Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Controversy over Amir Khan's statement on NBA: Only the Gujaratis have pride!


The rhetoric over Gujarati pride has now acquired a noisy level. It seems as if no one is concerned about their pride as the Gujaratis are. Is a remark by Aamir Khan enough to hurt an entire group of people and a state?

I am sure Tamils, Malayalis, Punjabis and if you go deeper then Bundelkhandis, Vidarbhites, Bhojpuris all have pride. In fact, all human beings have some self-respect.

But the most fragile is the Gujarati pride, it seems.

Even if it is all politicised, I see that this pride is acting as a great vitamin for the race that probably thought that they were just viewed as money-making Banias. But now after riots they turned a masculine race and with every round of Gujarat Pride slogans, the state is getting a sort of high.

I am sure many would agree with me. How serious one needs to take Aamir Khan need no mentioned. The state that has produced Gandhi and Patel amongst innumerable giant personalities can't be so less on confidence that any Tom, Dick and Harry could affect them.

What he said? What one gathers from most of the quarters is that he had asked for rehabilitation to be carried out in a just manner so that poor don't suffer. If we believe that he went to the extent of saying something about not height of dam, which is the lifeline of Gujarat...



...[it is the failure of state goverment in constructing the canals that has led to water scarcity otherwise the current height is enough for irrigation in vast areas], even then the entire state need not have reacted in such a manner.

Is it Aamir Khan's film alone?. Hundreds of people are involved in a film and success of film is linked to their bread and butter. He is just one actor. But not only multiplex owners but video-library owners are demonstrating, kicking CDs of his films and declaring that they wouldn't carry his films' CDs. Ok don't carry. I am not concerned.

But stop these tantrums. No one is impressed. Gujaratis are capable of much better things, I know. And if you just need any one to make a statement to give you an enemy to beat so that you can show your solidarity and get a high, no one can help you. Gang up, go to Mumbai, lay siege to Aamir's house and do whatever you have to do to him but spare us of your cacophony. TV channels may keep airing your misplaced jingoism. I better go to sleep.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Urdu's First Openly Gay Poet Iftikhar Naseem and seven beautiful couplets in English, Urdu scripts

IFTIKHAR NASEEM 'IFTI'
Iftikhar Naseem is Urdu's first gay poet [from Pakistan, now living in Chicago].

Though I don't have the courage yet to put some of his verses dealing with homosexuality on my blog, his poetry in classical mould is no less enchanting. Here is a selection from some of his couplets which I like.

GAY ACTIVISM

Ifti is now a well-known international figure due to his work for gay rights. Personally, I have nothing to do with his sexual preferences.


Earlier, I too had the perception that the there was something wrong with gays. I was told that gays were probably perverts who lured teenaged and even young boys.

But the difference between pederasty and gays became evident to me later. Otherwise Urdu classical poetry is full of homosexuality starting from the era of Khuda-e-Sukhan Meer Taqi Meer to 20th century's Firaq Gorakhpuri.

When I read his autobiography, I felt stunned like many others. It was too disturbing. Ifti has suffered enormously, faced brickbats for speaking truth. Atleast, he did not live a false life. He did not hide the truth about himself which many gays in the sub-continent do and marry girls who suffer all their lives.


IN ROMAN ENGLISH:


is qadar bhii to na jazbaat pe qabuu rakho
thak gaye ho to mere kaandhe pe bazuu rakho

KaTi hai umr kisii aabdoz* kashti meN
Safar tamaam hua aur kuchh nahiiN dekha
[*aabdoz=submarine]

Udaas baam, khulaa dar pukaarta hai mujhe
Jila-watan huuN mera ghar pukaarta hai mujhe

Taaq par juzdaan meN lipti duaa'eN rah gaeeN
Chal diye bete safar par ghar meN maaeN rah gaeeN

Chalte chalte aa gaya huun aisii manzil par jahaN
Chand mujhko aasmaaN ka ek darwaaza laga

Koii jo puuchhe to kah denge usne bheje haiN
Wagar-na phool khud apne liye khareede haiN


Read his poem 'Mere baba' [My father] in Urdu, Hindi and Roman scripts AT THIS LINK

Saturday, May 27, 2006

History And Poetry: Immortal couplet of Raj Ram Mauzoo.n

How historical events get further immortalised and romanticised by poetry can not be better explained than this famous Urdu she'r [couplet].


It tells us about the power of poetry and how it passes from generation to generation. The couplet was penned when Sirajuddaulah lost in the battle against East India Company.


First read the couplet:


GhazaalaaN tum to waaqif ho, kaho majnoo.n ke marne ki
Diwaanaa to mar gaya aakhir ko viirane pe kyaa guzri

This immortal couplet was composed by  Urdu poet Raja Ram Mauzoo.n. It is said that the master poet had recited it extempore on hearing the news of Sirajuddaulah's defeat and death.


During the war in 1757, when Siraj, the last Nawab of Bengal, Bihar & Orissa, was killed, the prosperous region of Bengal [or Gaur] went to British hands. The people loved the Nawab, and ryots rued the defeat for long, as during later years, indigo cultivation ruined rural economy and the fields.

Couplet survives 250 years



The couplet has survived almost 250 years and is still afresh and on the lips of innumerable poetry aficionados who quote it.

Not many other couplets of Raja Ram Mauzoo.n, a poet from Bihar, are known. MauzooN was primarily a Persian poet and most of his kalaam was in Farsi [Persian] though he did write occasionally in Urdu as well.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Doctors are no angels: Of Strikes, Snobbery & Selfish behaviour



The doctors who are agitating against reservation do not have my sympathy now.

I have seen with my own eyes people lying in the premises of hospital with no one to look after.

Will these doctors let their ailing parents, siblings or children without any treatment?

It is no ordinary profession and docs do get great respect too because of their unique profession.

But the selfishness they are just concerned about their career [that whether they would be able to get into the post-graduation which might be affected due to quota for OBCs of the doctors] is apparent.

1. There are good doctors and they get everybody's respect. But these protesting doctors who will run to attend a rich patient are right now treating the ordinary citizens like dirt. This is shameful and unjustifiable. When was the last time they took a stand on any other issue, public cause?

2. Throughout India, rarely doctors who are in government duty, go to rural areas. In most of the states, government medicos are allowed to see patients at their private clinics also. The private hospitals are notorious for extorting money and even do not give away body of the dead before all the expenses are paid.

3. It is in these private hospitals and clinics that lakhs of baby girls are illegally killed and aborted. Where was the Indian Medical Association (IMA) until now? It never addressed such issues or took action against any doctor. But today it takes high moral ground.

4. They are sad that the police beat them. The Indian police has beaten poor and ordinary citizens for the last 57 years. It has committed massacres and has hurt the self-respect of Indians everywhere but the doctors were never there to voice concern.

5. Some doctors even refused to treat injured persons of a community during Gujarat massacre. Did doctors ever express their voice on any such occasions or condemned carnages. Ordinary citizens are beaten up routinely at the hands of police and so it is no great injustice that docs also get beaten up.

6. And if the politicians with whom it is angry fall sick even today, they will run to treat them. The docs are angry why public doesn't support them. The ordinary Indian citizen is too beset with his own problems and daily hardship to earn his bread. And he is sick of the increasing greed of the doctors.

7. It is outrageous for doctors to strike work. Life is too important and the docs must not hold the society to ransom with this attitude. Ironically, medicos have such contempt of human labour that they resort to bootpolishing and hold brooms to express their anger as if these are the worst jobs.

8. These people who study at the expense of ordinary poor Indians forget the Hippocratic Oath soon after they get out of the colleges. I liked what a retired professor recently wrote. He said that the doctors should remember that if they are studying MBBS at this highly subsidised fee, it is at the expense of the ordinary poor boys who remain illiterate and work in tea kiosks at shops and who could never get any opportunity to study.

9. Though I am personally not in favour of extending reservation but seeing the selfishness of docs I feel compelled to think that what makes these arrogant Junior Doctors to believe that they are the best? A leading doctor on Times Now news channel said that no matter what happens, a lower caste person can't have the efficieny and expertise of an upper caste doctor.

That made me sick. The difference in the society, financial health, regional backwardness, English proficiency and lot many factors are involved in cracking a competition exam apart from caste. I have seen two internationally-acclaimed doctors commit serious lapses in minor cases recently. Both belonged to upper castes. So what does that mean?

10. To be a good doctor one also needs compassion and love for fellow human beings, not simple great IQ and GREED. A SC or ST who enters the college has to pass all the examinations in each year of the MBBS to become a doctor. He may get through PMT/CPMT with lesser marks but he doesn't get any such concession in MBBS where he has to pass all the papers and the pass marks are same as that for the general category else he wouldn't get the degree.

11. The students of AIIMS and also IIMs should not think they are celebrities and must be pampered. They are doing no favour to Indian society if they get into these premier institutions. It is not the alumuni that has made this institution but the innumerable poor whose blood and sweat has resulted in these educational institutions established in the country.

12. There are many other factors. Being a Muslim, what is my stake in this? None. I neither have any reservation nor I seek any. If such hullabaloo is raised for OBCs, then one can imagine what would happen when all right wing parties who are silent on the issue would be out if ever a quota for 14% Muslims of India who are more than the combined Upper Castes (Brahmin, Bania, Rajput) but have negligible presence in jobs and education while the upper caste rule the roost.

13. But I feel as a citizen I must come out with my view. No dotor or engineer is above the country just because he is more intelligent. He has a duty also towards fellow citizens and the country also. They should think of their DUTY also while they wail for their 'rights'. They better end their strike and attend to patients.

14. A look at the faces of the relatives of the patients can leave you terribly disturbed but these medicos are unmoved. And the doctors should know they get respect, get paid and are almost like VIPs but they should not expect to be treated like demigods and if they want that they should improve their conduct, credibility and image that has suffered over the years.


15. Ghareeb, Aam Aadmi jo beemar hai usse yeh kaisa badlaa? [Revenge upon poor!] The Hippocratic Oaths ends with ...If I fulfil this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot. Doctors who break the oath don't deserve the respect.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Philosophical Poetry: Urdu couplets for humanity and against religious fundamentalism

NAUSHAD ALI 'NAUSHAD'
Naushad Ali is one of the most popular music composers of Hindustani movies, that are popularly termed as Bollywood, but not many are aware that he was an exceptional poet.

As a music director, he got enormous success, name and fame. But he remained a closet poet. In fact, his poetic abilities are an eye-opener. Naushad Ali was born in Lucknow in 1919.

Naushad sahab passed away in Mumbai in 2006. Now read the first couplet of this ghazal:


Na mandir mein sanam hotay na masjid mein khuda hota
HameeN se yah tamasha hai na ham hotay to kya hota

न मन्दिर में सनम होते न मस्जिद में ख़ुदा होता
हमीं से है यह तमाशा है, न हम होते तो क्या होता

Aren't you impressed! Now see these lines of the same ghazal:


Na aisii manzilein hoteeN na aisa raasta hota
Sambhal kar ham zara chalte to aalam zer-e-paa hota


Ghata chhati, bahaar aati, tumhara tazkira hota
Phir uske baad gul khiltay ki zakhm-e-dil hara hota

The 'ghazal' that has five couplets deals with a gamut of issues which the world is facing. In a classical mould, still, its as progressive and modernist, as Urdu poetry can be.

From urging people to shun narrow-mindedness and stop fighting over God, all the 'ashaar' not only have a message but they are also enchanting to read and listen.

Bula kar tumnay mehfil mein hamko ghair se uthwaya
HameeN khud uth gaye hotay ishara kar diya hota


Tere ahbaab tujh se mil ke bhi mayoos laut gaye
Tujhe Naushaad kaisi chup lagi thi kuchh to kaha hota!


Read the entire GHAZAL in URDU, HINDI and ROMAN ENGLISH AT THIS LINK