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...
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, June 8, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
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.
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.
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