Destiny,Bengali Song: singer Hemant Kumar

Translation by Ranu

Ferryman’s complaint to destiny

O destiny, destiny,

How long will I,

paddle this boat ?

I help everyone cross over,

this river.

Who will assist me,

to cross over?

This boat is my father and mother,

It’s also my food provider.

All my life I believed,

it is my family.

Yet destiny I have,

one complaint for you.

this boat is my home,

one that provides me with,

roof on a hot day.

During the day the,

sun smiles,

and at midnight the moon.

At times whether I’m happy ,

or sad.

During the ebb and flow of tide,

I hold on to the paddle with a smile.

No one notices when

I weep or laugh.

I only want to complain to you,

How long will I continue,

to paddle my boat!

…………………………………………… 🙂

IQBAL’S PHILOSOPHY, posted by ranu

“We can achieve immortality, but only as an ever-growing ego”

According to Iqbal, one must try to heighten his/her ego to a height where even God would ask, What kind of destiny do you want? ( “In Urdu, khudi ko ker buland itna ke har taqdeer se pehle, khuda bande ko poochhe bata teri raza kia hai,” Iqbal ).

The question is how and what are the steps to achieve that goal?

Iqbal says, ‘All things are given to self-display, without the desire to self revelation life is death.’

Change is necessary, rest is impossible in this workplace of nature. Anything or anyone that doesn’t move dies, this is the secret of existence.

According to Iqbal it is never enough to achieve something and live on his/her laurels. He says, life is to make a pearl from your inner oyster. Do not borrow it from outside, take it from your inside.

If I wanted to achieve an ever-growing ego, I must avoid distraction. It leads my mind in a state of stagnation.

I bring myself to reality by reading Iqbal’s thoughts. It tells me to achieve immortality, I must have an ever-growing ego.

One cannot hope for perfection, for it has no growth. It belongs to God only. We humans must concentrate on our ever-growing ego. Perfection has no place for mankind for it has no potential for growth. I’d rather remain as a human.

Iqbal ends by saying, ‘I have no desire for a sojourn, for I die if I rest.’

I was impressed by Iqbal’s Quote, where he says, : heighten your ego to a height, where even God himself would ask you, what kind of destiny do you want.’

It was the beginning of my search for Iqbal. It’s how I joined the online course and am still fascinated by this poet and philosopher.

……………………………………………. 🙂

Daily Prompt: Que Sera Sera

Do you believe in fate or do you believe you can control your destiny?

The prompt today, reminds me  of my favorite song, Que Sera Sera, whatever will be will be.

When I was a little girl I never asked my mother what will I be. I knew nothing about fate or destiny. I was living each day to the fullest, I played with my siblings, I watched my mother cook, sometimes imitated her. Then I’d sit on the grass beside my Dad’s easy chair and talk to him for hours, of course this was after school and my Dad was back from work.

Then one morning at about ten AM . I heard a loud scream coming from Dad’s bedroom. We were playing i.e  we the young ones. We stopped and rushed to  Dad’s bedroom. There to my utmost horror I found my mother crying and my Dad was dying.

In one hour everything changed, we were crying , we had no idea our Dad had left us for good. Within six months we moved out of our precious home to go to an unknown place, it was my parents original homeland. There was no home waiting for us, my elder brother made arrangements to go to our maternal grandparents home in the village, until he could buy one in the small town nearby.

After six months my brother found a house for sale and bought it. If I were to guess what all this was called, I’d say it was our fate. We couldn’t control our Dad’s death, it would happen, it is here that God takes the reins in His hands. My Dad’s time was up, we couldn’t implore God to give us more time, His decree was final.

Sadly we understood,no one can change fate. It took us a long time, but we learned to accept it, and how cruel it is.

Destiny however was a challenge, I was twelve, with Dad’s passing there was no income, although  Dad was an Assistant Secretary in the Ministry Of Defense, his family was denied pension, their argument was, he died before  he was fifty-five years old, hence his family was ineligible for pension.

My Dad had provident fund where he had some money and life insurance. It probably was sufficient for us to live on for a while. Here my brother played with destiny and almost lost all of it by trying to invest in a business.

We realized soon enough we can change our destiny if we seriously studied and got a good education. Most of us siblings did that , accomplished our goal, except the two black sheep in the family, they had no desire to change.

I believe it’s possible to change our destiny if we put in the effort. I studied, got an education which helped me  get a job. Had I done the  opposite, I wouldn’t be doing this prompt today but struggling to survive!

…………………………….. 🙂

 

 

Ghazal : Singer Munni Begum: ai ishq hamein itna toh bata anjam hamara kia hoga posted and translated by Ranu

Tell me this much love what will be my consequence

Oh fate tell me how much worse can the outcome be

The foolish buds in the garden opened their lips to laugh

They are asking the dew, tell us what will be our destiny

There is no boat nor there is a  seacoast

I have no desire for a seashore

It is obvious those who are asking

What my fate will be!

………………………………….. 😦

 

Song by Muhammad rai:Mais zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya posted and translated by Ranu

I went along with life

accomplished what I could.

I  ignore any kind of worry

In my mind I knew to be

sorry in defeat was useless

Instead I celebrate  defeat.

Whatever I got in life

I considered it my destiny,

I erased loss from my memory

Where sadness or happiness

made no difference

I was happy  to accept it.

I went along with life

accomplished what I could

I ignore any kind of worry!

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/01/13/song-by-muhamm…slated-by-ranu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DP Daily Prompts: Call Me Ishmael

Take the first sentence from your favorite book and make it the first sentence of your post.

“So, then. You want a story and I will tell one.”

I just want to caution you readers, please do not be sad, sadness is a part of life, this woman seems to have the lion’s share in this department, or God thought she  can endure it better than anyone in her family.

This story begins in a very small town, there are only ten thousand people here, it includes men women and children old and young.

My story focuses on a particular family, there was the wife the husband and soon there was an addition a child. The parents spent most of their free time looking after her.

Then the wife gets a job she has to leave the little infant in the care of a baby sitter, it was not something the parents wanted to do, the times were difficult two jobs were better than one.

Days were passing by smoothly until the first baby sitter decided to quit her job. It was a trying time for the parents, they were looking for another baby sitter, luckily they found one.

She was the mother of five children, she was looking for a job any job, baby sitting was not the kind of  job she wanted, she accepted it as she waited for some other lucrative job. In the meantime the small family of three were happy to find someone to take care of their little one.

Two years and some months later there was an addition to the family another daughter, meanwhile the family needed another baby sitter to look after two babies the previous   baby sitter left after she landed a very good job.

The family found one, this new baby sitter was very helpful, she not only looked after the two kids, she also baked bread and cooked dinner for the family. Life was good the kids were happy and so were the parents.

The kids passed different stages of their life and soon they were leaving home for higher studies. After completion they went their separate ways for jobs in cities they liked. They were successful.

The second child however always told her sister, she wants to live as far away from her parents as possible, she was finally in control of her destiny, and did not feel the need for parents because it would mean having them over and entertaining them,she didn’t mind making the occasional phone call    she didn’t want to lose her  inheritance  after the death of the parents.The second one is happy, she has her own place, to make sure none of her parents came to visit her she emailed her mother, she said,”I only want to have a courteous relationship with you.”

This was unexpected the mother had just finished saying her morning prayer, she turned her computer on  and found this message, as shocking as it was she did not delay writing her back, she wrote “You do not need to have any kind of relationship courteous or otherwise.” then she mailed it!

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/01/10/dp-daily-promp…all-me-ishmael/

365 Writing Prompts: Ballerina, fireman,movie star

When you were 10, what did you want to be when you grew up? What are you now? Are the two connected ?

When I was 10 I never thought what or who I wanted to be when I grew up. At that age the only thing that gave me immense  pleasure was waking up at 3 a.m and watch my mother make a different breakfast each morning.

Then almost unwillingly get the school bus at 6 a.m. I liked school but the burden of homework each day was wearing me down mentally and physically. It was as if I was born to be  in school from sunrise to sunset and when I was back I had piles of homework to do, there was no time to play with my younger siblings.

On week-ends my siblings and I would take long walks in and around our neighborhood, it was sheer joy for me to play with my younger brothers.

My parents never talked about what I wanted to be, I was contented to keep that phase of my life silent. At twelve suddenly I faced the harshest reality, the passing of my father. The whole world changed for me, the thought We’d have to leave this wonderful place and move somewhere we didn’t know anything about came as a shock to all of us.

As they say our destiny is already, “Written”, and we have to accept it.

I started studying to complete my high school exam, and then college and university followed. I was like a ‘Robot’, studying to make myself useful with no particular aim. After completing my masters I started thinking about teaching, I enrolled in the education faculty.

After completing my education degree I applied for a job in the local school.

I never thought who I wanted to be at age 10, I knew the teaching profession is good for me, when I was 22 years old. To me age 10 was the time when you don’t take anything seriously, you enjoy life by having fun with siblings.

k: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/365-writing-pr…emanmovie-star/

DP Daily Prompt: Qeu Sera Sera

Do you believe in fate or do you believe you can control your own destiny.

I am not sure what I believe in, in fate or I can control my own destiny. The song “Que Sera Sera “, is a favorite song of mine. I heard it a long time ago.I didn’t really think about the lyrics,then or even now.

Today’s prompt makes me think  do I believe in fate or do I believe in controlling my own destiny. I believe in both.

My fate exposed me to various things I could do with my life, study or stop studying. I controlled my destiny by choosing the former. I kept going until I felt my brothers have contributed towards my studies long enough,I should see if I can get some help in way of  a scholarship to study further. Fate helped me to get what I wanted and I controlled my destiny by making sure I was successful each time.

I felt I had studied enough it was time for me to look for a job. I got the first one I applied for,eleven months later I made up my mind to leave the job and look for another.My second job proved too taxing for my health and well-being , I quit that one for good. 

I always knew I was qualified enough to get a teaching job in the city,I was not disappointed.

Marriage changed the picture, I relied on fate solely,wherever my husband found work I’d have to go there,which is what I did. There was no room for controlling my destiny. So like Doris Day I thought “whatever will be, will be.”

Yes I have children,they don’t ask me, “will I be handsome will I be rich?” If they did I’d  only say whatever will be,will be.”You will be what you want to be.

Once again I have decided to control my destiny by registering for on-line courses, it was something I had very little knowledge of, here I am once again controlling my destiny by continuing with the courses.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/prompt-que-sera-sera/

 

DP Daily Prompt: Too Big To Fail post by ranu

English: Wordmark of Northwestern University. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I always wanted to do a masters degree in education. I thought the prerequisite must be to finish B.Ed.,I took admission and saw myself in the right path to get into the MEd. program. I applied for admission,but found out from Professor Elliott,I was too young and also did not qualify,because I had no teaching experience.

At that age,I had no fear,I said whatever came to my mind. The Prof. looked at me and smiled ,he said I’ll be given a battery of tests,which will determine my eligibility. I was ready to face anything, I did the tests.I started to feel scared,I had no idea what the outcome will be. A week later I received a letter of acceptance. I informed the school,where I taught,I wanted to resign. The authorities rejected, their explanation was,I cannot resign a government job. Disappointed I wrote to the Research centre about my predicament. They agreed to take me the following year. I was unable again,I got married,my husband worked outside Bangladesh.

They say,third time is the charm,but is it,I questioned? I applied for admission in North Western University in the suburb of Chicago. I received application forms for a Phd.  I thought I’ll take a chance, I failed again, my husband pointed out I will lose money because I’ll have to take leave of absence without pay and also pay tuition etc., and my children were too young,my husband could not look after them all by himself. So I lost another chance. I gave up thinking maybe it’s not for me. Thinking it to be my “Destiny”,I consoled myself.

I took an online course where I learned not to blame

“Destiny”,that I can change it if I have the will to do so!

Neerh O Akash Small Abode and Sky (poem)by Tagore Translation by Ranu

Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel prize for literature. It is the first Nobel prize won by Asia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You are the sky and the dwelling at the same time.

O beautiful, your love is solid in this tiny hut

each moment in various hues, in diverse scent and songs,

the charming life surrounds the foundation

There daybreak holds its gold dish

brings one graceful garland

quietly dresses  the earth’s destiny;

evening comes in meekly on the empty ground

on the road without any mark

calmly filling water from the ocean.

Where you are , it’s our souls’ sky

where the boundless field is in motion

there is nothing,no days, no nights no living things,

no color, no smell ,no speech simply nothing.