(Unbelievably enough, he was a sessions judge at Allahabad High Court at the turn of the twentieth century).
“Udhar zulfon mein kangi ho rahi hai, kham nikalta hai
Idhar ruk ruk key, khnich khnich key hamara dam nikalta hai
Ilahi khair ho, uljhan pe uljhan parti jati hai
Na un ka kham nikalta hai, na hamara dam nikalta hai”
Sitting out in the dark and the moon blurred by the clouds, a glass of wine and and some old poems were perfect to close out a long week. This one from Gulzar (in Hindi) stuck in my mind :
Nazm uljhi hui hai seene mein
Misare atke hue hain hothon par
Udate phirte hain titaliyon ki tarah
Lafz kaagaz pe baithate hi nahin
Kab se baithaa hun main jaanam
Saade kaagaz pe likh ke naam tera
Bas tera naam hi mukammal hai
Is se behtar bhi nazm kyaa hogi
Roughly translated, he is saying:
A poem is entangled in my chest
The lines are stuck in my lips
The words are flitting around like butterflies
But refusing to settle down on my paper
I have been sitting here for so long
Having only written your name on a white paper
Only your name exists on the paper
And I ask, how can there be a better poem than that?
“Aa gayaa mera aankhon mein dam,
Ab to jalvaa dikhaa deejiye
Aap ki baat reh jaayegii,
Mera armaan nikal jaayegaa”
Rough translation …
Now that my (eternal) sleep is coming to my eyes
You should show yourself once before me
That way you will stay true to your words
And my dreams will be fulfilled too!
It was an office meeting. Two of my team mates and myself were going thru some intense discussions about an important professional decision we have to make for our business in the coming months. As we started wrapping up our discussions, we started talking about the passing away of a pet of one of my teammates.
He was particularly affected since he was very close to this pet. But more importantly the discussion was about how stoically his wife had taken to this sad passage….. till an innocuous event like he sharing a very old picture of the pet with his wife got her to completely break down.
Reminded me of an Alfred Tennyson poem – on the importance of crying. After my friends left, I looked up the poem and read it up again. It is a master stroke of Tennyson to convey the importance of crying as a natural way to relieve your inner feelings. And the wisdom of somebody who is ninety years old!!!!
Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead
Home they brought her warrior dead:
She nor swooned, nor uttered cry:
All her maidens, watching, said,
‘She must weep or she will die.’
Then they praised him, soft and low,
Called him worthy to be loved,
Truest friend and noblest foe;
Yet she neither spoke nor moved.
Stole a maiden from her place,
Lightly to the warrior stepped,
Took the face-cloth from the face;
Yet she neither moved nor wept.
Rose a nurse of ninety years,
Set his child upon her knee—
Like summer tempest came her tears—
‘Sweet my child, I live for thee.’
Alfred Lord Tennyson
“Jis chirag ko apney dum sey jalayaa hai
Usi chirag ne mera aashiyaan jalayaa hai
Bachata tha jisko hawa ke ek jhonkey se bhi main
Usi ney aaj mujhe gehri toofan mein phansaaya hai”
Translation:
The flame (of love) which I fanned with my breath
Is the same flame that has burnt my world to cinders
She, who I shielded even from the most gentle breeze
Has, indeed, today left me in the midst of a raging storm
(Unknown poet)
Ever since I had that conversation with that Afghan cab driver in DC, I have been trying to dig up more songs of Ahmad Wali on YouTube. Here is one that is just amazingly mellifluous (at least to a Bengali ear). I am also intrigued by the influence from common roots of Indian songs and Afghan songs on each other. The tunes of most of his songs remind me of some other song I have heard before. (And I cannot understand a single word of what he is saying).
For all my Bengali music lover friends, which Nazrulgeeti does the second song of Ahmad Wali (starts at 5:35) remind you of? There are parts of the song that have almost the same tune!!
And for my Afghan friends (read Miriam 🙂 ) what is the meaning of the song he is singing?
“Muthhee bandh key aanewale,
Tu hath pasarey jayega
Dhan daulat jagir se tune
Kya paya, kya payega?
Chadhta suraj dhire dhire
Dhalta hain dhal jayega”
You, who are born in this world with your fists clenched (symbolizing wanting to hold on to your belongings)
Will die with your palms open (symbolizing you will have to give up everything when you die)
With all your money, property and belongings
What have you got? What are you going to get?
The shining rising run … will slowly but surely be setting on you!!
Sharmila and the kids are at the Demi Lovato show. I got the whole house and evening to myself! So I decided to kick up my own cacophony at home 🙂
This being the World Mother Language day [the origin goes back to a very unfortunate incident. When the British, in their infinite wisdom, divided India along religious lines before they left in 1947, Pakistan was born as two large noncontiguous landmasses – one is what is today known as Pakistan and the other one is what is today known as Bangladesh. It was originally called East Bengal – because the dividing line broke apart a state that had Bengali speaking guys like me into East Bengal (as part of Pakistan) and West Bengal (as part of contiguous India – where I was born)].
Later East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan and then after its war of independence (Pakistan has a different view on this), it became Bangladesh. In between, there was a move by Pakistan to have a common language – Urdu as the national language. East Pakistan revolted against this – as they wished to keep their language Bengali as their official language – and the protest turned deadly with four students being shot dead.
Much later, UN recognized this day as the World Mother Language day to celebrate diversity in this world.
To celebrate that, spent a couple of hours listening to Bengali songs by singers from Bangladesh – some really young and upcoming talent like Dina, Saju, Liza, Shadhona… My absolute favorites are Chanchal Chowdhury and Momotaj!
Speaking of cacophony, I experimented with a combination of tabla and cajon to those tunes. I had a very faithful and appreciative listener as you can see in the picture 🙂
Also, I do not think UN sanctioned wine as part of the World Mother Language day, but I threw that in for free 🙂
