Love, Life and Happiness

दिल ही तो है न संग-ओ -खिश्त , दर्द से भर ना आए क्यों  रोएंगे हम हज़ार बार, कोई हमें सताए  क्यों।  दैर नहीं, हरम नहीं, दर नहीं आस्ताँ नहीं  बैठे हैं रहगुज़र पे हम , कोई हमें उठाये क्यों। क़ैद ऐ हयात, बंद ऐ ग़म , अस्ल में दोनों एक हैं  मौत से पहले आदमी, ग़म से निज़ात पाये क्यों। हाँ वह नहीं ख़ुदा -परस्त, जाओ वो बेवफ़ा सही  जिसको हो दीन ओ दिल अजीज़ उसकी गली में जाये क्यों  ग़ालिब ऐ ख़स्ता के बगैर कौन से काम बंद हैं  रोईए जार जार क्या, कीजिये हाय हाय क्यों।  (Meaning: संग-ओ -खिश्त: Brick and Stone  दैर: Temple  हरम  : Mosque दर: Doorstep  आस्ताँ  : House क़ैद ऐ हयात: Captivity of Life  बंद ऐ ग़म: Prison of Pain दीन ओ दिल अजीज़: One who loves God and Heart) Literal Translation Why, wouldn't this heart of mine fill with pain, it isn't some concrete I will cry a thousand cries, whenever I get beaten and face mistreat: I am not at a temple or a mosque, not at your home, nor at doorstep,  I am sitting at the public street, who are you to pick me up:

There has been storm on the television studio, ever since the Waterloo of NDTV and team happened with JNU episode. In fact, everyone involved in the JNU episode, came out as a winner, except for journalists, deal-makers who have contributed to the nation-building in earlier regime by getting people of impeccable bearing like Mr. A Raja appointed to the cabinet. Media, post-JNU broke a clear divide of tolerant and intolerant. Since that day of great churn in media world, things were different. Lines were drawn and TRP sources were defined. So Ishrat Jahan is one day, Samjhauta Twist the other, NIT Srinagar yet another day. In the middle of all this, suddenly Agusta Westland Chopper scam comes back. A meeting was hurriedly called up at the residence of topmost Congress leader as Notice was given for debate on the bribery in the Rajya Sabha. Here are the excerpts from that meeting on this summer day at Janpath in Delhi: Supreme Leader : What is this nonsense? The day after this ma

कहते हैं , जब रही ना मुझे ताक़त ए सुख़न  जानूँ किसी के दिल की मैं क्यों कर कहे बगैर।   "Kahte hain, jab rahi na mujhe taqat-e-sukhan Janoon kisi ke dil ki main kyunkar, kahe bagair" This is one of the lesser known couplet by Ghalib. Loosely translated it means- “If it is said, that I no longer hold the power of writing Why should I be told the affairs of someone’s heart, without asking?” Being a writer is a rare privilege. It allows one to reach out deeper into human hearts, offers rare empathy to pain, happiness and ambitions of fellow human beings. When I say writing here, I am not referring to writers driven solely by commercial necessities, writing as per market-mechanization. Writers, like doctors, have the ability and authority to look into our hearts and find the treasures which we never know, we possessed. This also puts a great responsibility on the writers. A writer searches the truth, not only for himself, but also for those about him and for the

Image Courtesy - Getty Images I had last week written on why reading is essential for getting in a rounded personality ( Why Early Reading for Kids Makes Sense? ). One of the interesting revert was that while books are good to make one ‘successful’, too much emphasis on the books will make a person 'bookish'.  Two errors of judgment lie in here, in my opinion. Primary issue is the assumption that I am advocating reading from the view of making a successful person, intonation being a successful person from the practical parameters. That was not the premise when I wrote that. I do not think success in a worldly sense has some written formula or recipe. Luck or fortune plays a great role there. We use some phrases every day, something to do with American world view that we do not realize the deeper significance of it. In an interesting writing by Alain De Botton , a contemporary philosopher refers to this. He posits that in an ancient world, when we came across a poor

Dear Students of NIT Srinagar, I am writing this letter to you as a citizen of the country, a father and as an Ex-NITian. I know no celebrity will write open letter to you, no intellectual DU professor will write an editorial expressing interest to adopt you, and no great media write will waste his eloquence in writing flowery Op-ed as tribute to your bravery in extremely hostile environment. I am writing because it means much to ordinary Indian.  Some pictures have the ability of changing the course of the history. The one that I have put up here is one such. Media is in search of finding such pictures and as we know now, at times driven by agendas, fabricating and propagating one. But amid those fabricated, choreographed and photoshopped images, some like paper Tricolor being raised in the heart of the valley at NIT Srinagar stand as some kind of message of divine intention in their innocence and truth. This paper tricolor carries a value much higher than the paper tigers

Picture Courtesy- GettyImages I am an only child, though not a child anymore. My childhood went in search of friendships outside the home, and waiting for the evening to come by to immerse into those rare moments of camaraderie. Our days, the Pre-Appu childhood, was largely supervised by our parents. I do not much remember visiting my friend’s place in childhood. Much unlike my daughter and her friends who keep meeting up in their homes. My friends were kids of my father’s colleagues and we met when they met. Friendships were formed and finished in the children park.  The interspersed period of loneliness was filled up by books. It was from Comics to pocket-books to Geeta Press to even, Indian Classics like Ramayana and Mahabharata . They filled up my days of solitude with rare happiness. I was called introvert and adults left me alone. It was an arrangement which we both liked. There was no other arrangement in the view. For some reasons, parents those days did not apprecia