My usual coffee places were closed (today is Thanksgiving Day in the USA). But found a Starbucks that is open and is allowing customers to sit outside in the open (also can use the restrooms).

Nobody else was around (other than some drive in customers in their cars). Very quiet and cloudy morning.

Achhi soorat ko savarne ki zarurat kya hai?
Saadgi mein bhi qayamat ki adaa hoti hai
Tum jo aa jaate ho masjid mein adaa karne namaaaz
Tumko maloom hai kitno ki qazaa hoti hai?

This one is from Gulzar. We grew up listening a lot to this song. I think this was featured in a Hindi movie. (not an expert on Hindi movies – so not sure of it though)

Naam gum jaayegaa, 
Chehra ye badal jaayegaa,
Meri aawaaz hi pehchaan hai,
‘Gar yaad rahe

Roughly translated…

My name will be lost to your memory
And I will look very different too
But my voice will still be recognizable
Only if you are able to remember it

The other day, the weather forecasters warned us that Storm Zeta will be going thru where we live. Which got me thinking how many storms have we had this year? US storm naming has an interesting pattern. Every year we start with the letter A (first storm is named starting with A – it was Arthur this year) and then go thru B, C … The names alternate between male names and female names. The starting name alternates between male and female every year. Did you know you can submit your own names to NOAA?

Back to the count. There are no names with Q, U, X, Y, Z any year. So, there are 21 names every year. What happens when we have more storms like we did this year? Turns out, we give up all pretensions to innovation and go straight for Greek Alphabets – Alpha, Beta etc etc.

Back to Storm Zeta. The Greek letter (upper case) for Zeta is “Z”. This is where my confusion started… Did we have 45 storms this year? (21 English names and then 24 letters in the Greek Alphabet).

It was Sunjay Talele who reminded me that “Z” is only the sixth letter in Greek Alphabet. Which, in turn reminded me that, once upon a time (my ninth grade to be precise), I had found all the Greek letters enumerated in a page in the back of the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary my dad had bought for me. I had even learnt them by rote.

I figured, 40 years later, might as well learn once more the letters and how to write them in lower case and upper case. After four days, I can now write all the letters backwards (omega to alpha) and can ace all the quizzes on Greek Alphabets – at least the ones I could find on the internet.

Will see how much recall I have a week from now…

The confusing letters for me included eta (“H”), zeta and xi (cannot write the letters in English script). And I always get confused with “o”. Tend to think of it as omega rather than omicron.

In the words of the poet Firaq Gorakhpuri…

“Aaye the hanste-khelte
Maikhaane mein Firaq
Jab pee chuke sharaab toh
Sanjeeda ho gaye”

This one is from Mirza Ghalib:

Yeh na thi hamari qismat, ke wisaal-e-yaar hota
Agar aur jeete rehtey, yehi intezaar hota.

Yeh masaael-e-tasavvuf, yeh tera bayaan Ghalib
Tujhe hum Wali samajhte, jo na badaa khwar hota  

The translation is from Khuswant Singh. Other than the lines I marked with ##. Those two lines were not there in the version Khuswant translated.

To be united with the beloved was not writ in my fate,
Had I lived any longer, it would have been the same long wait.

I lived on your promises, I knew they were not true,
Would not I have died of joy had I believed in you?

Ask my heart about the pain of love and it will tell you
The half-drawn bow’s the assassin, not the arrow that pierces through.

To whom can I speak of sorrows that come with the fading of light?
Death would be welcome, if it did not stand at my door every night.

##Disgraced as I shall be in death, why not I drown in the sea?
##Fated, as I am to not have a funeral, nor a tomb erected for me. 

Your concern with mystic problems, Ghalib, your language is such
You could have passed off for a saint, had you not drunk so much.

This was is from Hakim Momin Khan Momin. Commonly referred to as “Momin”, the poet lived in Delhi and was contemporary to Mirza Ghalib.

“Woh jo humme tumme qaraar thaa
Tumhein yaad ho ke naa yaad ho
Wohi yaani vaada nibhaah kaa
Tumhein yaad ho ke naa yaad ho

Woh jo lutf mujh pe the beshtar
Woh qaram ke thaa mere haal par
Mujhe sab hai yaad zaraa-zaraa
Tumhein yaad ho ke naa yaad ho”

Roughly translated,
“The agreement that we had between us
Maybe you remember, maybe you do not
That promise of being together
Maybe you remember, maybe you do not

That joy that was always with me
That kindness that was bestowed upon me
Every bit of those memories are still with me
Maybe you remember, maybe you do not”

“Naye kapde badal kar jaun kahan
Aur bal banaun kis ke liye

Wo shakhs to shahar hi chhor gaya
Main bahaar jaaun kiske liye


Muddat se koi aaya na gayaa
Sunsaan padi hai ghar ki faza

In khali kamron mein ‘Nasir’
Ab shamma jalaun kis k liye”

The rendition for this evening was by Ustad Gulshan Mir – dad of the Noorani sisters.

“Unki nazron ne kuch aisa jadoo kiya
Loot gaye hum to pehli mulaqat mein
Sharaab seekh pe daali,
Kabaab sheeshe mein
Jo baat thi unko kehne ki
Wo baat hi kehna bhul gaye
Gairon ke fasane yaad rahe
Hum apna fasana bhul gaye”

Roughly translated…

“Her mesmerizing glance had this magic on me
I got devastated the first time I met her

(/*so discombobulated I was by her beauty that */)

I poured the wine on barbecue skewers
And served the meat in the chalice

What I was going to chat her up about
I completely forgot to bring up
I remembered to tell the stories of total strangers
But forgot to tell her my own story”