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Iqbal Bano has sung select verses from Faiz's ghazal. Full ghazal and its English translation are below. The translation is from me and is, of course not perfect or anywhere close to the poetic brilliance of Faiz, but is only offered for those who don't understand Urdu and can get some idea about what Faiz is trying to say.

सभी कुछ है तेरा दिया हुआ सभी राहतें सभी कुल्फ़तें कभी सोहबतें कभी फ़ुर्क़तें कभी दूरियाँ कभी क़ुर्बतें All comforts, all hardships, everything is granted by you Moments of togetherness, separation, at times distance and intimacy

ये सुख़न जो हम ने रक़म किए ये हैं सब वरक़ तिरी याद के कोई लम्हा सुब्ह-ए-विसाल का कोई शाम-ए-हिज्र की मुद्दतें The pages that I have filled are in your memory Some moments of morning's union, some of evening's separation

जो तुम्हारी मान लें नासेहा तो रहेगा दामन-ए-दिल में क्या न किसी अदू की अदावतें न किसी सनम की मुरव्वतें What will remain in this heart if I cede your counsel Not the rage of enemy nor the kindness of love

चलो आओ तुम को दिखाएँ हम जो बचा है मक़्तल-ए-शहर में ये मज़ार अहल-ए-सफ़ा के हैं ये हैं अहल-ए-सिद्क़ की तुर्बतें Come lemme show you what remains in the blood soaked city the shrines of revered saints here, in dirt the truthful people there

मिरी जान आज का ग़म न कर कि न जाने कातिब-ए-वक़्त ने किसी अपने कल में भी भूल कर कहीं लिख रखी हों मसर्रतें Don't cry over today's agony my love maybe the writer of destinies By chance in his past has written happiness somewhere

Notice the tenderness of Faiz's words, his complaints and requests. This is not someone who does not completely believe in god. There is no sarcasm in his tone. There is no snarkiness in the complaint. Only when you believe in god so much, to an extent that you completely and unabashedly submit yourself, will you end up being disillusioned with his existence or extent of his power. It is in the moments when life pushes you to its extremities, to the limits of your being and to the verge of your strength and sustenance, in the moment when nothing appears to work or comes to your aid, you seek his intervention, you raise your hands in prayer, but no such solace comes. In those moments comes the realisation, the sense of abandonment, the apathy, more than disregard.

To believe a Faiz or Ghalib did not believe in god would be an oversimplification. They did not care enough to bother themselves about that question. Whether god existed or not ceases to matter when you're at your wits' end and you do not see any help that is on your way. The realisation that you are by yourself in this life, that you only have yourself to blame or rely on, moots that question. For even if so and so exists, to him you do not matter, your struggles do not matter, at least not enough to intervene and help. And so Faiz and Ghalib lived their lives without desiring or inventing the imaginary intervention. They simply did not bother. They instead believed in taking complete control of their life and its means. They relied on themselves and the people around them. But still, beyond their means, beyond their ability to sprout change, they hoped for help to come, but above and beyond what they could do to the best of their abilities. They did not relax and sit themselves down in prayer and wasted theirself instead; they put themselves to use by writing poetry which even today wakes up the tired and sleepy and moves them to action.

And they called him an unbeliever, an atheist, a communist and all sorts of names.

#Ghazal #Urdu #FaizAhmadFaiz #IqbalBano #Atheism #God #Pakistan #India

Monsoons evaded Maharashtra in 1992. In a country where even today agriculture is largely dependent on rains, this naturally made people distraught then. In this helplessness, blankness, in this void came Maharashtra governor's appeal other rather a dictate. On a particular day at 11 am, people were to collectively pray. Authorities jumped in to enforce the governor's appeal. Directions were announced left, right and centre. And pray people did. Newspapers were awash with pictures of people praying for relief from imminent danger, ordinary people to district collectors to workers. Everyone obliged. If WhatsApp University existed then, I'm sure it's double degree holders would churn out theories of how collective prayer would kindle the kundalini and force gods of rain to bring showers upon them. And we will all be sharing these forwards because why not?!

Fast forward to 2020 and coronavirus. Modi came on national television, and like the big boss from that horrible show, gave task after task to his subjects and his subjects duly complied. First, they came into the balcony and beat their thalis at 11 am, then they came out to light days at 9 pm, all the while generating theories after theories of how these actions will beat corona black and blue. None of those has of course born fruit, they never were meant to be anyway. India stands with the top five worst affected countries as of today. 

In both cases, there were discussions about why this was wrong. But in 2020, nobody invoked the constitution or shouted superstition like it was done in 1992. Sadly, Narendra Dabholkar who spearheaded opposition against such a dictate by then governor is no more with us; he was murdered by right-wing for speaking against superstitions while on his morning walk. In 1992, the reason for drought was not the absence of rains alone. Maharashtra uses its water with zero planning and in extremely unscientific ways. Do I need to mention multiple sugar mills and water-guzzling sugarcane crop that's grown everywhere even today in Maharashtra? The disaster was not natural but man-made. So solutions were to be man-made too. But of course, praying at 11 am and thereby giving an impression of something was done was far easy and way convenient than exploring and implementing real solutions. 2020 is no different. Our government failed to prepare itself when it had examples of successful and failed countries to follow by. India was not the first country to be affected by a coronavirus. At every step of the way, we had countries which had faced worse and also those that recovered from it. We deliberately choose to look away and not learn. And when the time was up and the storm was at the door, the emperor suggested, for his subjects to turn to superstition. And we did. Not for a moment did we pause and asked why? Or how was this going to help in any way? We did not question the first and so we were given the next task. This sequence of events did not start with thali-banging though. The dice of subservience was thrown way back in 2016. Demonetisation was the pilot for many of these things. The way we embraced and defended demonetisation had signalled to the highest offices what kind of brains their subjects had.

One of the fundamental duties listed by the Indian Constitution includes the exhortation to cultivate a scientific temper. The Constitution upholds scientific temper as a guiding principle for society and the new education policy calls for the inculcation of scientific thinking. Was there any scientific or rational reasoning behind 11 am praying in 1992? Or now with thali and diya? You bet not. Then why does the state, people in government, who are all required to uphold scientific temper, discarded it and asked its citizens to embrace unscientific garbage? The answer isn't too hard if one used their rational brains. Because it is easier to ask citizens to pray, bang thalis or light diyas. What are the alternatives? In 1992, then the state was required to institute an expert committee to study water usage patterns, suggest changes and implement those changes. We have so many committee reports now. And successive govt bodies have failed to implement them. Of course, in Maharashtra, there is all-powerful sugar-mills lobby and dealing with it requires an amount of political will. Then to get farmers on-board, make them stop what they are growing and help them switch to different crops requires thorough planning and grit as well. But those are the required solutions. No amount of praying, no god will help Maharashtra save itself from becoming a desert if it did not act on the ground. Less said about coronavirus and how thali-banging has helped to contain the virus the better. Our graph is only climbing up. There is no flattening of the curve happening soon except if we start fudging the data which we have already started doing here and there.

Governments won't change by themselves. It is easy for them to control a population that is god-fearing and superstitious. It is us that need to change and cultivate scientific temper and rationality. That is the only way which will enable us to question our governments, their nonsense, and thereby progress this strange democracy further. Right now, sadly, we are sliding into an abyss with no bottom.

P. S. Thali-banging and diya-lighting apart from being superstitious had political capital riding on them too. They were also aimed at strengthening the unquestioning relationship between the leader and the governed. #coronavirus #science #scientifictemper #atheism #superstition #rationality #india #narendramodi #politics #covid19 #constitution