MIGRANTS ON THE MARCH

MIGRANTS ON THE MARCH

Just a couple of days ago, there were thousands of migrants on the roads leading from Delhi to the neighbouring states where they had their native places. Among them were tiny babies, small girls and young, middle-aged and old men and women.  All of them were desperate to reach their native villages because the lockdown in Delhi, like in other parts of the country, had made them unemployed, cashless, and threatened eviction from the hutments whose rents they could not pay to the owners.. 

The daily wagers among them could not buy even their daily bread. Starvation stared them in the face.  IT too, was a killer, if left unsatisfied for too many days.

Corona Virus is a new transitory enemy.  It will go as soon as it has completed its course.  But hunger is eternal. It has been killing millions of people since the world came into being.

What horrified the viewers like me was that the innumerable migrants on the road had no helpers among the people at the helm of affairs.  They wanted to travel by buses or trains which were not made available to them. They had also no information whether and when any transport would be provided to them.  

Most of them decided to walk on foot as far as 500-600 km towards their destination.

  One could not hold one’s tears when one saw a mother supporting a child with one hand, a heavy package with the other and some luggage on her head; and thus walking and walking tirelessly without a ray of hope of getting on the way some milk to feed her child and some crumbs to quench the hunger of other co-travellers.

Still more horrible was the treatment meted out to them by the staff deputed on the roads to prevent the violations of the lockdown imposed by the central and state governments. These official loyalists hit them, humiliated them, and did to them whatever else they thought was essential to control the spread of Corona Virus.

“Give us this day our daily bread” and “Blessed are the meek” are old proverbs whose truth will never become obsolete.  Bread is life and meekness is patience, humility and love.  

It is also true that the concerns of the migrants were not altogether neglected by the respective authorities. What were missing was the timely planning and the practical arrangements on the roads where the migrants were on the march. They were uncertain about their future even after the expiry of the lockdown. After all, one’s own home is the safest and the sweetest of all places in the world.  

There was at last a silver lining in this cloud. A petition in the Supreme Court came to the rescue of these disappointed migrants.  The Hon’ble Justices who heard the petition issued pro-migrants directions which put the requisite balm on their wounds. Thank God that we have in our sacred motherland a judiciary that rises to the occasion and delivers justice tempered with mercy.

 Let me close this write up with a quotation from a speech delivered by the ex-President of India Dr. S. Radhakrishnan at the P.E.N. Congress on 16^th April 1954. According to him:

“The common people in every country are like ourselves, ordinary human beings, who wish to go bout their daily work, do their best for their children, cultivate their own garden and live at peace with their neighbours. If some of them are willing tools of their Governments, many are their unwilling victims.”

1^st April 2020                                         G. R. KANWAL 

ABOU BEN ADHEM

       ABOU BEN ADHEM

“ABOU BHEN ADHEM” is a famous  poem written by the English poet, critic and journalist Leigh Hunt (1784-1859).  It is perhaps the only poem which is quoted by his critics and biographers.  The reason is that it has a great message of faith and immortality.  There is hardly a reader who tends to forget the spirit of this poem throughout his life. The diction of the poem is highly lovely, and the impact which it generates is immensely profound and enduring.

One can easily replace the title of the poem by its thematic phrase: “Love Your Fellowmen” but then the poem will lose not only its mystical charm but also the verbal beauty of its storyline.  

Let us now see the poem itself before any further comments on its interpretation:

“ABOU BEN ADHAEM (may his tribe increase!)

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,

And saw, within the moonlight in his room,

Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,

An angel writing in a book of gold:

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,

And to the Presence in the room he said.

“What writest thou? The Vision raised its head,

And with a look made of all sweet accord

Answered, “The names of those who love the Lord.”

“And is mine one?” said Abou. “Nay, not so,”

Replied the Angel. Abou spoke more low,

But cheerily still, and said “I pray thee, then,

Write me as one that loves his fellow men.”

The Angel wrote, and vanished. The next night

It came again with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,

And, lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest!”   

The word ‘love’ has many connotations but the most relevant in the context of this poem are: fellow-feeling, practical sympathy, selfless service, helpfulness, co-operation , deep compassion, unrestrained  generosity, etc.   

            In his book “Psychology in Daily Life”, Professor Seashore says : service is the key to life. There is no place for the selfish, self-centred, self-seeking individual in a happy family. The same is true in some degree of our social organizations. He goes on to add : the selfish soul is ungenerous and must pine away in his own misery, wealthy but a miser, strong but a coward, learned but a fool, gloating in luxury but despicable.

            A number of so-called lovers of God are idlers.  They are self-absorbed.  They chant their prayers but do no good to the society they live in.  Some of them become  runaway recluses for their personal good. 

            The Urdu poet Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) says in one of his lyrics:

            Khuda ke aashiq tau hain hazaron, banon mein phirtey hain maray maray, Main us ka banda banoon ga jis ko khuda ke bandon se pyar hoga

(The number of God’s lovers runs into thousands. You can see them wandering about in far away forests.  Truly speaking, I have no interest in them. My choice is the Man who loves his fellow beings.)

This is the message of the poet Leigh Hunt and almost of all the true saints who like Guru Nanak Dev JI selflessly  serve and reform the society through practical acts of uplifting the poor and the downtrodden.  

This is also the import of the Biblical saying: Love thy neighbor as thyself. And neighbor here means every individual in whichever part of the world  he or she may be .

27^th March 2020                                                         G. R. KANWAL

COMPULSORY STAYING AT HOME

                                COMPULSORY STAYING AT HOME

Only the homeless know what a curse it is not to be having a home to live in. According to the Swiss educationist Johann Pesttalozzi (1746-1827), our home joys are the most delightful which earth affords, and the joy of parents in their children is the most holy joy of humanity.  It makes their hearts pure and good, it lifts men up to their Father in heaven. 

An American writer Mrs. Lydia H Sigourney (1791-1865) believes that the strength of a nation, especially of a republican nation, is in the intelligent and well-ordered homes of the people. 

A modern American writer and essayist Mrs. Katharina Elizabeth Fullerton Gerould puts her view in these words: “Hard indeed, in a world which has come to feel that it is  more important to have an automobile to get away from home with, than to have a home which you might like to stay in.

            It is a pity that unlike their ancient counterparts present- day homes and families lack the spirit of ceaseless bonding and deep urge for togetherness  the world over,  though to a lesser degree in India which still follows, here and there, the social values of joint family system.

            It is unfortunate that the old definition of home as the seminary of all other institutions has considerably cracked, if not fully vanished. An English poet rightly says: There’s a crack in everything.   

            The life style of the younger generation in India started declining during the British period.  Look at this couplet of a reputed Urdu poet Syed Akbar Hussain, popularly known as Akbar Allahabadi (1846-1921):

            Huey is qadar muhazzab kabhi ghar ka munh na dekha

Kati umr hotelon mein -, marey hasptaal ja kar

(Alas! Our excessive passion for civilised life style, detached  us so deeply  from our homes that we began to dine and dwell in hotels  and breathe our last in hospitals.)

The compulsory staying at home during the present lengthy lockdowns because of the killer  Corona Virus is a rare phenomenon. It is both welcome and unwelcome, but is inevitable to ensure our chances of survival.

Home is a sort of paradise from which we expelled ourselves, partially, if not wholly and can reoccupy it  if we decide to  become its regular residents,  following that  old  moral code which our cultural heritage imposed upon predecessors.  As for keeping busy, the options are innumerable; so   let there be a happy home-coming.   

25^th March 2020                                               G  R  KANWAL             

WHEN WILT THOU SAVE THE PEOPLE?

WHEN WILT THOU SAVE THE PEOPLE?

Corona Virus is here, there and everywhere.  Thousands of its victims have died and thousands and thousands more are likely to die in the near future. There is as yet no remedy to overpower it and cure its afflicted preys in medical establishments.   Lockdowns of places and social isolations of patients are the only preventive measures.  That’s the wisest approach being exercised by current governments all over the world.

I am a great supporter of prevention and prescription because if prevention is better than cure is an eternal piece of wisdom, medical prescription is no less prudential.  The medicines prescribed by qualified physicians must be taken as per their directions. But remember, if you can, that in many a doctor’s clinic patients found this humble statement written boldly within their eyeshot: I TREAT BUT HE CURES. ‘HE’ here stands for GOD THE ALMIGHTY, GOD THE MERCIFUL.

An Urdu poet Jigar Murdabadi says in one of his lyrics:

ALLAH AGAR TAUFIQ NA DE, INSAN KE BAS KA KAAM NAHIN.

 In English it means man cannot march ahead unless guided and empowered by God.  It is in this sense that the recitation of prayer becomes a vital necessity in times of obstinate epidemics like Corona Virus.

Let me here clarify. Prayer is not a substitute for preventive measures and medical treatments.  It is however a powerful spiritual supplement which acts like nectar for humans’ body and mind. Whereas disease disturbs people, prayer soothes them.  It is a respectful request to the Supreme Creator to shower His mercy and bless them again with perfect health.       

    The lines that follow comprise the first six lines of the poem ‘When Wilt Thou Save The people” written by an English poet Ebenezer Elliott (1781-1849). They are worth reciting until the deadly virus called CORONA is completely terminated or at least made curable:

 

“When wilt thou save the people?

O God of Mercy, when?

Not kings and lords, but nations!

Not thrones and crowns, but men!

Flowers of Thy heart, O God, are they;

Let them not pass, like weeds, away,

24^th March 2020                            G. R. KANWAL    

    

               

PRAYER IN THE TIME OF CORONA VIRUS

PRAYER IN THE TIME OF CORONA VIRUS

Corona is the latest virus which is not getting cured by any existing drug or vaccine. It has spread worldwide and has by now swallowed thousands of lives all over the globe.

Medical experts tell us that young kids up to the age of 10 and elderly people beyond the age of 65 are most vulnerable.  They also tell us that those who have a lot of immunity in their bodies can survive the onslaught of this drug-resistant virus.

Since the creation of this world man has faced many such epidemics and ultimately found the way out. Diseases which were cureless in the past are now easily curable.  The number of fatalities has dropped and is dropping WITH THE PASSAGE OF EVERY YEAR.  Corona virus, too, will be defeated by Man The Conqueror.  But it may take a long time.  Till then its victims have to be isolated so that they do not infect those who come into their contact. 

An important question is: how do the sufferers of this virus pass their time in isolation.  There may be many options according to the mindset of the isolated persons. However, one option may be common to all such persons and that is prayer.

The English poet Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) said: More things are wrought by prayer than the world dreams of. Let me add that all human discoveries and inventions in every field of life have not been possible without the invisible helping hand of God. If man has set his feet on the moon, he has done so with the tacit consent of God.

Prayer is an efficacious remedy for failing health ---- physical, mental and spiritual.   A person who prays to God to grant him a fit physical body, a peaceful mind and an enlightened soul is seldom disappointed. As the Bible says: the door of God opens for him who knocks at it. 

It will be no wastage of time if the victims of Corona virus seek God’s help to come out of its clutches. Even those who are so far safe from the onslaught of this deadly foe should agree to pray not only for their own immunization but also for the speedy recovery of those who have fallen into its grip.

   

Finally, let me quote the English clergy and Dean of Westminster Arthur P. Stanley (1815-1881): According to him we need not perplex ourselves as to the precise mode in which prayer is answered. ----It is enough for us to know and feel that it is the most natural, the most powerful, and the most elevated expression of our thoughts and wishes in all great emergencies.

So dear sisters and brethren of the world, raise your hands for prayer to God and wait for the healthful change that it is likely to bring sooner rather than later.

20^th March 2020                                                 G. R. KANWAL   

INTERNATIONAL WOMAN DAY

                       INTERNATIONAL WOMAN DAY

On this International Woman Day, my mind goes  back to a few prose quotations and some poems which are related to women and which I had read years ago.

Let me admit that I have always been interested in finding a perfect definition of man as well as woman but till this day have found none.  The definition of both is inexhaustible. Man is not always a universal man, nor woman a universal woman.  It is only a little bit  interesting to meet a man or a woman of particular religious or political hue, but not who will satisfy my curiosity of coming across a man or woman that  can take the place of EVERY MAN or EVERY WOMAN. 

Men and women belonging to any particular sect, caste, or creed, or following any particular way of life or acting according to a specific philosophy do not attract me whole-heatedly. They please only a fragment of my infinite being which yearns for encountering a rare superman or superwoman for whom this ever-evolving beautiful world has been waiting ever since it was created.  

 To be frank, the prose and poetry pieces that follow are just for a momentary mental and emotional entertainment. All of them are however weighty and unlikely to become outdated for decades, nay even centuries, to come.

1.     “Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men’s nurses; so as a man may have a quarrel to marry, when he will. But yet he was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question when a man should marry-----A young man not yet, an elder man not at all.”   (Extract from the essay ‘Of Marriage And Single Life’ written by  Francis Bacon,  author, scientist, jurist,  b.1561, d.1626).

2.     “Women have more good sense than men. They have fewer pretensions, are less implicated in theories, and judge of objects more from  their immediate and involuntary impressions on the mind, and therefore  more truly and naturally.” (English critic and author, William Hazlitt: born 1778, died 1830).

3.     “As the vine which has long  twined its graceful foliage about the oak, and been lifted by it in sunshine , will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its tendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs, so is it beautifully ordered by Providence that woman who is the mere dependent and ornament of man in his happier hours, should be his stay and solace when smitten with sudden calamity; winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature, tenderly supporting  the drooping head and binding up the broken heart.” (American author, Washington Irving b.1783, d.1859).

4.     “Ah. Love, let us be true

To one another! For the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And wee here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where  ignorant armies clash by night. “

(Extract from ‘Dover Beach’ a poem written by English poet and critic, Matthew Arnold, b.1822, d,1888).

5.     Had but world enough, and time,

This coyness, Lady, were no crime.

We would sit down and think which way

To  walk and pass our long love’s day.

Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side

Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide

Of Humber would complain. I would

Love you ten years before the Flood,

And you should, if you please, refuse

Till  the conversion of the Jews.

But at my back I always hear

Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of  vast eternity.

Thy beauty shall no more be found,

Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound

My echoing song: then worms shall try

That long preserved virginity,

And your quaint honour turn to dust,

And into ashes all my lust:

The grave’s a fine and private place,

But none, I think, do there embrace.

(Extract from ‘To His Coy Mistress’ written

by English poet Andrew Marvell, b.1620, d.1666).

6.     “When you are old and gray and full of sleep

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true;

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead,

And  hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

(A poem written by Irish poet William Butler Yeats – 1865-1939).

And finally this is what English poet Lord Byron (1788-1824) said: A Man’s love is of man’s life a part; it is a woman’s whole existence.

8^TH MARCH 2020                                         G.R.KANWAL

           

HATRED

HATRED

Hatred is the same as ill-will, enmity, malice, hostility, dislike and antipathy. It is the antonym of love, affection, friendliness, brotherhood, kindness, warmth, regard, sympathy and fellow-feeling. A person who bears hatred poisons his own heart as well as that of his victim. It means that both the hater and the hated are accursed beings.  Hatred for hatred , like ,tit for tat, is no remedy for this malady.  

Hatred can lead to indifference, detachment, disinfection, bitterness, friction, confrontation, revenge, fighting, violence, or any other form of injurious and destructive behaviour. The loss suffered by both the hater and hated may be physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, psychic, moral, social, political, aesthetic or religious. Unfortunately, if hatred is not shallow and has settled deeply in one’s heart,  it is not easy to uproot it. It re-emerges at short or long intervals.  

According to the English poet Lord Byron (1788-1823) hatred is the madness of the heart.  American educator Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) declared :“I shall never permit myself to stoop so low as to hate any man.” Greek -Roman biographer Plutarch (46 ce-119 ce)- warns   “if you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind as by degrees will break out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to you.”

Lord Buddha who lived in ancient India (c.5^th to 4^th century BCE) has the last word on eradication of hatred. According to him: “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love: this is the eternal rule.”             

Mahatma Gandhi(1889-1948) believed  that the end of hatred is never justice; it is retaliation; it is blind fury. He added: We are tarred with the same brush, and are children of one and the same Creator, and as such the Divine powers within us are finite.  To slight a single human being is to slight those Divine powers, and thus to harm not only that being but with him the whole world.”   

Finally, a couplet from one of my own ghazals:

Mein hoon darwesh, mujhey aata nahin nafrat karna

Ghair mumkin hai ke dushman bhi ho nalan mujh se

(darwesh: faqir, religious devotee; ghair mumkin: impossible;

nalan: aggrieved.).

Translation: Being a God’s devotee, I have no room for hatred in my heart. So it is impossible to think of even an enemy having any  behavioral complaint  against me.     

4^th March 2020                                G. R. KANWAL

YUSSOUF

                YUSSOUF

‘YUSSOUF’ is the hero of a poem written by the American romantic poet and diplomat James Russell Lowell. He was born on 27^th February 1819 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States and passed away on 12^th August 1891.  According to his biographers he was associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that rivalled the popularity of British poets.  Most of his writings are marked by humour and satire.

‘Yussouf’ is one of his best poems.  It depicts the qualities of a noble  son of God who is abundantly hospitable; who is always ready to help the needy; whose charity knows no bounds; who has no taint  of selfishness; who thinks that everything which he possesses is a gift of God and should be shared with the guests that happen to enter his tent; who has no room for  anger, no feeling of vindictiveness;  who believes in forgiveness and who compares nobleness to a lamp that kindles many more similar lamps without losing a part of its own light.  

The poem reads as follows:

“A STRANGER came one night to Yussouf’s tent,

Saying, “Behold one outcast and in dread,

Against whose life the bow of power is bent,

Who flies, and hath not where to lay his head;

I come to thee for shelter and for food,

To Yussouf, call through all tribes “The Good.’”

“This tent is mine,’ said Yussouf, “but no more

Than it is God’s; come in, and be at peace;

Freely shalt thou partake of all my store

As I of His who buildeth over these

Our tents his glorious roof of night and day,

And at whose door none ever yet heard Nay.”

So Yussouf entertained his guest that night,

And, waking him ere day, said: "Here is gold;

My swiftest horse is saddled for thy flight;

Depart before the prying day grow bold.”

As one lamp lights another, nor grows less,

So nobleness enkindleth nobleness.

That inward light the stranger’s face made grand,

Which shines from all self-conquest; kneeling low,

He bowed his forehead upon yussouf’s hand,

Sobbing: “O Sheik, I cannot leave thee so;

I will repay thee; all this thou hast done

Unto that Ibrahim who slew thy son!”

“Take thrice the gold,” said Yussouf, “for with thee

Into the desert, never to return,

My one black thought shall ride away from me:

First-born, for whom by day and night I yearn,

Balanced and just are all of God’s decrees;

Thou art avenged, my first-born, sleep in peace!”

                                    ----------

2^nd March 2020                             G. R. KANWAL