Sunday, May 11, 2014

Ekla Cholo Re - Tagore

 "Bengali Script
যদি তোর ডাক শুনে কেউ না আসে তবে একলা চলো রে।
একলা চলো, একলা চলো, একলা চলো, একলা চলো রে॥
যদি কেউ কথা না কয়, ওরে ওরে ও অভাগা,
যদি সবাই থাকে মুখ ফিরায়ে সবাই করে ভয়—
তবে পরান খুলে
ও তুই মুখ ফুটে তোর মনের কথা একলা বলো রে॥
যদি সবাই ফিরে যায়, ওরে ওরে ও অভাগা,
যদি গহন পথে যাবার কালে কেউ ফিরে না চায়—
তবে পথের কাঁটা
ও তুই রক্তমাখা চরণতলে একলা দলো রে॥
যদি আলো না ধরে, ওরে ওরে ও অভাগা,
যদি ঝড়-বাদলে আঁধার রাতে দুয়ার দেয় ঘরে-
তবে বজ্রানলে
আপন বুকের পাঁজর জ্বালিয়ে নিয়ে একলা জ্বলো রে।।

Romanization[edit]

Jodi tor đak shune keu na ashe tôbe êkla chôlo re,
Êkla chôlo, êkla chôlo, êkla chôlo, êkla chôlo re.
Jodi keu kôtha na kôe, ore ore o ôbhaga,
Jodi shôbai thake mukh firaee shôbai kôre bhôe—
Tôbe pôran khule
O tui mukh fuţe tor moner kôtha êkla bôlo re.
Jodi shôbai fire jae, ore ore o ôbhaga,
Jodi gôhon pôthe jabar kale keu fire na chae—
Tôbe pôther kãţa
O tui rôktomakha chôrontôle êkla dôlo re.
Jodi alo na dhôre, ore ore o ôbhaga,
Jodi jhôŗ-badole ãdhar rate duar dêe ghôre—
Tôbe bojranôle
Apon buker pãjor jalie nie êkla jôlo re.

Hindi translation[edit]

तेरी आवाज़ पे कोई ना आये तो फिर चल अकेला रे
फिर चल अकेला चल अकेला चल अकेला चल अकेला रे
ओ तू चल अकेला चल अकेला चल अकेला चल अकेला रे

तेरी आवाज़ पे कोई ना आये तो फिर चल अकेला रे
फिर चल अकेला चल अकेला चल अकेला चल अकेला रे

यदि कोई भी ना बोले ओरे ओ रे ओ अभागे कोई भी ना बोले
यदि सभी मुख मोड़ रहे सब डरा करे
तब डरे बिना ओ तू मुक्तकंठ अपनी बात बोल अकेला रे
ओ तू मुक्तकंठ अपनी बात बोल अकेला रे

तेरी आवाज़ पे कोई ना आये तो फिर चल अकेला रे

यदि लौट सब चले ओरे ओ रे ओ अभागे लौट सब चले
यदि रात गहरी चलती कोई गौर ना करे
तब पथ के कांटे ओ तू लहू लोहित चरण तल चल अकेला रे

तेरी आवाज़ पे कोई ना आये तो फिर चल अकेला रे

यदि दिया ना जले ओरे ओ रे ओ अभागे दिया ना जले
यदि बदरी आंधी रात में द्वार बंद सब करे
तब वज्र शिखा से तू ह्रदय पंजर जला और जल अकेला रे
ओ तू हृदय पंजर चला और जल अकेला रे

तेरी आवाज़ पे कोई ना आये तो फिर चल अकेला रे
फिर चल अकेला चल अकेला चल अकेला चल अकेला रे
ओ तू चल अकेला चल अकेला चल अकेला चल अकेला रे

Translation into English[edit]

Here is the translation in prose of the Bengali original rendered by Rabindranath Tagore himself.[6]
If they answer not to thy call walk alone
If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall,
O thou unlucky one,
open thy mind and speak out alone.
If they turn away, and desert you when crossing the wilderness,
O thou unlucky one,
trample the thorns under thy tread,
and along the blood-lined track travel alone.
If they do not hold up the light when the night is troubled with storm,
O thou unlucky one,
with the thunder flame of pain ignite thy own heart,
and let it burn alone." - Rabindra Nath Tagore.
via Wikipedia

(I think this poem has a self sufficient explanation. It would be disrespect to the poet, if you take the below passage as an explanation of a regular poem done in a literature class. The following is just what came across me while listening to the poem. In fact its just a way of convincing myself the greatness of poet's word.)

This poem has helped me many a times! Sometimes you need to walk alone! None may believe you, not because they don't love you, not because they are selfish but just because they can't comprehend what you are up to. Sometimes, you are the only one on your plans and the only one who believes in your ability to deliver.

It helps let go jealousy too! You do get jealous and hurt when somebody who used to accolade you when in the usual theme of the world, now is in somebody else's flank just because you changed your dream! They are right on their own! Probably, they have their own path to walk alone, if they have to! Why would they when their current path is filled with lot of wonderful people? You can't blame a Hanuman devotee women of not remaining unmarried. Even Hanuman's lord Ram was a married guy! Just let that go and walk alone..!

Great people must have! Buddha would have been a foolish prince just like Rana Bahadur Shah (who apparently left Kathmandu to meet his exiled wife in Kashi that let the Rana plan their regime) had he left walking alone until the last moment of Nirvana. None must have believed in Buddha until he attained Nirvana, just like we don't believe in Bamjan being the next Buddha. Its not that Buddha being the man he was didn't love his family and friend ; he had bigger things to do. I wouldn't have blamed Buddha's wife if she had married another guy. Like, she might have her own struggle to walk alone for, let's assume 'women empowerment' in the then royal court. Perhaps, Buddha wouldn't have walked with her out of his penance. She should have walked alone and had she done that even by marrying a new guy to prove a point, she would have been worth it.

So, when I see people stacking up their friend list in Facebook, or giving follow back offer in Twitter; i feel it's okay until they will find an unique path to walk. No chat or tweet will bring them in his path until s/he shows it by himself. You'll have to walk alone and let them go.

And here's Shreya Goshal singing this poem. Have a good day!

Ekla Chalo re: Tagore song by Shreya Goshal





Thursday, May 1, 2014

Cricket! Young and Free!!

After you are done with your graduation there are few things that make you be young and free. For many of us one of those few things must be playing cricket. Yeah, carrying couple of bats, pads, stumps and ready to get set on a half mile journey jotting out expert plans to outfox the opposition. After fixing of the bet amount and the boundary rules, ready get set go! Winning such bet used to be worth it because saving was more valuable when we didn't earn.  With exuberance of youth use to come the confidence of playing a match even though you didn't have a penny to pay later! Now it’s lost! You are more matured! However, like an adult driver who presses the accelerator testing the limits of his teenage wilderness, you are always daring to repeat similar peccadilloes from your youth!
courtesy: kctcplayers.blogspot.com
The time you bat, you are the prince at the center of a kingdom. Unlike many other moments in life, once in the crease, none can get you off it unless for your own ability. You are free as wind to hit the ball anywhere. You now no more need a recommendation letter from Lara to hit a pull shot with both feet in the air neither do you need an internship at Dilshan and Co. to hit over the keeper’s head. This feeling of freedom makes you young. Actually, it’s not ageing that makes you less young, it’s living in cage of a cubicle that makes you older. Here, in the crease there are guards to let you know your territory inside the popping crease. However, you can take the step out of it, take the risk, test your courage and maximize the benefits. A towering six would do no harm after all this is the only time you don’t need a visa to cross the boundary.

Every moment is for you to savor. The precise moment before you take the catch you forget all of it-your career, your love, your success and your degree. It’s more of a ball coming into your hand now. In a flash of a second, a group of other 10 men have expectation from you. Your hands begin to shift by itself. And even if it be the easiest of catches, you feel that joy when it sticks your hand – a joy that you can hardly describe in word. The team’s huddle to celebrate the catch substitutes the agony of a board meeting. What a joyful substitute? Perhaps, even more than having Andrew Flintoff as your super sub.

Well, honestly I have bowled very few overs that were good. So, when I attempted to write a passage about how bowling is, I got bowled. You can enjoy the gentlemen’s game but you can’t fake to succeed in it –a very important message for life. If you are faking to enjoy your life, better rebuild your life techniques now than to get yorked after a slow and match losing 60.

Oh! And more importantly the greatest joy is when your teammates relate your inning with some of cricket’s greatest! Finally, your teenage dream of being an international cricketer has partially been fulfilled. Cheers! 

Sunday, April 13, 2014

RUNNING IN CIRCLES

Last week when I returned from a month long stay at Rumjhatar; I was accompanied by a Gurung guy who had already travelled to three countries in search of better job opportunities. He was scheduled to fly to Kuwait within the next two days. What he raised was a very pertinent issue- an issue related to remittance. He used the term called 'ponding' to make his otherwise complex understanding of remittance economy simple. He rightly pointed out that remittance that enters into Nepal doesnot form a pond of capital. It rather stays for a while until the benefitting family decides to buy some foreign goods of luxury or send their children to higher education abroad. Without productivity of our own what remittance is doing is creating pseudo wealth. It appears we are more dependent on foreign items than ever. The money comes in hard, but goes out easy. In a simplistic way, our labor is a form of mortgage which gives us loan that we repay in random installments back to the source. From a new Samsung cellphone to a Nataraj Pencil we are paying installments back to the source. Yeah, we will have that pencil and cellphone to show for our labor, but that means Samsung or Nataraj is now more capable of attracting Nepalese to their factories as well. And there's a visicious circle. We will now be too lazy to open an industry of our own. We will rather work on already established factories of foreign countries and send chunk of our earning back buying the same goods that we produced. As perfect as- "Ghumi  Phiri Rumjhatar".Well, more on that from a student of economics perhaps!  Now I would like to correlate this running on circles issue to other parts of our society.

Let's consider the rap battle leagues that we have in Nepal. Look at the ordinary sense of it. How ordinary the performances are and how ordinary their rap is? The artists are running behind something unfathomable to a normal Nepali. For a colored person born in a Ghetto of a sub urban Western city- a rage of not knowing his own dad may befit cursing his own mom. But, how on Earth could that be possible for guys from Nepal? What they sing completely undermines what our society is built upon and they take it so easily. What is that supposed to communicate even if it is only to guys above 18? Some blame for such outrageously sick form of singing may go to wannabe western themed stars, greedy sponsors or ethically unaware citizens. However, it mainly is because we run blindly in circle of Western 'liberty'. A 'liberty' which appears to be the most democratic as porn stars host their own Oscars but equally dark as government carry out covert mass surveillance. What 'liberty' did we inherit? In the process of inheriting the universal principles of freedom we also let in permeate trends that upsets majority of Nepalese sentiment. In a race to prove our liberty- even though we are the poorest among the poors- we let in things that we did not need at all. Our rap battlists will run the always losing race of pursuing the Western rap battlists. The thing is in their blood but it’s in our head. And why is it their? It’s because somebody poured in money to make us run a losing race. A filthier race too!
Okay enough of that too!

Now imagine a lady in a disco of Kathmandu's rated hotel having been intoxicated by a high quality wine. Imagine some guys taking advantage of her! Imagine the scare that would create in our media. Imagine how fearful you will be sending your sisters and daughters to a late night party again. Now take your turn to take another route to imagine the same. A female laborer in a construction site drinks a local Kodho brewed beverage after hard day at work. Coming out of the Bhatti some guys misbehave with her. Honestly, do you think our media, police and matter of fact most of us; would we care of that as much as the former lady? Did our society permit or differentiated on a lady being intoxicated by wine or by a local beverage some decades ago or has it changed lately? Probably a lady sounds independent drinking high quality wine.

And we are more thoughtful speaking about her case- perhaps we don't want to offend what western liberty has brought- that girls too can enjoy their trip of alcohol. But isn't the female laborer independent too; don't she deserve to have same pint of drink after she works as equally hard as her male counterparts. But where does our  police arrives first? Where do our female right activists move first? Where do our television cameras report first? Clearly to the lady tipsy in wine.  After all the western liberty allows you to drown in 'Western' branded alcohol- that liberty which our upper corporate class has inherited and permeated into our society. And most of us would be normal with our worker lady since like she just had local raksi in a mediocre bhatti- what was she expecting? Shouldn't she have known male who are drunk in wine are more sensible than men who are drunk in Local Kodho? And after all who in the news would be moved by showing of a woman covered in dust being sexually abused. That is not  glamorous , you know? A girl drinking wine and she got abused. Well, many won't want to tell this but the truth is media is knowingly feeding on those female victims to make their crime reporting more glamorous. What irony? What liberty are we persisting with? The liberty to make a sexual offence glamorous!


Another set of people running on crazy confusing circles are our Football fans of the football league of European countries. Honestly, Messi doesn't care if u speak filthy of Ronaldo to make him a superior player. It’s not that calling Manchester Gaychester is going to make Gerrad happy. But why our youths get happy? Well let me put my hypothesis. Football is a fast moving game, 90 minutes and it finishes. However, it has so many tactical maneuvers within that 90 minute, the commentator fails to explain even a  tiny fraction of that. He is just busy telling us the action. So, must of our Nepalese fans (I mean no disrespect to those fans who understand football technically enough)watch this fast heated action and are always on the urge to show themselves off as one who saw matches live. Now that you don't understand the technicality of the game, what do u discuss on? Oh Yeah! Wayne Rooney's wife? Yeah, however bitter does it sound it's the truth- the simple looking game of football is complex tactically and if you got a grasp of it you don't really have time to talk bullshits about footballers and their family. Correspondingly look at cricket, its long to watch and commentators give ample analysis regarding its tactical aspect. And the result is during the IPL, rarely do people call Kohli a gay for his team won even if by a wrong umpiring decision. (And i am not trying to be biased as a cricket fan, that's the easiest example that came into me. You can say the same for sports like golf, moto racing etc.) 

So, when shall we stop running in circles that lead us to nowhere. When shall we stop being what westerners are already good at and just be a mere faint shadow of it. When shall we know the value of ourselves?Maybe this year! Happy New Year 2071 B.S.!