستان کے گلی کوچوں میں دودھ پتی کی نہریں بہتے دیکھ کر سخت کڑھتے

"That Chinese chai of which I was habitual, run out a few days ago. Out of no choice I have to drink this juice of black leave which people for name and purpose call chai, and after adding milk convert it into a warm sharbat. I drink chai for chai; people drink for milk and sugar. China is the home of chai and according to their description is in use for fifteen centuries, but nobody ever in his dream thought of dirting this transcendent gem with the heaviness of milk. Our people, in a way, make a kind of a liquid pastry which they drink instead of eating and feel happy that they had a chai."

(Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in his book Gubare Khatir)

On "Ataturk"

What a beautiful article published on Mustafa Kamal Pasha Ataturk in Dawn

"... He believed in minimising casualties for units under his command, and took Istanbul by bluff. His motto was ‘Don’t fight a battle you cannot win’. Military victories didn’t go to his head, as for instance his refusal to advance further into the Balkans after he had driven the Greeks out of Anatolia and Asia Minor and secured eastern Thrace and the Straits Zone. He refused when his elated colleagues pressed him to advance toward Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia. He asked them to build on what they had achieved, warning that a further push into the Balkans would unite Europe on the half-a-millennium-old war cry, ‘The Turks are coming!’ He was a Macedonian, he said, but he didn’t believe in reckless adventures..... He predicted that war would break out in the spring of 1940, and though he went wrong by about six months, he had made up his mind to keep Turkey out of it.....Atatürk was Napoleon’s admirer as a general but, as quoted by Lord Kinross in his biography, Atatürk, he said “Napoleon started with his country and ended with himself.” Though an excellent general, he thought, Napoleon was “without a sound political idea, more concerned with his ambition for world conquest than with the national interest of France”. According to Kinross, Atatürk liked to compare Napoleon’s invasion of Russia with the Ottoman push on Vienna “at the expense of the country’s internal welfare”. He was aware of Napoleon’s remarks, “I just go ahead and my progress is the result of my movement.” Atatürk commented: “Those who ‘just go ahead’ finally knock their head against the rock of St. Helena.”

You can read the whole article here:

https://www.dawn.com/news/1447737/atatuerk-u-turn

Alif and Ghalib

شاعری میں الف کی حیثیت  مقدس سمجھی جاتی ہے 

غالب کے شاگرد نے اصلاح کی غرض سے غزل بھیجی جس کے کسی  مصرعہ میں الف دبتا تھا جس پر غالب نے کہا  کہ بھائی 

“الف دبتا ہے تو ہمارا کلیجہ دبتا ہے”

A lesson in Community Medicine

In medical school, we used to have a subject called Community Medicine. But our elders practiced that even before modern medicine was born. My grandmother (dadi) used to say a beautiful thing:

"Jab tak gharon ki khirkion pe parde paRe rahain, mohalledari saanjhi rehti hai"!

Means: as far as the privacy of households are intact, the entire community stays united!

One parameter of intelligence

I never believed in this but I do now as I am having a hard time learning Spanish despite it is an easy to learn language and I have many people who speak the same around me.

One of the parameters of human intelligence described is how quickly a person can learn a new language.

Recipe, Passion and love

"Tum hamesha se khana bohat achha banati ho. Kiya Nani Ma ki recipe haat lag gai hai?"

"Khane main zaiqa recipe se nahi - bulke us muhabbat aur lagan se aata hai - jis se khana banaya jaata hai". 

Sara Shagufta

Sara Shagufta died young at the age of 30 after committing suicide. She is one of the few women poets in Urdu who was translated into English and was published at Columbia Journal. Scholarly work is done on her poetry at the University of Texas, Austin. Amrita Pritam wrote two books on her and her life was adapted/dramatized on stage. You can find her work on the famous website "Rekhta" or on Google. But all this happened after her death. She lived and died miserably. Atiya Dawood tried to salvage her but fatality of depression didn't even listen to shock therapy.

(I don't know why I kept thinking of Ruhi Banu while reading her).

Read this excerpt from her autobiography and conclude your own lessons about the ugly face of life and about the intellectual discussions which are of no use!

 ایک شام شاعر صاحب نے کہا مجھے آپ سے ایک ضروری بات کرنی ہے۔ پھر ایک روز ریستوراں میں ملاقات ہوئی۔ اُس نے کہا شادی کرو گی؟ دوسری ملاقات میں شادی طے ہو گئی۔ اَب قاضی کے لئے پیسے نہیں تھے۔ میں نے کہا ۔ آدھی فیس تم قرض لے لو اور آدھی فیس میں قرض لیتی ہوں۔ چونکہ گھر والے شریک نہیں ہوں گے میری طرف کے گواہ بھی لیتے آنا۔ ایک دوست سے میں نے اُدھار کپڑے مانگے اور مقررہ جگہ پر پہنچی اور نکاح ہو گیا۔ قاضی صاحب نے فیس کے علاوہ میٹھائی کا ڈبہ بھی منگوالیا تو ہمارے پاس چھ روپے بچے۔ باقی جھنپڑی پہنچتے پہنچتے ، دو روپے، بچے ۔ میں لالٹین کی روشنی میں گھونگھٹ کاڑھے بیٹھی تھی۔ شاعر نے کہا ، دو روپے ہوں گے، باہر میرے دوست بغیر کرائے کے بیٹھے ہیں۔ میں نے دو روپے دے دئے۔ پھر کہا ! ہمارے ہاں بیوی نوکری نہیں کرتی۔ نوکری سے بھی ہاتھ دھوئے۔

 گھر میں روز تعلیم یافتہ شاعر اور نقاد آتے اور ایلیٹ کی طرح بولتے۔ کم از کم میرے خمیر میں علم کی وحشت تو تھی ہی لیکن اس کے باوجود کبھی کبھی بُھوک برداشت نہ ہوتی ۔ روز گھر میں فلسفے پکتے اور ہم منطق کھاتے۔ ایک روز جھونپڑی سے بھی نکال دیئے گئے، یہ بھی پرائی تھی۔ ایک آدھا مکان کرائے پر 

لے لیا۔ 

میں چٹائی پر لیٹی دیواریں گِنا کرتی ۔ اور اپنے جہل کا اکثر شکار رہتی۔ مجھے ساتواں مہینہ ہوا۔ درد شدید تھا اور بان کا درد بھی شدید تھا ۔ عِلم کے غرور میں وہ آنکھ جھپکے بغیر چلا گیا۔ جب اور درد شدید ہوا تو مالِک مکان میری چیخیں سُنتی ہوئی آئی اور مجھے ہسپتال چھوڑ آئی ۔ میرے ہاتھ میں درد اور پانچ کڑکڑاتے ہوئے نوٹ تھے۔ تھوڑی دیر کے بع لڑکا پیدا ہوا۔ سردی شدید تھی اور ایک تولیہ بھی بچے کو لپیٹنے کے لئے نہیں تھا۔ ڈاکٹر نے میرے برابر اسٹریچر پر بچے کو لِٹا دیا۔ 

۔ پانچ منٹ کے لئے بچے نے آنکھیں کھولیںاور کفن کمانے چلا گیا۔ بس ! جب سے میرے جسم میں آنکھیں بھری ہوئی ہیں۔ Sister وارڈ میں مجھے لٹا گئی۔ میں نے Sister سے کہا میں گھر جانا چاہتی ہوں کیونکہ گھر میں کسی کو عِلم نہیں کہ میں کہاں ہوں ۔ اُس نے بے باکی سے مجھے دیکھا اور کہا ، تنہارے جسم میں ویسے بھی زہر پھیلنے کا کا ڈر ہے ۔ تم بستر پر رہو ۔ لیکن اب آرام تو کہیں بھی نہیں تھا۔ میرے پاس مُردہ بچہ اور پانچ رُوپے تھے۔ میں نے Sister سے کہا ، میرے لئے اب مشکل ہے ہسپتال میں رہنا۔ میرے پاس فیس کے پیسے نہیں ہیں میں لے کر آتی ہوں، بھاگوں گی نہیں۔ تمہارے پاس میرا مُردہ بچہ امانت ہے، اور سیڑھیوں سے اُتر گئی۔

 مجھے 105 ڈگری بُخار تھا۔ بس پر سوار ہوئی ، گھر پہنچی۔ میرے پستانوں سے دُودھ بہہ رہا تھا ۔میں دودھ گلاس میں بھر کر رکھ دیا ۔ اتنے میں شاعر اور باقی منشی حضرات تشریف لائے ۔ میں نے شاعر سے کہا ، لڑکا پیدا ہوا تھا ، مَر گیا ہے۔ اُس نے سرسری سنا اور نقادوں کو بتایا۔ کمرے میں دو منٹ خاموشی رہی اور تیسرے منٹ گفتگو شروع ہوگئی ! فرائڈ کے بارے میں تمہارا کیا خیال ہے ؟ راں بو کیا کہتا ہے ؟ سعدی نے کیا کہا ہے ؟ اور وارث شاہ بہت بڑا آدمی تھا ۔ یہ باتیں تو روز ہی سُنتی تھی لیکن آج لفظ کُچھ زیادہ ہی سُنائی دے رہے تھے۔ مجھے ایسا لگا ! جیسے یہ سارے بڑے لوگ تھوڑی دیر کے لئے میرے لہو میں رُکے ہوں، اور راں بو اور فرائڈ میرے رحم سے میرا بچہ نوچ رہے ہوں۔ اُس روز علم میرے گھر پہلی بار آیا تھا اور میرے لہُو میں قہقہے لگا رہا تھا ۔ میرے بچے کا جنم دیکھو !!!  چنانچہ ایک گھنٹے کی گفتگو رہی اور خاموشی آنکھ لٹکائے مجھے دیکھتی رہی۔ یہ لوگ عِلم کے نالے عبُور کرتے کمرے سے جُدا ہوگئے۔

 میں سیڑھیوں سے ایک چیخ کی طرح اُتری۔ اب میرے ہاتھ میں تین رُوپے تھے ۔ میں ایک دوست کے ہاں پہنچی اور تین سو روپے قرض مانگے ۔ اُس نے دے دیئے ۔ پھر اُس نے دیکھتے ہوئے کہا ! کیا تمہاری طبیعت خراب ہے ؟ میں نے کہا ، بس مجھے ذرا ا بخار ہے ، میں زیادہ دیر رُک نہیں سکتی ۔ پیسے کسی قرض خواہ کو دینے ہیں ، وہ میرا انتظار کر رہا ہوگا۔ ہسپتال پہنچی ۔ بِل 295 روپے بنا۔ اب میرے پاس پھر مُردہ بچہ اور پانچ روپے تھے۔ میں نے ڈاکٹر سے کہا۔ آپ لوگ چندہ اکٹھا کر کے بچے کو کفن دیں، اور اِس کی قبر کہیں بھی بنا دیں۔ میں جارہی ہوں۔ بچے کی اصل قبر تو میرے دل میں بَن چکی تھی۔ میں پھر دوہری چیخ ےک ساتھ سیڑھیوں سے اُتری اور ننگے پیر سڑک پہ دوڑتی ہوئی بس میں سوار ہوئی۔ ڈاکٹر نے سمجھا شاید صدمے کی وجہ سے میں ذہنی توازن کھو بیٹھی ہوں۔ کنڈکٹر نے مجھ سے ٹکٹ نہیں مانگا اور لوگ بھی ایسے ہی دیکھ رہے تھے۔ میں بس سے اُتری، کنڈکٹر کے ہاتھ پر پانچ روپے رکھتے ہوئے ، چل نکلی۔ گھر ؟ گھر!! گھر پہنچی۔ گلاس میں دودھ رکھا ہوا تھا۔ کفن سے بھی زیادہ اُجلا۔ میں نے اپنے دودھ کی قسم کھائی ۔ شعر میں لکھوں گی، شاعری میں کروں گی، میں شاعرہ کہلاؤں گی۔اور دودھ باسی ہونے سے پہلے ہی میں نے ایک نظم لکھ لی تھی، لیکن تیسری بات جھوٹ ہے، میں شاعرہ نہیں ہوں۔ مجھے کوئی شاعرہ نہ کہے۔ 

شاید میں کبھی اپنے بچے کو کفن دے سکوں۔ آج چاروں طرف سے شاعرہ! شاعرہ! کی آوازیں آتی ہیں، لیکن ابھی تک کفن کے پیسے پُورے نہیں

Bachha

Insaan kisi bhi umar ka ho, us ke andar aik khilkhilata bachha hamesha kahin chupa betha rehta hai

Bus koshish yahi honi chahiye ke - zindagi ke kisi moR pe - kahin woh bachha ghayel na ho jaaye

Going Deep

One thing I have learned over many years is that what you see people on the face value, people are way more than that. You have to go way deep down or wait till they show their mojo to you.

Every human is a book in itself.

I read Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture" again after almost 10 years. I was always reluctant to agree with him on this but I think he was absolutely right when he said: "Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you. When you are pissed off at somebody, and you're angry at them, you just haven't given them enough time. Just give them a little more time — and they'll almost always impress you."

Annapurna Devi and Haridas

The following excerpt is from a relatively long article send to me as a forward. The article itself deals with the life of a remarkable lady, Annapurna Devi. She was the wife of legendary Ravi Shankar. The famous Indian movie, "Abhimaan", was made on the relationship of Ravi Shankar and Annapurna Devi. You must read that article as it will make you gasp at many places.

Click at Annapurna Devi and her music of silence ( https://bit.ly/2zlHWbn )

But in a context, there was a beautiful mention of Akbar, Tansen and his teacher Haridas.

"..I had always likened Annapurna to Mian Tansen, the legendary 16th-century musician in Emperor Akbar’s court, who could start fires and create rainstorms with his ragas. (In fact, the Maihar gharana traces its teachings back 400 years directly to Tansen, so in some sense she is musically a direct descendant of Tansen.) But after hearing this story, I began to think differently.

Legend has it that one day in court, after yet another soul-satisfying musical performance from Tansen, Emperor Akbar declared there could be no voice more divine than Tansen’s. The singer humbly replied that if the Emperor could hear his teacher, a hermit called Haridas, his own poor efforts would be forgotten. The Emperor wanted to immediately summon Haridas to court but Tansen cautioned him that it was not possible – his teacher did not sing on demand, only when he felt inspired.

Intrigued, the Emperor, with Tansen, set off for the forest in Vrindavan where Haridas lived in a hut. When they arrived, it was early morning, and the teacher was deep in meditation. Akbar hid in the bushes while Tansen prostrated himself before his guru and began singing a sacred hymn his guru had taught him. The teacher, still deep in meditation, did not open in his eyes. Then Tansen, as planned, deliberately sang a note offkey. His guru immediately opened his eyes and corrected him. Tansen begged him to remind him of the correct notes. So the guru lifted his voice and rendered the same hymn so magnificently that Akbar fell into ecstasy. It was only then that Tansen revealed to him that the guest hiding in the bushes was the Emperor of India. When they returned to the capital, a bewildered Akbar told Tansen he had been right: his teacher was beyond anything he had heard before, but one thing puzzled him — how could there be such a vast difference when both had sung the same song, and hit the same notes, flawlessly. It is said that Tansen replied: ‘The cause is simple — I sing to please the king, he sings only to please God.’