Canines in my life

We always had dogs at home. I remember a German Shepherd called Hubshy when we were at the Sagar University campus where my father was teaching. I remember him as my father's dog and the way he responded to my father's whistle. He once raided the chicken coop kept by one Dr Das and probably ate a few. My father probably got too tired of the complaints and took him away in his car to abandon him somewhere far away in Sagar. He came back after a few days !

Then there was another GSD called Tinka a female who came to our home in Sagar from our Rajendra Mamaji whose frequent army transfers were not conducive to keeping a highly strung GSD. So Tinka came to us and even moved with us to Jodhpur where my father took up a Professorship. Tinka was a gentle one and later in her life developed a painful rheumatic arthritis and had to be put to sleep to end her misery.

Then came Sooty a stupid black spaniel. Very silly dog after the GSDs we had earlier. She came as a result of my insistence despite my father's resistance. Sooty ran away and disappeared. 

My brother, Anu, got an Apso , black little guy who was quite a personality. His name was Phizo. A mate came for Phizo and was called Mizi! I think my brother took great care of the duo. Phizo died of rabies and I dont remember what happened to Mizi. I was away at college then, in hostel.

When I got married and moved to Lucknow. Oy, a german spitz came home one day to the utter surprize and joy of my wife, Surabhi. she is a dog lover too and Oy proved to be a great companion. He travelled with us from Lucknow to Chandigarh to Delhi and back to Chandigarh.

Our friends, the Lyalls (Bird and Mau) had a Golden retriever/Cocker spaniel mix called Scooby and when they were moving to Nairobi Scooby came to live with us in Chandigarh. 

Scooby and Oy, both males made a fragile peace with each other. Oy was the Grand Old Male and assumed senior alpha male stature, dominating Scooby in many ways. Scooby always has the underdog view of life!

A couple of years later we got Hedwig ( named by our daughter, Neehar who was reading HarryPotter those days), a pedigreed GSD from Anoopda, Leenadi and Abhishek who were breeding GSDs at Pantnagar.

Hedwig is an extremely well behaved, intelligent and great looking GSD. She went with us to Sangla valley when she was a puppy and has been on numerous trips with us. Oy was 14 when he passed away at Kaudiala where we had gone on a whitewater rafting camp. We bid a tearful farewell to him there at the banks of the Ganga.

Hedwig became a mother and lost all but one of her first litter. The survivor was named Sirius ( Harry Potter again!). 

So now we have a threesome- Scooby, Hedwig and Sirius. 

Something I wrote

Here is something I wrote as a New Year message to friends :

Dont get too hassled by some of the urdu words

 

 

 

Guzishta saal, guzarne ke liye hi  aaya tha,

so guzar gaya

Saal ke fakhat teen sau painsath din

par har din ke kambakth beinteha lamhe

Yaadein ban kar reh jayenge,

kuch meethi,  kuch haseen,

kuch dilkash, kuch dil fareb.

 

Quanoon-e-kainaat mein muquarrar hai

Duniya ka Sooraj se ek chakkar hai !

In chakkaron me guzar jaate kai saal

Kya rakha ha isme,

kyon hai insaaniyat , bequaraar, be-haal ?

Kyon ginen hum  yoon hi saal, dar-saal ?

 

Chand dinon me hoga

Ek aur Ailan-e-naya saal

Shayad shuru ho ek naya chakkar

Yeh kab khatam hua ? jo phir

Shuru ho ek naya chakkar, naya saal?

 

Par choriye, in baton ko, kya rakha hai.

Dil se dua karta hoon,

Naye Saal mein

Neend se aap jab jagein

Jamaal-e-dilfaroze aapko bakshe

Ek naya khush-haal daur 

Jiske aagaz mein ho hazir ,

Aapke aage - ek purnoor manzar

 

Saal-dar-saal

har naya saal ho be-misaal

 

Translation :

The year gone bye had to pass

So it has

A mere 365 days but each with

Limitless, infinite moments

Now only memories will remain

Sweet, beautiful, attractive and puzzling

 

The law of nature has decreed

That the earth has to go around the sun

Perhaps there is a kind of  an affair on

Years and eons pass in such revolutions

But let it not bother us, Why must we count ?

Lets ponder on why humanity is in such quandry.

 

In a few days

A new year shall be proclaimed

May be the earth begins another affair

With the sun. When did it end?

Why should a new one begin

 

Lets not give it too much thought.

Let me wish for you a great

Beginning

When you wake up in the new year

May the Eternal Graceful Benevolent  One

Present you with a world full of light

Happiness, Joy

 

May each year be unsurpassed in happiness

 

 

Sher-o-shairi, Ghazals

Have lately been reading about Mirza Ghalib whose poetry has always intrigued me. The urdu and persian words are however too tough to understand but one gets the general drift of what Mirza Ghalib wanted to convey. Have recently revisited the Doordarshan TV serial directed by Gulzar in which Naseeruddin Shah has portrayed ghalib so well. A great actor indeed. The serial is available in a set of 6 CDs.

It turns out that a Ghazal and Sher are quite technical and formats are pretty strictly prescribed.

I picked up the following from the net :

A Ghazal is defined as a collection of 'Shers' in which there is at least one 'Matla', one 'Maqta' and all the shers have the same 'beher' , 'kaafiya' and 'radif'. 

As an illustration : a Ghazal from Ghalib :

"koi ummeed bar nahin aati

koi soorat nazar nahin aati

aati thi haale-dil par hasi

ab kisi baat par nahin aati

hum wahan hain jahan se humko bhi

kuch hamari khabar nahin aati

Kaaba kis muh se jaoge'Ghalib'

sharm tumko magar nahin aati"

Each two liner is a sher and complete in itself.

The beher is basically the metre or the length of each line. Both lines of the sher should have the same beher, ie. should be approximately equal.

The Radif is the rhyming end of each second line of the shers in the Ghazal. In this case the Radif is 

'nahin aati'

The Kaafiya is the rhyming pattern preceeding each Radif. In this case the Kaafiya are nazar, baat par,khabar and nazar.

The Matla is the first sher in the Ghazal and both its lines must have the Radif. In this case 'nahin aati' is at the end of each line of the first sher-the matla.

The Maqta is the sher in which the Shair or poet inserts his 'Takhallus' So in this case the last sher has 'Ghalib'  and is the Maqta.