Who is to blame for what has gone wrong in your life?
Firstly, does blaming anyone or anything solve it? If no, then what's the point?
Blaming has one use. If you can definitely find someone or something to blame, you can learn from that and avoid that person/thing in future.
However, whining or bitching about it--although it feels good--doesn't do any good.
A beautiful, thought-provoking movie
I just watched this gut-wrenching movie. Set in late 1970s in Charkhi, a small village in Pakistan, the movie seamlessly links two events: the religious radicalization, bigotry, and hatred simmering in Pakistan in the 1970s and horrors of India's partition in 1947.
This was a debut feature by Sabiha Sumar (pic below), and it won a lot of accolades.
Sabiha Sumar
Some thoughts/points:
The movie is thankfully available for FREE on YouTube!
If you are interested in learning more about this movie, check out this interview with Sabiha Sumar here.
I have been a reader of books for a long time. I started with comics (Raj Comics and others popular with Indian kids who were born in the 80's) and was always interested in trivia books for some reason. We don't know how we are wired!
Anyways, I was really into non-fiction even when the term was not cool. I came to fiction really late, and I think I haven't arrived even now. I would read mostly motivation books, and also some memory improvement books over the years. Those books have been sold as scrap now, so I have a hard time recollecting what I was really into in those days.
I tried rather lazily several "systems" for keeping notes of books that I have read. I tried keeping those index cards, making proper notebooks for book notes. I succeeded in making notes for some books, but nothing really stuck.
One of the modest successes I have had recently is the use of Google Notes and Notion software on my phone and making notes of books I listen to while taking a walk. It is an easy system, I just type short notes as I walk. I make minor formatting thingies like chapters, bullets as I go, and emojis sometimes. Nothing fancy.
It works! I have been amazed at the simplicity of the system. One thing I have realized a while ago was that if I didn't make some sort of notes from a book, it was hard for me to come up with even a brief summary of the main ideas of the book. I couldn't remember any trivial fact or insight I had learned from a book if I didn't make notes. I know, basic shit. Took me a while. I know.
Here is a screenshot of Notion of my notes from a recent book I read recently. You can see that the notes aren't too detailed. But hey, better than nothing! As I heard one of my all-time favorite teachers, Eben Pagan, say in one of his courses (I can't remember which one): "The smallest pencil is more effective than the best memory."
So there is my "system." I hope to keep refining it, of course. But one thing I will do definitely is not quit on making notes from my books. It is almost a total waste of time if I don't take some sort of notes from a book.
This quote that I came across recently struck me odd at first. However, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.
Poetry, indeed, cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble to learn a language if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a translation. But as the beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written, we learn the language. - Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)
I know English, Hindi, and Punjabi. I have read some poetry in all three languages. I have also read some Urdu ghazals translated into English. Samuel Johnson got it right: the translated poetry, although a valiant effort, does not ever come close to the impact, the rhythm, the cadence, and the spirit of the original. I know it sounds harsh, but that's the way it is. The original cannot be imitated. It is like the difference between actually eating something and describing the taste of something. The latter is a very remote echo of the real thing.
That being said, translations on their own can sometimes be great and even greater than original. I can only give examples from what I have read. One of the good examples I came across a while ago was Paradise Lost in Plain English by Joseph Lanzara. I had bought the Oxford Classics version of Paradise Lost and was totally lost (no pun intended). This book made the story very accessible, although I know there is a massive loss of the rhythm and cadence here, but better to read the thing and make sense of it than be turned off by it totally.
Anyhow, I think this whole thing is a total shame because when you know a language and are quite proficient in it, then only you can see the magic of poetry written in that language. Otherwise it does not click, your Rosetta stone courses be damned! There is a whole lot of time needed for someone to truly appreciate the language. Only then can they taste the poetry.
Mr. Johnson is right. Poetry is what keeps a language alive. It is also such a pity because so many languages have died and are dying every year. Think of the poetry that is also dying with it. And that is something we cannot revive with a handful of speakers. Would Paradise Lost be saved if we had 100 speakers of English left in the world? I doubt it.
Poetry is also concentrated thought. There are years and years of wisdom encapsulated in a single line of a poem. Poetry represents the sacred and exalted values of a culture. For example, consider these lines from Heer, an epic Punjabi poem written by Waris Shah:
The love story of Heer and Ranjha, as written by Waris Shah, also encapsulates here the beliefs of the people living at that time.
Now listen to or watch this version of the couplet as sung by Gurdas Maan, a popular Punjabi singer.
Ask any native speaker of Punjabi, and I doubt he or she will not be moved by the rendition. The same, however, cannot be said about the translation. It's a damn tragedy, but it is true nonetheless.
