Someone just gave me a CD of Hum Dekhenge - a collection of poems by famous Pakistani singer Faiz Ahmad Faiz sung by some famous singers of our times.
The title song of the collected just blew me away. Its been a long time since I heard anything like that. The poem is titled "Hum Dekhenge". It is set against the backdrop of the Martial rule in Pakistan in 60s. The Urdu in the poem is quite complicated and I had to google to find the meaning of many of the words. But after a couple of hearings, when I could understand it better, I was happy to have made the effort. Interestingly, I made a new friend in the evening who happens to be from Pakistan. I mentioned this poem to him and he said it is a legendary song in Pakistan.
Faiz was not a religious poet but in this poem, he has made very interesting references to allah and other religious words for a completely different meaning. Here are my favorite parts of the poem and some rough translations, if my understanding of Urdu can be called translation :-)
Jab arz-e-Khuda ke kaabe se
Sab but (statues) uthwae jaenge
(When all the false idols are removed from God's place)
Hum ahl-e-safa mardood-e-harm
Masnad pe bethae jaenge
(We, the people of truth, from forbidden places, will be put on the throne)
Sab taaj uchale jaenge
Sab takht girae jaenge
Hum bhi dekhenge
(All crowns will be flung away, all thrones will be made to fall and we will see)
Bas naam rahega Allah ka
Jo ghayab bhi hai hazir bhi
Jo manzar hai nazir bhi
(Only God's name shall remain, one who is absent but yet present, who is the view as well as the viewer)
Uthega ANAL HAQ ka nara
Jo mai bhi hon tum bhi ho
Aur raaj karegi Khalq-e-KHUDA
Jo mai bhi hon tum bhi ho
(Anal Haq means "I am the truth". It was a famous (blasphemous at that time) utterance by one of the ancient sufi saints who was given death sentence for this. Faiz says the cry of truth will rise which is mine and yours too and ultimately God's people shall rule which is me and you.
Hum dekhenge
Lazim hai hum bhi dekhenge
Hum dekhenge ...!
You can watch Iqbal Bano sing this nazm on Youtube
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6kiQjZePbc)
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
A man who thinks he can
If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think that you dare not, you don't,
If you'd like to win, but you think you can't,
It's almost certain you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you've lost,
For out in the world you'll find,
Success begins with a fellow's will,
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed,you are,
You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
This is a poem which hangs on the wall of the office of the great golfer Arnold Palmer. Quoted by Juha Akras in a True Nokia leader video.
If you think that you dare not, you don't,
If you'd like to win, but you think you can't,
It's almost certain you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you've lost,
For out in the world you'll find,
Success begins with a fellow's will,
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed,you are,
You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
This is a poem which hangs on the wall of the office of the great golfer Arnold Palmer. Quoted by Juha Akras in a True Nokia leader video.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Carpe Diem?? Thanks but I'll pass
the comp shut down
the TV remote packed;
the large glass windows closed
the bedroom aircon switched on;
the empty bottles kept in a neat row
beneath the cleaned sink;
the half empty pack of biscuits
carefully wrapped and kept for sunday;
the lights switched off
the bedsheet smoothened ;
the alarm set in the cell phone
the jogging reminder in the morning;
Another saturday night draws to an end
amidst all this routine;
sometimes I wonder whether I am taking refuge
behind the sheer predictability of it all;
But I don't linger over the thought
and quickly go to sleep;
For there is always the next day
and the sunday movie to watch;
and the evening dinner to arrange for
and the stray emails to catch!
life must go on....each day a task
what about Carpe Diem!!!
Thanks, but I will pass.
the TV remote packed;
the large glass windows closed
the bedroom aircon switched on;
the empty bottles kept in a neat row
beneath the cleaned sink;
the half empty pack of biscuits
carefully wrapped and kept for sunday;
the lights switched off
the bedsheet smoothened ;
the alarm set in the cell phone
the jogging reminder in the morning;
Another saturday night draws to an end
amidst all this routine;
sometimes I wonder whether I am taking refuge
behind the sheer predictability of it all;
But I don't linger over the thought
and quickly go to sleep;
For there is always the next day
and the sunday movie to watch;
and the evening dinner to arrange for
and the stray emails to catch!
life must go on....each day a task
what about Carpe Diem!!!
Thanks, but I will pass.
Wires, modems & indicators: A saturday morning well spent
I have never been very comfortable around gadgets...I mean I use them all the time but I have been never been one of those people who would rush in whenever there was a electrical problem and say," move aside..move aside...let me have a look at it!!"It has always been my younger brother's role...whether it is replacing the fuse at home or repairing the odd electrical gadgets...good that he finally has become an Engineer but still ironic given that I ended up working for a "technology" firm.
I had to arrange for a new cable and internet connection in my apartment since I just moved into my own apartment in Singapore. So, there I was, at the nearest Star Hub shop, pissed after having a disastrous dinner experiment with a plate of Biriyani at a nearby Hawker's corner, to get my new connection. The shop guy took a long time to clear up all the paper-work (with me standing there like the patient buddha smiling at him...being an Indian helps in unexpected ways at unexpected moments) and finally gave me a choice....do I want a technician sent to my house to install the goodies or would I prefer installing the goodies myself? I stared at him for a moment and then said, "I will do it myself". On my way back, I was wondering, why would I say that!!! Was it the prospect of saving s$32 in installation charges or the prospect of a long saturday with no real plans or just the (cheap) thrill of playing with 300 dollars worth of gadgets. Whatever!!!
So, I woke up on Sat'day morn...no prospect of jogging (raining like hell with a sky infested with clouds)....bad start!!...and then I noticed the two green bags with the goodies from Star Hub....suddenly I was back in business...I opened the packets to take a look at the inventory of the goodies available…took a fleeting look at the thick User manual so kindly provided by the service provider (they probably intended it to scare me into calling a technician) and then just started assembling the goodies together…..yeah, ok, it took me two hours but when I finally switched on the Tv and could see the so familiar face of Al Pacino on HBO…the sheer thrill of having done something new, something which was even probably a fear till then made the day…a Saturday morning well spent…
I had to arrange for a new cable and internet connection in my apartment since I just moved into my own apartment in Singapore. So, there I was, at the nearest Star Hub shop, pissed after having a disastrous dinner experiment with a plate of Biriyani at a nearby Hawker's corner, to get my new connection. The shop guy took a long time to clear up all the paper-work (with me standing there like the patient buddha smiling at him...being an Indian helps in unexpected ways at unexpected moments) and finally gave me a choice....do I want a technician sent to my house to install the goodies or would I prefer installing the goodies myself? I stared at him for a moment and then said, "I will do it myself". On my way back, I was wondering, why would I say that!!! Was it the prospect of saving s$32 in installation charges or the prospect of a long saturday with no real plans or just the (cheap) thrill of playing with 300 dollars worth of gadgets. Whatever!!!
So, I woke up on Sat'day morn...no prospect of jogging (raining like hell with a sky infested with clouds)....bad start!!...and then I noticed the two green bags with the goodies from Star Hub....suddenly I was back in business...I opened the packets to take a look at the inventory of the goodies available…took a fleeting look at the thick User manual so kindly provided by the service provider (they probably intended it to scare me into calling a technician) and then just started assembling the goodies together…..yeah, ok, it took me two hours but when I finally switched on the Tv and could see the so familiar face of Al Pacino on HBO…the sheer thrill of having done something new, something which was even probably a fear till then made the day…a Saturday morning well spent…
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Hondas in Vietnam
I just finished a 3 day Vietnam trip. It was the first time I had visited Vietnam but somehow the whole place just gave a sense of being there before. Landed at the HCMC Airport and the first thing we noticed were the long queues in the Immigration. These long queues somehow immediately remind me of home, of Indian airports and irritating officials. However, we passed through the immigration without a hitch, booked a taxi at the Airport counter and finally landed in a car which looked very similar to a sumo and had a very weak Air-conditioning.
The first thing I noticed while on the journey to the hotel was the huge number of motor bikes. The roads were covered with Motor bikes almost like flies on a rotten fruit. There are lots of motor bikes in India but the density here was amazing. Later, I was told by a local of the place that there are almost 5 million motor bikes in HCMC – a city of around 8 million people!!! They are called by the generic name “Honda” – so even a Suzuki bike will be a Honda. When we asked him the reason for there being so many of them, he gave an interesting analogy. Apparently, Vietnam opened its economy in 1995 and the economy has seen massive growth since them. The population of HCMC has grown almost 3 times since then because of migration of people in the city to find jobs and participate in the growth story. But the infrastructure has not kept pace with the growth in population and business. He compared HCMC to a child who has grown up to be teenager but is still wearing the cloths he was wearing 10 years back. Amidst this crumbling infrastructure, these bikes are the quickest means of transportation for the average city worker, ensuring that he is able to reach work in time and is able to take his family around in the weekend. An interesting thing to see was that there were almost as many women driving these Hondas as men. In a country which is probably as male dominated as some of the other ones, the economic boom has probably finally created the opportunity to break free which they were waiting for.
More on Vietnam later.
The first thing I noticed while on the journey to the hotel was the huge number of motor bikes. The roads were covered with Motor bikes almost like flies on a rotten fruit. There are lots of motor bikes in India but the density here was amazing. Later, I was told by a local of the place that there are almost 5 million motor bikes in HCMC – a city of around 8 million people!!! They are called by the generic name “Honda” – so even a Suzuki bike will be a Honda. When we asked him the reason for there being so many of them, he gave an interesting analogy. Apparently, Vietnam opened its economy in 1995 and the economy has seen massive growth since them. The population of HCMC has grown almost 3 times since then because of migration of people in the city to find jobs and participate in the growth story. But the infrastructure has not kept pace with the growth in population and business. He compared HCMC to a child who has grown up to be teenager but is still wearing the cloths he was wearing 10 years back. Amidst this crumbling infrastructure, these bikes are the quickest means of transportation for the average city worker, ensuring that he is able to reach work in time and is able to take his family around in the weekend. An interesting thing to see was that there were almost as many women driving these Hondas as men. In a country which is probably as male dominated as some of the other ones, the economic boom has probably finally created the opportunity to break free which they were waiting for.
More on Vietnam later.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Of Nasi Biriyani and Iced Tea
Tried Chicken biryani for dinner tonight at an Indian joint in the Orchard Area. ok experience...Got very frustrated when the restaurant guy nonchalantly mentioned that they did not serve water with food and that you have to buy it separately :-(( (sadly not having water is a difficult option when you are having spicy biriyani)
I have been here only 4-5 days but even in such a short duration, have some interesting observations to share. In Singapore, a vast majority of the population does not cook at home but prefers to eat outside...daily!!! One of the effects of this behaviour is that there is an awesome variety of food available (esp South-East Asian) at almost every nook and corner of the city at very very affordable prices...sheer bliss for a foreigner like me. So, in the 5 days I have been here, I have now had Thai, Indian, Malay and Chinese food. Obviously, I haven't had enough body of experience to decide which one do I like most but would like to make a special mention of the Nasi Biriyani, a malaysian dish which tastes very similar to the Indian biriyani. It is available in almost all malaysian joints and therefore a life saver at dinner time. The taste is so similar to the Indian biriyani that I actually googled about its history...it comes out that when the British colonized Malaysia in the 18th century, they brought a lot of immigrant Indian laborers to work on the rubber plantations who brought with them their own food and cooking styles. While most of these Indian origin people returned to India when Malaysia
got independence some 50 years back, they left back their influence on the local cuisine and dishes like Nasi Biriyani are now an integral part of Malay cuisine.
Another interesting thing which was pointed out to me and I keep noticing it everywhere anyway is that the local people here have an interesting habit of necessarily having a drink with all the meals that they eat. So, whether it be the lunch or the dinner, they would definitely have something like an Iced Tea or a coke to go with the food. Seems strange to me since in India, drinking water while having food is something which is discouraged in many parts of the country !!!
Let me finish this post with this shloka (hymn) which was taught to me in my childhood as the prayer to be said before every meal...it goes like this...
brahmarpanam brahmahavi brahmaagnom brahmana hutam
brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahma karma samaadhina
The shloka is from Bhagwad Gita and as far as I remember, it means ...
The process of offering is brahman, what is offerred is brahman, it is offerred by Brahman to the fire which is Brahman. Those who are thus able to see Brahman everywhere, only are able to attain Brahman...
Food for thought!!!
I have been here only 4-5 days but even in such a short duration, have some interesting observations to share. In Singapore, a vast majority of the population does not cook at home but prefers to eat outside...daily!!! One of the effects of this behaviour is that there is an awesome variety of food available (esp South-East Asian) at almost every nook and corner of the city at very very affordable prices...sheer bliss for a foreigner like me. So, in the 5 days I have been here, I have now had Thai, Indian, Malay and Chinese food. Obviously, I haven't had enough body of experience to decide which one do I like most but would like to make a special mention of the Nasi Biriyani, a malaysian dish which tastes very similar to the Indian biriyani. It is available in almost all malaysian joints and therefore a life saver at dinner time. The taste is so similar to the Indian biriyani that I actually googled about its history...it comes out that when the British colonized Malaysia in the 18th century, they brought a lot of immigrant Indian laborers to work on the rubber plantations who brought with them their own food and cooking styles. While most of these Indian origin people returned to India when Malaysia
got independence some 50 years back, they left back their influence on the local cuisine and dishes like Nasi Biriyani are now an integral part of Malay cuisine.
Another interesting thing which was pointed out to me and I keep noticing it everywhere anyway is that the local people here have an interesting habit of necessarily having a drink with all the meals that they eat. So, whether it be the lunch or the dinner, they would definitely have something like an Iced Tea or a coke to go with the food. Seems strange to me since in India, drinking water while having food is something which is discouraged in many parts of the country !!!
Let me finish this post with this shloka (hymn) which was taught to me in my childhood as the prayer to be said before every meal...it goes like this...
brahmarpanam brahmahavi brahmaagnom brahmana hutam
brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahma karma samaadhina
The shloka is from Bhagwad Gita and as far as I remember, it means ...
The process of offering is brahman, what is offerred is brahman, it is offerred by Brahman to the fire which is Brahman. Those who are thus able to see Brahman everywhere, only are able to attain Brahman...
Food for thought!!!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Expat cooking woes
I became a expat on saturday...
In ancient times, there were adventurous souls like Marco Polo etc who used to travel to unknown lands bearing their king's messages or whatever….for the last two days, I have been seriously doubting if these guys were given a choice by the kings…I mean why would someone agree to go to all these strange places ….seriously…I landed in Singapore on Saturday…thankfully the service apartment which has been arranged for me is really really nice in terms of decor, location etc etc...
When I surveyed the apartment, I found that the service apt ppl had left a couple of maggi packs…for souls like me who wouldn't want to walk even 10 m for their dinner. Anyway, I go to my really cool kitchen to try and cook that pack…and whoa! what a kitchen it is...a big cooking frame, a sci-fi type oven and a grill, 10 sizes and types of spoon, bone china cutlery, wine glasses, a fridge with nothing in it and what not…the immediate challenge was to find out how to use the burner...there were 4 of them with around a 10 knobs, all looking the same…the easiest option obviously would have been to call up room service and ask them to tell me…but I thought over it and then suddenly realised that I have nothing else to do anyway…so I took it as a challenge…sat in the kitchen for half an hour just looking at the model, surfed the net, the ultimate saviour, to see if the company has put a user guide online, even went to the adjacent mall to check if I could find a home store where I can ask the salesman to demonstrate how to use the thing etc etc….finally, it was late evening, I was hungry and was about to give up and call KFC (no found through net) when I thought, " let me give it a last try"…I sat there…looked at each knob carefully…then discovered that there were signs painted around each of them indicating which burner were they corresponding to…then the next problem…I searched the whole kitchen but there was no lighter/ matches in the whole apartment…given that the Singapore guys are pretty thorough in whatever they do, this was a surprise…so started thinking about that…by this time it was already 9:30 pm and I was really hungry….sometimes it is the hunger and the prospect of having to get ready to go out and have dinnner which puts those bright ideas in your mind...there was this inconspicuous looking small knob which had no signs around it and I thought that was curious...so started twiddling around with it...apparently I could click it without anything happening...but sound it made reminded me of the sound which a lighter makes...click...suddenly it all fell into place...there was a inbuilt lighter...10 mins and I had a steaming bowl of maggie before me. The Maggi here does not taste the same as the one back in India...it is somehow thinner and smells different but then a hungry man at 10 in the night does not care :-))
the weather here is hot & humid...rains quite frquently....but it is breezy too which is a big relief. There is a big bookstore very near to the apartment (as near as the Baskin Robbins outlet from office, back in bangy)...haven't bought anything yet (except a adapter for my lappy) but it is bigger than the Crosswords in Brigade Road...so should be interesting. Buying the adapter was quite an experiences too with me raoming around with the plug in these big malls and showing it to incredulous salesmen who would not udnerstand why a plug has to be that shape :-))
Anyway this was the initial report...would keep updating frequently.
In ancient times, there were adventurous souls like Marco Polo etc who used to travel to unknown lands bearing their king's messages or whatever….for the last two days, I have been seriously doubting if these guys were given a choice by the kings…I mean why would someone agree to go to all these strange places ….seriously…I landed in Singapore on Saturday…thankfully the service apartment which has been arranged for me is really really nice in terms of decor, location etc etc...
When I surveyed the apartment, I found that the service apt ppl had left a couple of maggi packs…for souls like me who wouldn't want to walk even 10 m for their dinner. Anyway, I go to my really cool kitchen to try and cook that pack…and whoa! what a kitchen it is...a big cooking frame, a sci-fi type oven and a grill, 10 sizes and types of spoon, bone china cutlery, wine glasses, a fridge with nothing in it and what not…the immediate challenge was to find out how to use the burner...there were 4 of them with around a 10 knobs, all looking the same…the easiest option obviously would have been to call up room service and ask them to tell me…but I thought over it and then suddenly realised that I have nothing else to do anyway…so I took it as a challenge…sat in the kitchen for half an hour just looking at the model, surfed the net, the ultimate saviour, to see if the company has put a user guide online, even went to the adjacent mall to check if I could find a home store where I can ask the salesman to demonstrate how to use the thing etc etc….finally, it was late evening, I was hungry and was about to give up and call KFC (no found through net) when I thought, " let me give it a last try"…I sat there…looked at each knob carefully…then discovered that there were signs painted around each of them indicating which burner were they corresponding to…then the next problem…I searched the whole kitchen but there was no lighter/ matches in the whole apartment…given that the Singapore guys are pretty thorough in whatever they do, this was a surprise…so started thinking about that…by this time it was already 9:30 pm and I was really hungry….sometimes it is the hunger and the prospect of having to get ready to go out and have dinnner which puts those bright ideas in your mind...there was this inconspicuous looking small knob which had no signs around it and I thought that was curious...so started twiddling around with it...apparently I could click it without anything happening...but sound it made reminded me of the sound which a lighter makes...click...suddenly it all fell into place...there was a inbuilt lighter...10 mins and I had a steaming bowl of maggie before me. The Maggi here does not taste the same as the one back in India...it is somehow thinner and smells different but then a hungry man at 10 in the night does not care :-))
the weather here is hot & humid...rains quite frquently....but it is breezy too which is a big relief. There is a big bookstore very near to the apartment (as near as the Baskin Robbins outlet from office, back in bangy)...haven't bought anything yet (except a adapter for my lappy) but it is bigger than the Crosswords in Brigade Road...so should be interesting. Buying the adapter was quite an experiences too with me raoming around with the plug in these big malls and showing it to incredulous salesmen who would not udnerstand why a plug has to be that shape :-))
Anyway this was the initial report...would keep updating frequently.
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