రుబాయత్ ఒమర్ ఖయ్యాం!!!!

ఒమర్ ఖయ్యాం!!!!

చాలా మందికి తెలిసిన పేరు.

ఆయన రాసిన రుబాయత్ ల గురించి కూడా చాలా మందికి తెలుసు.

అందులోనూ ఆయన, జీవితాన్ని ఆనందించు అని నినదించిన విషయం

అందరికీ సుపరిచితమే!

వికీపీడియా నుంచి ఆయన చిత్రం:

 

ఒమర్ ఖయ్యాం రాసిన రుబాయత్ ల గురించి వినని వారు ఉండరేమో. అంతగా ప్రాచుర్యాన్ని పొందాయి అవి. నాలుగు పంక్తుల కవితలు ఇవి. అరబిక్ భాషలో రుబాయీ అంటే రెండు వాక్యాల లేక పంక్తుల కవిత, ఒక్కొక్క వాక్యనికీ రెండు భాగాలు ఉంటాయట. అంటే ఒక నాలుగు పంక్తుల కవిత, ఇంగ్లీష్ లో “quatrains” రూపంలో రచింపబడ్డవే ఈ రుబాయత్ లు. వీటిని ఇంగ్లీష్ పాఠక లోకానికి పరిచయం చేసిన ఘనత “ఎడ్వర్డ్ ఫిట్జ్ గెరాల్డ్” అనే రచయితకు దక్కుతుంది. 

నాకు నచ్చిన కొన్ని రుబాయత్ ల గురించి నాకు అర్ధమైనట్టు, నాకు తెలిసినట్టు రాస్తున్నాను. నేను ఇక్కడ ఉపయోగించిన రుబాయత్ లు ఎడ్వర్డ్ ఫిట్జ్ గెరాల్డ్ గారు తర్జుమా చేసినవి. ఈ రుబాయత్ లను ఇంగ్లీష్ లోకి చాలా మంది అనువదించరేమో కూడా.  ఇది సాధికారికంగా రాస్తున్న విశ్లేషణ కాదు, మనసుకు హత్తుకున్న కొన్ని పారిజాతాలను పరిచయం చేయటమే ముఖ్య ఉద్దేశం!!

ఒమర్ ఖయ్యాం కవితలలో అందం, భావుకత, సున్నితత్వం, జీవితం పట్ల మమకారం, ప్రేమ, ఎంతగా ప్రవహిస్తూ ఉంటుందో, అంతే నిండుగా, అంతర్లీనంగా, జీవితంలో ఏదీ శాశ్వతం కాదన్న వేదాంత ధోరణి, జీవితం పట్ల, అస్తిత్వం పట్ల ఆయనకున్న అపేక్ష అంత హాయిగానూ కనబడుతుంది.

ఒక మనిషిగా ఈ క్షణాన్ని అనుభవించటం ఎంత ముఖ్యమో, మనిషిగా బ్రతకటం ఇంకా ముఖ్యం, మనం ఎమీటో  తెలుసుకోటం ముఖ్యం, “శీతోష్ణ సమ సుఖదుఃఖేషు” అని తెలుసుకుని ఉండటం మానవాళికి అత్యంత అవసరం అని చెప్పకనే చెప్తునట్టు మనలోకి, మనసుల్లోకి, ప్రవహిస్తాయి ఆయన రుబాయత్ లు.

“A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,

A jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread – and Thou

 Beside me singing in the wilderness-

O, Wilderness were Paradise enow!”

జీవితాన్ని ఆనందించటం అంటే ఇదేనేమో అన్నంత భావుకత మనకు ఇక్కడ కనిపిస్తుంది.

ఓ పూతావి కింద, చేతిలో ఓ పుస్తకం, చెంతనే ఒక జగ్ ఆఫ్ వైన్, ఒక బ్రెడ్ లోఫ్, నిర్జనారణ్య ప్రశాంతతలో సంగీతాన్ని ఆలపిస్తూ నువ్వు, ఇదే కదా స్వర్గం...అనటంలో ఎంత అందం కనపడుతుందో...

“The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon

Turns Ashes - or it prospers; and anon,

Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face

Lighting a little Hour or two - is gone”

అనటంలోనూ అంతే భావుకత తొణికిసలాడుతుంది. ఐహిక ఆశలు పెట్టుకున్న మనుషులు,

వారి హృదయాలను ఏ కోరికలపై లగ్నం చేశారో, అవి సాధించవచ్చు- సాధించ లేకపోవచ్చు.

సాధించినా సాధించకపోయినా ఎడారిలోని ఇసుక మీద మెరిసే హిమ శకలం ఒక గంటా రెండు గంటలకు మించి ఉండనట్టు, మనం జీవితంలో సాధించినవీ, సాధించనివీ అన్నీ కరిగిపోతాయి!!! ఎంత అందంగా చెప్పారు “like snow upon the deserts dusty face lighting a little hour or two”….ఇది చదివితే గమ్యం ఏర్పరుచుకోటం తప్పుకాదు, గమ్యం కోసం అనవసర తాపత్రయం, సాధించానని గర్వం, సాధించలేదని నిస్పృహ లేకుండా.. ముందుకు వెళ్ళాలి అనిపిస్తుంది, ఎందుకంటే గమ్యం కూడా శాశ్వతం కాదు కదా? ఆ స్ఫురణ, ఒక ఈక్వానిమిటి మనిషికి ఎంత అవసరమో చాలా అందంగా చెప్పారు కదా అనిపిస్తుంది.

అలాగే,

“Think, in this batter’d Caravanserai

Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day,

How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp

Abode his Hour or two, and went his way.”

Caravanserai  అంటే ఒకప్పుడు ఎడారిలో ఉండే ఒక హోటల్ / సత్రం /లాంటిది అనుకోవచ్చు. చుట్టూ కట్టడాలు  ఉంటే, మధ్యలో ఓపెన్ ప్లేస్ ఉండేదిట. గుంపులుగా వచ్చే బాటసారులు (కారవాన్స్)  అక్కడ విడిది చేసి, అన్న పానాదుల తరవాత విశ్రాంతి తీసుకుని ముందుకు సాగేవారని అంటారు.

ఈ ప్రపంచం, అలాంటి ఒక విడిది ఐతే, ఇక్కడ ఉదయం, రాత్రి అనేవి తలుపులు. ఇక్కడ  సుల్తాన్ తరవాత సుల్తాన్ , తన సామ్రాజ్యాల్ని.  తన సంపదనీ, తన గ్లోరీనీ ..అన్నిటినీ ఒక గంటా రెండు గంటలు (ఇక్కడ గంట అన్నది జీవిత కాలం) అనుభవించి వెళ్ళిపోతాడు!!! ఏదీ శాశ్వతం కాదు ఈ ఎడారి ప్రయాణంలో ...అని ఎంత సున్నితంగా చెప్పారు?

“Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days

Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:

Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,

And one by one back in the Closet lays,”

ఆయన రుబాయత్ లలో చాలా ప్రముఖమైనది:

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on; not all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

పై రెండిట్లోనూ ఒక నిర్వేదం, ఒక సరెండర్ కనిపిస్తుంది. రమణ మహర్షి చెప్పినట్టు, జరిగేది జరక్క మానదు.. “Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.”  ఇలాంటి ఒక భావన మనకు పై పంక్తుల్లో కనిపిస్తుంది.

ఇలాంటి రస గుళికలు ఎన్నో ఈ రుబాయత్ లలో.  ఆయన పెర్షియన్ భాషలో ఇంకా అద్భుతమైన రచనలు చేశారని అంటారు. అవి ఇంగ్లీష్ లోకి తర్జమా అయ్యాయో లేదో తెలీదు. ఈ రుబాయత్ లలో నాకు చాలా చాలా ఇష్టమైన కుజా నామ “kuza nama” గురించి మరోసారి!!!

ఇక్కడ సరదాగా ఒమర్ ఖయ్యాం గురించి కొన్ని విషయాలు చెప్పుకోవాలి. ఆయన రుబాయత్ ల గురించి ప్రపంచానికి తెలిసినంతగా, మిగితా సంగతులు తెలియవు. ఆయన గురించి ఎక్కువగా తెలియనిది , ఆయన గణితంలో పండితుడనీ, ఒక సైంటిస్ట్ అనీ!! గణితంలో ఆయన రాసిన  “Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra” ఒక ప్రముఖమైన ఆవిష్కరణ గా చెప్పుకుంటారు. అలాగే ఆయన తయారు చేసిన (వెస్టర్న్ కాలెండర్ -365 డేస్ ఇన్ ఆన్ ఇయర్) జలాలి కాలెండర్, గ్రిగేరియన్ కాలెండర్ కంటే చాలా కరెక్ట్ గా ఉంటుందని చెప్తారు.

ఒమర్ ఖయ్యాం  గురించి  ఎడ్వర్డ్ ఫిట్జ్ గెరాల్డ్ గురించి Encyclopaedia Britannica లో పొందుపరిచిన వివరాలు:

“Omar Khayyam, Arabic in full Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Nīsābūrī al-Khayyāmī   (born May 18, 1048, Neyshābūr [also spelled Nīshāpūr], Khorāsān [now Iran]—died December 4, 1131, Neyshābūr), Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet, renowned in his own country and time for his scientific achievements but chiefly known to English-speaking readers through the translation of a collection of his robāʿīyāt (“quatrains”) in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859), by the English writer Edward FitzGerald.”

 Edward FitzGerald,  (born March 31, 1809, Bredfield, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, Eng.—died June 14, 1883, Merton, Norfolk), English writer, best known for his Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, which, though it is a very free adaptation and selection from the Persian poet’s verses, stands on its own as a classic of English literature. It is one of the most frequently quoted of lyric poems, and many of its phrases, such as “A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou” and “The moving finger writes,” passed into common currency.

నాకు నచ్చిన పుస్తకం - "Nothing by Chance" by Richard Bach.

Richard Bach, a true adventurist at heart with a deep passion for flying, and a much deeper passion for freedom, comes up again with a question: “Why?” and “What were the chances of this happening…?” in his book “Nothing by Chance.”

Richard Bach along with his two friends Paul and Stu sets out to go barnstorming. Bach flies   his “biplane” and his friend Paul flies the “Luscombe”. Stu is a student pursuing dentistry and passionate about parachute jumping. Barnstorming  according to Wikipedia is:

“Barnstorming was a popular form of entertainment in the USA in the 1920s, in which stunt pilots would perform tricks with airplanes, either individually or in groups called a flying circus. Barnstorming was the first major form of civil aviation in the history of flight.
The term barnstormer was also applied to pilots who flew throughout the country selling airplane rides, usually operating from a farmer's field for a day or two before moving on. "Barnstorming season" ran from early spring until after the harvest and county fairs in the fall.”    

Barnstormers were like “sky gypsies”, who flew to little towns and took passengers for joy-rides and made their money. They never had any destination. They flew with the wind and cloud, chose to go where they wanted to go, and landed where they chose to land. They were in a sense their own masters. They searched for the hay fields, landed their aeroplanes, gave joy-rides, made their money, and off they went! Bach was curious to know if this life style fits into present day systems, and if he could make a living out of barnstorming. Bach emphatically says:      “And I had wondered. Maybe those good old days aren’t gone. May be they’re still waiting now….May be we could find those days, that clear air, that freedom. If I could prove that a man does have a choice, that he can choose his own world and his own time to live in, I could show that high speed steel and blind computers and city riots are only one side of a  picture of living…a side we don’t have to choose unless we want to.”

Many people dissuade him from his quest. They tell him that barnstorming will not work out in Modern America. However Bach sets out along with Paul and Stu. He has to find his answers. It is the barnstorming season. The story is about their summer sojourn, their trials and travails. It’s all about flying, searching for hay fields to land, the pride of the freedom felt while airborne in a 1920 biplane with an open deck. It is about the mechanical snags they face, the marketing they do to attract passengers for a 3$ ride, the sky jumps, the day to day living they have to make, the joys and the troubles. Flying through different villages, Bach and his friends see the life in those remote villages, a totally different life in a different strata altogether. It is like knowing the soul of a country breathing in a relaxed manner. Then, as the summer comes to an end, Paul calls it a day and heads back to his place of living. Stu goes back to college. They have successfully completed barnstorming. They made their living through barnstorming during the season.

Bach says about their barnstorming:
“I knew now, without question, that the land of yesterday does exist, that there is a place of escape, that a man can survive alone with his airplane, if only he had a wish to do so. Milan had been good to me, and I was happy. But tomorrow it would be time to move on.”

Bach who is scheduled to go back to his place, finds himself in big trouble as his biplane crashes due to a technical snag. He lands safely, and takes the wreckage for repairs, supported by known and unknown people. After two years the biplane is ready to fly again. Bach sums up the biplane wreck with a simple question.

“…No freedom tasted, none of these strange affairs I called guidance to whisper that man is not a creature of chance, pointed into oblivion.”

“Which would I rather have - the wreck in the hangar or a polished piece of a biplane that flew only on calm Sunday afternoons?”

                                         *********************

 The story raises fundamental and core questions that are thought provoking - about life with its choices, and freedom of choices ever present before us. Bach uses the backdrop of slow paced country life (which is in total contrast to modern city life), to bring forth these questions and we can relate to the theme and the quest easily and instantly. 

The simplicity or the freedom to stop and smell flowers is represented by the life that is gentle, calm and peaceful where they land their aircraft. The sky is beautiful, spacious, all encompassing and there is a sense of luxury - luxury of time, luxury of choice, luxury of  space, of looking at the bright sun, vast blue sky, hues of twilight and the constellations in the clear nights, along with vast fields, water spots, hills and valleys and the green belts of land. He talks about good friends and the space they give each other. Life is simple, and there is a sense of freedom and joy that is uplifting and very gentle. Set in a simple narrative and a rather poetic style, Bach comes up with the most poignant questions of life. "Why?" and "What were the chances of this happening?"

These are the questions that plague every one of us, at one time or the other – specially, when things go wrong. We always stop to wonder why this has happened, or why we have to go through this.  Richard Bach comes up with his answers in a very simple manner.

  “At last, the answer why. The lesson that had been so hard to find, so difficult to learn, came quick and clear and simple. The reason for problems is to overcome them. Why, that’s the very nature of man, I thought, to press past limits, to prove his freedom. It isn’t the challenge that faces us, that determines who we are and what we are becoming, but the way we meet the challenge, whether we toss a match at the wreck or work our way through it, step by step, to freedom.”                                                                                                                                      “And behind it, ….. lies not blind chance but a principle that works to help us understand, a thousand "coincidences" and friends come to show us the way when the problem seems too hard to solve alone”.

These are probably not revelations!!!  Probably there is nothing new about these answers!! But this is his search for the meaning of life, and these are his answers. What is impressive is the way he puts forth his dreams and visions. What I like about the book is the freedom that is vibrant throughout the book. The freedom that always charms but eludes mankind, the freedom that everyone yearns for but which remains a distant dream. You can feel that freedom pulsating and inspiring throughout.

  

We choose to be what we are, by choosing to do whatever we do. Choices are made by us, nothing is thrust upon us, nothing ever happens by chance! To just live, or to be alive every moment, to be chained or to be free, to be what we want to be, or to be something we don’t want to be - everything is a matter of choice!!!

A perfect feel good and thought provoking book, and I enjoyed reading the same.   

  “Problems for overcoming. Freedom for proving.  And, as long as we believe in our dream,    nothing by chance.”

What an absolutely fantastic way, to end an absolutely fantastic book!!

         

తప్పక చదవాల్సిన కథ ..."తెగిన గొళ్ళాలు"

బమ్మిడి జగదీశ్వరరావు గారు రాసిన "తెగిన గొళ్ళాలు" కథ ముగింపు వాక్యాలివి:

"…..తలుపుల గొళ్ళాలు తెగలేదు.

కాని  ఎక్కడో మరేవో గొళ్ళాలు – అవి తెగిపోయాయి. "

మనుషుల అనుబంధాల గురించి చక్కగా రాసారు ఈ కధలో .
 

అక్క చెల్లెళ్ళ మధ్య బంధం ఎంత గట్టిదో,  అంతే మెత్తగా పుటుక్కుమని ఎలా తెగిపోతుందో బాగా చూపించారు.
 

రోజూ మన ఇళ్ళళ్ళో కనిపించే అతి సామాన్యమైన విషయాలే మనముందు ఉంచారు. కుటుంబ సంబంధాలు,  డబ్బు వల్ల కలిగే విభేదాలూ, అనురాగాలూ,ఆప్యాయతలూ ..ఇంతలోనే తెగి పోయే బంధాలు - బంధుత్వాలు. ఇంతే !

కానీ కథ చదివాక మాత్రం ఎందుకో "అయ్యో ఇలా ఎందుకయ్యింది?"  అనిపించక మానదు.

మంచి కథ కాబట్టే "రెండు దశాబ్దాలు  కథ 1990-2009" లో చోటు సంపాదించుకో గలిగింది ఈ కథ!

నాకు నచ్చిన పుస్తకం ! "The Kite Runner" By "Khaled Hosseini"

టైటిల్ మాత్రమె తెలుగు , రివ్యూ మొత్తం ఇంగ్లీషా ? అని తిట్టుకోకండి . అప్పుడప్పుడు ఇలా కూడా రాస్తే బావుంటుంది అనిపించింది. అందుకే పోస్ట్ చేస్తున్నను. ఈ  పుస్తకం నాకు చాలా చాలా నచ్చింది .
హృదయాన్ని కదిలించే నవల, అందరూ  చదవదగ్గ నవల అనిపించి పోస్ట్ చేస్తున్నాను .

“For me America was a place to bury memories. For Baba, a place to mourn his”. Amir.

I cannot really write anything in praise of this master, who is at his best when wielding words! (A doctor whose scalpel is Pen…)

I read earlier “A Thousand Splendid Suns” written by the same author and like every one I was moved by the story and the way it unfolded. It was like watching a movie with subtitles – you can see the words weave themselves into images and move across the mental frame…one reel after the other.

But this book is totally mind boggling!

What dramas we indulge in, in our day to day lives, just to get that small pat from someone we love?  What grave emotional baggage we carry, to get that small look of appreciation from our dear ones? Mr.Khalid Hosseini holds the strings of your heart and as the story unfolds, we travel with him through the myriad cervices of our internal being! The real persona behind the mask…the real, raw, brutal, self protective defense mechanism that we apply to walk out of unnerving situations! Pure love and friendship slipping away from between the fingers pitted against the life issues makes us wince at the unfairness of life. We are desperately trying to hold on to it and release it, all at the same time. Hassan and Amir are not characters out there. They are in our hearts and amidst us, and we see them every day in our lives. They are our representatives, our emotions and our fears and conflicts portrayed out there. They make us smile, question us, scare us and we shed tears for them, because somewhere deep down we know we can relate to them, one way or the other. They are so natural and truthful.

Amir shocks us with his personality. He is not a killer or a murderer. He shocks us with his ruthless meanness, his insomniac shame, his craving for father’s love, his displeasure with himself - his “not so manly” identity, his fears, his affections…..in drastic and dark contrast to the delightfully natural sunny side of Hassan. Hassan with his cleft lip breaking into a grin at the slightest reason…as if his heart is eternally broken into a smile.

One cannot resist and no one cannot keep the book down - the story is so beautifully told, and yet at the same time we tend to keep the book aside just to feel the brutal truthfulness and honesty of it all….the departure of Hassan and Ali in the sheets of rain “Slithering beads of rain sliced my window” sinisterly imposing and “I stepped back and all I saw was rain through window panes that looked like melting silver.” This is not a film, there are no superhuman, idealistic emotions here as the author rightly says. Life is real, courage is real, and fear of losing place in someone’s heart (especially if it is parental love that’s in question) is real. Amir goes through various situations craving for his father’s love, and a picture of sibling rivalry runs as an undercurrent throughout the novel, when he feels threatened that his servant “hazara – Hassan “ may be loved more by his father than himself. (The writer never allows us to  guess the truth. The story glides so beautifully that we will not presume anything.)  Amir’s feeling of inadequacy to fulfill the untold desire of his father, to be a picture perfect “man” in his father’s eyes always haunts him. His failure to be an athlete, a sportsman, a fighter in true spirit, brave and bold, gnaws Amir along with his instinctively feminine nature of being poetic, dreamy, lost in books attitude taunts him. The masculine and feminine aspects (Amir Looks at it with a child’s eye) are at loggerheads throughout his childhood. We empathize with Amir’s untold emotional traumas, but the meanness of him stops us from being too sorry for him. He never tries to do anything to prove his mettle …..Probably that is life in its general, normal way. There are no heroes here. There are only human beings.

While Baba seeks to protect a women co-passenger fleeing to Pakistan, from the Russian soldier, Amir says to himself: “Do you always have to be the hero? Can’t you just let it go for once? “And later on he thinks, “Sometimes, I too wondered if I was really Baba’s son.” The eternal confusion that Amir Faces with reference to his own personality is etched out through what Amir thinks about Baba vis-à-vis himself.

When they leave their native land to a safer place leaving behind everything, Amir feels sorry for his father and the writer puts it wonderfully: “My eyes returned to our suitcases. They made me sad for Baba. After everything he’d built, planned, fought for, fretted over, and dreamed of, this was the summation of his life: one disappointing son and two suitcases. “Amir’s disgust and unhappiness with himself is constantly brought to the fore by the author. Either through the eyes of Amir himself or through Amir’s interpretation of what his Baba thinks about him. Baba never openly says anything negative about Amir. The play of the characters is subtly portrayed.

The way Amir finally tries to take care of Hassan’s son, is the ultimate liberation for him, ultimate liberation from his nagging, taunting conscience that he failed to be a true friend of Hassan. One can write volumes about each and every character in this book. Baba, Rahim Khan, Hassan, Amir ….each and every character is amazingly sketched. Undoubtedly a “must read” kind of a book. It is no wonder so many people are eagerly waiting to read Khaled’s  next book “And the Mountains Echoed”.

I plan to watch the movie too, and I will post the review of the same soon…..the film review will be in Telugu!!!