Logic is Variable: This is about you

This is about you
Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Critics

Look a lot of people are gathered there. Is there any marriage reception going on?

No.

Is someone is getting engaged/

No.

Have someone been blessed with a child?

Wrong.

Then it must be a charity?

You are again wrong.

Then why is this festivity, and a feast?

A critic has favorably mentioned a poet in his book. Poet is celebrating the occasion.

Performing arts
Where are you coming from?

From club where Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was performing!

How was the performance?

I have no idea!

Why?

I was so absorbed in looking at Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan that I never realized how he was singing.

Battle within

There are no chances of this horrible battle coming to an end.

United Nations will sure manage to end this.

No, no. I am not talking of war that has been imposed upon our country.

Which battle are you talking about?

The one which waging within!

On the basis of doubt

Why can’t a police officer serve as a judge?

And why can a judge work as police?

Because they both have their own different points of view!

How come?

Police bases the case on doubt and judge always gives the benefit of doubt to accused.

Change has come

He has changed.

Yes, change has come after he spent a moonlit night alone in the wilderness for observation.

How you live

As sun warms and shadow cools, all the artifacts in the world have their distinct features by which they are characterized. How are human characterized?

By the ways they live.

Lust

You are the most beautiful. I can go to any amount for you.

What did you say?

Nothing. I didn’t say anything.

You were just saying something to that girl.

No. That wasn’t me.

Who was that?

My lust!

In search of

Who are you searching for?

To myself!

What a search? You know yourself in and out.

That is not me. That is nature – came in this world, grew up, started earning, got married, got children, and now looking for their careers and marriages.

Where is me?

Love

Which is the baggiest force in the world?

Love!

And which is the weakest force in the world.

Again love!

Oratory

What an orator he is?

But I don’t find anything special in him.

You haven’t observed. He doesn’t give importance to what he is to say. He weighs more to what he doesn’t have to say.

High stature

He is a very honest civil servant.

Which is why he has not been able to build himself a house?

Right, but he has built so much more.

What?

High stature!

Those under privileged

He is a practicing symbol of wisdom. It is a daunting task to change sadness into happiness. He has done that.

How?

He used to remain unhappy seeing helpless, sick and the poor people. A time came when he reached the verge of suicide. And then he decided to stay aloof. But over time I saw him happy.

How has this change come?

I have dedicated my life to serve the under privileged (helpless, sick and the poor) and now I don’t suffer.

But how have you changed?

Changed came to me by serving him.

Bliss

One of the biggest pleasures has been bestowed upon me, he revealed beaming.

Your physical conditions do not reveal that you have any bliss in life. You keep crying in the middle of nights. You seem to be one of the most deprived human beings instead. How come you say that you have been blessed with the greatest delight in life? What is that by the way?

Crying in the middle of night is precisely my greatest rapture.

Treat your soul

“Get the treatment for injuries to your soul,” a vender was shouting in the street.

I was reminded of the craftsmen of Lakhnow who used to sell ‘companions for loneliness’ in the streets. They used to sell pillows. I came out thinking that this vendor is offering something similar.

I asked for treatment for my soul injuries. He opened his bag and that contained poetry books music CDs.

This is about you

He brought jubilation when at birth. But the joyousness kept changing into sadness over time; demands, mischief and worry for his future. What is more, his demand kept growing as he grew and it was not possible to meet them all. He started stealing and the canceling by telling lies as a habit.

Not only that, he developed friendship with likeminded including girls and also started going for films and theaters.

Thanks to the persuasion of his parents that he could complete his education. They also tried to bring religion but in vein. He got married. After some time he had a second married rich girl, mainly for wealth. Second wife brought a lot in dowry. This was beginning of bigger troubles.

He joined civil service. He was very tough on his subordinates and would go to any extent to please his superiors. He used to take bribe and misuse all official privileges but no work until absolutely essential. His life was filled with luxuries to say the least.

In youth he developed diabetes and blog pressure. Bickering wives, growing kids, departmental problems resulted into sudden cardiac arrest and he passed away.

What are you talking about?

This may be about anyone living on earth today.

Translated from Sitaroon Ki Bastiyan by Abbas Khan.

Labels: Abbas Khan, Books, Fiction, Sitaroon Ki Bastiyan