Bulleh Shah

I have heard this poem several times. Thought it would be a good time to attempt at translating it in English.

First the original Punjabi version:

parh parh ilm te faazil hoya
way kaddi apne aap nu parheya naai
phaj phaj warrna aye mandir masjid
kaddi mann apne wich warrya i nai
larrna roz shetan de naal
way kaddi nafs apne naal larriya nai
Bulleh Shah asmaani uddeya pharonda aye
Te jerra ghar betha unoon pharrya i nai

I’lmon bus kareen o yaar…
Iko alif teray darkar

Here’s my translation:

I’ve learnt enough to be a scholar
but I never learnt my own true color
I ran enough to my mosques, mandirs and all
but never entered my own heart and soul
I’ve quarreled with satan every single day
but never questioned my own temptations and way
Bulleh Shah; I seek all that’s there in the sky
but to cherish what’s at my home; I never even try

… enough of this learning my friend
all you need is an alphabet, in the end

the story

The story is simple. And it carries no deep meaning. No profound intricacy. No obscure undertone. No sophistication. The story is just scattered on the wooden piles. Like restless gazes.

I would like to believe that the story is original. I would like to believe that I wrote it. But nothing can be original. Nothing is unique. Nothing unusual.

The wait is in vain. I can’t write that story. There are no puzzles to solve. No turning, roaming and searching around. No tearing apart. No drowning in the soil.

So the story ends here.

music

A thing that makes South Asia an immensely beautiful place on earth is its musical heritage. (another thing is mathematics – but on that, later!) … Music of South Asia is rich, diverse and mesmerizing. And i am not saying it just because A R Rahman is going to win the oscars this year (oscar ceremony is still 4 hours away as i write this)… After quite some time, i took some time to venture into listening and gathering up some of the tunes i liked. So here are a few:

The first one is a live performance by Anoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale. The song is called PD7. A word of caution (in fact two): The sound, although good quality, is not very loud, so u will need some good headphones. Also please do not listen to this song while in office thinking about next month’s forecast. It wont do justice to it. You can think about next months forecast in the day and listen to this at night. That wont hurt, i am sure.

The sound of next two pieces is quite loud, but i like PD7 too much to place it at number 2 or 3.

Following is an assortment. Some of the songs are probably the best you would hear in quite a while:

The third song is Paper Planes by MIA. You would have heard it if you have watched slumdog millionaire. but do you know the lyrics…

that’s photography

The idea here is to present to the world my photography skills. So here’s a picture that I took recently with my mobile phone in Bangkok. It’s bangkok skyline, as seen from the 6th floor of the hotel I was staying in.

Some other photos can be found under the category “photo” (aptly titled, I guess), while more can be seen at my Flickr page. And both the categories and Flickr page links can be seen on the east side of this page. That’s about it for navigation.

These are mostly very ordinary photos. No masterpiece in them. I haven’t captured a masterpiece yet. But I will get there, sometime

Cheers!!!

that’s poetry

I just came across this wonderful poem from Munir Niazi. So I thought, why not translate it in English. Here’s the Urdu version, followed by my attempt at its translation.

i keep delaying everything
the thing I must say
the promise I must obey
the one I must call
the one who turned away

i keep delaying everything

the shoulder I must offer
the hand I must provide
the long lost ways I must walk
the one that I set aside

i keep delaying everything

the stroll in the varying seasons
to please myself
the remembrance of someone
to forget someone else

i keep delaying everything

to save someone
from sorrow till eternity
to let someone know
what was the reality

i keep delaying everything

The man who would be king

One of my favorite movies that not many people around have seen or even heard of. Here’s a brief overview:

Name: The man who would be king

Released in: 1975

Directed by: John Huston

About the Director: A brilliantly eccentric, yet tamed, director, Huston during his career was nominated for 15 oscars (first in 1941, last in 1986) winning 2 (both in 1949 for directing and writing “The treasure of sierra madre”. Enough said?

About the movie: Nominated for 4 oscars in 1976 (writing – screenplay adapted from other material, editing, costume design and art direction), the movie is an adventure drama based on a story by Rudyard Kipling (the famous british writer who was born in Mumbai and lived in Lahore for quite a few years, and won a nobel prize for literature in 1907 – i will write about his poem “if” some other time, but it’s simply one of the finest things i have ever read).

The story is about 2 british ex-soldiers (played by none other than Sean Connery and Michael Caine) who, while serving in British India, decide that they need something bigger in life… something like being the kings themselves. So they set off to an area as remote as it gets on earth, the valley of Kafiristan (an actual place situated in extreme north of present day Pakistan). Why Kafiristan? because a) it’s remote and almost unreachable b) it inhabits the descendants of King Alexander who conquered this land in 328 BC and c) they have a fairly profound plan to become the “kings of kafiristan”, involving 20 rifles and a fair bit of attitude. 

What happens next… one must watch the movie and not read about it, to get the full glimpse.

The movie is (as expected) filled with surprise twists and turns, witty and spontaneously funny dialogues, and very decent acting. In addition to Sean Connery and Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer and Indian actor Saeed Jaffery play important roles.

The story brings up some interesting questions in the end. What’s the limit of human greed and ambition? And Is the civilized world really that different from uncivilized world? specially when “slaughtering your enemies” is the favorite pastime for uncivilized man, while “soldiering” is the noblest profession in civilized world? Whatever the answer, the movie is “adventure in all it’s glory” as per it’s tagline.

A must watch (off course!!!)

trees

 

Another static moment captured from my old mobile… no buildings, no parking spaces, no rush hours… and as far as i remember, no carbon dioxide to speak of.

skyline

 

a view from the office parking lot

I took this photo from my mobile phone from a parking lot when i was working with citibank.

oh yes, the above statement means 3 things really…… a) i used to have a mobile phone with a nice camera (my current iphone, though almost perfect for me in many ways, does not have a good camera), b) i used to be able to capture nice “kodak moments” at times (a static building standing tall at the same place for years… right, but how many people have captured such a brilliant shot at this angle before? and c) i used to have a decent office parking space. I am getting the first 2 qualities back… for the third one, well… nevermind!!!

remembering the madness

remembering the madness
the madness that went away
amongst the sunset and clay
when the melodies went stray

remembering the madness
the madness that went away
when the silence had to stay
and the words we couldn’t slay

remembering the madness
the madness that went away
for never to revert and play
for ever to run, hide and sway

jungle out there…

one of the photos i took during my “travels to the earth” sometime last year.