No Dual Citizenship for NRIs/PIOs

India can't have citizens who live here when the time is good & run away when the nation faces difficulties. No to dual citizenship & NRI voting. Indian citizenship is a sacred vow you make to this country. Dual citizenship ends that vow. NRIs are free to come to India and vote. Just as any other Indian citizen who has to travel to his/her home town to vote. This nonsense about NRIs and PIOs being a "special" class of Indians needs to be nipped in the bud. NRIs are Indians. PIOs are not. An American Citizen takes oath (in below image). You want him to be an Indian Citizen too? Where would his loyalties lie? You have to be loyal to the country you have taken a citizenship oath for, not to India. People trying to mix NRIs and PIOs thus do disservice to both. We must treat them as two distinct categories. 

Bhai desh chhod ke aapne desh pe ehsaan nahin kiya hai. Kripya vishesh darje ki ummeed na karein. Desh chhoda aapne apne personal fayde ke liye, is desh ke liye nahi. Sab nafa nuksaan aapko pata thaa tab bhi. Aur rahi baat paisa Bharat mein jamaa karane ki to kya Indian banks vs US banks ke interest rate ki baat ki jaaye? 1990 mein jab India mai ecominic crisis hua tha tab ye paisa kaise gayab hua tha wo bhi yaad hai.

Nothing personal against anyone. Hamare bhi dost hain. But some hard truths had to be said.

ibteda-e-ishq

ibteda-e-ishq hai rota hai kya
aage aage dekhiye hota hai kya

sabz hoti hi nahin ye sar zameen
tukhm-e-khwahish dil me tu bota hai kya

-Meer Taqi Meer

Toh zinda ho tum

Dilon mein tum apni
Betaabiyan leke chal rahe ho
Toh zinda ho tum

Nazar mein khwabon ki
Bijliyaan leke chal rahe ho
Toh zinda ho tum

Hawa ke jhokon ke jaise
Aazad rehna seekho
Tum ek dariya ke jaise
Lehron mein behna seekho

Har ek lamhe se tum milo
Khole apni baahein
Har ek pal ek naya sama
Dekhen yeh nigahaein
Jo apni aankhon mein
Hairaniyan leke chal rahe ho
Toh zinda ho tum

Dilon mein tum apni
Betaabiyan leke chal rahe ho
Toh zinda ho tum

dekhi zamane ki yaari

Kaagaz ke Phool (1959)

Kaifi Azmi stepped in for Kaagaz ke Phool as lyricist after fallout between Sahir Ludhianvi and SD Burman.  He penned some of the most awesome lyrics in Guru Dutt saab's semi auto biographical magnum opus film where protagonist falls on bad times and forsaken by same industry that revered him once, He practically forecasted his suicide in the movie. Dekhi zamane ki yaari is a bitter and cynical look at the short life of fame and relationships in a world that values only what it can get. The whole movie was  so much so that Dr. Rajendra Prasad(then President) walked out midway of the movie and it received negative response across the board. This had a huge impact on Guru Dutt and he never took the director cap after that. The Rafi's voice increases the sense of loss.

Are Dekhi Zamaane Ki Yaari

Matlab Ki Duniya Hai Saari

Bichhade Sabhee, Bichhade Sabhi Baari Baari

Kya le ke milen ab duniya se, Aansu ke siva kuch paas nahi

Ya phul hi phul the daaman men, Ya kaanton ki bhi aas nahi

Matalab Ki Duniya Hai Saari

Bichhade Sabhee, Bichhade Sabhi Baari Baari

Another marvelous song in same movie is waqt nai kiya kya haseen sitam, a philosophical view on lost love.

Cynical songs

I have never been a hopeless romantic guy though i often like love stories sometimes wishful to make one myself. Are there really those candlelights and roses ones ? perhaps there are, perhaps there are others which are equally romantic without roses and candles. I like them but experience have made me more cynical than i ever was.
My friends keep pointing to me that i like too many of cynical songs. Though i find them romantic in a way.  Does that make me a cynical romantic or romantic cynic.

So i thought  i will list my favorites in cynicism.

Cheeno arab hamara.
Sahir Ludhianvi was the face of cynicism. He had a very cynical view of realities of life and of Nehru's idea of socialism. In 1904 in his Tarana a hindi (Saare jahan se achcha) Iqbal had written.

Mazhab nahi sikhata apas mai bair rakhna
Hindi hai hum watan hai Hindostan hamara.    

His trip to europe turned him into Islamic visionary and 6 years later he wrote Tarana a Milli.

Chino-arab hamara, Hindostan hamara,
Muslim hai hum watan hai saara jahaan hamara

Sahir turned this into:

Chino-arab hamara, Hindostan hamara,
rahne ko ghar nahi, saara jahaan hamara.  

I have heard this couplet hundreds times from my father and it was anthem for disillusioned, educated unemployed youth of the country.

Taking off Saare jahaan se achcha, where the lines were:

Ae aab-e-rud-e-Ganga, voh din yaad hai tujhko
Utra tere kinaare jab kaarwaan hamaara 

Sahir penned:

Kholi bhi cheen gayi hai, benchein bhi cheen gayi hai,
Sadkon pe ghoomta hain ab karwaan hamara

While Iqbal's:

Parbat woh sab se uncha humsaaya aasmaan ka,
Woh santari hamara, woh pasban hamara 

became Sahir's:

Jebein hain apni khaali, kyon deta varna gaali
Vo santari hamara, vo pasban hamara  

 Controversial as the lyrics were, there was talk of the song being banned at one time.

 

its hard

Its hard to let go people.

Its easy to push them away, ignore them, pretend they never crossed path with you ever, ignore them, avoid them, separate out their world from yours. 

but sometimes hard way is the easier, short way goes longer and life is too short to take the long way.

Hallelujah

"...Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I use to live alone before i knew you
I have seen your flag on marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's cold and it's a broken hallelujah..."

~Leonard Cohen