All You Ladies

‘Patta patta boota boota’ is a very beautiful ghazal by Mir, an 18th century Urdu poet from Delhi. It is sung by various ghazal singers but my favorite version is in the voice of Vinod Sehgal from Gulzar’s serial Mirza Ghalib. Here is a bit of an excerpt from the ghazal: Patta patta boota boota haal hamara jaane hai Jane na jane gul hi na jane baagh to sara jane hai Every leaf and twig in the garden knows my state, It is only the flower that is unaware of my feelings. Chaara gari beemari-e-dil ki rasm-e-shahr-e-husn nahi Warna dilabar-e-naadan bhi is dard ka chaara jane hai To cure an ailing heart is not the tradition of society of beauty, Even though they’re (the innocent beloved) aware of its remedy. We read differently at different stages of life. When young we tend to interpret it in the context of the beloved and find it all very moving, but I believe once you have kids in your life that you can really feel the misery, pain and irony hidden in these lines

The world is divided into two kinds of people- one who think like me and the other who should learn to think like me. Nowhere does this thought haunt me more than when I open my facebook page. It takes me a good couple of minutes to control my demons of arrogance and let sensibility dawn on me, except when it is times of elections or big political events, when from a thinking human being I morph into a computer and begin processing information only in binary, in a ‘you- are- with- me- or- against me’ mode. In times of elections you may have noticed, that an occasional comment or a remark on facebook can act as a sting operation on ideological divides of your friends and expose to you your friends like you have never seen them before. Some you weren’t reasonably impressed with, back then in college, will become elevated in your opinions if their beliefs are same as yours, and others who differ will definitely take a beating. All I can say is whatever your leanings may be, if y