Tendulkar crosses 12000 mark

OK, now don't give me this look. I know that you know this already if you care. Plus, you may be wondering what this is doing in the world of Qais.

Well, this has a place too. Whenever Qais drops at my place to update me, we usually stay late watching highlights of the day's play. Qais likens the sports man pursuit of mastering the game to his own pursuit.

He says that the mental state is what matters. The ends are different, means are also not the same. But the approach, loneliness of pursuit, the anxiety and self awareness is similar.

So in turn Tendulkar's achievement is an acknowledgment of maintaining his interest and not given up in between.

Resuming? may be...

"How many times can you go back to do something that you left earlier because it did not interest you at that time,” Qais would ask.

If you were wondering about Qais’s line of questioning, I think you have your answer. No wonder she cribs about him all the time. I too get irritated at times.

Sometimes I ask a philosophical question that is it right of him to demand answer in quantifiable terms such as how many times…

I believe that in majority of chances one should do something one feels like doing. If you want to do something and it is harmless or it is harmless to you only or to your immediate family members and if harm is limited and can be compensated & would not have any longer term impact, you should do that.

But Qais would argue that this is too general.

May be this is general. But isn’t your belief should be generic. I mean you can’t say that I believe in only this neutron or the neutron which is decaying at this rate at this place. That would be too specific. Your belief should be a framework that should help you in creating your own short cut to meet real-time demands of everyday life situation at a given context. For more contexts you have a ready behaviour, earlier you can react. By this you can avoid acting without thinking.

Qais would say that this projects a causal way of life. So it is, a prudent, brooded way of living, I would say. I will argue or try to argue as an engineer. The odds are very less that I, a junior employee in a big multinational organization with a routine social life, would encounter a new type of real time event. In our cellular world, we talk about use cases; a mobile has to perform simultaneously. A use case is voice call, another is voice call + alarm tone. The latter one is an example of concurrent use case.

Okay, Qais will say that you mean that you have ready made, thought out actions for these events. Almost all events or all types of events, I will correct him.

After this he will go into his cell. It is not that he is convinced by my answers ( he will resume them at some later date as he usually does), he is again engrossed in the picture he has put on his table.

It is not that he has just one picture on this table, he has many copies of the same picture and many picture of the same person. It is only that at present he is looking at picture on the table.

I too relieved would go back to attend matters relating to subsistence : check my office email inbox.

Hum Dekhenge

I heard Iqbal Bano's rendition of this beautiful poem of Faiz. Presenting this to readers in roman script. While appreciating this poem one must remember that Faiz was an athiest. Religious references only signify the spiritual idea of islam not ritual hardcore islam. I did my best in translating urdu words, however there may be some errors left. Please point them out.

Hum dekhenge
Lazim hai ke hum bhi dekhenge
Wo din ke jis ka wada hai
Jo lauhe-azal pe likha hai
Hum dekhenge
[Lazim=compulsory,
lauhe-azal=eternal metal]

Jab zulm-o-sitam ke kohe-garaan
Rooi ki tarah ud jayenge
Hum mehkoomon ke pau tale
Ye dharti dhar dhar dharkegi
Aur ahl-e-hukum ke sir upar
Jab bijli kar kar karkegi
Hum dekhenge
[kooh-e-garaan=heavy mountain
Rooi=cotton
mehkoomon=oppressed
ahl-e-hukum=rulers]

Jab arz-e-Khuda ke kaabe se
Sab but uthwaye jaenge
Hum ahl-e-safa mardood-e-haram
Masnad pe bithae jaenge
Sab taaj uchale jaenge
Sab takht girae jaenge
Hum dekhenge
[kaabe=the sacred house
but=idol
Hum ahl-e-safa mardood-e-haram= we all accursed women of haram
masnad=throne]

Bas naam rahega Allah ka
Jo ghayab bhi hai hazir bhi
Jo manzar hai nazir bhi
Uthega ANAL HAQ ka nara
Jo mai bhi hon tum bhi ho
Aur raaj karegi Khalq-e-KHUDA
Jo mai bhi hon tum bhi ho
Hum dekhenge
Lazim hai hum bhi dekhenge
Hum dekhenge ...!
[manzar=image,
nazir=viewer,
ANAL HAQ = I am truth,
khalq=masses]

Thirst for Profit

Frontline has published a story in this week's issue on water privatisation. It is a well written article which educates reader on this issue and warns of dangers if privatisation does happen.

If the above paragraph doesn't interests you in reading the article, consider following. Also please try to remember, had you heard of these incidents before through our 24 hours news channels, English newspapers?

2001: THE old man shuffled his feet, acutely embarrassed. No matter which part of India you're in, the first thing you do is offer your guests a glass of water. And this was one part of Nallamada in Andhra Pradesh blessed with that element. Things had changed, though. "Please don't drink it," he said, finally. "See how it is?" he asked, showing us a tumbler. Tiny blobs of thingummy floated atop a liquid more brown than transparent. But then he brightened up. "Will you have Coca-Cola instead? That, this village has." And so it did. As in the Aamir Khan ad. The smaller bottle for Rs. 5.

It's also there in countless other villages where a glass of clean water is now hard to find. And Coca Cola's impact on both drinking and irrigation water sparks revolts across the country. From Plachimada in Kerala to Kaladera in Rajasthan. From Gangaikondan in Tamil Nadu to Mehdiganj in Uttar Pradesh. From Thane in Maharashtra to Khammam in Andhra Pradesh.

2002: M.P. Veerendrakumar, chairman of the Mathrubhumi group of publications, is startled to discover that the Malapuzha river and dam in his native Kerala are "for lease or sale to private parties. "I did not know you could sell and buy dams and rivers." He learns this from a tender he sees in an American daily while on a trip overseas. "This had not appeared in any of our local newspapers."

It had already begun in Andhra Pradesh There, two years earlier, farmers chased away the World Bank's James Wolfensohn. He had come to unveil the confederation of "Water Users Associations" in the state. "Water Users." Oh, what a lovely word! It denotes that special group of folks who use water. The rest of us are non-users, a type of dryland bacteria.

But non-users, being a touchy, irritable lot, showed up in large numbers at the Koelsagar dam in Mahbubnagar. Pitched battles were fought and hundreds arrested. The government shifted the plaque of the dam to a safe haven miles away so the Bank Boss could cut his ribbon in peace.

2003: Private theme and water parks in and around Mumbai are found to be using 50 billion litres of water daily. This, while countless women in the slums and chawls of the city wait hours in queues for 20 litres. Meanwhile, anti-Coke battles are hotting up again. Kerala's pollution control board confirms the toxic nature of the sludge spewed out by Coke's plant in Plachimada. The panchayat revokes the plant's licence.

2004: The polls to parliament -- and in some states -- see the rout of the biggest 'water reformers.' Of course, there are many reasons for their defeat. But water is on that list. Sadly for the World Bank, its puff job is already done. So its report "India's Water Economy: Bracing for a Turbulent Future" appears as it is -- a year later. It sings the praises of Digvijay Singh in Madhya Pradesh and N. Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra. And it claims they gained politically from the reforms. It says the water users associations were particularly good for Naidu. Because "farmers perceived this to be a reform which moved in the right direction." That is in 2005, a year after farmers in both states hand out some of the worst electoral defeats ever seen to the Bank's heroes.

2005: Bazargaon is a scarcity-hit Vidharbha village that has one sarkari well and gets tanker water once in ten days. It is also host to the giant 'Fun & Food Village.' An elite park which offers 18 kinds of water slides and uses millions of litres as a matter of course. All Bazargaon's water flows towards this 'village.' It's a story repeated in different ways in many places, across many states. Water as a commodity, flows from poor to rich areas.

I support this article and am against this privatisation. To provide safe and drinking water to everybody at an equal price is responsibility of State. The price should be as nominal as possible as the costs of processing water is shared by all. The ability of consuming drinking water should never be linked to the purchasing power of individual.

For Rainfed India

Last year in his Independence speech PM had hinted about institutional mechanism through which such a watershed development programme can be implemented. Now a technical committee set up by the Union Ministry for Rural Development to review watershed programmes has come up with a blueprint of a National Authority for Sustainable Development of Rainfed Areas (NASDORA). The report of the Parthasarathy Committee (named after its chairperson) has just been printed and is in the public domain.

In an editorial article in Hindu, Mihir Shah, who served as Honorary Adviser to the Parthasarathy Committee, writes about the structure of this proposed authority.

NASDORA is visualised as a quasi-independent authority to manage the national watershed programme. Its overarching goals would be to ensure access to safe drinking water to the local population, provide it sustainable livelihoods and secure freedom from drought for the vast rainfed regions by 2020. The Authority would address the challenge of bringing prosperity to these regions through sustainable development of their natural resource base. It is envisaged that NASDORA will identify, finance and monitor action programmes in a systematic and time-bound manner. To ensure freedom and flexibility in its functioning, the Authority should be registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Over time as it matures in functioning, a proposal for converting it into a statutory body could be considered. This was the institutional trajectory followed by the National Dairy Development Board.

A two-tier governance and management structure is envisaged to ensure broad policy support as well as operating oversight. NASDORA will be managed by an apex governing board consisting of a competitively selected professional as CEO, one representative each from the Union Ministries of Rural Development, Agriculture and Environment and Forests, three competitively selected whole-time professionals representing operations, finance, and human and institutional development, two eminent experts in watershed management, and two eminent members from civil society. An apex rainfed areas stakeholders council will provide overall policy support and guidance to the board and review NASDORA's performance. It will be chaired by the Prime Minister, with the Ministers for Rural Development, Agriculture and Environment and Forests as vice-chairpersons. The council will include the Chief Minister of each State covered by NASDORA, Secretaries of the Union Ministries of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment and Forests, national experts on watershed management, representatives of facilitating agencies of high standing, and representatives of farmers. The State Governments will set up boards with a structure similar to the one at the apex level. Each State board will have a CEO and professionals appointed on the recommendations of search committees.

I think it is a nice thing to be done by the government. The effective working of the poposed mechanism should help government in alleviation of growing regional imbalance in India's development.

Inteshar (Dispersion)

While watching news coverage of Varanasi blasts, Advani's new Yatra, and the fear of riots, I remembered first two lines of Kaifi's Inteshar peom:

Kabhi Jamud(obstruction) kabhi sirf inteshar(dispersion)- sa hai
Jahan ko apni tabahi ka intezar - sa hai

(Sometimes an obstruction, sometimes a disperion
The world perhaps awaits its own destruction.)-Translated by Pavan K Verma

In this hour of difficulty let us condemn the terrorists, deplore the act and prevent any attempt to disrupt communal harmony.

Translating Faiz

I thought of this post while searching for translation of Faiz's poem 'Subah-e-Azadi'. A search on Google with keywords 'Faiz, translation' brought 56,700 results in 0.39 seconds. Thats fast and huge for a poet of non English language. The similar searches for Mirza Ghalib, Allama Iqbal and Kaifi Azmi produced 21700,38600 and 512 results respectively.

The search also took me to a page of The Sunday Tribune June2,2002. Here Amar Nath Wadehra is reviewing a new book "Translation of Faiz's 100 poems" by Sarvat Rahman.

In this article Amar after informing the reader about difficulties in translating a poem lists down two translation of Faiz's arguably most famous poem to illustrate his point. I am copying the poem and the two translation here for better readability.

The Poem Is:
mujh se pahalii sii mohabbat merii mahabuub na maa.Ng

mai.n ne samajhaa thaa ki tuu hai to daraKhshaa.N hai hayaat
teraa Gam hai to Gam-e-dahar kaa jhaga.Daa kyaa hai
terii suurat se hai aalam me.n bahaaro.n ko sabaat
terii aa.Nkho.n ke sivaa duniyaa me.n rakkhaa kyaa hai
tuu jo mil jaaye to taqadiir niguu.N ho jaaye
yuu.N na thaa mai.n ne faqat chaahaa thaa yuu.N ho jaaye
aur bhii dukh hai.n zamaane me.n mohabbat ke sivaa
raahate.n aur bhii hai.n vasl kii raahat ke sivaa

mujh se pahalii sii mohabbat merii mahabuub na maa.Ng

anaginat sadiyo.n ke taariik bahimaanaa talism
resham-o-atalas-o-kam_Khvaab me.n bunavaaye huye
jaa-ba-jaa bikate huye kuuchaa-o-baazaar me.n jism
Khaak me.n litha.De huye Khuun me.n nahalaaye huye
jism nikale huye amaraaz ke tannuuro.n se
piip bahatii hu_ii galate huye naasuuro.n se
lauT jaatii hai udhar ko bhii nazar kyaa kiije
ab bhii dil_kash hai teraa husn maGar kyaa kiije
aur bhii dukh hai.n zamaane me.n mohabbat ke sivaa
raahate.n aur bhii hai.n vasl kii raahat ke sivaa

mujh se pahalii sii mohabbat merii mahabuub na maa.Ng

[daraKhshaa.N : shining; hayaat = life]
[Gam-e-dahar = sorrows of the world; aalam = world]
[sabaat = permanence; niguu.N = bow/subservient]
[faqat = merely; vasl = union/meeting; taariik = dark]
[bahiimaanaa = dreadful; talism = magic]
[resham = silk; atalas = satin; kam_Khvaab = brocade]
[jaa-ba-jaa = hither-thither; litha.De = covered/soaked in]
[amaraaz = diseases; tannuuro.n = ovens; piip = pus]
[naasuur = ulcer/a wound that won't heal; dil_kash = heart-warming]

Sarvat's Translation:
Don’t ask me now, Beloved, for that love of other days
When I thought since you were, life would always scintillate
That love’s pain being mine, the world’s pain I could despise.
That your beauty lastingness to the spring would donate,
That nothing in the world was of worth but your eyes;
Were you to be mine, fate would bow low before me.
It was not so; it was only my wish that it were so;

Other pains exist than those that love brings,
Other joys than those of lovers’ mingling.

Dark fearful talismans, come down the centuries,
Woven in silk and damask and cloth of gold;
Bodies that everywhere in streets are sold
Covered with dust, all their wounds bleeding.

Shiv’s Translation:
Ask me not for that old fervour, my love.

I had then imagined that your love would spark off my being,
counterpoise the giant agony of the world
that your beauty would bring every spring to eternal blossom.
And what else was there to cherish but your eyes?
once you were mine would not fate itself bow to me?
I had only willed it all but it was not to be,

for there are sorrows other than heartache,
joys other than love’s rapture.

If there are spells of those dark, savage, countless centuries
bodies robed in silk, satin and velvet
then aren’t there also bodies traded down streets and alleyways
bodies smeared in dust, bathed in blood
bodies emerging from ovens of sickness
bodies with pus oozing from chronic sores?

If these images also seize my eye
even though your beauty still enthralls,
it’s because there are sorrows other than heartache,
joys other than love’s rapture

so ask me not for that old fervour, my love".