Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi...

How many times do you rue your own fickle mind?

Does real life have Arjuns who just aim for the eye and see nothing else. Did the Tendulkar's,the Kishore Kumar's and the Bachchan's of the world not think, dream or desire anything else?

We all journey through life in phases. The circumstances, the aspirations and more importantly our capabilities; for better or for worse, keep changing. Is it then possible to have such single mindedness? Or is there the possiblity of this over-arching desire that pales all else?

They say life is all about making choices. How often has life presented you with choices that have been Black & White? Often it is about Like More vs. Like less and more often it is about Dislike More vs. Dislike Less. Some might say that it is a very pessimistic way of looking at things and might be right, but this is a view all the same.

Coming back to the seed of this blog.. an extremely popular sher (couplet) by Mirza Ghalib.

हज़ारों ख्ह्वाहिशें ऐसी की हर ख्ह्वाइश पे दम निकले
बहुत निकले मेरे अर्मां लेकिन फिर भी कम निकले

My translation of the couplet (a literal one)

Thousands of desires each worth dying for...

Many of my aspirations were fulfilled, yet they were too few...

Have heard this couplet many a time but have really been thinking about what Ghalib meant for over a week trying to interpret it and keyed in through this piece are my thoughts .

(The context also had a Hinglish movie by the same name directed by Sudhir Mishra starring Shiney Ahuja, KayKay Menon and Chitrangda Singh)

The play on words by Ghalib is interesting. The first part of the couplet talks about "Khwaishein" or Desires whereas the second talks of "Armaan" or Yearning/Aspiration and in my translation lies my intrepretation of this couplet.

Is there a distinction between Desire and Aspiration? Is there despair inspite of accomplishments?

Perhaps. Should we then realise these desires or be satisfied with aspirations that are fulfilled? Well, if there are thousand such desires and each one of them is worth dying for..I guess there is merit in punting on one. Either realising it in the long run or die trying. All other accomplishments/achievements are incidental, by-products at best, not the end product. That is the choice we need to make.

So here's to life, to desires, dreams and aspirations.