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A story and an anecdote..To put across my hypothesis:
Once upon a time there was an innkeeper who was unable to make ends meet even though he did his very best to draw customers by making the inn comfortable, the service cordial, and the prices reasonable.So in despair he consulted a sage..
The sage told him to change inn’s name.
Impossible! said the innkeeper. ‘ For generations it has been known as Seven Stars and is well known all over the country.’
No,’ said the sage firmly. ‘you must now call it the Five Bells and have a row of six bells hanging at the entrance.’
Six bells? But that’s absurd! What good would that do?
Give it a try and see, said the sage with a smile.
Well the innkeeper gave it a try. And this is what he saw..Every traveller who passed by the inn walked in to point out the mistake, each one believing that no one else had noticed it. Once inside, they were impressed by the cordiality of the service and stayed on to refresh themselves, thereby providing the innkeeper with the fortune that he had been seeking in vain for so long..(From The Heart Of the Enlightened: Edited by Anthony D’Mello)
There are few things the ego delights in more than correcting other people’s mistakes.
Mirza Ghalib was exhorted by Zauk to accept Nizam Of Hyderabad’s invitation to a series of Royal Mushaira ..Ghalib was reluctant..But Zauk’s persistence prevailed..Ghalib accepted the proposal and arrived at the Palace Gates..In his rundown clothes,he was turned away by the guards even though he introduced himself by telling his name and occupation ..When Zauk came to know of this refusal, he offered his own elegant Sherwani to Mirza Ghalib for next day’s mushaira..Ghalib somehow squeezed himself into an ill fitting Sherwani and presented himself at the gates..This time he was allowed the passage..And in the mushaira Ghalib really won over Nizam’s heart with his moving and brilliant nazms..After the mushaira came the royal banquet.. Ghalib was sitting bang opposite the Nizam..And Nizam observed that Ghalib instead of eating was taking the morsels to his Sherwani, then topi, then pyjamas..Nizam had an indication that Ghalib was an eccentric but what he was doing seemed downright idiotic..Nizam could not help asking Ghalib what was he upto.?.Trying to feed the clothes !.Ghalib replied ‘Exactly, because Ghalib never came ..He was not allowed in..It were these clothes that got the permission to enter..So they deserve the food.’
The ego is concerned only with appearances..It is not bothered about the truth..
PFC is doing a yeoman’s service by providing ample space and opportunity to indulge these two frailities of human ego.’
And oh boy ! How much I feel at home having freedom to comment with such abundant and abandoned irresponsiblity! Shooting off my opinions and getting a twisted sense of pleasure in other’s intentional or innocent goof ups..And then going ga ga over the promos,first look or images of pictures or people without any in-depth analysis..I feel I belong when I see other pfcites doing the same .PFC–PLATFORM FOR FREEDOM OF COMMENTS! or POST FREE COMMENTS.Whatever,thanks PFC–I join others of my ilk to sing:’Tum jo mil gaye ho, toh ye lagta hai, ye jahan mil gaya hai ..Ek bhatke huey raahi ko kaarvan mil gaya hai!’(Hanste Zakhm).
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Kya baat! Badi baat kahe di aapne to Krysh bhai… Kya baat!
“The ego is concerned only with appearances..It is not bothered about the truth..”
well said
krysh..
“Mirza Ghalib was exhorted by Zauk to accept Nizam Of Hyderabad
Pavan,my source is a VCD discourse on Guru Granth Sahib by a very revered scholar and teacher of Sikhism late Sant Maskeen ji..He had this penchant of quoting from Urdu and Persian poets (especially Ghalib,Iqbal,Momin,Zauk,Faiz et al)who had touched certain depths of metaphysical world and then expressed its eternal truths through their verses..As such Guru Granth Sahib of Sikh religion contains verses and thoughts of more than 22 saints,poets saints and bhaktas– even from islamic and sufi religious traditions(notable being Kabir and Farid)..so in one such discourse he narrates this anecdote and i have no reason to doubt its authenticity coming from such a learned personality.
Well Mulla Naseeruddin is one shoe fit all syndrome..Anything could be attributed to him to make it more palatable and accessible as he is one of the most lovable character of Sufi folklore..Osho had this penchant of conveying many pithy messages via Mulla Nasseeruddin..
As for G B Shaw, well maybe you can enlighten me to this incident’s happenstance with him..
Since you mention Ghalib,
‘Voh Apnee khoo na chhorengey hum apnee vazaa kyon badlein
Subuk sar ban key kya puchhein ki humsey sargiraan kyon ho’
Cheers
krysh,
will definitely confirm this.. anyway another song to suit PCF could be
“Hawaao.n pe likh do, hawaao.n ke naam
hum anjaan pardesiyon ka salaam”
Continuing Free Posts, On Ghalib-Zauq ego hassles, there is another interesting anecdote that gulzar saab beautifully crafted in his tele serial Mirza Ghalib (I am not sure how true it is, yet Gulzar saab made it very very believable).. and also as a director, us ek prasang me ek teer se kai shikaar kar gaye.. have written it earlier.. let me share it again with PFCians..
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if you recall the TV Serial, it was a masterpiece considering that the gulzar saab had woven the scenarios in the serial rather than presenting the life of ghalib straight from the history books.. Many of the scenes in the serial were not exactly depiction the exact happenings in the life of Ghalib, but were created on the basis of the
couplets and ghazals written by Ghalib.. I believe gulzar saab created small small episodic scenarios woven around ghalib’s poetry..ki ghalib ne jab ye sher likha to kya hua hoga.. here is an example..
Ghalib Scenario – Harek Baat Pe
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If you recall the serial, Ghalib comes to Delhi from Agra but in his first mushayara he failes to impress the listeners and poets in mushayara due to a very difficult ghazal he selects to render.
when he renders the opening couplet, none of the listeners understands that and could’t follow it (misra ko uthana in appreciation)
ghalib asks : what happend
the listeners : bahut bhari hai uthaya nahin jaata
ghalib stops rendering and walks out of the mushayara and when King Bahadur Shah Zafar asks ki why are you not completing the ghazal, ghalib says
“Uthane ko Kuli nahin mile” and walks out..
after that ghalib was not invited to any mushayara’s and he usually shared his poetry with the street workers..
One day on the streets he finds Ustaad Zauk’s savaari passing by, so he comments (shouts) a line
‘Bana hai shah ka masaahib, phire hai
it-rata’ (Ustaad Zauk was very close to bahadur shah jafar, and with this line ghalib commented that zauk is chamcha of jafar).. Ustaad Zauk and his assistants find it very insulting.. complains Shah jafar about it and plans to invite Ghalib to the next mushayara so that they can complain and insult ghalib in the mushayara..
Ghalib arrives at the mushayara and when he is about to start his some ghazal, zauk and his assistants complains to the king that Ghalib is
insulting Ustaad Zaul in public as he commented “bana hai shah… phire hai itarata”
Shah Jafar asks ghalib if he had done so… ghalib finds himself caught in the web but he confidently says No.. he gives an excuse that he did’nt insulted Ustaad Zauk but was humming his latest couplets when zauk’s sawaari was passing by
with his friends on street..
Ask jafar ‘how.. ?’ Ghalib says “They
(ustaad zauk and party) haven’t heard the full couplet) it goes as ‘bana hai shah ka musaahib phire hai it-rata, (pauses, warna is shahar
me ghalib ki aabaru kya hai’..
He saves himself with the above extempore couplet..
but ustaad zauk still not convinced and asks, ki jab misra itna achha hai to poori ghazal sunaiye..
ghalib takes a paper out and starts reading this ghazal “harek baat pe kahte ho tum ki tu kya hai, tumhi batao ki ye andaz.e.guftgu kya hai’ and impresses almost everyone (including ustaad zauk
and king zafar) with ‘rago me daud-te phirne ke hum nahin kaayal, jab aankh hi se na tapka to phir lahu kya hai’…
When another poet sitting next to mirza wants to peek at the piece of paper to read the complete ghazal, he finds it a completely blank page…
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Now I am not sure if it had happened exactly the same way shown in the serial, but it was an excellent scenario to show how ghalib had created this ghazal “harek baat pe kahate ho”, and his relationships with contemporary poets and entry and acceptance as a poet..
Not only that, if you remember the ghazal from the audio cassette/cd of mirza ghalib, it was uniquely composed by jagjeet singh and had three different parts in three different meters by three different
singers.. if you observe closely, you will find a masterpiece by gulzar.. Ghalib was initially rejected by kings court, but first he is recognized by the king’s court (Jagjeet’s part in “harek baat pe”),
and in continuation to this scene we have a fakeer on the road singing the subsequent couplet “chipak raha hai badan par” (rendered by vinod sahgal) and then we have Neena gupta singing the subsequent part in the mujra at the kotha (sung by chitra singh).. It establishes how ghalib reached the awaam.. and his poetry was being appreciated by
king, poets, fakeers and at mujra’s (all walks of life)
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Krysh…so true ya…so true….
Pavan Jha…main to sab bhool hi gaya tha…aapne itne fursat se likha to sab yaad aa gaya….shukriya.
Pavan you really got me into nostalgic mood with recollection of one of the jewels in DD’s crown Mirza Ghalib by Gulzar..Believe you me i have fleeting recollection of this series(i must revisit it on DVD/VCD)..Since you have such a vivid memory why don’t you write a post on this unique combo of Ghalib and Gulzar from latters pov..imo it will really be interesting and informative..thnx for sharing your recollections.