Sunday, February 19, 2012

You were…

Not just another translation of shayari. You will find out why! Read on (after going through the tab ‘Shayari’ above and profusely expressing my gratitude to DQ):

ज़िंदगी यूं थी की जीने का बहाना तू था
हम फ़क़त ज़ेब-ए-हिकायत थे फ़साना तू था

Zindagi yuun thi ki jeene ka bahana tu tha
Hum faqat zeb-e-hikaayat the, fasaana tu tha

Life was such that the excuse to live, you were
I was a mere narrative; the epic tale, you were

हमने जिस जिस को भी चाहा तेरे हिज्राँ में वो लोग
आते जाते हुए मौसम थे ज़माना तू था

Humne jis jis ko bhi chaaha tere hijraaN mein wo log
Aatay jatay hue mausam the, zamaana tu tha

Everyone I liked in your absence, they were
Akin to flitting seasons; the world, you were

अबके कुछ दिल ही ना माना के पलट कर आते
वरना हम दरबदारों का तो ठिकाना तू था

Ab ke kuch dil hi na maana ke palat kar aate
Warna hum darbadaron ka to thikaana tu tha

My heart didn’t agree to return back this time
Else for homeless like us; the abode, you were

यार-ओ-अगियार की हाथों में कमानें थी फ़राज़
और सब देख रहे थे कि निशाना तू था

Yaar-o-agiyaar ki haathon mein kamaanein thi Faraz
Aur sab dekh rahe the ki nishaana tu tha.

All the friends and foes had bows in their hands, Faraz
And everyone was aware of the target, which you were

-अहमद फ़राज़ (Ahmad Faraz)

वाह वाह! (waah waah!) Just brilliant! Sheer beauty!

The last sher took me a while to understand in the original form but the way I’ve translated it is more like a spoiler and does a huge injustice to the original. Well, that was expected I guess.

Meet the master now:

Ahmad Faraz

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine’s Day

This post may seem like a repeat of the 2010 post but sadly it’s not!

My superpartner insisted that she’ll translate a Bengali song for – I forget which – me or my blog. Ignoring such subtleties, she accomplished just that sometime ago and am making a blogpost out of it. Considering her knowledge of Bengali is as good as my knowledge of Cricket, one of her friends (S) did a good job at translating the song. I also did a good job at editing the translation since I indulge in translating stuff myself!

The format for this post is different from that mentioned in the tab “Shayari” above because I can not read / write the Bengali script. So I’ll just present the Roman transliteration and English translation. (No comments as I didn’t do the translation.) Here we go:

Je kota din tumi chhile paashe
Ketechhilo noukar paale chokh rekhe
Amar chokhe thonte gaale tumi lege aachho

The few days that you were by my side
Passed by looking at the boat's mast
Your presence lingers in my eyes, lips and cheeks

Jetuku rod chhilo lukono megh diye
buni tomaar shaale bhalobasa
Amar angule haate kaaNdhe tumi lege achho

The few sunrays that were hidden by clouds
I knit them along with my love in your shawl
Your presence lingers in my fingers, hands and neck

Tomar nokher dogaye tibro premer maane
Amio galpo sajai tomar kaane kaane
Takiye thaki hajar porda ora bikel
Shahar dumre muchre thakuk anyodike
Traffic-er ei cacophony amader swapno chushe khaye!

The meaning of love is on your nail-tips
And I whisper stories in your ears
Staring at the thousands of curtains blowing in the afternoon
Let the destructive city stories remain on the other side
The cacophony of traffic sneaks into our dreams

Jebhabe joldi haat mekhechhe bhaat
Notun alur khosa ar ei bhalobasa
Amar deyal-ghorir kaantay tumi lege aachho

Just like the way a fast hand has mixed rice
With fresh potatoes, your love has stuck to mine
Your presence lingers on the hands of my wall clock

Jemon joriye chhile ghum ghum baraph paashe
Amio khunji tomay amar ashe-pashe
Abar sondhyebela phire jaoya jahaj banshi
Bukhe pathor rakha mukhe rakha haasi
Je jaar nijer deshe amra srot kurote jaai

As if you were stuck to my sleepy ice-cold side
I search for you here and there beside me
The music of a returning ship's whistle in the evening
Stone at my heart but smile at your face
We go to discover our roots in our own countries

And then the repeats of sentences with lingering sentiments follow… Anyway, am Glad it ended. If you want to know more about this song,

Help yourself

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Come On…

Be Consistent!

That’s what I wanted to shout out in someone’s ears after the following happened! [Again, no words needed but due to complaints from one reader, will sneak in a few words this time… Smile]

Shot 10 photos in Panorama mode from the bridge part of Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA:

Mass. Ave. I Mass. Ave. II Mass. Ave. III Mass. Ave. IV Mass. Ave. V Mass. Ave. VI Mass. Ave. VII Mass. Ave. VIII Mass. Ave. IX Mass. Ave. X

Back at home, imported them in MICE and it gave me this preview of the stitched panorama:

MICE Preview

Look at the photos numbered II & III above and compare those to the left side of the stitched MICE preview! Do you see that? MICE removed the ‘spurious’ cars from the panorama and put the railings there. This sort of advanced retouching is expected of Photoshop but what MICE has done here on its own is simply amazing, brilliant, cool, damn-e-f-good or whatever adjective you wish to use.

Also, I just noticed that Windows Live Writer automatically hyperlinked the first occurrence of MICE (which I’ve instructed it to do) but not the repeats (that would be ridiculous) of the word, which is again some nice adjective worthy job! I want to say “Keep it up!” to the programmers at Microsoft but not just yet as this topic was a digression. Let’s get back to the photo-job.

So after seeing the nice preview, I obviously wanted to flaunt MICE’s ability to stitch a panorama intelligently and hit “Export to disk…”. After about 20 minutes of saving the file, I was presented with this:

Abomination

Now you are welcome to utter some foul adjectives at the MS programmers on my behalf. But, let’s not go overboard; MICE did do a good job for another set of photos:

Skyline Panorama

Saturday, February 4, 2012

In Sync?

No words needed!

Dual .pdfs

Dual .xmls

Duality

After Refresh

Recently, people landed on one of my posts searching for how to set table for Indian food! Amusing, was there some sort of Indian food appreciation day in Europe or something? Who knows and who cares?

How to set table for Indian food?