Daag, the Poet

ast Saturday night I switched on my radio and tuned it to Radio Kashmir, an Urdu radio drama titled as Tamseel-e-Daag was announced to be commencing from that night. I had listened to many noted ghazal singers including Mehdi Hassan, Noor Jahan, Ghulam Ali and Abida Parveen who had sung ghazals of Daag Dehlvi. I have also heard that Allama Iqbal was his disciple. Curious to know about this great personality, I took along the radio to my room and listened to the first episode of Tamseel-e-Daag keenly. Next day I came to know that this drama has also been published and titled Tamseel-e-Daag. I purchased a copy and started reading the book. Ashraf Adil, the writer of this book has done a wonderful work by presenting the life of Daag Dehlvi through a fascinating Urdu drama. In his book he has presented the life of Daag Dehlvi from his birth to death. This book takes into the life of Daag deeply and makes us feel the depth of the knowledge and love that Daag Dehlvi was possessing. Here is an excerpt from the book.
“Nawab Mirza Khan Daag better known as Daag Dehlvi was born in 1831 in Chandni Chowk Delhi. His father Nawab Shams-ul-Din Khan was sentenced to death when he was all but 6 years of age and that is why his stepfather, Mirza Muhammed Fakhroo, brought him up. Mirza Muhammad was related to Mogul ruler Bahadur Shah Zafar. Following his death 1865, Daag left Delhi for Rampur where he went into government service and spent a comfortable life. But Daag was soon fed up of monotony and wanted to experiment. This period of Daag’s life was both creative as well as torturous. It was during these years that Daag composed most of his heart-wrenching poems. The period of desperation and discomfort ended in 1891 when Daag got an invitation from Nizam to come to Hyderabad. There he won honor and prestige and lived a life of luxury. Hyderabad was a cradle to many poets of that period following the decline of Muguls in Delhi. This book has also presented the love life of Daag with Munni Bhai Hijaab, who was a poetess and Tawaif (dancer). Daag’s work comprises four volumes consisting of 16,000 couplets. Some of his highly quotable couplets are as:
Main hosh mein tha tou phir uss pe mar gaya kaise
Yeh zehar mere lahoo mein utter gaya kaise
Tu hai harjai to apnaa bhi yehi taur sahi
tu nahin aur sahi, aur nahin, aur sahi
Though I am not having a strong hold on Urdu language, but was always keen to know this beautiful language and about the personalities who contributed to this language. Now after reading this book I feel lucky to know a great Urdu poet whose disciples include the poet of the East Allama Iqbal, Jigar Moradabadi, Seemab Akbarabadi and Ahasan Marharavi, and who contributed to this language throughout his life. In present era and especially in Kashmir, where Urdu is the official language, this language is lacking its sheen and our state’s present generation is bidding adieu to this language. This can prove very destructive for our culture, as Urdu language is soul of our culture. We must be thankful to People like Ashraf Adil who devote their precious time to uphold this polite and mesmerizing language.

IN SRINAGAR, RED IS GREEN

LAST night I was driving from Lal Chowk to Sanat Nagar. When I reached near Ram Bagh junction, where traffic jam is a regular feature, what I saw was quite bewildering. Signal was Red for the lane I was driving in. But vehicles from this lane were contravening Red signal, and were crossing the junction. Annoyed by this, I stopped my car near the junction. Signal shifted to green on my side. I was about to press the throttle of my car, but vehicles from other side, whose signal shifted to Red, started crossing all of a sudden, forcing me to apply the brakes. Signal again shifted to Red on my lane and I was forced to move by those, what I call uncivilized people, behind me. So I carried on leaving them with a "Reverse Signal”.
 This is not the way, if we want our defunct traffic system to be on path. SMC, which has made this possible, has to make it sure that all signals are in working condition. Defunct traffic signals will discourage citizens to comply. Making strict laws are not enough, we have to ensure their enforcement also. And when we make laws, they are same for all. Why are people stranded for VIP convoys? When law makers and administrators will break the law, then what can we expect from a commoner.
 What I have observed in my people, is that they welcome and abide by the new rules for time being, but this respect is for few days. These are the same people, who are now on a spree of jumping signals. Notices to public in local dailies and installing hoardings at different road junctions, displaying meaning of different signs, (which often confuses many of us), and also displaying punishments and fines for the violation of traffic lights, can help in making people aware of the law, and stop them from violating it.  We have to make it sure that all possibilities, leading to make this initiative a common Kashmiri maxim "Ketis Kallas?” (For how many days), are eradicated!

Programming the Human Mind

Human beings are born with an empty mind just like a new computer system with just hardware and no software. On buying a new computer we buy operating system software and different application software to make our computer capable of doing what it is supposed to do, that is computing. If we observe same is the case with newly born human being, their empty mind, CPU of human body, is programmed by the society a human being lives in. The main programmers of human mind are the parents; they contribute a major part in programing a child’s mind. Parents help us in making our mind capable of grasping and understanding the things we have to in the society. Can we imagine a computer to operate, even blink its screen, without a programme. The answer is no. If a human being is only provided food and placed in isolation, he will be blank. Another main programmer of our minds is our society. We adapt our minds with respect to society so that we can live the way our society expects us to live.

We are done with the resemblance of a computer and a human mind. But has computer any emotions; no it has none, and can’t ever have. The mind Almighty gifted us with has created the computer, can computer create anything except computing, no it cannot.

We were supposed to programme ourselves with the world’s best operating system, the Quran. Allah gifted us with such a precious and incomparable way of life, on which we seldom act upon. Instead we choose the corrupt operating system of our society, which definitely will lead us to destruction. We have become dead like other non-living computers which only know how to compute but cannot differentiate between wrong and right.

Allah has gifted us with a unique brain which no other living being possesses. The brain Almighty gifted us with, if applied the way Almighty has wished us, can play a huge role in the betterment of humanity. We know how few people in this world with proper application of mind made large contributions towards humanity. Some great people, who even after decades of their death are still the torch bearers of the present world, the reason being not they were chosen ones but they applied their mind the way they were supposed to do, the way of Allah. We all know how our great scholars contributed towards Islam. It would have been difficult to interpret and understand Islam for a common mind if there would not have been these Islamic jurists who though born with an ordinary mind but applied it in the proper way, the Allah’s way. If the people of current world will live the way our scholars did, this world will become a better place to live in.