2010 में नया-पुराना, कर्मस्तुती, और आत्मबोध (2010 mein naya purana, karma stuti aur aatmbodh

2010  में नया-पुराना, कर्मस्तुती, और आत्मबोध
    डॉ. विवेक शर्मा
1

दस-बीस होते-करते बीस दस हो आया है
नया वर्ष है साथी, सब नए सपनों की माया है
नया गीत गूंजा है रेडियो पर, आई है अब फिल्में  नयी
नए कैलेंडर लगे खूंटों पर, है अखबार नयी, मारामार नयी,
कहते हैं नए साल में मिलेंगे उपहार नए, कुछ दिखे है आसार नए,
अब नयी कलमों से खूंटों पर  पर खिलेंगे पुष्प के प्रतिबिम्ब नए,
अब कोई नया विलंभ रोकेगा सरकार का कोई नया प्रस्ताव,
यूँ तो बहुत दीया है भगवान् ने, पर नयी मांगे पैदा करेंगीं नए अभाव,
फिर बीतेगा जनवरी, फरवरी, और मई के आते आते,
लगेगा सब अच्छा ले गया वो २००९ जाते जाते |

2.
वर्षांत पर फिर सोचेगा मनुष्य: कुछ नहीं बदलता यहाँ पर,
वही घात हैं, वही धूर्त हैं, वही महंत, वही बलवंत,
बस कहीं जन्मा है कोई, तो कोई गया है लोक छोड़के,
कोई नए कालेज पहुंचा है, विवाह  का कर रहा है विचार कोई,
वही कार्यक्रम है, दूसरा स्टेशन है, शायद हैं कुछ अधिनायक नए,
कुछ नहीं बदलता यहाँ पर, बस आ जाते हैं आचार-व्यवहार नए,
पर गीतोपदेश सुन साथी, कर्म किये जा, निस्संदेह किये जा,
जो मिले, सो मिले, धर्म-कर्म से न करना गिले,
जो मिटे, सो मिटे, जो बने, सो बने, कर्म किये जा, हर पल किये जा,
मात्र कर्म पर था अधिकार तेरा, महाफल पर था अधिकार नहीं |

३
'जो हुआ जैसे हुआ' को कहते हैं इतिहास समझ, और 'जो जैसे होना चाहिए' को संस्कार समझ,
महाफल पर अधिकार नहीं, पर उसे निर्धारित करता है कर्म ही, इस क्यूँ, कैसे को संसार समझ,
क्या भला है, क्या बुरा है, नीति क्या, क्या नियम, क्या नियति, क्या नीयत,
झाँक भीतर, सब रहस्य, रस, रूप, रौनक, रंग, दीप्ती, गुण-दोष भीतर है,
तहों में तलाश, सतहों से दूर रह, टटोल स्व को, सच्चितानंद भीतर है,
चक्रव्यूह लगे चुनौतियाँ, संग्राम पराक्रम दिखाने का मंच, और जीवन हर क्षण
है अर्थ (पैसा / मर्म), काम (मोह / वासना), धर्मं (अध्यातम / रीति-रीवाज), के द्वन्द,
इन द्वंदों में, मायागीत के छंदों से, मुक्ति के रस्ते तीन: परिश्रम, ज्ञान-साधना और भक्ति के,
मित्र नए वर्ष में नए हर्ष से स्वरच कामनाएं, कर निर्धारित जय-स्वजय, और पा आत्म में शक्ति यह,
चाहे अश्रु मिलें या सांसारिक सुख मिलें, पर रहे कर्म प्रमुख, आस्था आमुख और परमार्थ से भरा रहे हृदय |

Books read in 2010

Read in 2010 (105 = 75 + 30; NF 33) 

ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS -- FICTION (19):  (The Collected Stories by Kafka), Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, Legends of Khasak by O. V. Vijayan (trans. by the author), A New Life by Orhan Pamuk, (The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky), Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, Death in Venice and seven other stories by Thomas Mann, Nana by Emile' Zola, A Life by Maupassant, Nip the buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzumuro Oe, Embers by Sandor Marai, The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges, Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe, Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac, Lust by Elfriede Jelinek, The Sound of Waves by Mishima, The Alchemist by Paulo Ceolho.

NOVEL / FICTION IN ENGLISH (18): Eve's diary by Mark Twain, The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, All About H. Hatter by G. V. Desani, Insomnia and Other Stories by Aamer Hussein, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O by Shel Silverstein, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis, Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel, Rumi's Tales from the Silk Road: Pilgrimage to Paradise by Kamla Kapur, A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe, Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, An Accidental God by Sameul Gido, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and other stories by Ernest Hemingway, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junoz Diaz, Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra, The Captain's Doll by D. H. Lawrence, The Financial Expert by R. K. Narayana, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court  by Mark Twain.

NON-FICTION (13): Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words by John Marciano, Orientalism by Edward Said, Nobel Lectures: From the Literature Laureates, 1986-2006 by Various, A People's History of the United States: 1492- Present by Howard Zinn, Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers by Arundhati Roy, Gandhi on Non-violence: A selection from writings of Mahatma Gandhi edited by Thomas Merton, The Art of Sinking in Poetry by Alexander Pope, William Jones' Ancient Theology by Urs App, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Always Astonished: Selected Prose by Fernando Pessoa, Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk, Survival of the Prettiest by Nancy Etcoff, Edge of the Empire by Maya Jasanoff.

ENGLISH POETRY (27): The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer to Robert Frost by Harold Bloom, These Errors are Correct by Jeet Thayil, A Necklace of Skulls by Eunice de'Souza, Closure by Kamla Das and Suresh Kohli, Black Candle by Chitra Banerjee Devakarni, The Far Mosque by Kazim Ali, My Sister -- Life by Boris Pasternak, Imperfect Thirst by Galway Kinell, Walking to Martha's Vineyard and The Beforelife by Franz Wright, Odyssey by Homer (trans. from Greek by Robert Fitzgerald), On the Bus with Rosa Parks by Rita Dove, The Darkness around us is Deep by William Stafford, The Wrong Side of the Rainbow by Charles Wright, The Adam of Two Edens, A River Dies of Thirst and The Butterfly's Burden by Mahmoud Darwish (translated from Arabic), Out Here by Ginger Murchison, A Sky Half-Dismantled by Shawn Delgado, Fully Empowered and Spain in Our Hearts by Pablo Neruda (Trans by Alastair Reid), The Flowers of a Moment by Ko UN (Trans by Brother Anthony, Young-moo Kim and Gary Gach), Sonnets by Jorge Luis Borges, Human Chain  by Seamus Heaney, (Garbage by A. R. Ammons), Almond Blossoms and Beyond by Mahmoud Darwish (trans by Mohammad Shaheen), A Slice of Water by Prabakar T Rajan.

Hindi / Urdu / Sanskrit/ Punjabi (5+3): Baanbhat ki aatmkatha by Hazariprasad Dwivedi,
Satta ke Samne by Noam Chomsky (translated by Anup Sethi), Yogasutra by Patanjali, Pratinidhi Kahaniyan by Mannu Bhandari, Valmikiya Ramayana in Hindi (trans./edited) by Ramchandra Verma Shashtri, Ramayana by Valmiki (Sanskrit), Rashmirathi and Sanchaita by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar.


बाणभट्ट की आत्मकथा  -- हजारीप्रसाद द्विवेदी, सत्ता के सामने -- नोअम चोमस्की (अनुवाद -- अनूप सेठी), योगसूत्र -- पतंजलि,  प्रतिनिधि कहानियां -- मन्नू भंडारी, वाल्मीकीय रामायण (हिंदी अनुवाद रामचंद्र वर्मा शास्त्री), रामायण -- वाल्मीकि,  रश्मिरथी एवं संचयिता -- रामधारी सिंह 'दिनकर' 

PHILOSOPHY / RELIGION / MYTHOLOGY (13): Eastern Religions and Western Thought by S. Radhakrishnan, Twilight of the Idols and The AntiChrist by Friedrich Nietzsche, The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali, trans. by Chip Hartranft, Hinduism by KM Sen, Panchtantra by Vishnu Sharma: translated by Chandra Raman, (Discourse on Metaphysics and The Monadology by G. W. Leibniz), The Religion of Man by Rabindranath Tagore, The Analects of Confucius (translated and notes by Simon Leys), Bhakti or Devotion and Life after death by Swami Vivekananda.

MAHABHARATA (by Mahrishi Ved Vyas; tr. by Kisari Mohun Ganguly) (2/18): Adiparva,  (Sabhaparva)

POPULAR SCIENCE (8): (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn, The Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman), Ben Franklin Stilled the Waves:  An Informal History of Pouring Oil on Water with Reflections on the Ups and Downs of Scientific Life by Charles Tanford, Nature's Robots: A History of Proteins by Charles Tanford and Jacqueline Reynolds, How Animals Work  by Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, Soap Bubbles: Their Colors and Forces that Mould Them  by C. V. Boys, (Five Quarts: A personal and natural history of blood by Bill Heyes), The History of Ink, including its Etymology, Chemistry, and Bibliography by Thaddeus Davids.

Favorite reads of the year (Fiction / Novels /Short Stories)
1) The Adam of Two Edens, A River Dies of Thirst and The Butterfly's Burden by Mahmoud Darwish (translated from Arabic): An exceptional poet from the modern era, the Palestinian poet whose writing  is full of humanity, and the inexhaustible anguish of exile: if he appeals to me so much in translation, perhaps it is worth learning Arabic to read him in the original tongue.
2) Embers by Sandor Marai (translated from Hungarian): A unforgettable masterpiece from mid-twentieth century, that explores the nature of friendship, love, hate and jealousy, in a taut prose; every chapter surprises the reader, and every chapter forces the reader to explore the mysteries within himself.
3) All About H. Hatter by G. V. Desani: One of the funniest books I have read in a while; babu English (or desi English) at its best. Requires a certain familiarity with the language as it is/was spoken by Indians with little or no exposure to the West, except through dated literature. 
4) Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck: A tour de force, an epic novel that provides a insight into the struggle and lives of a depression-era family that moves to California after losing farmlands to obscure and powerful financial institutions. One of the best American novels I have ever read.
5) Orientalism by Edward Said: A remarkable marvel of scholarship, that examines the Orientalists who created an East in literature and philosophy that was moulded, motivated and tinted or tainted by the cultural, economic, political and religious biases of their mother nations.  
6) A People's History of the United States: 1492- Present by Howard Zinn: An alternative perspective of US history that is both illuminating and disturbing, for Zinn recounts the struggle of common man, the hungry laborers, the slaves & African-American, and women to be recognized as equals, their struggle to get the right to vote and to earn respect and recognition as humans and as Americans. Also provides a dark and depressing portrait of actions of American government, capitalists and profit-mongers who systematically wiped out Native Americans and have been engaged in wars (proxy and real) around the world, leading to repression and carnage in foreign territories.
7) Baanbhat ki aatmkatha by Hazariprasad Dwivedi (Hindi): Dwivedi sets this historical novel in the era when Buddhism was waning, Harsha rules parts of North India, and writes it as autobiography of the famous Sanskrit poet Baanbhat. The novel is a literary extravaganza of sorts, and contains many unforgettable characters and lines, and deserves to be read by more people in general and Hindus in particular.  
8) Eastern Religions and Western Thought by S. Radhakrishnan: As a work of philosophy, as a series of lectures about religions, as a work of scholarship that encompasses Western and Eastern schools of thought, these series of lectures by S. Radhakrishnan are perhaps unsurpassed in their reach, detail and clarity. The author presents complex ideas with the authority and simplicity that becomes a man of his learning and erudition.  
9) Hinduism by KM Sen and The Religion of Man by Rabindranath Tagore: Many people ask me if there is a simple text that can explain to them the basic and core ideas, beliefs and practices of Hindus. Perhaps these two texts can do the job, and I recommend Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana, Vivekananda's lectures and Upanishads for the seekers who want to get to the core spiritual and philosophical basis of Hindu belief system. (Bad translations are easily available, but true seekers will figure out how to discard the chaff, and get to the wheat of the arguments...)
10) Nature's Robots: A History of Proteins by Charles Tanford and Jacqueline Reynolds: If a biophysicist is asked to explain the meaning of life, he/she will tell you all about how central proteins are to the actual functioning of life processes. This book is a journey through the world of proteins, with an introduction that provides clues about how the understanding emerged historically and the celebrated and forgotten heroes that made crucial contributions to the study of proteins.
11) The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer to Robert Frost by Harold Bloom: Yes sir, it is a mammoth enterprise, for you get to read everyone from Shakespeare to Keats, Wordsworth to Shelley, Milton to Emily Dickinson, and five centuries worth of poetry anthologized and introduced by Harold Bloom.

(Also See: Books Read in 2009 & a list of favorites among them)

About Saga of a Crumpled Piece of Paper

'Scholars without borders' are a group of academics based in New Delhi, who aim to provide Indian books to global audiences. My first collection of poems, Saga of a Crumpled Piece of Paper (63 Poems, English, Writers Workshop, Calcutta) has finally found a distributor in them http://swblogs.blogspot.com/2009/12/rare-se...nse-for-texture.html

The book is available for Rs 200 in India & $20 elsewhere (postage included). Shipping cost to US is quite high, and I have been frustrated in my efforts of getting these here  in US, for cheap (I will get some with my bags in Feb and my friend Abhinav carried a few, but books are heavy & airlines are stingy!)

Buying them is easier in India I guess, and the site where you can buy these is http://tinyurl.com/BookofPoemsVivek  

Like all books published by Writers Workshop, the book is: Limited edition. Gold-embossed, hand-stitched, hand-pasted & hand-bound by Tulamiah Mohiuddin with handloom sari cloth; Printed by Abhijit Nath, in a Lake Garden Press.

ISBN Number : 9788181578518

There are four parts in the book, first one is about pursuit of beloved, second one about a lost beloved, third one has random thoughts and fourth one is about how an Indian poet in America keeps remembering his home country and his own people. The last poem, "Half-happy with India turning into a trillion dollar economy" was nominated for a Pushcart, and "Your face" was published with audio online at http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/38/sharma.html#1  Another poem published online is The Coke Story at http://www.kartikareview.com/issue5/5sharma.htm   

Few other Poems that appear on this blog, that appear in the book in revised versions, are: Boston Bhaaratiya, Pearl Earrings, Mumbai Burns, The Story of Ramdas, and Faded Sarees. It seems most of the romantic poems included in the book were never posted online. (Your Face @ The Cortland Review is a representative example of my love poems).

The book includes a kind and gracious introduction by my mentor, my friend, my Gurudev, Thomas Lux, and I specially thank everyone at Poetry at Tech (Ginger, Travis, all the friends I made there, and the people who fund &support the program including Bourne family and Bruce McEver) for all their help and encouragement. More info about the book is included in a post at My Himachal by Avnishji.

Half-happy with India Turning into a Trillion Dollar Economy

When half of my nation sleeps
with half-filled bellies, under the half-roofs,
with half-hopes of a mouthful tomorrow,

when half of my nation grows up with half-rights

to education and employment,
with half-health produces babies, with a half-heart
chokes before the stoves that burn wood,
and cook half-water curries made with half-salt,

when half-length men walk the streets
half-naked, willing to work for half-wages,
half-grown women slip into beds at half-price,

when half-sane leaders pocket half-funds,
and divide the nation into halves that fight,
(haves and not-haves all half-fooled)
when half-castes organize into brigands,
and seek half-reservation for their half-intellect,

when half of the news is of rapes, riots, extortions,
half-nation worries about Naxalists, Maoists, terrorists,
half-resolved cases haunt the courts,
where victims of the crime wait half-lives
for half-compensations,

when half-history is distorted or concocted,
sacrifices of men like Gandhi half-known, half-respected,
when half-heritage is lying like wreckage, and half-religions
have pocketed half-faith and finished the better half,

when half-talented sportsmen cloud TV with ads,
half-naked woman talk of modernism with half-minds,
half-cultured men, hypocrites, type half-lies into their
tax returns, and half-acknowledge their sexual slights,

when half of my nation cannot even read or hear my voice,
and other half will ignore it by their own choice,
and half-close their eyes to see half-blessed dreams
of half-American lives.

(Lost in translation) Bechara dil kya kare from Movie: Khushboo with Lyrics: Gulzar

Let us look at the translation first, notes will follow later. The song can be found on youtube as well as other sources, has music by R. D. Burman and is sung by Asha Bhonsle.

What can the heart do, sears in saawan, sears in bhado,                          
The path isn't two seconds long, stops an instant, walks an instant,

The Yogi moves from a village to village, cures the sick,
Only my heart's fever he doesn't know, doesn't lay his hand....

For you, there are many roads, you can go whereever you wish,
For me, only your path-ways, if you take me along..

NOTES:

The song includes many references that are lost in translation. "do pal ki raah" has many connotations for a Hindu as many ancient and modern verses call life as a two moment, two pal, two second long pursuit. Harivansh Rai Bachchan always said: "mitti ka tan, masti ka man, pal bhar jeevan, mera parichay" (Body of earth, Mind of mirth, Life in a moment, my biography).If you have read Tagore's songs in translation, you will recognize that some of the translations are similar to the one possible for this song.

A heart searing in monsoon means the burning, the yearning is immense. The reference to Sawaan is too common in Hindi and Indian literature and the real joy of monsoon can be appreciated by only the farmers who see the paddy flourish after the rains. Sawaan was also the month of separation between husband and wives, the month of prayers to Lord Shiva, and just saying these words  (Saawan and Bhado) in Hindi bring so many associations to the mind.

The couplet that refers to Jogi, or Yogi is another interesting reference to times when sages or sadhus would go from village to village distributing medicine and blessings. There are many Bhakti, sufi or devotional songs that use the word Jogi in the sense of a wanderer, or lover, or God, and here too, Gulzar employs the word in a way where connotations can be diverse. Tagore always used this kind of doublespeak, as it most of the poets in rest of India.

In the last couplet, a feminist interpretation is possible: A woman says that man has access to any path he chooses, whereas female follows, and that too if the man allows. Another interpretation is perhaps more accurate though, if we think of jogi or Yogi or saint, as the person addressed, then, this couplet continues the devotional strain, where the teacher, the jogi knows every path to God, love, destination, ecstasy. The song is in female voice, but the song itself is as applicable to males as it is to females, to anyone who is in dilemma, and wants to find someone who can not only heal, not only knows the answers, but can also take you along. If love is a spiritual journey, as many Hindu and sufi believers have said time and again, then this is another spiritual, love song, where beloved is also a divinity.

bechaaraa dil kyaa kare, saavan jale bhaadon jale
do pal ki raah nahin, ik pal ruke ik pal chale
gaaNv gaaNv men, ghuume re jogi, rogi change kare,
mere hi man kaa, taDap naa jaane, haath naa dhare
tere vaaste, laakhon raaste, tuu jahaaN bhi chale,
mere liye hai, teri hi raahen, tuu jo saath le 

बेचारा दिल क्या करे, सावन जले भादों जले
दो पल की राह नहीं, इक पल रुके इक पल चले
गाँव गाँव में, घूमे रे जोगी, रोगी चंगे करे,
मेरे ही मन की, तड़प ना जाने, हाथ ना धरे
तेरे वास्ते, लाखों रास्ते, तू जहां भी चले,
मेरे लिए है, तेरी ही राहें, तू जो साथ ले

शुक्र है शुक्रवार है, यूँ लगता है, त्यौहार है

छींकने तक की फुर्सत किसे, कहाँ आजकल,
पल पल फोन, इ-मेल, है भगदड़ आजकल,
चाहे कोई कितना भी कमाए धन,
चाहे कितना भी सराहा जाये तेरा प्रयत्न,
सब पाया-गवाया यहीं जाएगा,
धुआं-रख होने का तेरा भी दिन आएगा,
या तेरे अपने जिनसे प्रीत, जिनपर मान तुझे,
ऐसी दौड़-भाग में जायेंगे कब पहचान तुझे,
कब उनको तो दुलार दे पायेगा,
कब उनका संसार बन पायेगा?

सफलता क्या है, किस चीज़ का है मान तुझे?
आ चल, संग-संग बैठें-सोचें ये गुत्थी सुलझे |
सोने, खाने, जीने के लिए काफी है छोटा घर,
कुछ अनाज, फल, कुछ उपास, ऊन, एक प्रियवर,
पिता को यश, माँ को शायद शांति-सुख का सामान चाहिए,
पुरुष को पुरुषार्थ, पितृ-पुत्र धर्मं, निभाने का प्रावधान चाहिए,
नारी को भी संतुलन कर्म का, और मातृत्व का वरदान चाहिए,
हर प्रीति, हर सुखानुभूति के लिए दोस्त संतुलित इंसान चाहिए,
संचय में सर्वदा कोई तुझसे आगे रहेगा,
सोचेगा इतना और, इतना और, तो भागे रहेगा,

इस होड़ में, नयेपन के कोड़ में, बहता चलेगा,
तो इसे ही बेहतर, जीवनदर्शन कहता चलेगा,
संशय नहीं अभी, जवानी है, जिंदगानी है सामने तेरे,
शायद थिरकन पाओं में, हृदय में हैं सिर्फ स्वपन सुहाने तेरे,
फ़िक्र किसकी नहीं, कोई हिचकी नहीं, आज है बस तेरा निलय,
अभी अकेला है, हर रस, रंग, रति को तूने चखा, चाहा है,
तेरे पास कुछ कर गुजरने, कुछ बन जाने का निश्चय बेतहाशा है,
फ़िक्र किसकी नहीं, कोई हिचकी नहीं, आज है बस तेरा निलय,
पर कब तब रहेगा वसंत, क्या कुछ भी है अनंत?
जान, होड़ में होश कैसा? नियति क्या नहीं वो अंध?

Random, eclectic thoughts and links: September-November, 2009

Latest offering: The Cortland Review features my poem, with audio: (My father retired on 31 October, and the poem is a tribute to him; ) http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/45/sharma.html

"India put all her emphasis on the harmony that exists between the individual ad the universal." // "Man must realize the wholeness of his existence, his place in the infinite... Deprived of the background of the whole, his poverty loses its one great quality, which is simplicity, and it becomes squalid and shamefaced.... His wealth is no longer magnanimous; it grows merely extravagant." Tagore in Sadhana

My Sunday morning thoughts (Nov 6): Damn this politics, religion, East, West, ignorance :) Life is beautiful when कवि (the poet) wakes up and remembers that the essential thing is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZMpv8LMEcI

(मैंने तुझे माँगा तुझे पाया है / आगे हमें, जो भी मिले, या न मिले, गिला नहीं... I prayed for y...ou, received you/ You prayed for me, received you / Whatever future brings us, or does not bring, No discontent) (As an aside, Deewar is one of the finest movies of 70s, Salim-Javed weave memorable dialogues into excellent performances by Amitabh and Co, directed by Yash Chopra)

Myths are myths, why seek a historical, archaelogical or scientific proof, to say that fiction, even religious fiction is factual? I always read things about Ramayana, where people question why we have no archaeological evidence for it. Campbell's Occidental Mythology tells me Bible myths are no different from Eastern ...myths. Here is an interesting article discussing how the archaeological evidence defies some of the most important beliefs of Israelites about their history: http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2001/02/07/solomon/index.html

I went to dinner with Andrew Parker, an evolutionary biologist from Oxford, who has written a book titled: "The Genesis Enigma: Why the Bible is Scientifically Accurate" (see http://tinyurl.com/n8a5qy fro example)... (Needless to add that I had a very intriguing conversation with him; intriguing as it ventures into a possibility that even creationists cannot reconcile with. See here: http://creation.com/genesis-enigma)

To complete cycle of myths:

Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/faith_and_spirituality/watchv17348445sRzEyGZM (A Hero with a thousand faces)

This excellent video from 1932 contains rare footage about Bombay (now renamed Mumbai) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob8n_Aaog58

'insaano ki izzat jab na jhoote sikko mein toli jaayegi / wo subah kabhi to aayegi' - Sahir (When the reputation of men won't be weighed in terms of fake coins / that dawn might arrive someday) The power of this line, the song is lost in translation. It is said that the movie, Phir Subah Hogi, is based on Crime and Pu...nishment, and our lyricist-poet, Sahir urged the director to find a music director who had read Dostoevsky & the book. Hence Khayyam got the coveted movie. Later Khayyam was to make as famous songs as Kabhie Kabhie mere dil mein (another Sahir song, his most popular song, but maybe not his best lyric) . The socialist in Sahir, in Phir Subah Hogi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCiFrjyplUQ

If we were to judge epics by impact they have had on human existence, Illiad fades in comparison to both Mahabharata and Ramayana. In rewriting Tulsidas, he created a work that helped us to reunderstand humanity (as one third of it lived in India then)... Here is a famous verse, in Lata's voice, with a tepid translation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuOti-9hgrw

Friday evening & beer

Beer was invented by a God! :) Soma must have been great... & we know wine is divine... we know Punjab & Scotland was riased on whiskey, and many praise rum.. Russians love vodka, Japanese Sake, Indians Tharra .. but beer, ah, is universal, is full of bubbles, evanescent like human life, intoxicating like whatever is b...est and worst in humanity.. Read Bachchan, read Omar Khayyam or drink a good, old glass of beer!

The most unexpected (and detailed) feature of the MIT newsletter... Sex @ MIT http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N49/sexatmit_editorletter.html (Viewer discretion advised; adult content)

Thoughts of a Saturday morning, (14 Nov)

Rain, बारिश, हजारों ख्वाइशें ऐसी, A Thousand desires such as these, Farida Khanum singing: (सारी दुनिया के रंज-ओ-गम दे कर/ मुस्कुराने की बात करते हो; After giving the sorrows and pain of the whole world/ you talk of smiling; हमको अपनी खबर नहीं यारो/ तुम ज़माने की बात करते हो; We have no news of our own self/ you talk of the world), और मैं, एक अधूरी कविता, and me, an unfinished poem...

'ek nahin do do matra / nar se bhaari hai naari' -- Maithalisharan Gupt in 'Dwapar' ('Not one, but two vowels / Woman has more substance than Man')

A pretty good open letter about faculty hiring in IITs: http://business.rediff.com/special/2009/oct/08/an-iitians-open-letter-to-the-prime-minister.htm
(Loved the quote: If you pay peanuts, you can get only monkeys')

'The curator smiled at the mixture of old-world piety and modern progress that is the note of India today'. Kim (1901), by Rudyard Kipling (Did he mean progress can be identified with lack of piety in the new world?)

Finished reading or close to finishing: Black Swan (Taleb), Diaries of a Young Poet (Rilke), Guerrillas (Naipaul), A Tree Within (Octavio Paz), Representative Men (Emerson), Kim (Kipling), Occidental Mythology (Campbell), Illiad (Homer, trans. by Fawles),  Tao Te Ching by Lao Tze, Dwapar (Maithalisharan Gupt), Meri Priya Kahaniyan (Yashpal), Germinal by Zola, & King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan (A. Chopra).

Lost in Translation: Hothon par Sachai rehti hai (Jis desh mein Ganga behti hai)

By the very nature of our cultural and spiritual heritage, without realizing it, we tend to treat rivers, especially Ganga, as mothers and goddesses, and similarly we treat Earth as a goddess, who suffers on our behalf. In English literature, we find few characters who live their life honestly and simply, say we would see these in old British novels (Lorna Doone or Far from the Madding Crowd), but typically every human is a sinner (by very nature of Western myths and culture, you have to be). On the other hand, Indian sensibility allows for existence of sinless hearts... this goes hand in hand with the corrupt society that exists all around the simple souls.

RK Narayan wrote about such heroes, who look quite Victorian and simple in their motives and lifestyle, and unless we let go of our expectation of seeing a tainted personality, so stereotypical of the twentieth century fiction of the West, we cannot appreciate this quality of human nature, captured quite nicely in Narayan's Swami and his friends, and Waiting for the Mahatma. In other words, it is quite hard for a novelist writing in English to present characters like Rama or Hanuman, though Krishna and Arjuna quite fill the bill. But it is important to not lose sight of good-old Indian simplicity and honesty.

Now we return to the song, that was sung by Mukesh, penned by Shailendra and the music is by Shankar Jaikishen. The movie has some heart wrenching songs, and memorable scenes. Padmini, the famed dancer, plays the female lead, and Pran essays the role of a villain. The movie won Filmfare for Best Movie and Best Actor, and even though the song was nominated in two categories, it lost out in the end. 

In the linked video (see send of the post), three minutes of fantastic percussion saves the hero (Raj Kapoor).

Then the hero sings:

Where truth abides on lips, where hearts are guileless,
We are the citizens of that country where Ganga flows....

We value our guests over our lives,
we don't greed for more, we sustain on less,
where from centuries, the mother earth suffers quietly for her children....
We are the citizens of that country where Ganga flows....
 
Some people who know more, know less about humanity,
This is the East, the Eastern folks know worth of each life,
Live together and love each other, it is the only thing that stays... 
We are the citizens of that country where Ganga flows....

What we were yesterday, what we are today, isn't the only thing we are proud of,
We have to progress on this path, we are also cognizant of that.
Who has ever stemmed this flow, can it ever stay bound...
We are the citizens of that country where Ganga flows.... 

Where truth abides on lips, where hearts are guileless,
We are the citizens of that country where Ganga flows....

Whatever anyone offered, we learned, we even assimilated strangers,
We were never blinded by selfishness, we did not worship the worldly needs,
Now not only we, but the whole world, says to the whole world...
We are the citizens of that country where Ganga flows....

Where truth abides on lips, where hearts are guileless,
We are the citizens of that country where Ganga flows....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6anHIvlBRs&NR=1