Neeyum Nilavum

നീയും നിലാവും കാറ്റില്‍ സുഗന്ധവും ചഷകം നിറയെ മധുവും,
ദൂരെ നിന്നും ദൂത് വരും പോല്‍ മീര്‍ തകി മീറിന്‍ ഗസലും

The age demanded

The age demanded that we sing
And cut away our tongue.

The age demanded that we flow
And hammered in the bung.

The age demanded that we dance
And jammed us into iron pants.

And in the end the age was handed
The sort of shit that it demanded.

- Hemingway

Mujhe tum nazar se..

One of my favourite Mehdi Hasan ghazals. Lyrics by Masroor Anwar

cheers,

jayjay

Raathri mazha

Irulin mahaa nidra

- Prof. Madhusudhanan Nair

(from the movie Daivathinte vikruthikal)

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

– Rudyard Kipling

The truth about paradise

hamko ma’aloom hai jannat ki haqeeqat lekin
dil ke Khush rakhne ko, ‘Ghalib’ yeh Khayaal achchha hai

-Ghalib

We know the truth about paradise,
Ghalib,
but it is still a good thought to keep the heart happy

cheers

jayjay

Sit, drink your coffee

Okay, this is what I wanted to tell you, the twenty minutes of vacuities will make my day…

Sit, drink your coffee here; your work can wait awhile.
You’re twenty-six, and still have some of life ahead.
No need for wit; just talk vacuities, and I’ll
Reciprocate in kind, or laugh at you instead.

The world is too opaque, distressing and profound.
This twenty minutes’ rendezvous will make my day:
To sit here in the sun, with grackles all around,
Staring with beady eyes, and you two feet away.

– Vikram Seth