Bau Ji would have been 81 today if all his birthday calculations told to us being--third day from Teej-- were accurate. We miss the zeal and fervour you celebrated your own birthday feeding village folks lined up at Mother's Samadhi in Anta. Will miss all that this year. And you too. HBD Bau Ji.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also remember a piece I wrote...for The Tribune
My father who was born in 1930, after the First World War and before the Second, was there informing us about the “wages of war”, in Sahir Ludhianvi’s inimitable style—Jung mashriq main ho ya magrib main; amano aalam ka khoon hai aakhir (War, if it breaks out whether in the East or in the West, amounts only to the murd...er of global peace). And that—Jung to khud hi ek masla hai; jung maslon ka hal kya degee (War does not offer solutions since it is in itself a problem).It was March 16 and as per initial reports pouring in, America was to attack Iraq on the seventeenth that year. All of us in the family, who were listening to father’s rendition of Sahir’s poetry, were then asked by him to hit our respective beds, since he too wanted to retire for the day. To the encore he recited the parting couplet of the evening—Is liye ai sharif insanon, jung talti rahe to behtar hai; aap aur hum sabhi ke aangan main, shama jalti rahe to behtar hai (Thus, O’ Noble men, if war could continue to be postponed it is good for all of us so that the flame of life keeps burning in our respective households).We passed a sleepless night. Rising early the next morning, I dashed to the door to collect my pack of newspapers, when I discovered two of them had not been delivered that day. I subscribe to four. Having heard me grumble and curse the vendor, my wife half in sleep said that she had reduced the number of newspapers from four to two, as part of the austerity drive in the household, which “we deliberated upon just a couple of days back”.“But whaaay....? Jaswant Singh has not been so cruel at least this budget season!” I nearly barked. We have survived innumerable squabbles all our married life but I don’t know what happened to my wife who immediately threw away the blanket and shouted: “So whaaat? I have cut down the quota by two!”I too sprung on my feet and shouted with heightened pitch: “But why have you done so without even asking meeee?” “Ask you, my foot!” and she too was literally on her feet and thumped on the floor in a more threatening gesture and did not stop even at that as if enough had not been enough. She let out here unilateral resolve:“If I would have my way I would stop the other two as well”. She threw a real challenge and dared my masculinity, or so I thought, I retaliated with a real suspension of disbelief: “Can you dare to...and do you really mean that...!” I started fumbling for words. Wife walked out and made it to the living room where father had already been sitting. Fuming like a bull, I also followed her.Father came out of his meditation trance quite unaware of our early morning wrestle. Referring to our last evening’s pondering on the inevitable and impending war, he asked us: “Has the war begun?” Reflexively, my wife’s and my eyes met. We burst into a peel of laughter. All the frostiness had gone when wife offered me my morning cuppa.I wish someone, a father-figure, could make the warring factions laugh. Truly war does not determine who is right Only who is left. Read more: http://rajbirdeswal.instablogs.com/entry/war-doesnt-determine-who-is-right-but-who-is-left/#ixzz0wYMAfHBT
No comments:
Post a Comment