written letter....endangered species

As we know, way of communication has changed remarkably during the last decade and its getting faster day by day, thanks to ever developing technology..... In fact now we are at the stage where we can communicate instantaneously with  our dear ones, no matter in which part of the world they are living. 

And in this digital era when each of us are living every moment of our life being in touch with our 'family n friends' and when our life revolves around technology, I sometimes miss those old fashioned hand written letters. I know, I am probably weird but seeing the handwriting of my 'relatives n friends' is something which I miss a lot these days and somehow feel that letter writing is a dying art now :(

Though we all enjoy sharing information and emotions through emails and SMSs  but I am sure that our gen-next must be missing those colorful handwritten love letters which has been replaced by the latest innovated ways of expressing love.

I remember, I used to write lot of letters during my college days. The habit actually started when I left my home for studies. After leaving home, letter was the only affordable way to be in touch with 'family n friends' because it was not so easy to afford phone those days... I remember while going from home after every holiday, my Dad used to give me a bundle of new postcards with the instruction to post at least one a weak, so that he could know how I was doing with my studies and other activities. 

Even after arrival of email's I continued writing letters to my Dad and while going through his stuffs after his death, to my surprise, I found a bundle of letters written to him by 'relatives n friends' and not to mention there were few written by me to him. It is really an unexpected record of tales and observations by different people who were communicating with him regularly, so you can imagine my excitement when I discovered that treasure in the form of hand written letters.

While these letters would not mean much to anyone else, to me they are priceless...I simply love looking on them, touching them, crying over them...Though people may feel that its nothing more than being emotional but going through those written stuff is something that I love doing often.

As I said, may be I am weird, but I feel that no matter how much personal we try to be while typing emails or composing those emotional SMSs, there is always a lack of feeling and emotions into it, when we compare them to hand written letters. In fact whenever we write a letter, we let our feelings flow to our finger tips and pour it on paper...And when the person on the other end reads those wonderfully written words, can easily feel our emotions and  connect with the thoughts we had while writing those words.

But over the period of time, I have also become a tech-friendly guy who can not stay anywhere without his 'keyboard n monitor' and feel suffocating if the environment is not filled with those invisible rays of magical wi-fi...And I must admit that of-late even my language skill has become a hybrid between eloquently flowing description to short electronically generated correspondences filled with (emotionless)Smileys and (meaningless)lolls......

But thrill of receiving  a letter from 'relatives n friends' is still the same for me and all those people are really special to me who can pick up the paper, write their feeling and pour their heart  on that piece of paper.

BTW, when did you last received a written letter....??? and,
When you had written your last letter to someone....???

******

************* 

irfaaaann@gmail.com

Lakhon Mein Ek - Unsung Heroes...

(image source - google)

Issues and topics which  help eradicating social evils are always something we like to talk about because we believe it generates awareness among the mass, but the sad part is that most of us are busy 24x7 only in discussing these social evils and never ever try to put our thoughts into action.

But there are people around us who think n act differently and who don't believe in mere lip's exercise but actually dare to step aside and follow a path which is not so easy for most of us to follow. And it is unfortunate that these people have not been recognised by society as well as by the authorities for what they have done and most of them remain unsung heroes through out their life.

Even our media(print as well as visual) never bothers to let us know about these people who have made a difference to themselves and to society, perhaps our media people have no time for such causes because they are busy in following and showcasing the issues which are trending and mostly related with our celebrities. And they do this because we as viewers also have a tendency to follow n listen these celebrities, no matter how much shit they do or talk.

But about a fortnight back on 5th August, I saw the debut episode of a TV show "Lakhon Mein Ek" on Star Plus. The show is based on the true inspiring stories of real people, who are as common as we are but they don't merely talk or discuss as our celebrities do sitting in air-conditioned studios, rather these unsung heroes believe in their acts but somehow they have not been acknowledged for what they have done.

One of these unsung heroes is Akhtari Bai, whose story was shown in the first episode of the show "Lakhon Mein Ek". She is a widow from Ranchi, who makes  envelopes for her living. By selling her hand made envelopes in the local market she could hardly manage three square meal for her family and yet she never thought twice while adopting those abandoned girl children who had been thrown by their own parents. Not only did she adopted them but she raised them like her own two children and never ever differentiated them from their own children. For sure she is amongst us, she is a common human as we are, who faces same day-to-day problems like we do but her love for abandoned girl children and the sacrifices that she has been doing through out her life to raise those adopted children makes her special. Her life story is really heart touching and inspiring one.

In a society which is full of selfish people, Akhtari bai lives with a difference. I salute her and her noble deeds. But i am feeling very sorry to say that even after two weeks of the show, Akhtari Bai could not get any space in the media and no one bothered to know about her. 

Is it because the show "Lakhon Mein Ek" is yet not popular as "Satyamave Jayate" was or because the anchor of the show is not someone like Amir Khan, who can make any damn show hit n popular with his stardom....?? 

Whatever may be, for me people like Akhtari Bai are real celebrities who are working day n night for humanity even with their minimum resources.

And BTW don't you think that all those celebrities sitting in the air-conditioned TV studios and talking big-big things about "human n humanity" should take a lesson from people like Akhtari Bai and start doing something in reality without being surrounded by TV cameras....???

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irfaaaann@gmail.com

Let's stop blame game and do our part...

(image from google)

As we all know India turns an year older so its Independence day today and as usual people are singing Patriotic songs, tweeting Patriotic tweets and no to mention hoisting national flag......And it feels good to see how much we love our Independence that we got after so much of hardship and sacrifices made by our great freedom fighters.

No need to say that we all love our country but over the period of time I have a feeling that ours is not an easy country to love, where even death has become a sort of business, since the doctor signing the death certificate, the police Wallas and not to mention the morgue, they all want some amount of donation from the family of deceased to expedite the whole thing.

Actually the system in which we all live is so horrible that it always ensures to remind us that we live in India where politicians are a joke and people responsible for law n order are simply barbaric n inhuman. So there is lot that is not right and can be better with India....

We don't have regular things like electricity or good roads and even good leadership to lead us.... In fact these things are almost non-existent and we always complain about it, actually we leave no chance to curse n abuse our authorities for those shortcomings.....

But, what have WE done...???

Yes, WE.....

What have we done for India as an Indian...???
Frankly speaking I did nothing apart from cursing our leaders n authorities.... :(
And YOU...???

For example, when it comes for cleanliness of our cities we simply blame the municipal authorities and even I agree that they are not doing enough, but what we are doing from our part to keep our city clean....NOTHING.... Rather, the garbage coming out from our houses is simply thrown on road sides and we don't even bother to put it into the dustbins kept by the municipal authorities...... Likewise there are many more such acts that we do and we should not and must not.

It is easy to blame the Govt n authorities and compare ourselves with other countries, how they are doing better....But while doing so, do we ever think what are we doing from our part to make India a country like others are..???

We must not forget that India have a long way to go, but is it going to get there by constant bitching and moaning...??? NO..... Change is needed, and this change will have to come from our part by changing our attitude towards our duties for nation building, as we have our attitude regarding our democratic rights.

So, let's do our part and when we say "Mera Bhaarat Mahaan", we must think of what we can do to make "Bhaarat Mahaan" in true senses.... We all admire our love for India and its tri-colour on Independence Day but the important thing is that we must try to retain this love for all 365 days.

Come, lets celebrate India's Independence day with great enthusiasm by hoisting flag and saluting it, but make sure that there would be no flag lying unattended tomorrow on road.

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irfaaaann@gmail.com

Let's Arrange LOVE, in Marriages...

The institution of marriage began so that a man and a woman, through their Joy, through their Strength and through their act of sharing might become creator of life itself....Marriage therefore is a high and holy state to be held in honor among all men and women....!!!

As we all know marriages are basically of two types....the one which is planned, executed and blessed by parents and relatives is "arranged marriage".... and the other one is "love marriage" which is entirely based on mutual attraction among the two partners marrying each other.

As far as Indian weddings are concerned, because of our social structure arranged marriages are more preferred or we can say this type of marriage dominates the Indian culture and society. On the other hand love marriages are always considered forbidden by a majority of people in our society. May be because they don't want to look at life from the angle known as modernism. Though over the period of time the percentage of love marriage has also increased drastically, may be because our gen-next is getting more and more exposure of western culture. But still love marriages are considered inferior by majority of parents in our country and somehow they have a feeling that arrange marriages are there to last long as compared with love marriages.

Some of you may not agree but I personally believe that destiny also plays a role in bringing those two people together who ultimately go into a relationship which fulfill their need for intimacy and emotional nourishment. And its only because of the destiny that many people who thought they would marry only for love, ended up in arrange marriages or vice-versa and lived their entire life happily with their respective life partner, in short type of marriage didn't had any effect on their married life. So friends, what I mean to say that "as long as your better half doesn't become bitter half, it doesn't matter how you marry, what matters is how you live with your spouse after marriage so that you remain a better half and not bitter half", because whatever it is "Love Marriage Ya Arranged Marriage", once you are married, a marriage is just a marriage and to make it successful, one should always....

Listen with the ears of tolerance ! 

See through the eyes of compassion !

Speak with the language of love ! (Rumi)

In fact being any marriage successful or failure has nothing to do with "Love Marriage Ya Arranged Marriage". Actually both are equally good and has got its own advantages and drawbacks known to all. Remember, marriages never fail just because they are love marriage or arranged marriage but most marriages fail because of 'selfishness n arrogance', because of 'ego n attitude' and because of those irritants behavior, spouse do with each other just for the sake of satisfying their ego. And for making any marriage success it is very important for the individuals to understand each other and behave like matured people. Anyone who is planning to marry must be mentally prepared for the commitments and responsibilities coming in after marriage....And if at all there is a second thought about it then he/she must not go for marriage unless they make up their mind.

The fact of the matter is, every marriage is a social event, so it has to be arranged....And arranged by whom is not important but to make any marriage successful what is important that one has to have love in it....That love happens before or after is entirely a matter of chance. Moreover if you see around will find many people saying "aroma of love which they are feeling after marriage had never felt before".

So, the best way is, "arrange the love in your marriage, no matter what type of marriage you undergo...."

After all "a successful marriage  requires  falling in love many times with the same person...."  (Mignon McLaughlin)

Moreover if marriages are decided in heaven(as it is believed), then why this debate, don't the couple that is meant to be together will stay happily together, irrespective of what type of marriage they undergo.

Come, let's pray for all those who are trying to find their life partners. May almighty God help them in finding true love and real friendship in their prospective partners.  After all God is the best planner.  Let's have faith in him...!

May the Almighty save our marriages in this age where marriages fail for silly reasons and may the Almighty grant us tremendous happiness in our marriages.  Aameen...!

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This post is for "Love Marriage Ya Arranged Marriage" contest by SONY Entertainment Television on Indiblogger.

" www.facebook.com/LoveYaArrange "

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irfaaaann@gmail.com

Just Like That....

Well friends, I am not sure where this post will be heading to or how to begin it in the first place because right now I do feel that I have to write something but don't have any idea about what to write....As you all may be aware that the holy month of Ramadan is almost on its mid way and because of  the Fast and Taraweeh in addition to routine works, I am hardly getting any time to write something or read all those wonderful articles on your respective blogs....

As you know during this blessed month of Ramadan we abstain from food, drink and other physical needs during the day light hours. Essentially this is the month of cleaning up our lives, our thoughts and our feelings. In fact fasting is not merely physical but is rather the total commitment of the person's body and soul to the spirit of fast. 

Apart from all those uncountable benefits what I personally like about this blessed month is that "while controlling on hunger, thirst and other physical needs one gets a chance of practicing to have a control on his/her nerves and in turn on their emotions"..... And I personally feel that once we learn to have a control over our nerves then we can very well restrain ourselves from committing those sins which we sometimes do under the influence of our nerves.

And if you see around then you will find that most of the ill-happenings are because people at that very moment just could not control their nerves and it is the sudden rush of blood which causes them to do those sinful acts.

What I mean to say here is "people who do not know to have a control on their nerves or emotions are frequently get engaged in fights, substance abuse or even unprotected sex which can literally put their life into danger.

Some of you may say that emotions are needed in order to live life fully and even I admit that.... undoubtedly emotions are very powerful as they largely affect the way we think and act, but for some people emotions can be strong enough to take over what their brain actually wants to dictate. In fact loosing nerves overrides logical reasoning and results in performing all those unreasonable and sinful acts.

Actually at times our emotions can encourage us to do bad or even worst things, so learning the way to control them is essential and to control our emotions we must practice to have a control on our nerves.... And with the grace of almighty God, during this blessed month I am happily practicing the technique to have a control over my nerves.....!!

Stay blessed,

irfan.

**********************

irfaaaann@gmail.com

asl plz......

Friends,

Yesterday I saw a short movie  on YouTube. The name of the movie is "asl plz" , and the story of that short movie is somewhat like this.....

There are two characters into it, a boy and a teen age girl....Somehow they meet over internet and start chatting with each other, using their funky chat names...over the period of time their formal chat changes into romantic one.

After knowing that both of them are from the same city the boy started insisting to meet her and finally that girl also gives her consent for the meet. Hence they mutually decided for a meeting and the venue is a cabin of some cyber cafe.

Now a scene appears there on the screen where the girl is sitting inside the cabin waiting impatiently for the boy to come....After few moments the boy also appears into the cyber cafe, with a red rose in his hand and knocks the cabin door.....Slowly the door opens and the moment they see each other "they are simply shocked"......

"Yeah, shocked....because they happened to be own brother n sister"

Further movie goes into the flash back showing them living in the same house and sitting into their respective rooms they used to flirt with each other through internet....

Watching this climax scene even I was shocked too. It was like facing the truth rather bitter truth of our society and my idle mind was thinking that "where are we heading towards....?"

In fact, over the period of time, a big chunk of our youth have learnt to present themselves like what they are not actually and somehow they like to be identified with their funky chat names glittering on their computer screen.....

Don't you think that they as an individual are changing so fast in this ever changing technology supported environment that they are even on the verge of losing their own identity, which is really unfortunate.....!!!

*************

PS : Try to watch this 15 mnts movie "here"   before giving your views.

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irfaaaann@gmail.com

TIME - most precious commodity....

While cleaning and re-arranging bookshelf today, I got one of the diary written by my father. Apart from writing short stories and poem in urdu he was very fond of writing his daily-diary in the form of beautiful rhyming notes and while reading those short but precise notes I feel like talking to him..... 

Anyways coming on to the subject......


While reading those pages my idle mind was thinking that why do someone writes daily-diary or why do we write our personal blogs...??? And personally I feel that apart from many other factors one of them is, "when we write something, we just want to keep those moments on pause into these pages, so that if someone go through these after decades, he/she may feel like living in that time and feel those moments."

Though we all know that no one can stop the time even then by writing diary, by drawing sketches on canvases or by clicking photos we often try to catch-hold that particular moment n time.....As a matter of fact its not the 'time' that we are holding into these pages or canvas, rather it is the impression of that particular time which we keep there.


In fact, time has got so much important role to play in our life that we often start measuring distances in 'time' and not in meters or kilometers.... 
Look at it.....

"दिल्ली से लखनऊ की दूरी आठ घंटे की है"

( Delhi se Lucknow ki doori Aath ghante ki hai ) 

Here we are not talking about the distance in terms of Kilometers but in terms of time....WHY...??? 
It is just because whatever may be the distance, its time that counts more for us. And through out the journey we keep on looking at time, so here time is more important  than anything else.
Similarly you can easily find people saying..... 

"हवाई सफ़र ने दो शहरों की दूरी कम कर दी है"

(Hawaai safar ne do shahron ki doori kam kar di hai)

Now, we all know that distance between two places can't be reduced and in fact  when we travel by air, it is the time taken in the journey that gets reduced....... and to reduce that journey time we spend more money, again time is more important here than money.
In our day-to-day life also, we often find people saying....

"क्या करें वक़्त ही नहीं मिलता"

(kya karen waqt hi nahi milta)  

On the other hand, there are others too who manage their time so well that they have enough of it. As a matter of fact we all have 24 hours in a day but the thing is "how we manage these 24 hours...." And if you observe then may find that our mind also keeps us reminding to maintain the 'time' and complete our assignments before  its deadline.... In fact it seems like there is a virtual clock in our mind which keeps on moving and hence we wake up in the morning and get ready for our work or college in time....... 

Now the question is "What is time...???"....... Is it a materialistic thing, an energy, any physical status or nothing at all and only a myth.... Or simply it is the ticking of that clock hanging on the wall.

Well, whatever it may be "a myth" or "a reality".... we cannot deny that it has become the most  precious commodity into our life and if we closely look at the clock on that wall, we can perfectly feel it ticking away, marching on in the same direction with horrifying regularity...... and its this horrifying regularity of time which always keeps us on our toes to synchronize with its speed as much as possible.....

Now I must wind up here because I know you have got so many other wonderful blogs to read n comment, hence i won't take much of your valuable time......

Finally, here I leave you with these words written by Sahir Ludhianvi .....

वक़्त से दिन और रात, वक़्त से कल और आज
(Waqt se din aur raat,     Waqt se kal aur aaj )

वक़्त की हर शै गुलाम, वक़्त का हर शै पे राज 

( Waqt ki har shai ghulaam, Waqt ka har Shai per raaj )
आदमी को चाहिए वक़्त से डर कर रहे

 ( Aadmi ko chaahiye,      Waqt se Dar kar rahe )

कौन जाने किस घड़ी वक़्त का बदले मिजाज

( Kaun jaane Kis Ghadi, Waqt Ka badle Mijaaz )

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irfaaaann@gmail.com