The story so far ...
Nazm karnay ko qaum kee taareekh
Müjh say kahtaa thha ayk din koee;
Baa adab maeñ nay arz kee keh müjhay
Naheeñ aatee hae marsiah-goee!
posted by Zakintosh at 3/11/2006 11:43:00 AM
Saturday, March 11, 2006
About Me
- Name: Zakintosh
- Location: Karachi, Pakistan
They laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at them because they are all the same.
recommended links
- Wanna Indulge?
- School Horror Stories
- The Second Floor
- Meanderings
- In The Line of Wire
- Silsila-e-Mah-o-Saal
- Cherry, we miss you
- Tarun's Baby
- Tehelka Special
-
- 3QD
- Blogging the Bible
- Beat the Blogbans
- YaGooHoogle!
- DogPile
- Literary Treasure-Chest
- Change This
- Understanding Evolution
- Centre for Science Education
- And Darkness was upon the Face of the Earth
words of wisdom
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have scrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness - that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that the saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought and, though it might seem too good for human life, this is what - at last - I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
Bertrand Russell
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.
Noam Chomsky
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Albert Einstein
Each century seems to take on a particular character as we view it in retrospect. How will the 20th Century be remembered? My guess is that this dramatic span of 100 years will ultimately be marked not by computers or the Internet, but by the drive toward individual freedom, the breaking of human barriers of prejudice, and the opening of society to include all people.
John S. Spong
DESIDERATA
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Max Ehrmann
7 Comments:
Bohat Mushkil Urdu hai aap ki.
12 March, 2006 02:58
Dear 'destitute rebel'
Your comment underscores only part of the tragedy that is this nation's lot. There seems to be hardly a word in that quatrain (I dare not call the form by its Urdu name in a message to you) that a 25-year old Pakistani should not be able to follow. Rebelliousness does not lie in shunning your language and, thus, becoming a destitute.
Goyam - müshkil, vagar nah goyam -mushkil! (Now this, I grant, may take deciphering --- although I wish it did not.)
12 March, 2006 08:10
How profoundly political without being political. Atleast, that is my interpretation. To politely refuse to sing the praises of a nation's history. Although, I have to ask ZAK, how would you address it if the first line changed to:
"Nazm karnay ko qaum kee taareef"
12 March, 2006 12:27
yes, this Urdu is difficult for today's semi-literate youth. I wonder what will become of a nation where the people cannot speak, read or write even one language properly. My ears hurt when I hear the people in Lahore speaking a strange blend of English, Urdu and Punjabi in a painful accent. There are some who refuse to speak Urdu altogether and all conversation turn into me trying hard to speak in Urdu and they responding in Angrezi.
It positively makes my blood boil when I read the blogs written by Pakistanis. Very few can spell, punctuate or know grammar anymore. Just go the Karachi Metblog and see how the supposed cream of the blogger crop butchers the language. I am all for freedom of expression, but for this reason, it almost gives me perverse pleaseure to see the blogger blcked.
16 March, 2006 21:40
Perverse IS the right word!
Ek meray aashiaañ sé zidd thhi tümhayñ;
Sooni kar dee chaman ki har daali?
Mayree dunyaa tabaah karnay ko
Saaree dunya tabaah kar daali!
Your Blood-Type is obviously not B+
:-)
17 March, 2006 05:01
Languages develop by an interaction with other cultures and other languages. Both culture and language are not static entities. Punjab (and Lahore) has done a lot for the development of Urdu, a language that you consider your own but one that was so large-heartedly adopted by the Punjabis even at the expense of relegating their own to the back burner. If you want to know more about how non-native speakers who are supposedly at one point in time considered to be 'butchering' a language actually end up contributing to it and how they can give their own identity to a language that is not their own, please refer to the theoretical as well as the fictional writing of Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Chinua Achebe and Derek Walcott.
19 March, 2006 20:17
Just a clarification: 'Sabizak' is responding to the comment by 'Original-Anon' above and not to my post.
20 March, 2006 08:18
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