I choose to live !!

Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live--that productive work is the process by which man's consciousness controls his existence, a constant process of acquiring knowledge and shaping matter to fit one's purpose, of translating an idea into physical form, of remaking the earth in the image of one's values
--that all work is creative work if done by a thinking mind, and no work is creative if done by a blank who repeats in uncritical stupor a routine he has learned from others
--that your work is yours to choose, and the choice is as wide as your mind, that nothing more is possible to you and nothing less is human
--that to cheat your way into a job bigger than your mind can handle is to become a fear-corroded ape on borrowed motions and borrowed time, and to settle down into a job that requires less than your mind's full capacity is to cut your motor and sentence yourself to another kind of motion: decay
--that your work is the process of achieving your values, and to lose your ambition for values is to lose your ambition to live
--that your body is a machine, but your mind is its driver, and you must drive as far as your mind will take you, with achievement as the goal of your road
--that the man who has no purpose is a machine that coasts downhill at the mercy of any boulder to crash in the first chance ditch, that the man who stifles his mind is a stalled machine slowly going to rust, that the man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap, and the man who makes another man his goal is a hitchhiker no driver should ever pick up
--that your work is the purpose of your life, and you must speed past any killer who assumes the right to stop you, that any value you might find outside your work, any other loyalty or love, can be only travelers you choose to share your journey and must be travelers going on their own power in the same direction.

Listening My Valid Concerns !

I looked at myself in the cruel reflection of the mirror

That image had looked back at me

Like a hoax in the glass as it stood silent

And I, as witness to its revelation, froze

In my vision lay the product of many years

A reminder without reason or rhyme

As if the purpose would remain unknown

A puzzle unsolved by my eyes

Left to the leisure of a future generation

I am the counterpart of a generation extinct

The modern equivalent lost and scattered

And I can only listen to my valid concerns

In the busy intersection of Babylon

A Legend Called ' Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan '

In 1993, a winter performance at the Gateway Theater in Chicago displayed all the ingredients of a typical rock concert: an endless, almost hypnotizing beat; hundreds of mesmerized individuals slavishly clap to the beat while dozens more dance in the aisles. But unlike a U2 or Pearl Jam show, this was a concert with a higher purpose — rejoicing in the grace of Allah.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a name which is neither well-known or well-pronounced by most Americans, is a pinnacle of success in southern Asia and many other parts of the world. Hailed by many as the Pavarotti of Pakistan, Khan is the world’s most celebrated qawwal. A qawwal is a specially-trained male vocalist who performs qawwali, a musical expression of devotional poetry practiced by the Sufis. The Sufis, an ancient mystical sect of Islam, achieve spiritual enlightenment through music, much like a Whirling Dervish achieves a higher state of consciousness through dancing.

In performing qawwali, the main vocalist sits with three other vocalists, two of which are playing harmonium pump organs. Behind them sit five other men: four who clap and sing as a chorus, and one who plays the tabla, the traditional drum of the Subcontinent. As the harmonium players begin to solo in the chosen key, the chorus and tabla player keep a steady beat. The qawwal and his other singers then sustain a passionate cry, calling the audience to order. Once the qawwal is ready, he begins the lyrics — often a praising of Muhammad or a tale of love.

Qawwali is performed in a simple verse-and-chorus format. The qawwal will continue each verse, trading off lines with the other singers. As each verse builds to a climax, they passionately return to the chorus, over and over again, for up to twenty minutes. Words are repeated until they lose meaning, leaving only the music and the spirit behind.
While traditional Qawwal is performed at Sufi shrines and weddings, Khan has brought the style to the West with wild abandon. Though other vocalists may have a stronger voice or greater range, it can be easily argued than Khan has the most passionate voice in the modern musical world.

To be in the presence of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is a mystical experience in itself. A short, heavy man, Khan sits on the stage with his party, made up of his younger brother Farukh, his nephew Rahat and half a dozen cousins. Waiting for the right moment to sing, he stares intently at the floor. His eyes close as he slowly gestures his hand in front of him, as if to say “The song is about to begin. Please join me and listen.” As the spirit of the music grows, his excitement grows — ever so slightly. Khan, now swaying his large, majestic torso back and forth, winces while his left hand flails in front of him. The hypnotized audience rests on each syllable of his words. Adoring fans dance to the stage and throw handfuls of dollars over him — over forty times last Friday alone — and he does not even acknowledge him. The music is too important to be distracted by several hundred dollars showering from above.

It is no surprise that Khan decided to become a qawwal, for his family has performed traditional Sufi music for over twenty generations. As he explained to me through a translator, “My family has been raising qawwals for over 600 years. I have been trained with it since I was very young. My father, who was also a qawwal, actually would have wanted wanted me to become an engineer or a doctor. Instead, I chose to follow the tradition under the apprenticeship of my father and uncle.” By choosing to follow the Qawwal tradition, Khan commits himself to more than the music — he commits himself to Sufism itself. His fans praise him like a gift, calling him The Master. He is known throughout the world as Shahen-Shah, the Shining Star. To compare his stature to even the greatest performers in the West would still be an understatement. Yet, he remains a humble servant to God, never allowing his fame to defeat his purpose.

When I went backstage to interview him during the intermission, he was sitting in a chair, surrounded by fans as they knelt on the floor. Not knowing how to act or how to address him, I also knelt before him in awe, looking up at the great Shahen-Shah. Before he addressed me, I turned to one of my translators and asked, “What should I call him?” fearing that there must be a proper term in his native Urdu. A young moustached man smiled and says, “Mr. Khan will do. He is, alas, only a man like you or I.”

Suddenly relaxed by this poetic, if not rehearsed response, I introduced myself. Khan, with an overwhelming smile planted on his baby face, shook my hand vigorously and offered me tea. As we conversed through three tag-teaming translators, Khan listened intently to my every word. He tried his best to understand my English — having recently moved to America as Artist-In-Residence of the University of Washington, Khan used our meeting as a chance to analyze his language skills. While he patiently worked his way through every word, I noticed a small case of lazy eye. As we finished, I am once again offered tea and a small somosa. I had feared an uncomfortable conversation with a saint. I enjoyed a conversation with an old friend instead.

“I cannot allow the fame to go to my head,” explains Khan. “Many have said I have compromised my faith by coming to the West. But this is not so. To travel the world and open the hearts of those whose were previously closed is a joy worth the other sacrifices.”

To live the life of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is by no means simple. In addition to his teaching duties at the University of Washington, Khan performs as often as possible. The Chicago concert, in fact, was literally a last minute affair, planned from start to finish in two weeks alone. The concerts themselves add to the toll; unlike most western concerts, qawwali performance continue until spiritual elevation is achieved. His recent appearance, which started around nine p.m., continued past one in the morning. “The touring is intense, but enlightening,” he admits. But the humble Khan refuses to complain: “Qawwal can never be seen as a chore.”

Though popular in Europe since the early seventies, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has only recently reached the ears of Americans. Much of this new-found success is due to his friendship with Peter Gabriel, who produced his last album, appropriately entitled Shahen-Shah, on Gabriel’s Real World label.

“I was first introduced to Peter Gabriel several years ago,” remembers Khan. “He had recently heard my voice and asked if we could meet. In 1987, he used my voice on his album Passion and the movie The Last Temptation of Christ in the scene where the Christ was raised unto the cross. Working with Peter is a great joy.”

Wrapped within a lifestyle of fanatical fans, never-ending tours and teaching the tradition, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan lives in a spiritual fast lane, not that unlike an American rock sensation. But for Khan, this is the only way he would have ever wanted. The Sufi credo teaches an ascetic lifestyle, achieving Allah through music and experience. From this life a paradise is born.

“To be a qawwal is more than being a performer, more than being an artist,” he notes with a stern, but wise smile. “One must be willing to release one’s mind and soul from one’s body to achieve ecstasy through music. Qawwali is enlightenment itself.”

Enlightenment, indeed, for all who may listen.

Remembering Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahab on his 63rd Birthday !!

( I am thankful to Andy Carvin for allowing me to post this article on my blog )

Why so tragic?

It is the fate of great achievements, born from a way of life that sets truth before security, to be gobbled up by you and excreted in the form of shit. For centuries great, brave, lonely men have been telling you what to do. Time and again you have corrupted, diminished and demolished their teachings; time and again you have been captivated by their weakest points, taken not the great truth, but some trifling error as your guiding principal. This, little man, is what you have done with World, with the doctrine of sovereign people, with socialism, with everything you touch. Why, you ask, do you do this?

I don't believe you really want an answer. When you hear the truth you'll cry bloody murder, or commit it. …

You had your choice between soaring to superhuman heights with Nietzsche and sinking into subhuman depths with Hitler. You shouted Heil! Heil! and chose the subhuman.
You had the choice between Lenin's truly democratic constitution and Stalin's dictatorship. You chose Stalin's dictatorship. You had your choice between Freud's elucidation of the sexual core of your psychic disorders and his theory of cultural adaptation. You dropped the theory of sexuality and chose his theory of cultural adaptation, which left you hanging in mid-air.
You had your choice between Jesus and his majestic simplicity and Paul with his celibacy for priests and life-long compulsory marriage for yourself. You chose the celibacy and compulsory marriage and forgot the simplicity of Jesus' mother, who bore her child for love and love alone. You had your choice between Marx's insight into the productivity of your living labor power, which alone creates the value of commodities and the idea of the state. You forgot the living energy of your labor and chose the idea of the state.
In the French Revolution, you had your choice between the cruel Robespierre and the great Danton. You chose cruelty and sent greatness and goodness to the guillotine.
In Germany you had your choice between Goring and Himmler on the one hand and Liebknecht, Landau, and Muhsam on the other. You made Himmler your police chief and murdered your great friends.
You had your choice between Julius Streicher and Walter Rathenau. You murdered Rathenau.
You had your choice between Lodge and Wilson. You murdered Wilson.
You had your choice between the cruel Inquisition and Galileo's truth. You tortured and humiliated the great Galileo, from whose inventions you are still benefiting, and now, in the twentieth century, you have brought the methods of the Inquisition to a new flowering. … Every one of your acts of smallness and meanness throws light on the boundless wretchedness of the human animal. 'Why so tragic?' you ask. 'Do you feel responsible for all evil?' With remarks like that you condemn yourself. If, little man among millions, you were to shoulder the barest fraction of your responsibility, the world would be a very different place. Your great friends wouldn't perish, struck down by your smallness.

Cynicism vs Romanticism

I guess festival days serves as a pretty reliable barometer of people's perception to the world around them.

Typically, there are two philosophies at play: those individuals who see the holiday as a painful reminder that their life is missing that special someone and those that use the opportunity to either celebrate an existing love or rekindle their hope that, as the classic tune goes, the best is yet to come.

At it's most basic level, these opposing views really break down into a question of cynicism versus romanticism.

There are those people that can't shake the suspicious feeling that the world around them is a dark, scary place brimming with greed, disease, corruption and ulterior motives.

And then there are those of us that choose to focus on all the amazing aspects of life, the existence of which can often be clouded by the indisputable, omnipresent darkness. This group retains faith in the inherent goodness of people, appreciates the seemingly ordinary magic of life and generally grips a hopefulness and eternal optimism that they carry with them no matter where life may lead.

Certainly, there are times when viewing the world through a romanticized lens can become a burden, and one may be tempted to give in to the negative peer pressure and adopt a less idealistic perspective.

Personally, I've often struggled with this and have doubted whether or not my romanticized persona was little more than a facade. Did I actually believe the wholly positive attitude I emoted or was I simply doing my damnedest to protect my sensitive, Aquarian nature from harm?

The answer is... A little bit of both. At a certain point, I know I did hide behind a cheerful demeanor - at least in some circles - as a form of self-denial and a way to keep my true misery masked from the judging eyes of the world at large.

However, the older I get, the more I have come to realize that my true Arjun-ness is in reality strikingly close to the enthusiastic behavior I so fervently flaunted in my adolescence. Of course, like anyone else, I have my moments of weakness and doubt, but I still rely on a romanticized foundation.

So often, I see people around me who seem miserable with their stagnant and unfulfilling lives. They get so caught up in the negative parts of life that cynicism begins to overtake their every thought. Who got the promotion I deserve? Why can't I lose weight? Why is my life so terrible?

It reaches a point where they lose all perspective in life... missing out on the people who love them, people who supported them in their darkest time, people who were punching bags for them, people who tried their best to make them happy, the little miracles of life and all the good fortune they've seen... until any shred of their child-like sense of wonder and amazement at life, love and all that entails is diminished to nothing more than the tiniest speck of light in an overwhelming darkness.

The more I think about it, the more it saddens me, but in this life, there's really only one spirit we can control: our own. So, despite a million reasons not to, I continue to rely on my light-hearted spirit to guide me, whether or not the people around me accept or recognize it.

Because, when it comes right down to it, that's all I have in life. It's literally taken me years to reclaim this attitude. I must accept this that people like ' Sparkle ' have always helped me in building such attitude and i am thankful for that. I have no intention of ever letting go of it again. No matter people come in my life, use me and move on with others but i know i have good spirits around me in form of aai, sparkle and more..

And, if my positivity somehow brightens up someone else's soul even a little bit, then I've done my part to make the world a better place, nudging romanticism that much further in it's never-ending struggle to overtake the cynical milieu that has a strangehold on our society.

How to handle BIG MOUTHS !!

We’ve all had run-ins with bossy and controlling personalities that think they know-it-all about everything. These people look for trouble before there is any. They think it’s their job to tell us what they know and give us a seminar while they’re at it. An hour or two in a room with big-mouth personalities might tempt us to run the other way and never return. But, what do we do if this narcissistic-type personality is a family member? Do we become a victim to their barrages? Do we cut off ties? Or, are there ways we can manage our relationship?

We can point out to them how what they say affects us, but certainly we can’t change them. When we’ve had enough and blown our fuse, these bullies resort to blaming us for being overly-sensitive. We can point out to them how what they say affects us, but certainly we can’t change them. When we’ve had enough and blown our fuse, these bullies resort to blaming us for being overly-sensitive.


Chances are, the way these big-mouths treat us, is the way they treat countless others. If they could just step outside and see themselves as others see them, they would be mortified, but something seems to prevent them from doing that. They have to be the only one in the room that is right and in control.

While big-mouth’s think they’re being helpful by offering unsolicited criticism or advice, we see it as dominance and disrespect. No one wants to live under the thumb of this type of person. So how do we deal with them?

- Limit our time. We can set boundaries such as the number of hours or locations we will be near them. We can reduce or eliminate email or telephone exchanges, meet in neutral locations that we can leave if necessary, only meet them if others are with us—generally limit conversation and encounters with them. (Like a dog protecting its turf, we will be out-matched while on the big-mouth’s turf, so we should be vigil when we are.
- Limit the amount of time they are in our domain. Never should we give big-mouths a key to our house or office, or welcome them for lengthy periods of time under our roof. During a visit, we can focus on activities where conversation, opinions and opportunity for criticism are minimized. We can take them out, or arrange for another person to take over entertaining them, to give ourselves a break.
- Keep information to ourselves. Offering too much information, gives more ammunition for a big-mouth to shoot us down. It’s unfortunate that big-mouths miss much about us because we have to edit ourselves
- Keep opinions to a minimum. Be prepared, that if we do have an opinion and express it, we may get seven back from the big-mouth, telling us why ours is wrong. Don’t walk into a trap!
Compliment them. There’s nothing a narcissists like more, than to feel important and liked. If we can put then in a good mood, they might decide not to attack. Look for something we have in common and comment about something good they do.
- Listen. When sharing our point of view doesn’t work, or when it is thrown back in our face, we learn it is better to say nothing. If we instead, listen to the big-mouth’s banter for as long as we can (without exploding), nodding every now and then, we give her what she wants—an audience. Listening doesn’t give big-mouths something to fight about. We have to just make sure we don’t absorb the garbage and stress unknowingly being dumped on us.
Use tactical responses. When big-mouths suggest something to us, we can respond by saying “that’s an interesting idea” and that we’ll think about it. We don’t have to take the advice at all (unless it’s good). We can later come back and say, “I thought about what you said, and I won’t be doing it, but it did help me make decisions about what I do want to do.

every office has a loud mouth
- Always come up smelling like a rose. It might help if we can see the big-mouth as a “special needs” person, who is not worth raising our blood pressure over. Being a peacemaker is much better than being a fighter.
- Take simple shots. Rather than copying the long-winded argumentative opinions big-mouths throw our way, we can toss out strategic comments that show we do know a thing or two. Simple shots are also effective in change the subject and doing damage control.
- Take a break. It may become necessary to leave the room when a big-mouth personality gets under our skin. We can excuse ourselves to the washroom, make a telephone call, run an errand, go for a walk, etc. Going out for a walk or getting fresh air can help relieve the pressure that’s been building up beneath us, providing stress relief as we release endorphins. (Don’t worry about leaving a big-mouth alone, she will know only too well how to take care of herself.)
We usually can’t change the behaviour of big-mouths, but we can change the way we deal with them. If we look for nuggets of truth in what they say, we may actually learn something from them.
- In most cases big-mouths are bombastic because they want to feel needed. They want to “help”, even if we don’t ask for it. By making others look bad, big-mouths make themselves feel good. They are stuck in a desperate circle of constantly trying to justify their worth with an inflated sense of self.
Unfortunately, all the good tactics in the world can leave us feeling like a doormat. We shouldn’t be afraid to defend ourselves, but unfortunately with these people it’s hardly worth the effort. Showing we are unaffected by the big-mouth’s blather, might give them a powerful message.
Whatever we do, it’s important to look after ourselves, our family, our mental health and our stress levels. We don’t need to become an on-going punching bag for a big-mouth know-it-all. If the relationship is excessively toxic, it is better to distance ourselves or terminate the relationship.