Toba Tek Singh

Read this short story online and then ordered the book. Someone told me that Manto's stories are very powerful and compelling especially in the way he captures the stuff around partition. He writes in Urdu and the first link is almost Urdu written in the Hindustani script. The second link is more hindi and easier to understand if you are not familiar with the regular urdu words.

Anyway, this is how it starts...

बँटवारे के दो-तीन साल बाद पाकिस्तान और हिंदुस्तान की हुकूमतों को ख़्याल आया कि अख़्लाक़ी क़ैदियों की तरह पागलों का भी तबादला होना चाहिए, यानी जो मुसलमान पागल हिंदुस्तान के पागलख़ानों में हैं, उन्हें पाकिस्तान पहुँचा दिया जाए और जो हिंदू और सिख पाकिस्तान के पागलख़ानों में हैं, उन्हें हिंदुस्तान के हवाले कर दिया जाए.

 

Complete Story  - More Urdu

Complete Story - More Hindi

The Language of Thought

There are times when I wonder if a generation of Indians who have migrated from their native languages to English as the primary language of thought have lost some part of their identities. This is a feeling that I get only when I look at people around my age group (+15/ -10 years), the rest clearly have a defined language of thought. 

When I look at the elder group (Age > x+15), I look at a bunch of people who have their thought and the ethos in their native cultures and contexts. They can talk any language they like but you know the language they are thinking in. 

Similarly, when I look at the younger bunch, they have a clear preference of language. Many of them would not even like to talk in the erstwhile native language. They have been clearly language naturalized. 

But my ilk, which I refer to as the 'Bridge' generation, is a mixed up bunch. Some of them have changed their language of thought and some are firmly entrenched in the native language. As a result, they often struggle to communicate with the preceding and the following generation. Not here to comment on where they should be. It is their own choice and they have either made it or they are stuck with it.

I started on this post when I was browsing online for a few books and my site suggested 'नीम का पेड़' (The Neem Tree) to me. Some from my generation might remember this TV serial from our childhood days. It used to start with a Ghazal sung by Jagjit and written by Nida Fazli. It started off beautifully:

मूँह की बात सुने हर कोई,
दिल के दर्द को जाने कौन
आवाजों के बाज़ारों में,
खामोशी पहचाने कौन !!

Let me try and translate it. This is how it goes:

Everyone hears the spoken word, Whom do I share with this sadness of mine

In this market of din and noise, Is there anyone who seeks silence...

And as it happens almost always, it does not translate well! Sigh!

Update on Running Committments

Hi Everyone, I have been away and I think it is becoming a pattern over the last few years. For some reason the first few months of a year, for the last 2-3 yrs, I have not been able to make any posts. I hope I will be little regular from now on.

To kick this year off, I would start with updating you on the Personal Commitments I had made in September last year. I had committed to run another 1000Km from Sept '09 through Feb '10. This is how I fared: 

•  September 2009: 235.87 Km
• October 2009: 190.45 Km
• November 2009: 150.19 Km
• Decemeber 2009: 159.81 Km
• January 2011: 161.89 Km
• February 2011: 124.81 Km

Hence, the total adds up to ~1023 Km over the time period. It was not easy to do this distance. It was very fulfilling to fulfill this commitment. I would like to thank everyone who has supported me in this completing this. My running partners, friends, my kid sister, Dad and the better-half.

Thanks everyone!!

PS: The blog is now mobile friendly. There is a mobile version of this blog. Take a look and give me your feedback.