In keeping with the spirit of Jaun Elia’s couplet*, this blog was not being updated for a long time. Also, I was busy with my another blog I am involved with. Now, this is yet another attempt to salvage this blog. You can expect postings with some regularity now. And I put in some effort into new theme.

You can also subscribe by email now. Yay!

* kaun is ghar kii dekh-bhaal kare
roz ek chiiz TuuT jaatii hai

din guzaaraa thaa baRii mushkil se
phir teraa vaada-e-shab yaad aayaa

With much difficulty I scraped through the day
and then I remembered your promise for the night.

Nasir Kazmi

People, I have some great news to share with you.

Our team won the Integrated Business Plan (IBP) competition at the College of Business, OSU last Friday. There were 9 teams competing and some big names in the judges panel. Our idea was Pacific Edge, a pop-culture based free publication for the Pacific Northwest market.

This calls for a celebration!

Random searches on the web
of your real name and imagined,
with the hope
that I would find something new
about you
which I never knew.

Random searches on the web
are no good.

Mohib Ahmad
19th Feb 2007

This is my favorite self-written Ghazal. The only reason it has not been posted at this blog is because I don’t like its matlaa. I was thinking of changing it but it seems it would not happen anytime soon. A dear friend and a big Urdu aficionado recently posted a compilation of her favorite couplets at one of the discussion forums where she was generous enough to include a couplet from this Ghazal. Even though it seems a vague question as preferences differ, any guesses which couplet she would have selected?

——-

jab yaqiin-e-vafaa hu’aa hogaa
bevafaa tab mujhe kahaa hogaa

(yaqiin-e-vafaa : certainty of fidelity)

itni muddat Khafaa nahiiN rahtaa
vo mujhe bhuul hii gayaa hogaa

maut aaye to kuch sukuun mile
zindagii meN to Khair kyaa hogaa

hijr meN ab nahiiN taRap baaqii
vasl meN ab ke faasilaa hogaa

kar rahaa huuN jo saikRoN sajde
aap hii kaa to naqsh-e-paa hogaa

(sajde : prostations;  naqsh-e-paa : footprints)

Mohib Ahmad

Time for another of my old Ghazals. Originally, there were five couplets, I have discarded one.

———

dil-e-naadaan kii qayaadat meN
umr guzrii hai kis aziiyat meN

(naadaan : innocent, simple; qayaadat : leadership; aziiyat : difficulties)

ab tujhe bhuul bhii nahiiN sakte
mubtilaa haiN ajab musiibat meN

(mubtilaa : involved; musiibat : problem)

kisko fursat thii ghar banaane kii
log rahne lage imaarat meN

(fursat : time; imaarat : building)

maiN tujhe chhoR kar agar jaauuN
umr kaT jaayegii musaafat meN

(musaafat : travel)

Mohib Ahmad
South Korea, Feb 2005

I found out today that in Gmail, mohib.ahmad is same as mohibahmad. My id is mohib.ahmad, but if you accidentally send it to mohibahmad, it would still reach my Inbox.

Have you noticed it too? Are there any other variations that work similarly?

My medical insurance allows me to have one vision examination per year as well covers some of the cost for getting new glasses/contact lenses. I have been wearing glasses since July 1997, the month I started my UG engineering degree. So, after almost 9 years and at the beginning of a second masters degree, I decided to graduate to contact lenses.

If you think (like me) that putting on lenses on your eyes is easy, then let me tell you, it is not. Eyes are really sensitive to someone poking fingers into them. With a lot of difficulty (on optometrist’s part) and lots of tears (on my part), he was able to get both the lenses on to my eyes. Then after sometime, he decided to teach me to do it myself. Now, I have big eye-lashes, and as soon as I tried to touch the lens, they just fluttered. I had an appointment with my advisor later in the evening and it was getting late. Finally, after a long time and many tries, I was able to take off my right-eye lens and then put them on again. Left eye was a totally different story. If you are a right-hander, then it is much more difficult to deal with the left eye. In the end, the optometrist had to help me along.

My experience of wearing contact lenses till now has been quite good. I feel lighter and more free. The only problem is that I keep on arranging my glasses, which are not there.

Now, it is night and I am supposed to take my lenses off. Obviously, there is no optometrist to help me out.

Let us see what happens.

Update: A couple of days back, I had an internship interview at 2 pm. Unfortunately, I decided to wear contacts. I spent 10 minutes in getting one lens into place and then at least 1 hour in trying to fix the other one. If you are a right-handed person, it is really difficult to handle the left eye. Now, when you have one contact into place, then you can’t really use your glasses because you would be able to see clearly through one eye only. I lost the left-eye lens twice during this period of my self-inflicted torture. It was so frustating searching for the lens in the wash-room with one eye. I was also getting late for the interview and finally in just about time, I was able to fix the left-eye lens. Then I somehow managed to wet my lens with water and it burned and burned. My eyes were red and I looked terrible. I reached my interview a few minutes late. Thankfully, the interview went well and I was able to secure the position. Lucky lens?

I wrote this Ghazal sometime in February 2005. The second couplet is my favourite. I am also writing the meaning of difficult Urdu words, just in case.

———

zaKhm har jaa lagaaye jaate haiN
ahl-e-dil yuuN sajaaye jaate haiN

(har jaa : everywhere; ahl-e-dil : people with a heart)

hamne KhvaaboN kaa bojh Dhoyaa hai
ham azaaboN meN paaye jaate haiN

(Khvaab : dream; azaab : punishment)

ham, ke aajiz hasiin chehroN se
aap dil meN samaaye jaate hain !

(aajiz : fed up; hasiin : beautiful)

kyuN tirii aarzuu meN jiite haiN ??
kyuN sitam Khud pe dhaaye jaate hain ??

(aarzuu : desire; sitam : infliction)

vo hii hamse judaa nahiiN hote
ham to kab se bhulaaye jaate haiN

(judaa : separate)

This seems to be an apt time to start a new blog. My life is undergoing a lot of changes, professionally as well as personally.

As of now, I have nothing new for this blog and the accompanying photoblog. I haven’t written anything for a long long time, neither prose not poetry. I haven’t talked to anyone either lately (and no, I am not talking about the daily banalities we have to endure). I haven’t clicked any photographs recently. So, to start with, I would post some of my previous works, written and clicked. May be it would inspire me to create something new.

Not such a great beginning, but beginning it is.