Spreading like wildfire…

I have been thinking of this ghazal for 2 days while working out. Isn’t it amazing how the human mind works?

I am pumping iron, doing the hard miles (an average of 13-14 km on the bike in 30 min), sweating buckets, burning hundreds of calories, but the mind dissociates itself, seeks pleasure amidst the self-inflicted “pain” (if you do want to call a workout at 40 degrees that) & flies high into a different world…One of sublime, tender emotions and treacly romance.

The ghazal was written by Parveen Shakir, who was a bureaucrat in our Western neighbour and has written some of the most sublime poetry you will come across. After a brief marriage to a doctor, a son and sadly, a divorce, the sensitive lady died most tragically in a road accident, when in her early 40s, when on way to work in Islamabad.

The ghazal is just brilliantly rendered by the undisputed Shehenshah-e-Ghazal, Mehdi Hassan who is a few streets ahead (& will always be) of all others who seek his position- alone at the top. I just can’t have enough of the man’s amazing voice. Listen to this. https://youtu.be/YvXjCkx1k3Y

Khansaheb had to sing for films mainly to earn his daily bread. There he is shackled by constraints of time and was unfortunately handicapped by pedestrian composers, so he really (breaks my heart to say this), sounds ordinary. Free him of temporal boundaries and the man takes off like an interplanetary missile to deep space where time (& the rest of the variables) just stands still. He is in a class of one, truly alone at the very pinnacle. This ghazal is based predominantly on Darbari

कू-ब-कू फैल गई बात शनासाई की

उस ने ख़ुशबू की तरह मेरी पज़ीराई की

कैसे कह दूँ कि मुझे छोड़ दिया है उस ने

बात तो सच है मगर बात है रुस्वाई की

वो कहीं भी गया लौटा तो मिरे पास आया

बस यही बात है अच्छी मिरे हरजाई की

तेरा पहलू तिरे दिल की तरह आबाद रहे

तुझ पे गुज़रे न क़यामत शब-ए-तन्हाई की

उस ने जलती हुई पेशानी पे जब हाथ रखा

रूह तक आ गई तासीर मसीहाई की

अब भी बरसात की रातों में बदन टूटता है

जाग उठती हैं अजब ख़्वाहिशें अंगड़ाई की

—– परवीन शाकिर

For the toddlers in the language like me, some words may need explanation.

कू-ब-कू : सारी दिशाओं में
शनासाई : परिचय होना
पज़ीराई : स्वीकृति

रुस्वाई : बदनामी अपमान अनादर,
तेरा पहलू : तेरा सोचना , तेरा हाल , your version, perspective
आबाद : बसा हुआ , inhabited
क़यामत : day of final judgment by God
शबे-तन्हाई : night of loneliness,
हरजाई : आवारा , Vagabond,
पेशानी : माथा : forehead
रूह : soul : आत्मा
तासीर : प्रभाव : influence
मसीहाई : मसीहा : healer , prophet

I just search for the many renditions by the great man (thank you, YouTube!!) and with an unquenchable thirst guzzle his addictive voice. Every concert is similar and yet so different. Check this out: https://youtu.be/gAA3n55wSd4