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Tag: nonfiction

Who was Shehnaz?

Posted on by Penguin India

Shehnaz was a beautiful, erudite woman from the royal family of Bhopal. She was almost cast to play Anarkali in K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam!

Her daughter Sophia Naz tells her story as she heard it from her. As a child, the author accompanied her mother every year to Mumbai, where she would try to find some trace of her children in vain. When Shehnaz passed away, it was with her older daughter’s name on her lips.

With a life full of royalty, glamour, heartbreak and survival – we take a deeper look at Shehnaz’s story in a glimpse from the book:

At a very tender age, Fatima stood in front of a stunned gathering and proclaimed that from then on she would be known by the name of Shehnaz-Pride of Kings. As she started to grow older, her penchant for pranks and pocketing delicious treats had not disappeared completely, however, they had been largely supplanted by a burning curiosity about beyond the boundaries of Nawab Manzil and Bara Mahal.

A few months into her lessons, Maulvi Asghar realized that Shehnaz had an aptitude for Urdu poetry well beyond her years. He began by teaching her poetry written for children by the likes of Ismail Merathi, then quickly progressed to the famous riddle verses of Amir Khusro and the mystical couplets of Kabir followed by the classical poets Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir, Daagh Dehlavi, Sauda, Jurat, Insha and Zauq. Finally, in a nod to an unusual phenomenon that was unique to the literary culture of Bhopal, he taught Shehnaz verses written by Shehzad Masih, the Bourbon who wrote under the nom de plume Fitrat, as well as the poet of Portuguese origin known as Hakim Ilyas Da Silva.

Despite being thrust into an environment that was a stark contrast to the indolent and bucolic neighbourhood of Shahjahanabad in Bhopal where she had grown up, Shehnaz excelled in her studies at the convent, so much so that despite joining the school late and being quite a bit older than her fellow pupils, she quickly earned her promotions and within two years was promoted to a class appropriate for her age.

From the very first moment that they were torn away from their mother, Shehnaz’s children were led to believe that she had abandoned them. In addition to the torture of separation that she was forced to undergo, her children were brainwashed to repudiate their mother completely.

Shehnaz’s heart had been broken in her youth. In the last two decades of her life, this heartbreak took on a literal meaning as she began to suffer a series of heart attacks that grew ever more serious in nature.

On 5 October 2012, before she could complete her eighty-first year, Shehnaz suffered a massive heart attack from which she never recovered. None of her children were with her at the time of her death.

Sophia Naz’s Shehnaz is a story of a life that is worth knowing and understanding. Meet Shehnaz now.

What the British Taught Us About ‘Charity’- An Excerpt from ‘Bombay Before Mumbai’

Posted on by Penguin India

‘City of Gold’, ‘Urbs Prima in Indis’, ‘Maximum City’: no Indian metropolis has captivated the public imagination quite like Mumbai. Bombay Before Mumbai, featuring new essays by its finest historians, presents a rich sample of Bombay’s palimpsestic pasts.

 

Here’s an excerpt from Preeti Chopra’s essay from the book:

 

The British colonial regime brought to Bombay the English term and ideal of ‘charity’, complete with religious, institutional and social connotations. Following the literary scholar and novelist Raymond Williams’s untangling of the word, ‘a charity as an institution’ was established in the seventeenth century, replacing the older meaning of the notion as ‘Christian love between man and God, and between men and their neighbours’. From the eighteenth century onwards, the institutionalization of charity resulted in a sense of revulsion to the term itself that came from ‘feelings of wounded self-respect and dignity, which belong, historically, to the interaction of charity and class-feelings, on both sides of the act’. This later led to the ‘specialization of charity to the deserving poor’ (a reward for approved social conduct) and to upholding the bourgeois political economy so that charity did not interfere with the need to toil for wage-labour.

 

British notions of charity and philanthropy intersected with, and influenced, Indian forms of gift giving. Douglas Haynes has underscored ‘the importance of gift giving in Indian ethical traditions’. Native businessmen in western India actively participated in this arena, which included the construction of wells, rest houses, support of festivals and Sanskrit learning or other arenas that were valued by their community. These were religious acts in the service of deities, through which the devotees hoped to earn merit. But gifting activities were also tied to the world of business. Writing of the merchants of Surat, Haynes emphasises the importance of a abru u (reputation), which required careful nurturing and maintenance, adherence to community norms and support of community religious and social life. A Abru u also denoted ‘economic “credit”’. It was essential for businessmen to establish a reputation of reliability in order to participate in vast commercial networks that were based on trust rather than enforceable legal contracts and modern financial institutions. Gifting was also used to exert political influence over rulers who came from outside the city and distinguished themselves from the culture and norms of the merchants. Here, the gifts made by merchants accorded to the norms of the rulers. According to Haynes, under British rule in the nineteenth century, this form of gift shifted ‘from tribute to philanthropy’, as merchants started to contribute towards secular institutions such as schools, colleges, or hospitals. Gifting for secular philanthropic works of ‘humanitarian service’, Haynes argues, diffused ‘an entirely novel ethic from Victorian England among the commercial communities of India’. Thus, even as merchants continued to uphold their reputations by gifting practices that maintained community religious norms and social life, they adjusted other practices to the norms of the ruling group. Building on and moving beyond Haynes, I underscore in this chapter how native elites also donated to charities that supported the European poor and, occasionally, Christian religious institutions primarily geared towards Europeans.

 

In the nineteenth century, colonial legal interventions transformed native practices of charitable gifting by making them transparent and bringing them under government control. As Ritu Birla shows, the Charitable Endowments Act of 1890 and the Charitable and Religious Trusts Act of 1920 introduced the criteria of ‘general public utility’ for determining charitable purpose. Yet, religious institutions were excluded from the category of charitable trusts until the Act of 1920 ‘established that religious trusts deemed of public import would also be eligible for classification as charitable trusts, and thus be classified as tax exempt’. An example of a religious trust of public import were dharamshalas, or travellers’ rest houses, which offered free room and board Primarily used by merchants, they were open to religious mendicants and those of ‘pure caste status’. Yet, in most cases, entry was denied to those of lower castes and untouchables.

 

From the 1890s onwards, as courts increasingly began to consider cases involving the ‘public nature of indigenous endowments … the question of public benefit came to rest less on equal access to all potential beneficiaries and became instead one of serving more than just the family or trustees.’ In the 1890s, the British saw dharamshalas as ‘valid religious but not public charitable trusts’. By 1908, however, they clearly considered them as institutions of public benefit. The 1920 statute allowed the Government of India to give local government and courts greater regulatory controls over public religious and charitable trusts, at the same time as it forced trusts to publicise their finances and accounts.

 

Thus, to summarise, in colonial India, charity retained a religious basis, serving specific communities, and excluding others. It remained distinguished from philanthropy, which had secular humanitarian goals, and served the public at large. While the institutionalisation of charity in Britain encouraged popular feelings of social revulsion and channeled aid towards the deserving poor, nothing suggests that all Indian communities felt the same way, at least in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Bombay Before Mumbai is a fitting tribute to Masselos’ enduring contribution to South Asian urban history.The book is available now!

 

4 Things that Distinguish “Dharma” from “Religion”

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Chaturvedi Badrinath’s Dharma, edited by his daughter Tulsi Badrinath, is a comprehensive study on the concept of dharma. In this book, Badrinath actively dwells on the questions of Indian civilization, components of dharma and the contentious origin of the words ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hinduism’. Central to the perception of what substantiates dharma is the differentiation between ‘dharma’ and ‘religion’. The author iterates the error in the identification of the two terms that has come about over a span of time and emphasises that the two concepts have no point of intersection.

Here are a few pointers that illuminate how the question of religion is entirely different from that of dharma, in order to give you a head start into the book:

 

The author defines religion as a central belief system, where God is understood to be the creator of the universe and where there are scriptures and commandments illuminating the teachings of God. Dharma on the other hand, is unique in its understanding. It is the Indian understanding of Man and the way of the civilization that existed around him.

~

The terms ‘religion’ and ‘dharma’ are untranslatable as they both belong to different cultures. The concept of religion came with the Catholic missionaries of the sixteenth century whose minds were ingrained with the understanding that religion is a unified system of beliefs of a community. However, dharma carries with it, a comparatively freer flowing concept which is central to the Indian thought of exploring the identity of Man. The concept of a ‘Hindu’ religion and ‘Hinduism’ itself is a false one constructed by the western thought in an attempt to quantify the Indian way of life.

~

In the Atharva Veda, dharma is described as the “oldest customary order”. Unlike the concept of religion, dharma does not relate to a divine revelation or faith, it concerns itself with the questions of human life and the reality possessing it.

~

The concept of transcendence is quite central to the understanding of dharma as opposed to the understanding of religion. Following this principle, it is derived that dharma does not encourage the binaries of good and evil, natural and unnatural or even human or inhuman, as in the case of religion. All the binaries are transcended into the realisation that these are merely just experiences in the wholesome comprehension of human life.

Thought provoking, perceptive and challenging many long-held notions, Dharma is a must-read for anyone who is interested in India, the interaction of different religions over centuries in this land, and the underlying unity of all life.

How Do You Say That Again? Sy-ky-uh-tree! A Timeline of Mental Health from ‘ From Leeches to Slug Glue’

Posted on by Penguin India

Although mental illness has been around just as long as humans, it has been understood very differently through the ages. The stigma attached to mental illness left people to suffer through half-baked theories and unscientific treatments. In an uphill climb from the darkness it was kept shrouded in to the 20th century when mental health is a cause championed by media and celebrities, the world has come a long way. How did we claw our way out of the sludge of misplaced beliefs and superstitions?

In From Leeches to Slug Glue, Roopa Rai investigates how the perception of mental conditions, especially psychosis and depression, changed through the years to finally take its place as a valid medical concern in the 20th century.

 2nd Century BC

The first description of mental illness occurred in Charaka Samhita, a seminal work in Ayurveda in the second century CE, which emphasised an inextricable connection between body, mind and spirit and consequently, deemed it necessary to treat the body in order to heal the mind. A change in diet and lifestyle was prescribed to include good sleep patterns, less mental stimulation and reduced stress. It was in 3rd century BCE that the first hospitals for the mentally ill came into existence in India.

3rd– 4th Century BC

The Greek Hippocrates suggested that the proportion of four humours, or vital bodily fluids —yellow bile, blood, black bile and phlegm—was responsible for  people being choleric (ambitious and irritable), sanguine (charismatic and optimistic), melancholic (introverted and perceptive) or phlegmatic (relaxed and peaceful). Any imbalance in these fluids could affect the temperament of the person, hence indicating mental illness.

9th- 10th Century

Islamic psychology prescribed ’ilaj al-nafs’ (‘the treatment of the soul’) to the mentally ill. Baths, music and occupational therapy (sewing, farming, cooking) were the prescribed treatments. Ninth century Persian physician and philosopher Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, chief of the Baghdad bimaristan (hospital) and the tenth-century Avicenna provided descriptions and treatments for conditions like insomnia, mania and depression.

1246

London’s Bethlem Royal Hospital (founded in 1246) reigned as the oldest asylum for the mentally ill with its approach to mental illness evident in its monstrous viewing gallery where, for a fee, the public could stare and jeer at the inmates, who were usually chained or restrained in some way.

18th Century

A wave of intellectualism in the latter half of 17th century changed the way Europe looked at mental illness. Even though the idea of ‘moral treatment’ of the mentally ill received severe opposition, the work of English physician William Battie changed the way mental conditions were perceived. Appointed the chief physician at St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics (established in 1751) in London, Battie took on the cause of the insane.

1758

In 1758, the world was introduced to William Battie’s Treatise on Madness, the first modern text on mental illness. In a scathing attack on Bethlem’s methods and its viewing gallery, Battie made a case for the humane treatment of the mentally ill with emphasis on cleanliness, good food, fresh air and enough distractions for the inmates along with access to friends and family.

1796

The untimely death of a young widow suffering from ‘melancholy’ in an asylum led to the establishment of The York Retreat (in 1796) by philanthropist William Tuke and his son Henry. Founded on a compassionate, non-profit approach, it countered the idea of imprisonment of the mentally ill and instead, encouraged its patients to walk freely around the gardens and take up jobs like sewing, knitting and farm labour. Physical punishments, chaining and handcuffing were completely banned!

In 1813, William Tuke’s grandson Samuel Tuke wrote the famous Description of the Retreat near York, and with this, physicians across the world began to adopt William Tuke’s methods to restore self-esteem and self-control in the mentally ill.

1793

Haunted by a personal tragedy, Frenchman Philippe Pinel was determined to study madness and its treatments. In 1793, Pinel began his research on 200 of the 4000 inmates locked up at the Bicêtre Hospital in Paris. The detailed insights and empathy of Jean-Baptiste Pussin, the superintendent of the mental ward inspired Pinel to begin expounding the theory that conversing at length with patients could bring them out of their delusions whereas adopting a cheerful manner in everyday activities could relieve their melancholy.

For facilitating this leap and bringing the mentally ill out of the shadowy margins of society, Philippe Pinel was credited with being the glorious ‘unchainer’ of the insane’ and the founding father of the discipline called psychiatry.

1845

The Lunacy Act passed by Britain in changed the status of the mentally ill to ‘patients’, taking them from prisons to hospitals!

Fascinated with how science and medicine evolved over time? Read Roopa Pai’s From Leeches to Slug Glue to know more!

A Guide To the Use of Colours and Their Symbolism- An Excerpt from ‘The Hidden Rainbow’

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Kelly Dorji takes you on a spiritual journey through Buddhist symbolism to help find your inner peace. In our busy lives, The Hidden Rainbow is the perfect oasis.

Read an excerpt from the book below:

 

A GUIDE TO THE USE OF COLOURS AND THEIR SYMBOLISM IN BUDDHISM:

The main colours used in Buddhist art are blue, black, white,

red, green and yellow. With black as the exception, the other

five colours are representative of a specific Buddha in the

depiction of the five Wisdom Buddhas of the Vajrayana or

Tantric Tradition of Buddhism.

 

The colour B L U E is used to represent the Healing Buddha,

signifying calm, purity and healing.

 

W H I T E signifies purity and is the colour of knowledge

and longevity. The primordial Buddha ‘Vairocana’ is depicted

in white.

 

The Buddha Amitabha is shown in R E D, which symbolizes

life and holiness.

 

The Amoghasiddhi Buddha in G R E E N signifies

accomplishment and the elimination of envy.

 

Y E L L OW is the colour chosen to depict Ratnasambhava,

who is a symbol of balance and humility.

 

Through meditation, these colours may contribute to the

restorative process of the human condition by transforming human

delusions to original qualities as follows:

– Meditating on the colour blue can pacify aggression.

– White can transform ignorance into wisdom.

– Red turns attachment into selflessness and realization.

– Concentrating on green can eliminate jealousy.

– Meditation on the colour yellow can enrich the sense of self and

eliminate pride.

 

Keep calm and find your inner peace with The Hidden Rainbow.

#WhyNehruMatters: Remembering the first Prime Ministers with his words

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The first Prime Minister of independent India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889 in Allahabad. He is remembered for being a frontline freedom fighter in India’s struggle for Independence, and a central figure in Indian politics after independence. Along with this, Jawaharlal Nehru leaves behind a legacy of being one of India’s most prolific writers.

In his biography of Nehru, Shashi Tharoor describes him as an ‘aristocrat, socialist, anti-imperialist, foremost disciple of Gandhi, diehard secularist and India’s first prime minister, who sought to educate the Indian masses in democracy by his own personal example’.  These are amongst the many reasons why Nehru matters to India and the world even today.

Today on his 130th birth anniversary, we remember him with words and thoughts from his various books:

‘For only they can sense life who stand often on the verge of it, only they whose lives are not governed by the fear of death.’

― Jawaharlal Nehru, Discovery of India

*

‘Nothing in the world that is alive remains unchanging. All Nature changes from day to day and minute to minute, only the dead stop growing and are quiescent.’

―Jawaharlal Nehru, Glimpses of World History

*

‘Experience of public life showed me that popularity was often the handmaiden of undesirable persons; it was certainly not an invariable sign of virtue or intelligence.’

―Jawaharlal Nehru, An Autobiography

*

‘There is no permanent stability or security or changelessness; if there were life itself would cease…Life is a principle of growth, not of standing still, a continuous becoming, which does not permit static conditions.’

― Jawaharlal Nehru, Discovery of India

*

“Real failure was a desertion of principle, a denial of our right, and an ignoble submission to wrong. Self-made wounds always took longer to heal than those caused by an adversary.”

―Jawaharlal Nehru, An Autobiography

*

“Ignorance is always afraid of change. It fears the unknown and sticks to its rut, however miserable it may be there. In its blindness it stumbles on anyhow. But with right reading comes a measure of knowledge, and the eyes are partly opened.”

―Jawaharlal Nehru, Glimpses of World History

*

‘External events and their consequences affect us powerfully, and yet the greatest shocks come to our minds through inner fears and conflicts. While we advance on the external plane, as we must if we are to survive, we have also to win peace with ourselves.’

― Jawaharlal Nehru, Discovery of India

*

‘Remember always that there is not so very much difference between various people as we seem to imagine. Maps and atlases show us countries in different colours. Undoubtedly people do differ from one another, but they resemble each other also a great deal, and it is well to keep this in mind and not be misled by the colours on the map or by national boundaries.’

―Jawaharlal Nehru, Glimpses of World History

*

“I have always thought that the best way to find out what is right and what is not right, what should be done and what should not be done, is not by giving a sermon, but by talking and discussing, and out of discussion sometimes a little bit of the truth comes out.”

―Jawaharlal Nehru, Glimpses of World History

Read more of Nehru’s work here

Lessons Life Taught Me, Unknowingly: 7 Inspiring Instances from Anupam Kher’s Life

Posted on by Penguin India

In his autobiography Anupam Kher acknowledges the truths which set him on the path to success.

A good storyteller starts at the very beginning and Kher has an interesting story related to his birth that leads him to believe that his was not just a routine birth.

This listicle takes us, in Kher’s own words, through a few lessons that have been milestones in Kher’s life and which have made him feel that he is ‘destiny’s special child’!

  1. “My life lesson has always been there is no point in thinking of what could have been—for I lay great store by John Lennon’s quote.”

  2. In contrast to modern nuclear families, I grew up with an assortment of Khers of all ages, which gave me a head start in learning the lessons related to sharing, tolerance and respecting diverse viewpoints and ideas.”

  3. “I think living with grandparents is the most significant factor in the growth of any child. At least, it was for me and my brother.”

  4. “There is no reason why anyone should find it difficult to stay close to their roots and remain grounded even after they taste success.”

  5. “Whatever be the adversities one faces, if one approaches the situation with a humorous perspective, then one is spared the angst, the tension and the stress that are nowadays part and parcel of day-to-day life and living.”

  6. “My own experiences have taught me that tragedy and trauma teach you a lot and makes you aware of who you are if you don’t indulge in self-pity.”

  7. “……I should be prepared for ups and downs but not let anything drag me down.”

  8. “The choice you make can distinguish between the ordinary and the extraordinary.”

  9. “I have learnt that failure is the one thing you should not fear in life. Better to experience it, face it, live it and thereby conquer, it by overcoming it.”

  10. “If you are unable to fake an emotion, don’t fake it. If you are suffocated by loneliness, speak to someone; reach out to a loved one. You don’t need to fit in! You are not alone.”

Get ready to be even more inspired in Kher’s autobiography, Lessons Life Taught Me, Unknowingly.

The Belief of Oneness in Sikhism, Savayye: An Excerpt from ‘Hymns of the Sikh Gurus’

Posted on by Penguin India

The vision of Guru Nanak, the fifteenth-century founder of the Sikh faith, celebrated the oneness of the Divine that both dwells within and transcends the endless diversity of life. Guru Nanak’s immaculate vision inspired the rich and inclusive philosophy of Sikhism, which is reflected in this exquisite and highly acclaimed translation of poems,Hymns of the Sikh Gurus, from the religion’s most sacred texts: the Guru Granth Sahib, the principal sacred text of the Sikh religion, which consists of poems and hymns by Guru Nanak, his successors and Hindu and Islamic saints; and the Dasam Granth, a collection of devotional verses composed by the tenth Sikh Guru.

Read an excerpt from this book this Gurpurab:

 

MORNING AND INITIATION
Savayye

SAVAYYE means quatrains. The ten Savayye that have been included in the Sikhs’ morning prayers are from Guru Gobind Singh’s Dasam Granth (see p. 1). They underscore devotion as the essence of religion. They reject all forms of external worship and cast Guru Nanak’s message of internal love in beautiful undulating rhythm. These Savayye are also recited during the administration of amrita, the initiation ceremony of the Khalsa (the Sikh order).

There is One Being. Victory to the wonderful Guru.

The composition of the Tenth Guru.

My wonderful Guru, I recite the Savayye by Your grace.

I have seen hosts of purists and ascetics,
I have visited the homes of yogis and celibates.
Heroes and demons, practitioners of purity
and drinkers of ambrosia, hosts of saints
from countless religions, I have seen them all.
I have seen religions from all countries,
but I have yet to see followers of the Creator.
Without love for the Almighty,
without grace from the Almighty,
all practices are without a grain of worth.

 

Drunken elephants draped in gold,
first among giants in blazing colours,
Herds of horses, sprinting like gazelles,
swifter than the wind,
The people bow their heads to strong-armed rulers,
But what if they be such mighty owners;
at the last, they depart barefoot from the world.

 

Conquerors of the world march triumphant
to the beat of kettledrums.
Their herds of handsome elephants trumpet,
their royal steeds lustily neigh.

These rulers of past, future and present
can never be counted.
Without worshipping the supreme Sovereign,
all end in the house of death.

Pilgrimage, ablutions and charities, self-restraint
and countless rituals,
Study of Vedas, Puranas, Kateb and Qur’an,
of all scriptures from all times and places,
Ascetics subsisting on air, practising celibacy;
countless such have I seen and considered.
Without remembering the One, without love for the One,
all rulers and actions go to naught.

 

Inured and invincible warriors in shining armour,
determined to crush the enemy,
Proudly think, mountains may grow wings and fly away,
but never us.
They can shatter their enemy, they can wring their foe,
they can crush legions of drunken elephants,
But without the grace of the One,
they too must depart this world.

 

Countless heroes and doughty warriors
who stand fast against the blows of iron,
Who conquer lands and enemies,
who crush the pride of drunken elephants,
Who raze sturdy castles, who gain the world by words,
They are all beggars at the divine Portal,
the almighty Ruler is the only Giver.

 

Gods, demons, serpents, and ghosts contemplate
Your Name in all time—past, present, and future.

All creatures of land and sea,
You instantly create and destroy.
Their virtuous deeds are heartily celebrated,
their piles of misdeeds utterly eradicated.
The devout go happily in this world,
their enemies sink in shame.

Rulers of mortals and mighty elephants,
leaders of the three worlds,
Performers of endless rituals and charities,
winners of brides in countless swayamvara rites,
Like Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu and Sachi’s husband,
they all end at last in death.
They who touch the feet of the Transcendent One,
they alone are freed from the cycle of birth and death.

 

How futile to sit in contemplation,
like a stork with both eyes closed.
While trying to bathe in the seven seas,
we lose this world and the next.
How futile to sink in misdeeds,
we only waste away our life.
I tell the truth, do listen to me,
they alone who love, find the Beloved.

 

Some worship stones, some bear them on their heads;
some wear phalluses around their necks.
Some claim to see the One in the south;
some bow their heads to the west.
Some worship idols, some images of animals;
some run to worship the dead and their graves.
The entire world is lost in false ritual;
none knows the mystery of the Almighty One.

Poetry from these highly revered texts is heard daily and at rites of passage and celebration in Sikh homes and gurudwaras, carrying forward the Sikh belief in the oneness and equality of all humanity.Read Hymns of the Sikh Gurus to know more about these.

The Bard of Ballimaran- Mirza Ghalib

Posted on by Penguin India

Emerging from the narrow lanes of Old Delhi, Mirza Ghalib’s couplets took wing on the hallowed reverence of millions of dreamers and became entrenched in public imagination. His words breathed fervour into many ardent professions of love and added depth to sombre musings on life.

Hidden behind the dazzling effulgence of his poetry was a man burnished by adversity. Reflecting the ironic duality that marked his life, Ghalib luxuriated in poetic verse and yet languished in material indigence.

‘Ghalib’s self-presentation was of one who lived a life of affluence and leisure, where he was respected as a thinker and honoured by the powerful. In reality, his poetic prowess was relatively unacknowledged in his own time, and his existence was marked by deep and constant financial insecurity exacerbated by the fact that he all too often backed the wrong horse in the context of a constantly shifting field of power.’ writes Raza Mir.

In Ghalib- A Thousand Desires, Raza Mir presents an illuminating account of Mirza Mohammad Asadullah Khan ‘Ghalib’s life and work. Read on for a glimpse-

 

    1. Born in 1797 in Agra to Mirza Abdullah Baig, Mirza Asadullah Khan belonged to a family of soldiers of Turkish ancestry. Losing his father in the early years of life left the young Khan and the Baig family in dire financial straits. Riling up contemporaries and benefactors with his sharp wit and cantankerous temper, the comfort of companionship and material rewards eluded Mirza for most of his life.

 

    1. At the young age of 9, Asadullah Khan began writing poetry in Persian with the pen name ‘Asad’ (lion). He later adopted the name ‘Ghalib’ (dominant) which went on to become synonymous with poetic genius. Lauded for his talent by the incomparable poet Mir, one of the few whom Ghalib admired, he went on to become the poet laureate of the court of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.

 

    1. Asadullah Khan- a young thirteen year old- married Umrao Begum who was eleven at the time. Setting course in an orbit of separation, the couple experienced the loss of their seven beloved children even as Ghalib gravitated towards the pinnacle of poetic fame. In Delhi, the couple shared their life with Umrao Begum’s family before moving into a house, gifted by Umrao’s cousin, in the charmingly chaotic Gali Qasim Jan of the Ballimaran neighbourhood.

 

    1. Divaan-e Ghalib, a collection of Ghalib’s poetry, was first published by Syed-ul Akhbar Press in Delhi and saw more re-prints than perhaps any other book of Urdu literature. He went on to write an account of the rebellion of 1857 in Ghalib’s Urdu letters are published in a book titled Ud-e Hindi (Indian Perfume)

 

  1. After his death in 1869, Altaf Husain Hali published Yaadgaar-e Ghalib (In the Memory of Ghalib), the first definitive biography of Mirza Ghalib. Such was the stature of the great poet that the Indian government issued a ‘Mirza Ghalib’ stamp in his honour while Ghalib’s grave was turned into a memorial and is still a place of reverence in the lanes of Ballimaran.

Mirza Ghalib, the most illustrious Urdu poet in English, continues to delight and inspire as the magic of his poetic genius lifts his words out of the yellowed pages of history to shine like a beam of luminous moonlight onto the harried hordes of our generation.

Read Raza Mir’s Ghalib: A Thousand Desires to capture the essence of Mirza Ghalib!

Your Daily Dose of Motivation: Get Inspired with Marie Forleo!

Posted on by Penguin India

Inspired by a line uttered by her mother, Marie Forleo’s Everything is Figureoutable is all that it promises to be and more! It makes self help and motivation fun by inserting anecdotes, personal stories and humour in its pages.

We share with you some quick quotes and stories from the book to that continue to inspire us and hope they will give you your daily dose of motivation too!

Oprah’s Story

‘When Oprah Winfrey was sixteen, she saw Barbara Walters on television. She was so deeply moved and inspired that she said to herself, “Maybe I could do that.” Oprah went on to share, “There’s no other woman that deserves more in terms of opening the door for my career.” In that statement, Oprah is not talking about Barbara Walters “opening doors” by recommending her for broadcasting jobs. She’s talking about the fact that merely witnessing another woman on televeision cracked open a possibility within Oprah’s consciousness about what was possible for her. It’s hard to become what you don’t see.’

~

Judging Failures

‘[…]When I bombed [the] Missy Elliott audition years earlier, Nike Elite Dance Athletes didn’t exist yet. There’s no way I could have dreamed to reach that specific goal, because no one had done it before! It simply had not been created.

But my Missy failure spurred a necessary shift in my focus, pushing me to spend the next few years unknowingly training in the exact mix of hip-hop, dance and fitness that prepared me to win that Nike position when it appeared!

Don’t be so quick to judge your supposed failure. A flop might be a cosmic redirect, guiding you to a better, bigger purpose.”

~

On Opinions and Criticism

“Let’s say you love chocolate, but you have a friend who despises chocolate. Does that mean chocolate sucks? No. It means one person doesn’t like chocolate. Chocolate makers don’t lose sleep over that. They’re not campaigning to convert the haters. They focus all their attention on chocolate lovers.”

~

Be You.

“Consider all the things that have brought you value, joy, or growth throughout your lifetime. Every song that’s made your head bop. Every movie that’s made you laugh, cry, or expand your point of view. Every athlete or artist who’s inspired you to reach for more. Every invention that’s made your life easier. Every restaurant that’s served a dish that made you moan with delight. […]

Imagine if all those beautiful people never followed the call of their soul – never “figured out” their dreams and created and contributed and shared. I say this at the end of eve MarieTV episode and I’ll say it to you now:

The world needs that special gift that only you have.”

~

Share the Shame

‘Most high achievers struggle with feeling like a fake, but never talk about it. It’s like a dirty little secret everyone’s afraid to admit. I’ll tell you right now – I still feel this way at times and I’ve been doing this work for almost two decades. Brene Brown says, “As a shame researcher, I know that the very best thing to do in the midst of a shame attack is totally counterintuitive. Practice courage and reach out!”

Bronte is on point. You know why? Because shame shrivels when you share it out loud.’

To make life a little more figureoutable, get your copy today!

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