tanhaaiyaaN

Some movies teach you a lot about life, although they are meant for entertainment, movies are a great way, in my humble opinion, to escape reality for a few hours, just like video games, and I believe everybody needs that escape, people have different ways to make that escape, some like to listen to music, read poetry, write poetry, read books, watch movies, play video games, etc. And some of these things have big lessons for life. Fearless with Jet Li happens to be one of them (a movie I highly recommend). The biggest lesson this movie teaches is that life humbles you. Indeed, arrogance, pride, get you no where, life has a way of getting back at you. Unnecessary tragedies and undesired events can make you so humble. There are better things that personal arrogance and personal pride.

The movie was binding. The lesson in the movie is, again, in my opinion, needed to be taught to newer generations and perhaps older generation as well, heck people in general need to know that humility is important. Arrogance doesn’t only harm you, as a person, but has effects on your loved ones, your surroundings. And then, out of nowhere, life bites you back, a tragedy strikes, and you learn that your arrogance has simply made you unhappy, taken the most precious things away from you. It is true what they say, you don’t know what you have till it’s gone and when that precious person is gone, the errors of your ways become clear to you.

We all need a lesson in humility I believe. The “I” is not all that there is. There is a bigger “I” out there, one needs to realize it. To realize it is to know it and to know is to know God perhaps? I say that with a question mark because, believing in a higher power really is a question of faith and faith is not an easy thing to acquire. It is really hard to have that faith but I digress.

St. Augustine said - The sufficient of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.

Don’t let life teach you a lesson and show you how vane it is to be egotistic or arrogant. Keep some humility. Be fearless, but be humble at the same time, find the balance.

An excellent movie to watch:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8545585184878490822&q=michael+tsarion&total=259&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

A line that caught me was a question from a reporter directed towards President Bush Jr.

“Is US credibility on line with respect to the WMDs in Iraq?”
Reply: “I’m not exactly sure what that means”
LOL

Merry Christmas to all my friends out there who do celebrate it   (lets not be politically correct and say “Happy Holidays”, what a bunch of bull-crap that is, it’s Christmas and even though we are not Christians, I don’t get offended if someone says “Merry Christmas” to me).

Here have a laugh:

Here are some couplets I read today by Riaz Khairabadi

zaahid sharaab peene de, masjid meiN baiTh kar
yaa vo jagah bataa de jahaaN par Khudaa na ho

Khuda ke haath hai bikna na bikna ma_e kaa ab saaqi
baraabar masjid-e-jaame’ ke ab rakh di dukaaN maiN ne

—————————–

Hasrat Mohani:

nahiiN aati to yaad unki maheenoN bhar nahiiN aati
magar jab yaad aate haiN to aksar yaad aate haiN

There’s this feeling, that one can get, every now and then, of something nagging. It doesn’t necessarily have to do with anything.. anything in particular, but something.. perhaps, someone, perhaps not. I think in this new nazm, I tried to capture it, though I might have failed miserably, but heck, it ended up being a nazm anyway… so here it is:

gumaaN
———

maiN saRak ke isi kone pe khaRaa rahtaa houN
ek besood tamanna meiN ghiraa rahtaa houN
maiN ne har aas ka har deep bujhaa rakkhaa hai
dil kii aavaaz ko dil hi meiN dabaa rakkhaa hai

mere atraaf ajab bheeR hai logoN ki magar
koii bhi aaNkh uThaataa nahiiN meri jaanib
aur idhar maiN bhi kisii fikr meiN khoyaa, gumsum
Khud ko is gardish-e-duniyaa se alag rakhtaa houN
ek besood tamannaa meiN ghiraa rahtaa houN

aaKhir is dard ka koii to sabab hogaa hi
meraa maazi?
mire afkaar?
miri bazm-e-hayaat?
sochtaa to houN magar soch nahiiN paataa houN

maiN saRak ke isii kone pe khaRaa rahtaa houN
maiN ne Khud se bhi koii baat chhupaa rakkhii hai
aur ummeed ki har shammaa bujhaa rakkhii hai
dil ko phir bhi ye gumaaN hai k koii aayegaa….
15/Oct/2007

Indian advertisements are hillarious!  Everytime I go there, I love watching their ads so here’s one ad by a Permanent Marker company!

Some ash’aar by Munawwar Rana

siyaasi aadmi ki shakl to pyaari nikaltii hai
magar jab guftagoo karta hai chingaari nikaltii hai

laboN par muskuraahaT dil meiN bezaari nikalti hai
baRe logoN meiN hi aksar ye beemaari nikalti hai

——
balandi der tak kis shaKhs ke hisse meiN rahtii hai
bahut uuNchii imaarat har ghaRi Khatre meiN rahtii hai

bahut jee chaahtaa hai qaid-e-jaaN se ham nikal jaayeiN
tumhaari yaad bhii lekin isi malbe meiN rahtii hai

ye aisaa qarz hai jo maiN adaa kar hi nahiiN saktaa
maiN jab tak ghar na lauTooN meri maaN sajde meiN rahtii hai

betaabi-e-dil beshak palkoN pe chali aanaa
lekin ye teri had hai is had se na baRh janaa

aadaab-e-muhabbat meiN, zabt ek baRi shai hai
kuchh bhi ho magar aie dil, aavaaz na ban jaanaa

(Jagan Nath Azad)

Woot!

My older brother just became a dad to his second son. Name hasn’t been selected yet… This is so cool

Read an interesting editorial in the October 1st issue of The Gazette, Montreal about Ahmadinejad and Iran. The article written by a professor of International law at Mcgill University, Montreal definitely craves attention from all those who are offended by Ahmadinejad’s recent appearance in US. While I invite those interested in world politics to read this article, I did want to voice a few of my own thoughts and pointless ponderings on the topic.
I have been listening to the radio, especially as I’m driving, I love to listen to 940 News and it is really interesting to hear all the diverse opinions that people in my city have to offer about this issue of Ahmadinejad. The consensus seems to be that the Iranian prime-minister is pure-evil, and his outrageous comments about Israel, Holocaust and nuclear capabilities of Iran are all at fault. However, one should let him talk because of “Freedom of speech” and welcome him to the US as a speaker, if not for nothing, just to ask him questions about his evil comments and policies.
The article by Payam Akhavan puts in perspective all of Ahmadinejad’s comments confirming that Iran’s real power is with the “Council of Guardians” that are behind Ahmadinejad. So why is western powers and media misguiding their anger towards Ahmadeinjad? Shouldn’t we be talking about Khamenei and his hardline stance about all these? If Ahmadinejad is not the real power in the country, then obviously the real power is the one that is letting him say all these offending things. I wonder though about the fact that our media seems to be very ignorant about the inner politics of Iran, and therefore, is it really right for us to comment on these things when we know nothing about them? I never see any mention of other political powers in Iran, at least not in the mainstream media and it seems that people equate the voice of Ahmadinejad to the voice of Iran! I doubt that a leader of a country, be it any country, whether democratically elected or not, speaks for the whole populace. He may represent a section, perhaps even a majority (though according to Professor Akhavan, the desires of people of Iran are far from what Ahmadinejad talks about), but he can not represent the whole country. What’s unfortunate is that when super-powers in the world start noticing these things, start getting offended about these things and want to take action against such leaders, the whole country suffers.
When Ahmadinejad came to power, I remember reading in the newspaper about how a lot of Iranians were not happy, if the voting was “democratically” held, he should not have been elected. There must be something deeper that Ahmadinejad stirs in the people of Iran that had him elected as the prime-minister. Professor Akhavan is perhaps ignoring that in his editorial though he did mention that Ahmadinejad is relying on the nationalism in Iranian people. In either case, Ahmadinejad is there, he is staying, perhaps a better understanding of Iran’s inner politics can show us how to handle such political personalities.