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 

It's fair

Do I really look like a guy with a plan, Harvey? I don’t have a plan… The mob has plans, the cops have plans. … Maroni has plans. Gordon has plans. Schemers trying to control their worlds. I’m not a schemer, I show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.

It’s the schemers who put you where you are. You were a schemer. You had plans. Look where it got you. … Nobody panics when the expected people get killed. Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plan is horrifying. If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics. Because it’s all part of the plan. But when I say that one little old mayor will die, everybody loses their minds! Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos, Harvey? … It’s fair.

ये वो सहर तो नहीं

ये दाग दाग उजाला, ये शब्-गज़ीदा सहर
वो इंतज़ार था जिसका, ये वो सहर तो नहीं

this scarred, marred brightness, this bitten by night dawn
the one that was awaited, surely this is not that dawn

Faiz Ahmed Faiz in August 1947. more applicable in current state of India.  

जिन्हें नाज़ है हिन्द पर वो कहाँ है

As the year ends and i look back, i am more disillusioned from the dream Gandhi and Nehru dreamt for us. This is not the country we were promised and i feel so helpless that i cant change a damn thing. So bloody helpless.  

ये कूचे ये नीलाम घर दिल-कशी के

ये लुटते हुए कारवा ज़िन्दगी के 

कहाँ है कहाँ है मुहाफ़िज़ खुदी के

जिन्हें नाज़ है हिन्द पर वो कहा है 

मदद चाहती है ये हव्वा की बेटी 

यशोदा की हम-जींस राधा की बेटी
पयम्बर की उम्मत जुलेखा की बेटी
जिन्हें नाज़ है हिन्द पर वो कहाँ है

जरा मुल्क के रहबरों को बुलाओ
ये कुचे ये गलियां ये मंजर दिखाओ
जिन्हें नाज़ है हिन्द पर उनको बुलाओ
जिन्हें नाज़ है हिन्द पर वो कहाँ है
कहाँ है कहाँ हैं कहाँ हैं ?

I was one of them.

Lets keep fun in computing

“I think that it’s extraordinarily important that we in computer sci- ence keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints se- riously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don’t think we are. I think we’re responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don’t become missionaries. Don’t feel as if you’re Bible sales- men. The world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn. Don’t feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What’s in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more.” —Alan J. Perlis (April 1, 1922 – February 7, 1990)