Post Card From Mumbai

Its been more than two weeks already and I have more or less adapted to Mumbai. May it be driving your two-wheeler thru' the Thane traffic enriched with heavily polluted air (both by emissions and honkings), or waiting at ANY station during peak hours trying to board a Mumbai local train, its amazing how ones' instincts take over and you no longer feel a pariah (as a matter of fact you never were). A blanket of nostalgia gets wrapped around initially but soon you warm up to the air around and fit right into the rich socio-cultural fabric of Mumbai. You honk, you hurl abuses, you give mean looks to fellow travellers and all this strangely makes you feel at home.

But there is another facet that jutts out - people are naturally warm, they help you out with the smallest of your queries to the biggest of your problems. While people standing in the long ticket queues at train stations would give you nasty looks cos you bumped the queue to get a CVM coupon book, they would also be kind enough to tell you how many stations it would be before you get to Bandra or Kings Circle and what side of the train would you get off. I guess they experience the same pulse of Mumbai as you do. And that's one thing about Mumbai that would never change. Articles, news paper columns, editorials, journal entries aplenty have been written about how helpful and warm an average Mumbaikar is but none of them would do justice to the actual experience of being in Mumbai and being a Mumbaikar.

In these past 10-12 days that I have been out "indulging" and meeting a lot of new faces, life has been enriched with a gamut of experiences, some bitter some sweet. Mumbai never fails to tingle your figurative taste-buds with its sweet n' sour flavors. Half-way through my joy-ride in the motherland, I am hoping there will be more to report after my trip down South.

So long...

--Sifar.

Hello-Inn

There is something about SitarBaksh and creativity, every time I go there with my lap-buddy (jeez thats my macbook you pervs) - OK I admit it was cheesy, but oh, well, so every time I go there and have my macbook with me, something inside me hints me to open it up and start scribbling stuff for this blog.

So here I am back on a Saturday evening reporting two events - first a birth of two young ones in my extended family; wonderful baby boys born just over a day apart to two of my co-workers. Both are healthy babies and bundles of joy. God bless these wonderful symbols of life and make them successful in whatever they do. The second, is the Halloween party last Saturday. Boy, it was a blast!

This post goes out to S&S, a wonderful couple in nearby Morrisville, who were courteous hosts of this year's Halloween party. Arrrrr.....the hosts were dressed in true Halloween spirit donning pirate costumes that would put Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley to shame...OK fine I exaggerate, god how else is this supposed to be spooky exciting? On a serious note, it was a wonderful evening - good food, good times with wonderful people. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces that day and that added color to the party more than just hanging out with the usual bunch. The costumes do warrant a mention. There were atleast 5 scream-ghosts (yeah yeah I know the irony of it is there are only 4 scream movies (3 released and 1 in the making)) so far. All the cheapskates and late-bums who went to Party City on Friday evening had to make do with these scream(y) masks. Others were a lil fancier dressing up as Dracula (Crime-master Gogo) and his love interest, Jeannie and Captain Nelson, The Man in Black, The Man in Blue, The Man in Brown, The two witches, and last but not the least the baby peapod :).

No party can be complete without the mention of gluttonous carousal. So we enjoyed a drink or two of Rum and the likes along with Samosas (yummmyy), followed by sumptuous entrees highlighted by Paneer Masala, Pineapple Korma and some fresh home-made rotis. The desserts menu was decked up by Gulab Jamuns....I should stop, this is making me hungry. Anyhoo, all in all it was a fun-filled party made special by lots of new "scary" people. Thanks S&S.

Today started off beautifully with a morning cup of tea, chat with the blood-relations and then a run by the lake. The temps have been forgiving for November, upper 60s around 11.30 am. The 3miles at the lake doesn't seem hard these days - I am hoping to amp up the tempo and try making the runs longer. As for the afternoon, went and watched APKGK on a friends' review that it was "watchable" Thanks R, you didn't disappoint :). Rajkumar Santoshi pulls a rabbit out of his hat once again by bringing back the comedy genre which he is a master at (Andaz Apna Apna). Ranbir Kapoor is at his youthful best, adding energy to the cast and I must say Katrina Kaif isn't doing too bad for herself given her acting talents (or the lack of it). Sallu plays a cameo, and GOD plays his magic at the very end shepherding our protagonist to the church of love. All in all 4stars are only a tad exaggerated, a must watch for casual movie goers. The serious kind who find meaning only in life-changing and parallel cinema can stay away.

--Sifar.

Un Dos?

There is a conflict within me. I am sitting here in Starbucks sipping the pike roast enjoying the ambience and of-course great coffee but my mind er... my cognitive centers are far away from all this. Deep inside me is the conflict of monism vs. duality. Although I must make it clear that this conflict is not really a discord of two similar ideas, so in that sense its a pseudo-conflict. Its really a cross-level conflict. One is a concept at the spiritual level, the other at physiological.

Recently I completed reading a book called Jnana Yoga, which clearly brings out the idea of monism - this idea of advaita, this notion of we all being different manifestations of The One. So inspired by the teachings, I am thinking if all that we are surrounded by is just a different interpretation of the real man, The One, then why does each person need someone else in their life to make them "complete." My conflict is this - when advaita is the real truth, then why in the the most basic instinct of each human is there a need to find someone of opposite sex, a dual, a need to find a soul-mate? Why this duality when monism is the real truth?

At a purely physiological level, the idea of marriage of two souls the idea of this need for someone else in your life is predominant. That has been the basis of this so called cycle of involution and evolution. We need to pro-create and continuously evolve and at the same time involve into this most miniscule manifestation of The One. As I sit here gaping out in the darkness of a winter night, there are people walking in and out through the door - mostly couples. And that's disturbing me not that they are couples ;), but the fact that our DNAs are so deeply tuned to find companionship, that we are so far spiritually removed that our physiological instincts always seem to take the better of us.

So we are called "individuals" - yeah I know that's exactly the pun of the word as we normally understand it - we are all called individuals - people who can't be divided, people who are just mere base visitations of The One. So then why do we seek someone else in our life.?Why is each person not instead tuned to embark on this spiritual journey I talk of? Maybe the truth is so powerful that the base reflections of The One would probably crack at the sheer brilliance of that truth? Maybe the reflections aren't powerful enough to handle the truth that they are made simply agnostic or not intelligent enough to understand the real truth? Maybe we aren't emotionally or physically strong beings - we seem to need someone else to lead our life. We have this urge to pro-create and be part of the general fabric of universe? This conflict is within me and I want the answers...

My purpose here is to try to connect the dots, yet any lines I draw seem just obfuscated to my myopic eyes. I am going to try to find answers in the following 4 Yogas, the tenets that Vivekananda says are core to realization of the truth.

1. Concentrate on anything you do - make the imprint on your soul, on your Atman strong - this is Raja Yoga.
2. Work with no attachments - no expectations of reward - this is Karma Yoga.
3. Love everyone as they are all part of The One, the way to reach and find the real god is through worship and love - this is Bhakti Yoga.
4. Think, not through your mind, but relate to everything through Him (the Soul, the Self, the One, the God within) - this is Jnana Yoga.
   

Practice all four in your life - that's the real path to salvation...

-- Sifar

p.s. I encourage readers to leave any comments and welcome them to discuss their thoughts pertinent to the post in the hope of being helpful in connecting the dots. And yes, I will write A-Sher-A-Day pretty soon; this state-of-mind merits more exposure right now!

Clogged But Blogged

After a long hiatus (almost two months) Sifar is back with some things to report. First, he is now a proud owner of MacBook Pro. As much as people crib and complain over Apple being a control-freak tightly controlling everything they put out there, you gotta give it to the high usability quotient of their products.

I have had some people become argumentative over Apple vs. M$ - the so called M$ loyalists who look down upon mac users as apple fanboys :). My answer to them is you gotta own one to critique on one.

Moving on, this weekend has been unusual in that it was a downer (contracted the common cold) and at the same time very happening. The clogged state of affairs continued all through Friday and Saturday with some respite finally coming on Sunday evening. The nadir came when I was dragged into going to a Sunidhi Chauhan concert; the pain of hearing Hard Kaur (Move your body fame) and Sunidhi (she was harsh and yelling and shouting most of the time - although I must admit, she can be really sweet and has some great singing ability) back to back was just intolerable. I guess I survived just because of my clogged head ;).

The high points were going to the Indian Independence Day Celebrations and watching Kaminey along with some sumptuous meals. The I-Day celebrations were at a local temple place. The atmosphere was full of positive energy and pride. Cultural shows, stalls of people selling desi stuff, mehendi et al. and awesome food. A gamut of cultural organizations had their own food stalls with kids doing a loud yet funny skit about selling food for their respective stalls. India's wide variety of languages and cultures translates into a rich kaleidoscope on the culinary spectrum. We had Shrikhand Puri, Batatyaachi Bhaji, Masale Bhaat, Rava Idly, Tikki Chhole, Samosa, couple of other kannada dishes etc. There was some Pav Bhaji, Dosa, Kulfi and all the other mouth-watering ecstasies to complement the unlimited assortment of viands.

After spending an hour n half at the I-Day fanfare, folks returned back and I resigned into couple of hours of Siesta. The evening started with some amazing gujju food at a friends followed by Ras Malai :). Needless to say, amid all the delicacies, my tryst with rhinovirus was faded into oblivion.

Kaminey is a dark but very well made movie. Couple of songs have been making the rounds off-late - Dhan Te Nan and Raat Ke Dhai Baje are plain awesome. The tunes latch on to your mind almost instantaneously. The story is very realistic, with Shahid Kapur, Priyanka Chopra, and Amol Gupte (TZP fame) all doing justice to their roles. Amol Gupte stands out as "Chopper Bhope". All in all, a movie worth watching.

People who have followed the blog in the past must be wondering what ever happened to "A Sher A Day". Sifar wants to sign off with a promise of writing something in that literary genre more often than has been delivered in the past.

Cheers,
Sifar.

Pahle Mere Geet

Yesterday was one of those days where my belief in Cricket as a religion was stronger than my belief in blogging as religion. Hence the missed post. A bunch of colleagues from work and "one hop away" people got together to enjoy an evening of some nostalgic "Galli cricket" in a tennis court at a friends place. Needless to say by the end of it my fatigue had the better of me to preclude any constructive writing.

So here I am back to share another couplet today. We will continue to dwell on the ghazals of Ustad Ahmed Hussain and Mohammed Hussain. The sher we will discuss today is from a ghazal Pahle Mere Geet and is set in Raga Puriya (me thinks). Its a beautiful ghazal with a medium tempo and sung equally well by the duo. The blending and branching of the two voices when the two sing together and then go solo weaves a great fabric of swar that is appealing.

Jumping to the sher of the day - its lyrics are superlative:

मै था जर्रा कारवां के साथ मंज़िल तक रहा ।
चांद सूरज राह में आते रहे जाते रहे ।

Literatim:

जर्रा - atom, small particle of matter.

Verbatim:

Though I was the most insignificant element of the caravan, I stayed with the qaafila (caravan) till the very end. The significant ones like the sun and the moon accompanied the caravan, but only capriciously.

Discussion:

This couplet appeals to me in a way that it makes think every single time I read or hear it. The poet calls himself a miniscule atom or a tiny particle of dust which stayed with the caravan all through its journey through the desert. Several thoughts come to mind - the smallest particle which had the highest probability (owing to its insignificance) of losing out stuck with the caravan till the very end while the ones that mattered the most - the suns and the moons of the world never really accompanied the qaafila till the end; rising and setting to their whim.

I will probably revisit this discussion tomorrow adding more thought quotient to it. Although I have been told that I write way too serious stuff and to lighten up a little :).

On a side note, now that the weather is good my rusty camera needs to come out. I probably will get to shooting some pictures and posting them on here soon.

Stay tuned...

Pyaar Ka Jazba - II

This is a pseudo-continuation of yesterday's post as I will focus on yet another sher from the same ghazal which we discepted in the previous post.

As I mentioned yesterday, there are couplets in that ghazal which have a better lyrical value than the matla itself. The couplet we will critique today falls into this category. The lyrics almost immediately appeal and even a casual listener is sub-consciously caught uttering - "waah kya baat kahin hai...". If you have actually been following the blog and listened to the ghazal yesterday, I almost guarantee you that you already know which sher am talking about and you did have that exact emotion run through your heart (notice I say heart and not mind) when that sher occured. If not, go back and listen to the ghazal and then read this post - it will appeal much more...

अपने चेहरे के किसे दाग नज़र आते है ।
वक्त हर शख्स को आईना दिखा देता है ।

Verbatim:

None sees their own flaws, but time, a great disciplinarian that it is, eventually punishes you for those bad traits and behaviors.

Discussion:

The couplet is lucid enough that it doesn't warrant a thorough discussion. But nevertheless, I will put down what it means to me. Time is a wonderful teacher. Its during the bad times in life that we learn the best of the things - about us, about people, and most importantly the flaws we have. Thats a simple chain of thought which I am sure most of us would relate to and thats probably the gist that most of us got from reading the sher in the first place.

Off late I have been reading a book called Jnana Yoga which is a series of lectures by Swami Vivekananda given while in New York and London in the early 1890s. Therein, he speaks about the real nature of man - the quest of every man really is to go towards this perfect man (GOD) rather than material wealths of the world. Its these material pleasures that keep us from achieving our true potential, the realization of advaita and the sense of freedom. During the good times, these pleasures keep us occupied enough that we stop exploring the real nature of man. Time as an eternal teacher (bad times as we call them) mentors us to seek GOD - to break free from these shackles of worldly pleasures. Its really teaching us to focus on the ultimate goal - the achievement of one-ness or advaita with the REAL MAN of which all of us are a base reflection (notice the innuendo to the original sher talking about aaina). Too bad that even during those times (as a terrible student) we seek GOD only to help us get over the impending material obstacles. Its even more unfortunate though that only bad times take us closer to god while we continue to revel in the enjoyment of material senses in the good times. Vivekananda wants us to start early and continue on that path - then time (good or bad), space, and causation are mere events and don't mean a thing.

-- Sifar.

Pyaar Ka Jazba

Today's post is about a ghazal that I had listened to in early 2002. Its sung by the new-age ghazal singing duo of Ustad Ahmed Hussain and Mohammed Hussain. They hail from Rajasthan and are the uncles of the Sa Re Ga Ma fame Mohammed Vakil. Since listening their ghazals first in 2002, I have consciously tried to acquire and listen to their renditions. Amongst their famous ones are Pahle Mere Geet, Main Hawa Hoon, Woh Jo Hum Mein Tum Mein etc.

Jumping right to the ghazal Pyaar Ka Jazba is set in some form of Raga Yaman (my musically untrained ears can only identify the Yaman lakshan) and has a medium meter. The sher of the day is the matla itself and is as follows:

प्यार का जज्बा नया रंग दिखा देता है ।
अजनबी चेहरे को महबूब बना देता है ।

Literatim:

जज्बा = emotion/feeling/passion

Verbatim: The emotion of love is a powerful one - it transforms a person completely and makes him embrace a complete stranger as though (s)he is an inseparable conjugate.

Discussion: The meaning is easily fathomable - nothing fancy. Love changes people completely and brings out a gamut of emotions that people didnt believe they can exhibit. It gives hope to hopeless, power to powerless, and within no time the beloved becomes almost the purpose of one's entire life. Again, it can be related to at an elevated plane where the context is the ONE - the love and belief in god transforms a persons individuality and suddenly the purpose of his(er) life changes.

Do take a listen to this one - it ranks up there among my favorite ghazals. Some of the other shers in the poem are equally beautiful (and probably even carry more deeper meaning) and hopefully they will feature soon on the blog.


--Sifar.

Nawaazish-e-mukhtasar

After my first post in the "a sher a day" series I Googled (not binged - wow I can't believe that is already a verb...kudos to M$ for that) if there are any such blogs with a similar theme - and sure enough there is this one which is essentially a collection of articles exchanged on an usenet newsgroup. But that's not going to discourage me from posting my own version of a sher a day. It only bolsters the notion of writing something like this that is intended to help assimilation of Urdu poetry and mausiki in general by the masses.

I would like to talk about a beautiful couplet from a beautiful ghazal "Mere Humnafas Mere Humnavaa" by Shakeel Badayuni sung by many thus far including Vasantrao Deshpande, Sabri Brothers, Farida Khanum et al. The version that appeals to me the most is the one by none other than the un-paralleled genius of Begum Akhtar. The ghazal is set in Raga Darbari and has some amazing lyrics - the entire text is present here . The couplet itself is fairly straightforward but the meaning I am not so sure. Urdu ghazals in general can be discussed at two levels - there is an aspect where the poet is speaking about or to his beloved and then there is a spiritual context in which everything can be raised to a higher level where the poet is having an actual dialogue with god. I will attempt to discuss the couplet I present below at these two levels.

मुझे छोड दे मेरे हाल पर तेरा क्या भरोसा है चारागर।
ये तेरी नवाझिशे मुख्तसर, कहीं मेरा दर्द बढा ना दे।

Meaning:

Literatim:

चारागर = doctor, hakim
नवाझिश = caressing/care/soothing
मुख्तसर = short-lived/brief

Verbatim:

Please leave me alone O' healer of my wounds, as your far and few attempts at caressing and soothing me off my pains may only exacerbate the pain in the longer run.

Discussion:

Lets discuss this from the standpoint of the poet talking to his beloved. The meaning is fairly simple - the poet is asking his(er) beloved to leave him(er) alone as the short-lived companionship and the care (s)he offers will only bring more pain to him in future when those pleasures of "words of care" and "acts of love" would no longer exist.

When taken to a higher level, the poet speaks to god - contrary to most religious poems where worshippers want to be ONE with god, here the poet probably is past all of those emotions and knows that a brief encounter with god is only going to make his life miserable once that moment of ONE-ness is past. Overwhelmed already by his love and worship, he wants to get away from it cos he thinks that such yearning will only bring misery in the end even if he achieves this improbable goal of being ONE with HIM. The idea of firaaq (separation) on the contrary makes him want to be an atheist much like the beloved wants to NOT fall in love in the first place so (s)he spares himself the pain that beckons. He wants god to leave him alone...


-- Sifar.

A Sher A Day

There have been numerous instances so far, where I had something or the other to write about (people, pictures, events, behaviors, movie critique, my latest climbing lessons/meetups) and I just put it off for no apparent reason. My poor strike-rate on the blog (almost one post per year n half) doesn't deserve me any chance on the team but nevertheless I come back with an ephemeral resolve to write regularly.

This time around a brain-wave came that suggested - why not write a sher a day that way I can be more regular and all I have to do is write a single couplet every day that I have heard from among the innumerable ghazals - now that can't be tough can it? Let's just assume it won't be that tough to write one couplet per day - but it can be challenging to analyze it and write your interpretation of it (kavya rasaacha aaswaad ghene for the marathi-speaking ethnos)...so whenever I post a couplet, I also plan to put down some unsolicited thoughts about what me thinks the shayar meant.

For people who are completely uninitiated in ghazals and urdu sher-o-shayari a good starting point is http://www.urdupoetry.com/novicenook/ghazalelements.html. Also, if you are the booksie types grab a copy of Aaina-E-Ghazal by Zarina Saani et al.. The website itself is a good resource for numerous ghazals and sorted well by singers/poets/poems etc.

After all this its only apt that I get right to the couplet of the day. And more so befitting that I start off with something I myself wrote recently:

उनके पेचिदा गेसुओं कि उल्झन है गोया।
दश्ते इम्काने ज़िदगी तक्सीफ़ होती जाती है।

-- Sifar.

Meaning:

Literatim:

पेचिदा = curly
दश्त = forest/desert
इम्कान = possibility
तक्सीफ़ = to become dense


Verbatim:

The jungle of possibilities of life becomes dense as if it is the curls of hair of the beloved.

Discussion:

Life is inundanted by possibilities and choices that we are offered at every juncture. The very presence of these choices is compared to the curls of hair of one's beloved. Picturize Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rahman in Chaudhavi Ka Chand song :) The twists and turns of life are as beautiful and treacherous as the curly locks of hair of thy beloved and the idea is to embrace them and love your life just like you would find love in the arms of your beloved.

Here I am signing off again with a hope that I would continue to write more regularly this time around.

Cheers,
Sifar.