Music Therapy

Music Therapy

Grow ageless-Free medicine-Keep your temple clean

Modern life is fast paced and competitive. Ambition is mentally ruling and everyone is looking for success, money, fame and glory. Today one burns the candle at both ends to live a successful life and it results into severe stress. Success is getting linked with name & fame rather than being linked to the purpose of life. The biggest problem of success is that one tends to be linear leaving many other aspects of living at great risk. Early burn outs related to success is as dangerous as early wash-outs. People dread to live as forgotten people just because their time gone a bit too early. Whereas name & fame requires overwork, doing things against your own values & principles, finding one’s purpose of life releases bundles for energy, throws high lumens of light & takes you ahead of other people. Importantly purpose of life being distinct always creates space & time for every single individual. 

Stress may be defined as an anxiety syndrome due to work pressure. It also caused due to emotional, physical or mental tensions. The Fear of Failure or being left behind leads to a momentous pace of life which endangers one’s physical health. The lure of money and fame also makes one work beyond one’s capacity leading to strain and stress.

Modern life is pretty mechanical; it leads to lack of exercise which catalyses stress. Couch potato lifestyle or being confined to a chair leads to obesity and stress. The hectic lifestyle leads to imbalanced diets, wrong food habits and endless cups of caffeine or aerated drinks makes one more prone to stress. This in turn leads to ailments like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems etc.

However the most common & the most normal reason for stress are not so much the occupational problems but the problems that relate to emotions & attitude. Man has set himself on journey of materialism & time & again he is shifting to the next speed gear. In the pursuit, however, he has lost in all touch with such gravitating traits like humility, spirituality, art, romance and creativity. These are typically traits that offer a personal sphere, intimacy & scope for creation. These are also the traits that create one’s own sphere & gradually person starts building his life around.

Magic Box Dynamics

Presence	Absence
Humility-Politeness, non-conflicting nature, peace drives	Ego-Hunger for power / recognition
Spirituality-Believing in larger phenomena, encouraging faith	Materialism / Impetuosity
Art-Sense of beauty, Contentment, Satisfaction, Intellectualism	Crude rationality without being systematically & comprehensively scientific
Habits-Largely directed towards work efficacy. Computers, internet.	Habit of craving is lost. One only talks about what is available off the shelf.
Romance-Companionship, Sharing, Bonding	Inertness, Frigidity; life without a song
Creativity-Pursuit of something original, ability to imagine & believe in it	Aloofness, indifferent behavior-Mediocre aspirations, Poor leadership, lack of self-driven-ness

How does musical therapy help the Magic-Box

Humility	Music creates empathy. Poetries of pain and sufferings helps you thank god for being so nice to you that you are spared of it. Folk music, Blue bands are economic approaches to socializing & understanding. It saves people from being egoistic & hypocritical. Music is more intoxicating and is free from any bio-social effects. It is an ultimate alchemy for all sufferings and pains.
Spirituality	Music creates a miniature incarnation of the panch-maha-bhutas; the five basic elements. Raag bhoop and Raag Baageshri has air element. Raag sarang and all its variants has water element, Raah hameer has a fire in it, Raag Durbari has an earth element and Raag Bhairavi has a sky element in it. Music creates consciousness about the larger phenomena & the larger forces that is spirituality. One of the classical distinctions between Indian ragas is the difference in the feel of the five basic elements. Spirituality creates faith & security.
Sense organs	Music plays a great mind sport. It directs influences your audio senses helping you greatly in developing people intelligence, dramatics, and an innate intuition. Music being so engaging also develops a great imagination of space that principally affects vision and visualization. Many abstract ideas get formed after an engrossing music session. Many painters and artists have many stories of their creation to tell under the influence of music.
Art	Music creates a sense of beauty in expressions, speed, walk & presentations.
Romance	Romance is the key ingredient of music that strokes human consciousness with most soothing touch that offers an impulsive change in body chemistry. Creates mind space.
Creativity	Creates originality, sincerity, sense of quality, ownership of thoughts, creates mind space.

The fall in the magic box traits creates problems; key among them are;

·        Lack of inspiration

·        Lack of enthusiasm

·        Lack of satisfaction

·        Loss of physical beauty

·        Poor standing of face muscles

·        No glint in eyes

·        Loss of sensory emotions

·        Poor metabolism

·        Tendency to over-react

·        Irregular blood pressure

·        Heavy footedness

·        Late rising

The aforesaid factors directly affect;

·        Quality of life

·        Longevity of life

·        Reproductive capabilities

·        Human empathy & compatibility

·        Social competitiveness 

Critical mistakes leading to stress

·        Tendency to take short term decisions-This will lower commitment

·        Inability to listen to the inner voice

·        Inability to take risks

·        Stop growing ever after

·        Dreams are aspirations-No patience to serve

·        Disharmony between competency & work

·        Disharmony between- Capability & aspirations

How could you change the situation?

·        Change your body-Meditational Practices

·        Change the life style-Change Job/ Change Industry/ Change to self-employment

·        Change the thinking style-Read, understand, determine

·        Add a constituent to your life that quietly changes your lifestyle-Addition is always welcome

·        Add a constituent to your life that surely changes your thinking style-New ideas are always welcome

Golden highways to distressing

·        Communicate- Express yourself- do not feel lonely

·        Don’t take short term measures to stress relief; go to the genesis

·        Change lifestyle-Spend more time on thinking & lessen the time in action

·        Believe in god & the life structure he has created for you; accept your people

·        Create your own world. Develop an artistic perspective. Music should fill in as the topmost utilities.

What is music?

·        Music stands for beauty

·        Music stands for splendor

·        Music stands for ecstasy

·        Music stands for eternity

·        Music stands for a highly private space; a space that you can create for yourself absolutely free of cost

·        Musical beats take you to extra-consciousness whereas musical notes take you to subconscious

·        Music is a marvelous exhibition of romance whether at human level or at godly state

·        Music is a vehicle for metaphysics

·        Music is most artistic of all sciences

·        Music is a most comprehensive therapy because it replaces all physical pathys making the human body more reactive to non-medical treatment

·        Musical entertainment is the purest form of entertainment & probably the cheapest form of entertainment

Intelligence developing abilities of music

Music develops a thinking capability at a subconscious level that could affect intelligence performance in terms of

·        Analytical Skills-You get used to qualifying everything that could be done. This helps create a permanent model that can be adapted to analyze varied other situations

·        Listening Skills-You learn to intercept large data that affect different sense organs

·        People Intelligence-You understand characters, their said & unsaid emotions

·        Emotional Intelligence-You become enriched with emotions that helps you feel the whole world without travelling as much. It helps you meditate through intense listening & intent singing.

·        Personal Intelligence-Most hobbyists turn out to be very resilient characters. They have a greater commitment to life & persuasion for quality life.

·        Social Intelligence-When you organize a small musical concert at home you are creating a position. You are creating an environment at home that comforts many. This is the beginning of an extra-ordinary understanding with a certain group. This also creates a habit of exploring more options that are inexpensive & offer a greater mileage.

Music is an insurance served to you without you paying a premium!

Privacy Policy	Generic Policy
Expansive Policy	Spiritual Policy
ATM Policy	Scientific Policy
Brand Policy	Literary Policy
People Policy	Self-reliance Policy

Overall Life Quality Assessment

·        Quality of health-Music creates vibration for the nerves. It can create deeper sensation than a robust oil massage.

·        Longevity of life -Sounds come from eternity & travel back to eternity. This phenomenon has a very intrinsic effect on improving the lifespan.

·        Sustained excitement-Musical sensitivity creates expectations & positive excitement. It requires no precincts whatsoever.

Quality of a day

·        Engagements –Musical minds are often engaged with soft memories

·        Actions –Music creates a special attention/ filter against rough tasks/ rough physical acts

·        Behavior-Music builds an automatic pursuit of peace & harmony because silence is the spiritual mother of music.

Quality of Rest

·        Sleep-Music helps delineate with the day

·        Conscious-Music helps lower the breathing cycle & increases the quantum breath practices; typical of all the meditative practices. A meditative session of 1-hour is as potent as a singing session of 1-hour in terms of breathing exercises.

·        Subconscious-Music is subject to interpretations. The journey from physical science to metaphysics has a gateway called music.

What makes music the most recommended therapy?

·        Music pertains to listening; ear is closest to brain.

·        Unlike eyes ears need not be turned towards the happening.

·        Eyes need to be kept open to be able to see; ears are always available.

·        In sleep we are closed eyes; we remain wide-eared even during sleep.

·        Although listening is conscious activity; listening happens at both levels; the conscious & subconscious level

What is the purpose of musical therapy?

1.     Develop brainpower to receive combinations of sounds

2.     Engage the mind more into receiving than talking

3.     Create a system of carrying the joy of listening to the most basic human metabolic system-the endocrine glands

4.     Create a new taste of life that automatically creates a relief from bad habits & acquaintances

5.     Create more private time during journeys, waiting periods, manual work & absolutely anything that could be aided by music

6.     Creates a greater & higher understanding about music, swaras, notes, melody, pitch, expressions to speak a few

7.     Creates proximity with metaphysics a higher form of science that rules our mind rather than heart & brain

8.     Metaphysical thinking affords an easiest change in perspectives

9.     Music is a full-proof defense mechanism against all traumatic events of life

10.                        Musical friends are more closely attached than say sports friends or hobby friends

What is the program constitution?

Silence exercises	Chord exercise
Concentration Exercises	Relative sound exercises
Meaning exercises	Alaap & humming exercises
Voice of sounds	Notational exercises
Mood exercises	Meditational tanas
Listening exercises	Poetry assignments
Imaginative exercises	Poetry appreciation

Making of a Poet

Text is RTE-ready to eat stuff. ‘Tell me exactly what you want to say’ is a most disturbing cliché for a poet. If you coax him into doing that, he will probably forget what he had to say because apparently he had nothing to say in the same spirit that the listener wants to listen. The yes and no are mere means of setting crass social formats with no clues to the utility of the words. What is for everyone, a poet is too shy to put his finger in the same pie. His body chemistry is a fine regulation; he is hungry about something else. 

Poet is a saint sitting for ages without food. Something else, apart of the fanaticism for the drove of chows, drives him. He has a daringly critical appreciation of a thing or an item or content or the present, for he knows it means nothing without milieu. When he dis-possesses the present, he has the boundless prophecy to hand-in the past and the future that makes his magically indiscernible fortitude to create a new world of possibilities. There are few who take to writing because they have something to say; there is one, I know, who never knew what he would start and he ends up scribbling!

When you look at a poet, you look at the suppleness and the speed without the velocity; you look at the turbidity and the sinuous moves. His mind is not an embodiment of an idea because he hates the finite; deterred by the possible chasm out of an excavation.  He, therefore, moves briskly and clicks pictures of his spectacular universe. The space entices him and the lustrous scenes move and constantly expand the shimmer to infini.

 If the cliché looks at life as a voyage, a classical poet looks at the journey through space; space of his own mind. His lucid convoy is simple a tête; many physical encounters and mundane events of life are forgotten right the next flash because the nerve was occupied somewhere else.  That, what the mind carries, could be replayed again and again because mind had captured that. Look nowhere else. Just feel the span of your siege right here as you read this piece; neither could have geometrically prudent, astronomical judgment, nor you could have the dimensional finesse of your angle. You suffered twice; neither did you know that you have to know, nor did you know ‘the know’. You have probably noticed or felt this after a breathing space of few trans-pharynx because so far you were gripped in reading this.

An antithesis of the logical chronology and the timeline approach is that you meet the abyss of an accident; life’s abime is threatening as always. But fanaticism is all about an open invitation to such despairs. Poet is big fan of fantasism, although poetic despairs are about something else and look up and over; a poet is not street driver! He habitually rises from the dusty aurora like a phoenix; rise, if it could only mean knowing the higher and privy.

Apart of the conventional conviction, if you have confusions, you will read this again and again and if you have understood the stuff, you will mull over its sanctified exploits and diagram to put this in allusion to something that would ensue in the very near future of the fourth dimensionality. Sometimes the effect is so overwhelming that you want to create an incident to suit the application or use of experience of what you thought, has pricked you or burst you. Poets do not want the readers to agree to them amenably or coarsely; they have a cognition that disagreements would create more straits for them to be understood by the reader. Poet de-promotes adherents, because it could create a capitalistic content that is frigid. He is consciously sentient about the fact that, his is only a proposal, just a conjecture, only a hypothesis; he has not conceived any posit, he is not on a scientific mission to theorize anything.

The psycho-dynamics of a voracious reader would mean he has that peculiar chemistry of the in-liva corpus corporis, being impressionable as always that causes him leaving something more urgent to its own fate and make him dig himself in the sea of volatility; the refreshing mare maris and turmoil of congestive arguments. The mundane, the pedestrian and the repetitive that causes no excitement to the fervent sub-adrenalias;  that makes poet lose their momentary vivacity. And they take recourse to dig deep into someone else’s mind; readily offer the seat and the space of their own mind sparing from the unconscious syndrome, ‘body and no-mind’ keeping finger on a default button of the drudgery and the laborious mince.  

If love is siege, poet typifies his helpless because he is love with a lady, the nature, the song, the time, the space all in one, all at once. Love at the first sight is not a wrong accusation you can have on him, but you will be sure he has seen what you have seen. Better doubt. If you think you know him, probably you were eager to fix one shade a shade too early. That is the suffering of the truth, as always, that he keeps people guessing. Allow him; otherwise he will end up writing a huge mathematical regression.

Poet’s mind has that rare in-libertas ascetic; a recluse that looks like an imprisonment of the ideas of living different from what exists. That is a reason why the narratives like accounts, chronicles and histories are so very conspicuously absent in his discourse. A subject attached to the verb, an object attached to the adjective is the very adult identity of the linguistic grammar and morphological syntaxes. But he knows, it is also the fallacy of a cloistered living. His scientific temperament is very shyly and very modestly placed subterranean, deep below the meaning. He hides his process of thought-making so much to invite the wrath of the reader who he knows loves him that way.

A greater of the poet’s passione’ proudly and diligently overlooks parsing because he hates the contest between the words and the fiesta of the poser ’how to say’, grammar involves logic and his spirit is about the spirited break away from the bud and pole judgments. The logic is the fructification for academic doer-ship in the lingua-franca class, whereas the freedom from posit, is the journey through emancipation of the human lives. It is when you tend to look neither the left nor the right of the things that the larger portrait reveals itself.

Implio sans context, is farce and in isolate, question without the questioned, is an unfair playmaking. It is a seething ground for an intellectual prank, although any lineage with farce may not be acceptable to the poet. The seminal force that pervades the space and the time is the poet’s own mandate and he pays little price for that, the price of being a social disintegrate, inherently un-economic and unbelievable.

Once he leaves that shore, the rest is the journey in the sea, and there are very few people that live there. That is his new home as he perennially buffets on imperial recipes of tailor made brew that his fanatic chase fabricates; what for if there is nothing in the end. Poet comes with his moral-twister of rationale and says, how we can talk of that; most us will not live till THE END. 

A poet is never worried about the end; that is not to flatter his bio-genic differential and legal deprivation along with the superior instinct to match definitional and derivational creativity totally un-perforce; but to talk about his unplugged non-tradable magnetic bourse where words traffic for ingenious values. (I beg a pardon for being lost in the perjury of extension). That is his home of toys and plays and a complete turn off of the auricles from the perfunctory rectitude as it swells, hovers and transposes up the permeability of the new mind and new destination; seemingly unfathomable and his detour is an intellectual philanthropy that need not be sold as a fiscal opportunity of surpluses to all who decide to make the poet their host by the virtue of their para-phrasal-para-pedagogic aspirations. (I beg again!) It is engaging, it is psychedelic but purist, and it is selfless laboratory synthesis of artistic eco-molecules; of matching pearls for the eyes and the gold for the chest. Everyone feels rich because the quantums are out of contest!

Poet is not one with a subject for he has an intergalactic and the subjects are nothing but themes that melt into a more refined form. His thought is not a course but a highly amalgamated concourse. His is a wondrous departure from the make-up room ideology; ‘who look the best’. He quietly dictates and reposes the new onus; who thinks the best nee who thinks the most!

It is natural to expect that a poet is an innate debater and without the end result of the raucous. He speaks monologues; that is his fashionably virtuous ego. Thankfully! Since he cannot be taken down to the practicality, it is impossible to say for anyone that they do not agree. Because there is no borderline and therefore there are no border politics.  The poet therefore makes inordinate but unquestioned deferrals to arrive! That is his way raising people’s expectations. Poet doctors this and converts into an imagination; and then it is his own song and orchestra, the grammar of ragas and the chordial symphony plays differently so well that that even the musical logic does not matter!

Many souls are unwritten poets; many poets are unsung. May be I will sing one day; in my next journ

Chemistry of Gazals

Every style of literature as much as every period of literature has an intrinsic culture; Ghazal is a zenith. Ghazal exemplifies the respect for the beloved. On the pretext of that feeling ghazal creates many subjects & many metaphors that journey deeper & deeper into the pains & sufferings of love in all phases. Romance is an intrinsic part of growing up and romance never dies. But love is the next thing in romance. It is an absolute commitment to creation. All those who are in some way or the other related to this act are in love. It is a single point epitome of spirituality & humanity in the purest possible sense. It is a transition of body into the spirit & beginning of an experience beyond physics. In that sense romantic poetry will confine itself more to the ishq-husn politic whereas love poetry would tend to transcend itself to anything & everything under & over the sun, including the sun because love has expansive radiations & it is capable of filling up everything. It is an experience of metaphysics where the space may not be given, it could be created, beauty may not be given it could be created. Love is the final hope of the universe. In tragic times it thrives on remembrances, in good times it creates a weightlessness of the matter making it a free-floating experience; you could journey from anywhere to anywhere.

Poetry is universally an experience of the spectrum of light. Depending on where you are standing a different color ray would hot your perspective. Poetry is subject to varied interpretations by different people in the same space as much its varied interpretations by the same person in different space.

Poetry is not collection of words or idioms.

Jod kar dekhe labz-e-bayan ke bahane

Gar rubahi ban bhi jaye to kaha hai maene

Poetry is essentially born out of a deeper need to communicate.

Ghazala tum to waaqif ho kaho Majnun ke marne ki
Agar deewana na raha to veerane pe kya guzregi

Suprisingly Ghalib the king of expressions also wrote;

Magar likhvaaye koi usko khat, to hum se likhvaaye
Hui subaha, aur ghar se kaan par rakh kar qalam nikle

This shows all big names rea free-flowing int their expressions.

There are poets who communicate more to others.

Koi naam pata gar puche to ae qasid bata dena

Takallus daag hai aur ashoko ke dilme rehte hai (Daag)

There are poetries that communicate more to oneself;

Aap to aate rahe khayalon mein bana diye zidko kafeer 

Din-o-majhab aur kya hai baat sabko samzhayi nahin jati

Thus a piece of poetry could become either a connection of one world with another or simple autobiographic expression.

Considering the numbers that are there already in the Ghazali literature, they follow a public opinion. That is when you refer to a populist literature.

…Ae muhobbat tere anjaam pe rona aaya

…Jaane kyun aaj tere naam pe rona aaya ( Shakeel)

However, every poet is different. He has a different psyche, he has a different motivation & he has a different perspective. Although within the quantum of literature that is produced one come across some contradictions. Hence it is ideal for the reader to look at poetry as independent of the poet.

The following lines of Momin are not in the same spirit;

Kyun sune arz muztarab Momin, Sanam aakhir khuda nahi hota

Hae sanam! hae sanam lab pe kyun,Khair hai Momin? Tumhe kya ho gaya?,

It need not be, it won’t be, it should not be. Art is sport played better with unpredictability.On top of it all he may be in most unusual time & space condition in which the poetry is written. It is a given thing that a literary writes for the posterity but he himself lives for the moment. That moment when his thoughts are converted into literature is the moment of reckoning & not when the poetry is read. This is a paradox that no one has been able to resolve. When you write a non-fiction you express stream of thought or may be extend it. But you have lived with it for a sustained period. Poetry being more of fiction is very impulsive. To help resolve this crisis, I feel it is best to use an emotionally intelligent model & say that poet may be very different from the poetry in the time & space you read the poetry. Hence it is better to like or dislike the poetry rather than like or dislike the poet. One simply may not know that persona.

In the spirit of true respect for the beloved there are possibly very few other comparable languages that make a direct comparison & sometimes a direct substitution of God with the beloved. So ‘dair’ & ‘dar’ are brought within the visual distance of human intellect. Hence it could be said that Urdu language especially within the folds of ghazal is an elaborate experience of either describing the pain or lauding the beauty, detailing the journeys including the passage of lonely nights & the upcoming & soft end of bazm or mehfil, upsurge of human ego or its downfall, rejections & dejections, bitter & sweet descriptions, tours & detours & the poetry winds itself generously through the expressions & the experiences of saba, shaam, baam, shab, taqdeer, kismet, naustar, sheesha, sumandar, leher, taj, isnaan, aadmi, tasavvur, khwab, haqeekat, zakhm, dard & what have you!

Ghazal is a layered communication. It is a synthesis & its complexities are manifold considering the interlocutor’s mind set which itself may have many more layers of interception and understanding. It has four major constituents to support the manufacture or the culturing of the thoughts. So here is the phase analysis of the ghazal that would be followed by or that would be in tandem with the horizontal analysis of the poetry. Poetry especially a ghazal follows a grammar or rather a linguistic exuberance that could also be seen from analytical perspective.

Phase I-Mukhada Sher

It is an arousal of the spirit that is best suitable for the main lyrical treat that follows to find a right setting in the mind of the listener. Mukhda sher could be in two differ styles; one that is a prelude to the subject or one that is prelude to the structure in which the ghazal is composed. In a sense it is announcement of what to expect. Since mukhda sher is practiced more during the recital its stage value quotient is exceedingly high. It augurs well for the listening group in the way the ghazalist respects their intellect. It augurs well for the lyricist in the way he creates a ‘first sale’ impression on the audience. It is good beginning for the singer too because he gets a smooth entry into the audience without even having to display his musical skills.

I would like to go to commenting on one of my ghazals; Charagar in details, before treating you with more mukhada shers.

Teg chalakar ho gae khamosh

Zhakm gar ho naya naya koi

Teg (Sword) is supposed to be restless equipment that thrives on a good kill. That is the identity of the sword. It has come to standstill seeing the kill that is being ‘treated’ with that kind of an onslaught. It is fast paced communication where the poet brings a lot of his personal experience & his personal philosophy on how he thinks the innocent neck (first-timer) would affect the sword. The feel of the sher is pity, self-realization, resignation, powerless-ness, withdrawal…Use of the expression ‘zhakhm’ creates a scenic vista that should affect the empathy of all & sundry. Recitation of this sher is done without rhythm to facilitate registration of a very difficult thought. The scenic proportion of this sher is signature autobiographical & that adds to the mood or the situation upfront.

Phase II- Malla

The first paragraph of the ghazal is the actual name & address of the ghazal. Most mallas have an  address; like posting a letter with address there is a popular method of couplets make an arousing start.  They contain expression that addresses one person;

May be a beloved;

Mere mehboob tubhi humwatan hai

Zid ki jagir ka tuhi ek wajud hai

Calling fate;

Ae taqdeer tu aakar ek but kayam kare

Innsano se ab Zidka ji nahi bharata

Calling an opponent;

Ae mere rakeeb tuzhe muhobbat ke sivay kya dun

Gar tu insaan hai to yeh wasiyat ke siva kya dun

Or administrator of durgah

Zahid sharab pine de masjid mein baithkar

Ya phir wo jagah bata de jahan khuda na ho

Or Beauty

Ae husn tu jahan jahan amal ho raha hai

Waha waha aadmi insaan mein badal raha hai

Let us take an example of a word Khudaya! The word has a universal appeal & it would set a trend for creating an environment or the space that would stay till the whole of the couple it read, understood or thought about. 

Now we will look at a first half of the pre-dawn. Khudaya jab bhi aapko zid chahiye

When you think of God too being passionate you have created a most dramatic plot of two grossly unequal things being made equal. That would make people stand up or sit straight in expectancy. A point must be made here that irrespective of the poetic beauty of the verses there are speed verses & there are snail verses. The speed verses are very demanding in terms of the listening capabilities of the audience. Snail verses are more obvious types that have simple idiomatic expressions like huzoor, mehboob, nazara, raat, din including prepositions like, word connectives kyun, kaha & common-place verbs like dena, lena, karna etc…

It would be well served to break off to another discussion on how verses move into the meaning. Depending on the speed one could see two ends of the spectrum.

Snail Verse

Karte hai baat wo aur kya karte hai

Baithe hai saamne aur kya karte hai (Anonymous)

One might think this is waste of the precious time of the listener!

It is imperative that poet is also born out of the human flesh & hence his natural behavior will somewhere or the other show up on his poetry. But over a period of few verses a poet also qualifies himself in the mind of the audience & he would go on creating a certain niche. My idea is not to dethrone anyone but to say that there is lot of demand for these kinds of verses as is evident in the way film songs are made these days.  Modern films have taken for granted that verses are not understood easily & hence they pack it with a lot of noise that fills up the space. In that sense generous use of instruments will create more music & scant use of instruments would open up possibilities of the verses being registered.

Speed Verse

Partave khoor se hai sabnaam ko wafa ki taalim

Mai bhi hun ek enayat ki nazar hone tak (Galib)

Or

Fana ho jayenge kitne is mawwaze-e-tufaan mein

Par Zid ye thikana gark-e-khana mudam yaad rahega

Or

Jabse dilmein aan base ho Zid ke garaz ki maat puchiye

Kya kya duwaye deta rahe tumko mashhoor hone tak

It will take a lot of effort on part of even a connoisseur of ghazals to really get on with the pace if you are listening to it for the first time. That is why there is a practice on part of the mushaira readers that they repeat the first line of the couple & sometime read the first half of the first couplet three or four times to bring in the effect of an appropriate precinct. In that sense one would also experience some couplets that dramatize more than deliver the meaning.  In the context it must be said that not all meaning is entertainment & not all entertainment has a meaning. Doubtlessly there are many words that offer a sweet music to the ears whether the sense it makes matches with the musical feel or not. I could think of one word ‘ Ma-badoulat’. It is too big a word to connote the meaning ‘Me’. The expression musically is very terse not something that would place the meaning ‘Me’ or ‘I‘ in the mind of the listener. There are others like ‘shirin’ that has the same context that is created by the sound of the words. That is to say that there are verses that seek to offer more thought via sounds than through the meaning & there are others that offer more from the meaning.

Kitne shirin hai tere lab ke rakib…(Galib) offers a wonderful realization of this theory. Although in the latter half of the couplet the poet expresses more of an angst that makes the couplet little topsy-turvy. But more on this later!

Daawat-e-shirin-e-lab pe mehema baankar aaeye… (Zid) is another example of the beauty of the sounds.

Coming back to Khudaya… Khudaya jab bhi aapko zid chahiye…. This is a loud expression of forbearance with God’s untold plan & submission with a tinge of forgiveness. Poetry transcends on the synthesis such as this that offer range of colors, complex thoughts & fine brush strokes.

The second half of the pre-dawn is even more sensitive. Ishara Karen. It is an exasperating experience for all living beings that the dead & the end can come anytime. The poet goes to the next level of humility & spiritual obedience when he says;

(Khudaya jab bhi aapko zid chahiye)…Ishara karein

Mehfil ko muholat de yakayak kaise kinara karein

He is looking at his kith & kin, his fellow beings & his responsibility to complete the self-imposed task of distributing the beauty through his rendition. But he himself shows no regret about anything including losing his ‘company’. The passion of mehfil stuffed with the dispassion the poet shows to himself create an extra-ordinary poignancy that is the soul of any meaningful art.

Coming back to Malla, whereas the mukhda sher has explosive creative possibilities comparatively the malla has more recall value. It is similar experience as announcing the title of your home that you could call a king’s palace, Caesar’s villa, rich man’s enclave or a common man’s hut. I am deliberately giving crude examples to help us get started on the structure. Once this is understood the finer strokes could also be appreciated very easily. Yes, whether one likes it or not, the mallas identifies its audience or qualifies its audience quite naturally. Thus

Yeh na humari kisma ke wisale yaar hota

Agar aur jite rehete yahi intezaar hota

is a surprising choice of malla by Ghalib considering the complex poetry & sudden change in the class of poetry over the following couplets. The malla looks relatively more a common-class poetry whereas the following couplet & there on

Koi mere dilse puche key eh teer-neem kash ko

Yeh khalish kahase hoti jo jigar ke paar hota

is absolutely high end poetry that delivers a verbal treat, scenic beauty as much as the ‘falsafa-e-noor’

(the light of philosophy) majestically.

Since couplets over couplets have each distinctive character ghazal becomes a layered communication. It goes beyond the realm on one side but it creates such a vast space that someone in the audience is likely to get affected by something that is said by the poet that is either intentional or explorative. That creates a sense of personal communication because that communication is discreet & hence it looks personal.

Coming back to teg chalkar…

The malla is

Charagar ho koi sukun-e-kabil

Kyun samazhdar huwa kare koi

is a multi-storey communication. One that says a good doctor makes me free to create more scars on my body. The other one that says ‘God is so forgiving that I can afford to stay innocent all the time & make mistakes without a worry.’ If this is treated as ‘insaniyat ki shayari’ (the discussion comes up later) there is a beautiful mother-child substance in the poetry that says a child would never grow up as long as mother is there to care for him. Thus Charagar is no more a fixed nomenclature & is expansive vertical treatment creates a multi-story communication. In any mushaira there are people looking up to the poet in awe & clapping & there are others who are all lost in the self-thinking. I think this where a sustainable difference between entertainment & engagement comes to the fore.

Take another example

Zid le ke chale taqdeer-e-badan ko, abke jo bichde phir kab mile ho

The word ‘bichdana’ implies separation from the beloved. Be it so because the entire poetry can be understood on that pretext easily. But a closer look at that brings out a new thought that says, ‘It is my great fortune that I wear a human body now. If I lose you when is the next chance for wearing this beauty again?’ 

Phase III- Development of Thoughts

Ham bhi kisko puchte ke muhobbat fani kyun hai

Gar jism ban gae ho ruh Zid to phir ye fasla kyun hai

Or

Zid jab bhi naya rang chade akks mita hota hai

Insaan badan badal de par ruh kaha khota hai

Both these mukhdas offer an upstart. However, I myself realize , there is a danger of using this strategy because the ghazhal will go to the next level of thought that might not meet the intellect by & large create a problem of comprehension & intelligibility.

Ghazal is ruthless in terms of its capability to dwell upon varied subjects that afford metaphoric transcending & perpetual comparisons. That is why every couplet as it comes, arouses different ideas although falling within the same generic thought. There are poets who write all couplets independently & assemble later within one tile. There are others who write within the given title. The method used would show up on the vibrancy of the ghazal later.

Sequential couplets

(I wrote this ghazal without lifting pen)

Le ke chale taqdeer-e-badan ko, abke jo bichde phir kab tum mile ho

Sar mera aazad hai gar chahte ho, mile wo jahan zameer-e-watan ho

Aaj kuch kehte nahi badkimari par, kab ke be-qadr ho kabke jale ho

Kaise kaise aap jalwa-e-kamat ho, paas aaye to saamne kayamat ho

Abke yeh karsaazi kaam na aayegi, khud-b-khud aap khudi se darte ho

Kalin par biche daag koi khoon nahi, arman chhod ab khwaish se darte ho

Khoon-b-khoon pighal rakeek huwa, gazab-e-ashiqee; marne se darte ho

Teri zuba-dar-zuba karaamad hogi, khaufe namabar hai wajud se darte ho

Tera gunah hai aah ko churana, kayamat dekh li ab kazi se darte ho

Safa-e-kalb le chale safine nahane, Daryadili-e-sabat aur rawa karte ho

Tum to kar gaye kare-numaya, Zid kyunkar ab khushi se darte ho

Assorted couplets

Yeh na thi hamari kismet to me is a case of assorted ghazal.

I will like to talk about following ghazal;

Jise is rut me marna hai zid wo bahaar aaye

Aaj tak berukhi thi ab zara wo muskuraye

There is no sequencing possible in the following couplets because they are independent & they have been written in different time zones & in different mind spaces. These couplets have been selected to be within one frame because every couplet uses the same method of creating ironies.

Diware ret ki hoti hai isharon se pakki

Wo fareb hi sahi par ek bar bekhumar aaye

Ilm gar tha unko ke ye sari fuzul batain hai

Hale-dil kuch aisa karon mera gurur wapas aaye

Tijarat nakaam ho aur der baad muhobbat aaye

Accha hai dilki daulat akhir kuch to kaam aaye

Bas yahi khatm tumaar-e-dastan waqt-e-mehroom ho

koshish ho bhulaneki to samjhoo Zid bahut yaad aaye 

However, such ghazals make tremendous demands on the audience & hence these get relegated or elevated to ‘only for connoisseur’ status. In terms of emotional intensity the vibrancy of ghazal makes it more diverse an experience compared to the sequential poetry that makes deep inroads that keep becoming deeper. Whereas the spherical journey creates a vertigo effect on the listener the deep driving sequencing could create equally a feeling of weightless in free fall.

Phase IV-Makta Sher

This is an end game. Since this couplet carries the name of the poet, obviously the poet is expected to put his best in these lines. However, it may not be seen with a great deal of regularity. I personally feel there have been many instances where the makta has been wasted. But yes it is possible to take the poetic journey to new level using makta.

Galibi shakl surat phir tuzhe dikhane aaye

Tareekh dekh kaise mashhoor zamane aaye

This ghazal has following Makta;

Apne nashemanse Zidko muntakil karne aaye

Parwar-digar muzhe jannat-e-khwab dikhane aaye

Or

Aaj bhi kehte hai muzhse dilme aana chahiye

Mausame gulzar mein ek ghar basana chahiye

This ghazal has following makta

Gubaar sang daude hai zarra, khak mein kurban hai

Waqt puche zid dubara kya khak-e-hasrat chahiye

Or

Par yeh bhi bhul maat jana ke zid tum insa ho

khayal-e-shabnam-taazgi mein tarikh bhul na jana

Or

Akhir kaar pesh aaye bade sangdili se wo

Zid Justju to thik hai par ye aarzoo kya hai

Or

Aap to Zid pehlelhi mar gaye the

Tareekh dekh kafan sara jala dala

Analysis of the literary strategy would lead us to looking further into every couplet & see the differential order.

Pre-dawn-That part of the couplet that is merely creates an awakening of the mind, creates the color on the horizon a kind of expectancy that something is going to rise here & change the space.

 Yun to rah chale insaan taqdeerse sambhal jaye hai …

The poet pretends to have a solution for something that troubles everyone. There is invitation to have a close look at the same. In this context it must be said that of all the methods of qualifying a good verse vs. not so good verse, a good verse is the one which open the listener’s mind, whereas a not so good verse somehow tries to force itself on to the listener’s ears. But indulgence in a ghazal is expected to be a quiet experience & hence any attempt to force the poetry on to the listener would turn out to be a negative experience.

Or

Khauf unhe bhi hai zid ki laptomein khud jal na jaye…

Choo liya dilse daman ko harj kya hai…looks like a bold enterprise; ‘bebak-shayari’. But it is followed by a peace maker proposal; ‘tajwij-e-ashyar’ that says;

Mai gar huun gunah to hawa kya hai

Dawn-It clears all doubts about what is going to happen & actually delivers the light metaphorically; a complete content along with the context. Majority of the dramatics that either lead to exasperation of the listener’s intellect or catharsis of the emotions, feeling of awe, alas… are born out of the finely laid plot of the couplet.

Yun to rah chale insaan taqdeerse sambhal jaye hai …

Chalte chalte kuch raah kismatse bachaye rakhiye

Or

khauf unhe bhi hai zid ki laptomein khud jal na jaye

Aur uski kabr mein aakar wo bhi kahi so na jaye

Most couplets worth a recall are supposed to be sensitively meaningful but that is not all. A beauty of the artifact like ghazal is that it must be brought out in the right context. Sometimes a poet may tend to deliver a negative feel about life but poetry is about the masses & hence it must be looked at from a populist understanding of a theory or experience. If majority of the people by large have cribs about life that is the given universe & not every couple could be rebellion to affect a sea change in the human perspective.

A general context of the mushaira is that it is for mass consumption. The poet has a chance to invite people on his home territory & serve his best recipes to the invitees but by & large he has to be cognizant of the mass psyche. That is how the mass gets its identity & that is important. There is a caution however. If all the poetry is delivered in expectation of people it would turn about to be an indulgence in mediocrity & soon the poetic sheen would be lost.

Climaxes & Anti-climaxes

There are verses that use simple pretexts like husn-e-amal kiye

Then the verses take a rapid plunge into another subject that opens up in the following lines;

Husn-e-amal kiye  waqt bada zalim nikla

Subah ho gae lije zid ek aftaab aur nikla

Or

Zid jise is rut me marna hai wo bahaar aaye

Aaj tak berukhi thi ab zara wo muskuraye

Or

Aaiye zid kuch sharafat ki batain karen

Chalte chalte kuch fareb ki batain Karen

Or

Zindgi tu kuch sawar ja rahe aakhir mil gae

Hosh aa jaye Zid to samjho bekhudi bhi chahiye

Or

Wo sunate rahenge aur hum adab aur khamoshi se sunte rahenge

Zid tu kya kuch keh gaya, likh gaya  tere marne ki yahi soorat hogi

Anti-Climax

Aaiye chooke zid wafa-e-rasm purjor Karen

Has an anticlimax…

Hawae laakar jalneme kuch rahat to karen

Aur phir lamha-e-chamansaz aaya

rehguzar khwab mein badal dala

Has an anti-climax

Sangdili dastan-e-khamoshi aise bani

yeh asar ke humko but bana dala

 Khuda haafeez!

My dear friends,

Life changes in-stream. There are physical changes; there are changes of the metaphysics. There is matter; there is mind. There is a matter to change & there is a mind to change.

Sometimes we wait for that to happen. Sometimes we realize what has happened much later. A crawler standing up is a big change. A child running is a big change.

An adult life also has many reverences that probably we miss because these are not organic. They are much more subtle but they have a magic & sometimes unbearable effect on our mind. Feeling of love is one such change. You chase people. You look deep into someone’s eyes & ask question; is this mine? Well these are rudimentary level understanding of life. Later we realize the folly & think love is not about a good face meeting a god face but a good human being meeting a compatible one. Much later we realize love is essentially goodness of character & not just a manner of being favorable to one party. Much later we realize, love is a profound ability to create. Human being may or may not participate in it.

एक हम है इस मुल्क में के आशिकाना रह गए 

मुबरख, अपनी जिद से आपने क्या क्या बदला हमको 

Our capability to find meaning in our life changes as also our initiative to find meaning in our life. When we feel there is more to find we find means & measures to go for that find. There are those who can live without all this. There are some who just can’t. Also what changes is the perspective of meaning. Togetherness is the meaning of life initially. Later on we understand the empowerment. It is irrespective of what is near & what is far. Even now as I am writing, my mind knows there is some change. Hopefully it is an elevation.

Change including the change has a predominating effect on everyone around. It is hard to find period of solace; muhalat-e-guftagu, it hard to find an occasion where one could sit & exchange beauty of mind & heart. No cribs but like everything else the poetry has taken a back seat. Instead what have come to the fore are the selling lines that have some objective like getting the job done. The short-deliverance & a shorter perspective have had a very cursing effect on the quality of ghazals that is on the platter now. Poetry has fallen prey to the fast track life. I rarely see anybody even humming his way to glory. There is no path, there is no destination. All in all human consciousness has lost the taste for beauty. Zid ki shayari is an attempt to resurrect the good things & create a new following for the age old classic form of literature. Ghazal is a panacea for a good communication, worthwhile communication in a worthwhile way. It is a research on how many things a human mind could think about. It is a way to find your own world in the world. It is a method of creating that world if that does not exist as such already. Newer destinations, newer vistas, newer events; change is eminent for you.

Zid ki Shayari is not a promise but it is a commitment to add more meaning to life.

होते है कम ही आप जैसे फिकरो-ओ-फन-ओ-इमानदार

जो करे हम जैसे नाचीज़ की क़द्र तहे दिल से एक बार