what started out as somewhat of a pleasant surprise turned into a nuisance later on. it rained yesterday. all day and all night. most of it at night. since i'd promised myself that i'd listen to a friend's advice and only work during working hours, i was left with time to do plan out activities other then work, something i haven't done in a long time.
yesterday's vocal lessons went really well :) i'm happy to know the first ghazal i'll be learning to master is faiz's dasht-e-tanhai mein, originally sung by iqbal bano and credit for my being familiar with her rendition of this ghazal soley goes to mum and her insistance in listening to it in the car. while my younger sister restrained herself from jumping outside and shocking the neighbours by dancingly crazily in the rain, i walked around the flat praticising different notes, often scaring my billa with the extremely high pitched ones ;)
decided to start on my reading again. went to the un-read books section of my bookshelf tried to figure out what book to read. from amongst haroon khalid, the hanif kureshis', khushwant singhs, the clash of civilisations and so on and so forth... picked out a book on the cultural and political history and evolution of cafes. just thought the book had the right mix for me to start reading with. actually got to spend time with the family by sitting in the balcony reading, while they chatted on about god knows what. they knew i was listening so i'm hoping my lack of participation can be excused.
moving on.... started to rain around 11.30pm and continued till around 4-ish am. it didn't just rain, it literally poured. the worst of it, besides the lack of electricity was that there was hardly any circulation of air inside. yes, if i pressed my face against the net screen on the window i could feel some but not otherwise.
cursed k.e.s.c while trying to sleep.
the heavens clicked away with their cameras trying to capture photographs of life on this side of the earth... they should know that the lightening from the flash of their cameras was what would make me wake up with a start.
picked up the guitar after months at 1.30am and played till 3.30am... discovered i've actually become better... was very encouraging, i should do this more often.
came to work early to find half my table and my entire floor flooded with water. getting that fixed right now. thank god my computer was safe.
will post on education later.
13 comments:
It is always exciting to hear that there are other young people who are into Faiz Saheb. But, like this time, he hopes get dashed very quickly when I realize that it is not his poetry but the singing of it that is the focus. Very few among my friends who just "lurv" the various Faiz Saheb 'songs' even bother to understand the words or the context. I hope you will, since you write well and seem to read a lot. But, please, "Dashtay Tanhai" is not a ghazal! Is your Ustad not telling you such things? Or is he only teaching raags?
I hope you did not mind the above comment. I was only trying to help. But you can delete it if you do not want it on your blog.
good stuff but difficult to read because of the interefering background. pity.
rayhan: Dashtay Tanhai is not a ghazal? what is it then and what then, is technically a ghazal? i'm sorry but i really dont know. i would like to.
the ustaad made me write some of the lyrics. mum has a habbit of explaining them to me whenever we listen to such eh songs. it sounds beautiful but i'm going to have to keep an urdu lughat with me to really understand all the words. know what i mean? it kind off makes me feel like i've missed out on something by not knowing.
and no, i dont mind comments as long as they're honest :)
for now, i can only hope my talafuz is correct when reading out/singing the poetry.
anon: i eh photoshopped the background to make it a bit darker in hopes of making the text stand out more. shall change it the moment i find another photo i feel comfortable using as a background.
try using the mozilla firefox browser, makes it look more read-able.
i recall that faisal or someone else also found the posts difficult to read. so do i. but i guess it's your blog so your rules go. suggesting alternative browsers is not a solution coz unless someone happens upon this comment they won't know ... and people are unlikely to switch browsers for your blog alone, anyway. just the same, maybe you could put 'best viewd in firefox' somewhere on the title page.
and now to rayhan's 2 very interesting comments:
* understanding faiz - or any piece of literature, in any language, in terms of literal meaning (which is all that a lughat will do) - is the first step to its appreciation (beyond the music aspect). but to understand its context is what is needed. even more essential is te uunderstanding of the 'references' it makes to tradition and other classical works or history. how does one even begin to do that in a world where the senses are bombarded into numbness by mainly meaningless audio-visuals. and then there is the matter of the ridiculous sense of shame in speaking or reading one's own language(s) well - or at least at par with someone else's - when the real cause of shame should be the inabiity to do so.
* the piece is a nazm, not a ghazal. a major difference increasingly lost on everyone including the urdu-speaking-non-urdu-speakers. cause for much pain in my life. but i shall let rayhan describe the difference to you. in fact, i have been toying with doing a post on urdu poetry for a while ... but am unsure of how deep or introductory i want it to be. perhaps once i switch from blogger (yep - happening soonish) i will do that.
zakintosh: you're right. switched back to my old background. its based on the same guitar theme, so i'm comfortbable with it. although i think it needs to be poofed up a bit. will do that later.
i dont think it's entirely shame that has to do with not speaking one's own language well enough. sometimes its convenience and sometimes its not realising how we're growing out of touch with what it essentially is and where we come from (am i making sense?).
i agree with you in that the real cause of shame should be the inabiity to do so.
*waiting for rayhan's post on ghazals*
and you really should post on urdu poetry. would help those like myself and others greately.
switching from blogger? :O why?
sabizak: yes ma'am! bein a lit teacher you would know :)
q-tip: yes sweetie, your ustaad. i like him :) and i'm emailing u an update.
I gladly surrender the privilege of enlightening you to sabizak and zakintosh since one is a teacher (but of English, I gather) and the other is an Ustad at so many things that it is tough to categorize him. Four days ago I was discussing this group of bloggers with a cousin and she said, "Zakintosh *must* be Capt. Kidvai. My father sailed with him and has his book of poems." If that is true, I am most certain you should learn from him.
rayhan: who are YOU rayhan? :)
zakintosh: book of poems, eh? could it be the faiz compilation cd + book thingie?
anyone: will i ever find out what is the difference between a ghazal and a nazm or will the commenters on my blog continue to debate who will be given the responsibility to?
vintage [1]
reason for blogger switch (although i'd really rather not) is its lack of 'categories'. not even a plug-in available to try something similar or make-shift.
rayhan
intriguing. didn't take me long to figure out who the 'uncle' would be. so your anonymity is at stake. but i shall respect it and not pry. what is surprisng it that he told his daughter about the poems since he cannot possibly show them to her for numerous reasons. the most obvious being that they are my 'hazals' - a pastime i still indulge in, but less frequently, coz there is no one to share them with. are you where they are? or were either party visiting the other across the oceans.
vintage [2]
the form that sabizak referred to is key. however, i was hoping that rayhan would have posted a more clarifying comment. but he seems to have abdicated. i'll give you lessons on this but i am not in favour of limiting the lesson to just these two genres and ignoring the others (or the nuances and shades withi each). which translates to: drop in and spend a bit of time with me on this. the ball is in your court ...
zakintosh: i know i've been saying this for months now, let me get over bad week.
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