Ek Bauchhar tha wo..

I still remember the day when I heard the news of brain hemorrhage of Jagjit Singh Sahab. Though I knew it was not possible to recover from it yet there was a hope that he can’t go so early like this. I prayed for his health. But my prayers were not powerful enough to save his life and this very day 2 years back he left us.

I was in my office that day when I heard the news of his passing away. I informed my brother and younger sister who are also fan of Jagjit Sa’ab. I was sad and shocked with this loss. I felt as someone of my family is passed away. I had a dream to listen him signing live. But a dream was shattered. A heart was broken.

My love for Jagjit Singh’s work was not just few years old. I am grown up listening to his Ghazals. My brother is huge fan of Jagjit Sa’ab. I would not say that we had all the audio cassettes of his albums but what we had were beautiful. At the age of 12 what do you understand about the feelings, the expressions, the meaning of a couplet. But this voice bounded me with its magic. His voice is so peaceful that without understanding the meaning of few words I belived that something beautiful was being conveyed in them. This gave a birth to my new love for poetries.

I remember, I was waiting for my class 10 board result and my brother used to play “kyu dare zindagi mei kya hoga~kuch na hoga to tajruba hoga” :D and I found a quick relief from result tension.

Hazaron Khwaishei... Sarakti Jaye hai... Charag Aftaab Gum... Ghr se nikle the... Wo kagaz ki kashti... are some (not only) ghazals which we used to listen. I am not sure if I understood the meaning of these ghazals then, but I grew up understanding their meanings. I feel proud of following him religiously.

I am not writing this blog to tell about my favourite his ghazals because there are many. Once I decided to make a playlist of his Ghazals and when I was finished, the playlist had some hundreds of ghazals.

He was the man who brought Ghazals to the reach and understanding of non-urdu people.

Poet Nida Fazli once said: “After Mehdi Hasan, if anyone knows how to present the misra, it is Jagjit Singh.

In the words of Gulzar:

“The way he takes the metre and plays with it to set the taal on it... No word is lost. The beauty is that he understands poetry, the significance of the verse and the weight of each word and how to present it.

Not only ghazal singing but his simple living attitude, serenity in his eyes and his pure soul make him a legend. His smile is so innocent and child like but it never gives you a hint of the ocean of sorrow flowing in his heart.

Thoroughout my life I will have a regret not being able to listen him live. His voice and his compositions have a special part in my life. My mobile memory card has more than half of the storage dedicated to his ghazals.

People who are known for their work never die; but their physical presence is often missed.

You are being missed and remembered everyday.

And As Gulzar wrote this poem as a tribute to Jagjit sahab

Ek Bauchhar Tha Wo..

Ek Bauchhar tha wo shakhs bina barse

Kisi abra ki sahami se nami se jo bhigo deta tha..

Ek Bauchhar hi tha wo

Jo kabhi dhoop ki afshaa.n bhar ke

door tak sunte hue Cheharo.n par Chidak deta tha

Neem taareek se Hall me Aankhe.n chamak uthati thi’n

Sar hilaata tha kabhI jhoom ke tahanee ki tarah

lagta tha jhonka hawaa ka tha koi chhed gaya hai..

Gungunaataa tha to khulte hue baadal ki tarah

Muskurahat me ka.ee Tarbo.n ki Jhankaar Chupi thi

Gali Qasim se chali ek Ghazal ki jhankaar tha wo

Ek awaaz ki bauchhar tha wo...

हौंसला

हौंसलों में समंदर भी है 

आँखों में उड़ान भी है 

नए पंख हैं 

नए अरमान भी हैं 

बेख़ौफ़ निगाहें हैं 

डराओ नही 

पत्थर इरादे हैं 

डराओ नही 

आ जाये तूफ़ान भी 

कोई डर नही 

छा जाए अन्धकार भी

कोई डर नहीं 

बढ़ता चला है काफ़िला 

बढ़ता ही रहेगा 

जब तक क़दमों में आसमां न होगा 

चलता ही चलेगा 

हौंसलों में समंदर भी है 

आँखों में उड़ान भी है 

नए पंख हैं 

नए अरमान भी हैं 

5 things I have learnt from people in my life

We all learn from the people around us. We can study moral education in school but life teaches us her lessons one by one. If you admire someone you try to become like them; talk like them, dess up like them, behave like them which gives you a lot to learn.

I also learnt many things and keep learning from people around me. Because Bachhan Sahab says: “Seekhna band to jeetna band”

This one phrase has lot to learn about life. If you don’t learn you can’t win. Win against any competitor or sometimes against life. For this you need to be open to any challenge . You should not resist any new thing happening but happily welcome it in your life.

If I talk about the things I learnt from the people in my life, list will be very long. But some of them which I remember right now, are:

1. Patience: Not to hurry to get anything and having patience is the first thing I have learnt. I have lost many things because of this but  I get them eventually with time. Shouting hard to get something or snatching something because you want it, is not in my behaviour. I will get what I deserve when time comes is my belief.
2. Trust: I have two version of trust. First is when I learnt not to trust anyone, because no one in this world is with you. Everyone wants their own good. They won’t consider your need, your pain or your requirement. No one in this world is worth trusting. Second: when I learnt trusting people again. There are some, who care for you, trust you for no benefit. They want to see you smile and happy without expecting anything from you. Hence I am in a situation where I have learnt whom to trust and whom not. And 80-90 % I am correct.
3. Happiness: Something we usually ignore is our own happiness. And I would not say I am perfect in this but I am still trying to learn to be happy in any circumstance. I wont say I have faced so many problems in my life but yes I always challenge myself to come out of my comfort zone to live my life. I never blame others for anything happening with me. I know where I was wrong and where I could have done better. I have learnt to be happy the way I live. I have learnt to smile even when I am troubled, which gives me strength to overcome that problem. I have learnt not to be sad for more time. Happiness has no alternative. And living with L on your face will not help you to solve your issues. Better smile on problems and defeat them.
4. Passion for what you do: I joined my first job at the age of 21, when I didn’t know why I have joined this job, what am I doing here and what actually I want to do, we have a Senior in our office who was of 70 years old. He was in company just to teach us about our subject. He used to come in the morning, take our classroom training sssions and leaves at the time of lunch. His commitement to work at that age when he could simply sit in his big house( which is indeed very big) and enjoy his days after getting retired at officers rank from Indian Railway. But he decided to share his knowledege and experience with freshers like us. We used to call him Guruji. And I have learnt this commitment and passion for my work from Guruji. This is why my Mondays are not blues in colour, sometimes dull but are usually rainbow colour. J
5. Writing: One fine day I came across a person over a social networking site who was a professional writer from last 5-6. I love reading since childhood and I was fascinated when he sent his blog and facebook page links to me. I read him and discussed many stories and poetry with him. I don’t know how but I started to feel like writing after I read him. This doesn’t mean I din’t write before that. I used to write. But never get pleasure of writing before that. I am very thankful to him for sharing his work with me. And wish him for his future endevours. May you inspire many more people and keep moving ahead in your career.

A big philosopher said : "Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from."