हज़ारों ख़्वाहिशें ऐसी - Part 3

huii is daur me.n mansuub mujh se baadah-aashaamii

phir aayaa vuh zamaanah jo jahaa.n me.n jaam-e-jam nikle

In this age, wine drinking has been associated with me

Then again it is time that the world sees the cup of Jamshed come out.

huii jin se tavaqqu Khastagii kii daad paane kii

vuh ham se bhii ziyaadah; Khastah-e teG-e sitam nikle

From whom I expected some sympathy for my sorrows

He turned out to be even more wounded by the sword of atrocities

muhabbat me.n nahii.n hai farq jiine aur marne kaa

usii ko dekh kar jiite hai.n jis kaafir pah dam nikle

Love doesn’t allow us to differentiate between life and death

That infidel who takes my breath away (kills me) is also the reason I live.

1. Huii is daur me.n…

daur – age, round; mansuub – connected, related; baadah – wine; aashaamii – drinking; jaam – cup; jam – short for Jamshed the famous Persian King; jaam-e-jam – the cup of Jamshed

Since in this age, I am the epitome of wine drinking, it is time for the new version of the famous Cup of Jamshed to come out. The poet says that you have accused me of drinking so much that the very thought of wine drinking is associated with my name. Ok, I am not going to flinch from taking up this onerous task. It is time for the famous Cup of Jamshed to come out once more. As Amitabh says in Hera Pheri – naya khel nayee taash. New onerous task, need a new set of tools.

2. Huii jin se tavaqqu…

Tavaqqu – expectation; Khastagii – State of exhaustion or being wounded; daad – (literally) justice but daad paanaa means to ‘obtain a hearing for one’s woes’; teG – Sword; sitam – Atrocity or tyranny; Khasta e teG e sitam – wounded by the sword of tyranny.

The person whom I expected to understand my wounded state and give me a patient hearing, she is even more wounded by the sword of tyranny. The poet suspects that there is another person whom his beloved loves and he treats her with the same disdain that the poet’s beloved treats him with. At a simpler level, if you have a ‘khaDoos’ boss and you go and start bitching about him to your office mate. You suddenly find that before you can start, your office mate has greater tales of woe. A classic case of ‘duniyaa me.n kitnaa Gam hai, meraa Gam kitnaa kam hai’. Or as the dialogue in Gharaonda goes – ‘Abdul se (loan) maanga thaa, saale ne passbook dikhaa dii’.

3. Muhabbat me.n nahii.n…

Kaafir – infidel

The Gita talks about ‘sukha dukkhe same kritvaa laabhaalabhau jayaajayau’. This couplet is probably one of the key philosophical points of this Gazal. The poet equates death and birth for one in love. There are times when you meet someone or talk with someone that you are energized. Birth is also a higher version of energisation. There are times when you are missing someone and you feel enervated. Enervation is a lower form of death. So, when someone is intimately in love with someone, the entire self is energized upon seeing the person and when you cannot attain that person, or when you are separated from her it enervates you. Such extreme devotion to this one form has lead me away from my faith (which does not allow idol worship) and hence the use of the word infidel.