ganjalyaa othaas maajhyaa

गंजल्या ओठास माझ्या धार वज्राची मिळू दे,
आंधळ्या आत्म्यात माझ्या सूर्य सत्याचा जळू दे ||

पांगळा बंदिस्त माझा जन्म आकाशून जावो,
वादळी आवेग माझा चार भिंतींना कळू दे ||

सारखे सौंदर्य माझ्या कोरड्या गात्री खळाळो,
सारखे अस्तित्व माझे पेटताना दरवळू दे ||

लाभु दे लाचार छाया मोठमोठ्यांना परंतू,
तापल्या मातीत माझा घाम मानाने गळू दे ||

आणु दे गा वंचकांना क्रूस छ्द्माचा दयाळा,
रक्त येशूचे परी डोळ्यांत माझ्या साकळू दे ||

***

गीत - सुरेश भट
संगीत - पं. हृदयनाथ मंगेशकर
स्वर - रवींद्र साठे
चित्रपट - उंबरठा (१९८१)

***



***
"ganjalyaa othaas maajhyaa", "ganjalya othas majhya" from Umbaratha, Suresh Bhat, Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Ravindra Sathe, Smita Patil
***

Mumbai and India will bounce back

In the wake of the ongoing terrorist attack in Mumbai, the most dastardly attack in India so far, it is clear that it is a tough time we, the Indians, are going through. My heart goes to all those innocent souls, Indians and foreign nationals, brave cops and commandos who've lost their life and those who have sustained life threatening injuries. But I feel that this tough time will pass and it is inevitable that Mumbai and India will brave this terror attack. And Mumbai and India will bounce back.

The whole world is condemning this attack on India and is showing solidarity to India's war on terror. We must be grateful for this gesture of the world community but I must state that this is our war and we have to fight our war with or without any support from others.

In response to the breaking news of the terror attacks in Mumbai on New York Times' website, I found the following noteworthy comment which I consider as a representative of world community's feelings towards the terrorism and its unfortunate impact on India, the largest democracy in the world.

32. November 26, 2008 5:04 pm, Link

For too long, this war on terrorism has been used in the US as a bludgeon to advocate a specific set of policies disproportionate to its risk and more in-line with the long-term interests of the Bush administration. It's not that, here in the US, we should not have been scared after 9/11, but maybe we were too scared, and gave up too much, to the point of hysteria. That overreaction lent itself to manipulation by those with disingenuous motives, and risked the sincere support of America's friends and allies.

Now India is being hit by terrorist attacks matched in drama and fear, if not yet in scale, to 9/11. India froze the assets of foreign terrorists suspects for the US after we were attacked 7 years ago. We responded with a weak and unfocused policy in the region, which included propping up a destabilizing dictatorship with India's tensest foreign relationship.

It's time America did right by India, and issued a statement of solidarity in light these attacks. It should not include a plan of action that the US takes, but instead a commitment of resources to help India investigate or go after the groups that perpetrate these crimes. The mandate should be qualified to free us from obligation to be involved or support unilateral activity on the part of India in territory it disputes with Pakistan, so that we're not rattling any cages. But in any case, it's time this war on terrorism meant something more than a cash hole, long lines at airports, and the Bush administration projecting its idea of force onto the 21st century. And it's time America meant something more to a country like India than an entity only slightly more troubling and dangerous as an enemy than as a friend.
— Pierce, Atlanta

Such comments also indicate a change of the perception of the world community towards India and in other words the realization of the ground facts about ground facts about the active involvement of India's neighbors in the terrorist activities withing India and also around the globe. India should realize that it is time to capitalize upon these positive sentiments.

Our democracy and the political system is like an elephant. An elephant walks slowly, changes its course slowly. But it is an intelligent animal too. The elephant becomes unstoppable for the wildest animals on the earth when it starts running with a motto and a mission in mind. I am sure that our system will become wiser with each such experience and start acting firmly and proactively to counter each of such attempts, to destabilize the integrity of the nation, and even to go further to eliminate this menace in its roots. Sooner is better.

Celebration of Life - 'nahi punyachi mojani'

There are many ways in which the existence of the human being, or of any other creature for that matter, can be described. Each one of these ways has some uniqueness in its description. Well known Marathi poet B. B. Borkar described this existence as a sublime physical entity where upon a duty to undergo the cycle of life is entrusted by The Creator, Brahma as per the Hindu philosophy and beliefs. As per this philosophy, each of the creatures has a certain brahma-tatva inside him. The brahma-tatva can be best defined as the elemental extract of The Creator himself. This idea is not much different than the amber eyes inherited by the son from his father or the blonde hair inherited by the daughter from her mother. This brahma-tatva leads us to follow a certain destiny as per the philosophy. Poet Borkar has presented this philosophy in a metaphorical manner in the Marathi poem, ‘náhi puNnyáchi mojaNie’. The metaphors he has presented are simple but the message that his poem conveys is in sound conformation with the Hindu philosophy. In this article, I have made an effort to interpret the poem to the best of my ability and to present the same poem in English even though it is next to impossible for me to match the precision and economy of Poet Borkar. If the English version conveys the message even partly, I will consider it as a great achievement for my limited literary ability.


Celebration of Life

We don’t count any good deed
To no guilt we need to pay heed
Like the sacred waters of Ganga
Caressing the bed of rocks with a great speed.

We don’t involve us, nor do we indulge
No fear of disappointment, nor any grudge
Like the pollens traveling from flower to flower
Riding on the wind created by His power.

We’ve no form, no name, but the trance
Like the sky and its vast expanse
Incense stick to the blue fragrance
Filling His space with its pleasing advance.

We see us as the flowers offered to Him
Flowers celebrating their life at His feet
With a leap into the sacred water
Then in the womb of the Mother Earth, they enter
Till His next call, they will get sooner or later.

***
Original Marathi Poem

नाही पुण्याची मोजणी
नाही पापाची बोचणी
जिणे गंगौघाचे पाणी

कशाचा न लागभाग
कशाचा न पाठलाग
आम्ही हो फुलांचे पराग

आम्हा नाही नाम-रूप
आम्ही आकाश स्वरूप
जसा निळा निळा धूप

पुजेतल्या पानाफुला
मृत्यू सर्वांग सोहळा
धन्य निर्माल्याची कळा

***

गीत : बा. भ. बोरकर
संगीत : पं. जितेंद्र अभिषेकी

***

Musical rendering of the poem by Pt. Jitendra Abhisheki

The Feline Family

This family stays nearby my residence. These photos were taken a
couple of months back when the kittens were young.

justaju jiski thee - gazal

कि बिछडे हैं तो अब, किस से मिलाती है हमें
जिंदगी देख ये क्या रंग दिखाती है हमें ...
... गर्दिश-ए-वक्त को कितना बड़ा एहसाँ है कि आज
ये जमीं चाँद से बेहतर नजर आती है हमें

...

जुस्तजू जिस की थी उस को तो न पाया हम ने |
इस बहाने से मगर देख ली दुनिया हम ने ||

तुझ को रुसवा ना किया, ख़ुद भी पशेमाँ ना हुए |
इश्क की रस्म को, इस तरह निभाया हम ने ||

कब मिली थी, कहाँ बिछडी थी, हमें याद नहीं |
जिंदगी तुझ को तो बस ख्वाब मे देखा हम ने ||

ऐ अदा और सुनाये भी तो क्या हाल अपना |
उम्र का लंबा सफर, तय किया तनहा हम ने ||

जुस्तजू जिस की थी उस को तो न पाया हम ने |
इस बहाने से मगर देख ली दुनिया हम ने ||

शायर: शहरयार
गायिका: आशा भोसले
संगीतकार: खय्याम
चित्रपट: उमराव जान (१९८९)

MIP Lands on the Moon Surface

The first impression of Indian expedition is made on the moon by the successful landing of the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) over the moon surface at 8.31 pm. The probe was dropped from the Chandrayaan-I traveling in the moon orbit from a distance of approximately 100 km. During twenty two minutes descent towards the surface, MIP, with its four sides painted with tricolour, has taken pictures of the moon which will be made available on Saturday. I join all my fellow Indian citizens in the eagerness to see some of those pictures. It is also said that the landing and the subsequent tests taken up by MIP will help validate the landing systems which are being developed by ISRO. With the successful landing of MIP, India joins the USA, the erstwhile USSR and European Union to achieve this success. It is such a proud moment for our country and our scientist fraternity.

The following pictures are published by ISRO those are sent by MIP during its descent towards moon surface.

Footprints

One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along the
beach with the Lord.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene, he noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand;
one belonging to him,
and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life flashed
before him, he looked back at the
footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the
path of his life there was only one set
of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the
very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned
the Lord about it.
'Lord, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life there is only
one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when I needed
you the most you would leave me.'
The Lord replied, 'My precious, precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
during your times of trial and suffering, when
you see only one set of footprints in the sand
it was then that I carried you.'


Trivia:

Ella H. Scharring-Hausen, Princeton Educator and Sunday School Teacher wrote the Footprints in the Sand poem June 6, 1922 at the age of 22. Its first line read 'One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.' Ella H. Scharring-Hausens poem is now public domain property according to the copyright law of 1909. The Footprints in the Sand poem was later rewritten with permission of its owner in April Passion Week 1963 by Ella H. Scharring-Hausen's great niece, Carolyn Joyce Carty, a six year old child prodigy.

The Footprints poem famous first line then became, 'One night a man had a dream.' This first line was written by Robert Louis Scharring-Hausen. Carolyn Joyce Carty revised the complete text into its present form, which has become known as the more popular version of the Footprints poem.

Well, this is just one version. The story of this famous poem doesn't end here. A little more search takes me to two more versions, with the similar meaning and message. One of them is penned by Mary Stevenson in 1936 and the other by Margaret Fishback Powers in 1964. It is also found that there is also one Burrell Webb who claims to have authored this poem in 1958 while he was distressed as his girlfriend left him.

Follow the blog through Follower's Widget

Blogger.com team has come up with one good widget. It enables you to follow new posts on my blog. This way it will save some of my energy to tell you that "hey, only recently I've updated my blog!". It also will help me to know about you. All that you have to do is to click on the "Follow this blog" on a small widget present in the sidebar and follow the instructions. If you're a blogger or have your own website, then you can expect some visitors jumping to your blog from the list of followers. Just in case you don't want to reveal your identity and still want to get updates about my blog, you can follow my posts anonymously.

I recently came across two very interesting and funny but insightful images while browsing web. The first one speaks volumes about the cricket mania prevailing in Indian subcontinent. The action of a protester hurling a stone is akin to a furious fast bowler and it seems as if the policeman is trying to punish the 'bowler' by sending his 'delivery' across the fence.

Image courtesy: eSakal.com

The second one is more about our addiction to the internet and it emphasizes the need to give internet a break once in a while.

Source unknown

awara hun - lyrics

आवारा हूँ, आवारा हूँ
या गर्दिश में हूँ
आसमान का तारा हूँ
आवारा हूँ ...

घरबार नहीं संसार नहीं
मुझ से किसी को प्यार नहीं
उस पार किसे से मिलने का इकरार नहीं
मुझ से किसी को प्यार नहीं
सुनसान नगर अनजान डगर का प्यारा हूँ
आवारा हूँ ...

आबाद नहीं बरबाद सही
गाता हूँ खुशी के गीत मगर
जख्मों से भरा सीना है मेरा
हसती है मगर ये मस्त नजर
दुनिया, दुनिया मैं तेरे तीर का
या तक़दीर का मारा हूँ
आवारा हूँ ...


गीतकार: शैलेन्द्र
गायक: मुकेश
संगीतकार: शंकर जयकिशन
चित्रपट: आवारा (१९५१)