'Life's damn weird re'

I couldn't agree more! Of course, I have my own reasons... Its been just over a month since it was 'Tadaa' to the village... and life's changed. Totally. I knew it would. Everyone told me it would. I didn't even realise it when it started changing... But that statement above just made me realise it.

Over 20 days in 'Corporate induction'. A desperate attempt by Mssrs Godrej Inc. to mold 40 individuals using their dies. Various terms flying thick in the air ... 'Economic Value Added' ... 'Total Quality Management' ... 'Theory of Constraints'... etcetra etcetra... There was this Outbound programme. Simple funda. Take 40 odd achievers and take them too a secluded place (pun not intended) where there is no mobile or net or any such communication mode. And then divide them into teams, make them play neanderthal games which require different aspects of teamwork and leadership, the 'facilitator' sits back and observes everyone and plays the cat and mouse psychological game with everyone about their teamwork skills etc... Was nice actually we had LOADS of fun... And I DID learn a few things!

The best revelation was the way all us engineer trainees bonded... And of course how the management grads bonded amongst themselves and then the senior-junior thing developed between us... It was almost like clockwork. I am sure it is not necessary that this would've happened with other people. But for sure... it got me thinking about one thing.

Is it a mold which helped us bond? What ARE experiences? Just die-casts? To put us into a mold? Just imagine... U don't feel connected to a person because you shared a nurse in the hospital as a baby or even because both of you pee-ed all over each other in pre nursery or your favourite toy in the play area was the same. You feel connected to them when you share moments and events in a stage in life AFTER you've started forming opinions. It starts right back when you think that Robocop is cooler than He-man ( or some pikachu crap these days). It moves ahead unto all the groups you fall into in the school days (Muggoos, fad chaps, sport guys and morons, of course). And then the common activities and simmering raw opinions you form about life make some of the best bonds. Most important of all these die-casts is that of the family. No other bond is as instantaneous as growing up in similar family systems (hostel life is but an extension). And of course, I'm going to steer clear of the effects of matters of the heart!

We have just been clearing cut-offs to fit into supposedly better casts? Wriggle through the shapes and contours of that cast... To be molded into a finished product. The rough edges being some of the few individualities left?

Will we end up as a suit?

Will I?

<...Shudder...>

Sahi mein... "Life is damn weird re!"

Aila!

Well,

I should've updated it earlier, but my quintessential lethargy, you know...

Life's O.K. . Joined Godrej Industries Ltd. at Mumbai. Its a 109 year 'young' company (ya ya that's company tempo crap). Pretty nice place. But I can't compare it with any other company as I don't have any experiences to benchmark it against. The area is pretty good... VERY green... which is again very unlike rest of Bombay.

Went to Ahmedabad for a weekend and caught up with dear old buddies. And almost did a few wild things! :D... But its difficult to go wild in ahmedabad.

Have had many amazing experiences which I have wanted to share here, but this crampy cyber cafe near the accomodation they have provided (which is very decent) isn't the place for long bouts of blogging. Wanted to write about Mumbai (obv!), the trains here, the party we had on the first day (I dined with Adi Godrej!! :D), IIT Vs IIT, and other crap that I normally spew out here...

The best part is the amazing set of people who have joined with me (that includes me too!). In a short span of 15 odd days we have gelled as if we've known each other for a few years or something! I guess all college hostel lives are the same... else by picking exactly like-minded people, Godrej's HR has proved its brilliant. But I have sincere doubts about the latter!!

Please pray that I can get a nice comfy comp with net to rave and rant on this page and consequently dodge the brickbats.

Which actually gets me wondering... Have any of you seen brickbats? Wht the hell are they? I know Bricks and I know bats... but what is a brickbat??? Hmmm... dekhna padega...

Keep jiving!!! :D

27 hours

Its 5 A.M.

There is a slight temperate breeze waltzing into my room. I walk out, stand in the corridor.

A small but lush green ground. A rarity in peak summer, brought about by the evening storms in the village.

A cricket pitch on the eastern side. The net is still hanging on it. The sun is a Red ball.

Already the warmth of the rising summer sun can be felt. There is a dampness in the air. I step down onto the grass. Its wet. Dew, you see.

A simple string quartet is playing in my room. The volume is high. As there is no one around whom I can disturb. It's the theme of 'October sky'. A story of one boy who inspired his whole community with his passion for what was considered out of his reach, Rocketry. The boy ended up in the design team of the Space Shuttle.

The music reflects the passion. The tremolos on the violin, the chords on the other strings and the build-up of the cello... All of them channel the protagonist's passion through notations.

It's been 5 years. 5 long years? 5 tumultous years? 5 unforgettable years? 5 joyous years?

It doesn't seem like 5 years. It seems like a lifetime. I don't remember the 16 year old who walked in with nothing more than a slight mix of desire, accomplishment and passion. Neither do I remember any of the latter two emotions. The desire remains. Accomplishment has been dragged into the mud and drained into the gutters. Passion was shot in the head. All it was looking for was a path to attach itself onto. Many were tried. Few were mistakes due to lack of talent. Few were thorny and hence were shunned. Few were blocked viciously. One lapped it up vigorously

5 years have left the 16 year old bereft of passion. The one thing he prided upon. Fool.

He'll live.

I try to remember some incidents. Strands of memory are stoked by nostalgia and flare up into salty drops just to be contained in time. Overwhelming. Now's not the time to think about it. Now's just the time to wonder... 'How?'

Too many thoughts. Too little time.

Its orange now. Quite bright. Can't look at it without squinting. The dew is long gone. It'll be warm soon. Already the birds are in full choral swing.

The last day.

Good Morning, My Village.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. R.K.Panda, Agriculture and Food engineering department for being a constant source of guidance. He has always been motivating me at critical points of the project.

I would like to thank Dr. B. C. Mal, Professor and Head, Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur for providing all the necessary facilities for the successful completion of my project. I also thank Prof. S.N. Panda, Prof. R.Singh, Prof. K.N.Tiwari, Prof.N.S.Raghuwanshi, Prof. M.K.Jha and Prof C.Chaterjee for their help and invigorating discussions.

I owe the warmest of thanks to my Parents, Mrs. Mythili Gopalan and Dr. A.K.S. Gopalan, who constantly supported me in all my endeavors and made sure the physical distance was not felt. I am grateful to my sister, Hema and her husband, Vijay for all the lighter moments during the period of this project. And I want to thank my niece, Ananya for being the light of my life. I owe a great deal to my family.

I thank all my wingmates and other close friends on campus for knocking sense into me on a regular basis. Heartfelt acknowledgements are due to Krishna and other friends back home too.

I am indebted to all who have been directly or indirectly involved in this project.

(A.G.Sudarshan)

May , 2006

P.S. Trauma is over. Thanks to the bold ones.

*Surprise!*

Its finally happened. It took us over 56 years and 3 months to do it. But we managed to do it. Surely you know what I am talking about? What else can I talk about? What else can every hot-blooded youth worth his salt talk about? Everyone I know has had 'the discussion'. In various forms, in various varying levels of emotions, but they've had it. I am just going a step further and registering my opinion in a sea of opinions which frankly speaking doesn't matter two annas.

See, my dear ladies and gentleman, it has taken just 13 articles (Articles 330-342) of the 444 articles in the constitution to kill the spirit of the sovereign secular republic of India. It was bound to happen. It was supposed to be a measure only for 10 years. But if you let some wolves smell easy prey and tell them that they have a time lock on the hunt, they certainly are not going to take it well. They are going to do what is in their power to catch hold of the jugular vein and ravage the innards of the prey to their satisfy their carnal instincts. That has happened. Why is there such a hullaballoo all of a sudden? Don't tell me all of us were so busy in the admiring the newly burnished land that is our India. Didn't you see it everywhere? When the Supreme court had to categorically state that 49.5 is the magic figure, that meant there were huge backers who would've given half their constituencies for the remaining 0.5%. When there was an embarrasing voice in our 'reformist' government which suggested the call centres should also shed some percentages , did you not see this shameful era being declared?


Well, we apparently did not. Hence all the spikes in instances of blogging by Indians (it took me out of my hiatus for one). Hence all the protests (both silent and vehement). Hence the media houses having their hands full to the brim. Everyone is oh-so-very-shocked. Even the bourgeoisie apparently has a talent for feigning suprise. Everyone wants to give in their $0.02 as often as possible. Some whohave taken the film 'Rang De Basanti' to heart feel this is their clarion call to revolution. I hope no bloke does something abysmally stupid as was potrayed on the screen. Many also apparently feel that the three letter abbreviation O B C was spawned by Ravana himself so that he can enjoy the slow but marked decadence that is creeping into the minds of the policy makers. "Reservations for truly deserving, economically bacward communities is fine, but OBCs are not them. OBCs are the progeny/fraternity/sorority of Lallu Yadav, Mayawati, Uma Bharti et al.". Tch Tch.


But one thing holds. Never before has the youth of this country felt so violated. Never before has it ever felt its future being traded for a few more zeros in front of wily swiss bankers. Where are our Meritocrats. The government, which is led by an economist and a rocket scientist suddenly has muted the voices that of its leaders itself. What do they feel? Do they see something that our inexperienced, easily ruffled minds do not? Why don't they share their profound thoughts with us?


Personally, I don't care if Arjun Singh declares that every alternate year IITs and IIMs shall play host to only to tribals from remotest corners of the country. Even if in the future, the glorious 50 years of these institutes, remind us only of all that could have been. Really. I don't care if the IIT/IIM/NIT/REC/AIIMS/NLS/NID names are dragged to the mud and every shine and every glimmer of hope for the nation that was once seen through them was smudged out. But as a citizen of the country, raised with the staple of essays and debate topics of 'Mera Bharat Mahaan' / 'Brain drain' / 'Unity in diversity' , I would just want our respected elders to grant us one wish.

Please let there be atleast one place in the country where foolhardy youth of my age can experience what we have experienced in these past few years. Just give few of them a refuge where it would just be Merit that mattered. A place with closed walls and open minds. Where everyone rubs shoulder with everyone else, without a grudge. Playgrounds rooted on 'equality of status' which would grow into symbols so magnificent that each would be a lodestone for the sea of talent that resides in this land.


Sounds familiar?

Incommunicado...

Blog suspended until further notice.

Bamboos ahead.

Sweden... Taiwan... USA... and India, of course

After facing the ravages of the Department of Agricultural and Food engineering for over 3 and a half years, of being threatened by professors, being de-registered and re-registered, of reporting to the HoD with a seemingly sorry face, of watching batchmates being flunked to maintain the pulse of the faculty's ego, I did the brave thing. I took both my courses outside the department (I still have to face the Grand viva and the Project eval). Both these courses are in the School of Management, in fields in which I want to build my forte in the future. Its not that such aspirations have made me attend more classes or take them more seriously or anything....

Today evening (5.30-7.30 pm) we had the class for Engineering Entrepreneurship.The professor is the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of IIT, Kharagpur. Yes, yes... we have one... I too found out only recently.Today the class was surprisingly full ( I assume if I could be there, anybody could) and a tad unruly. As the classroom lost all interest as the clock neared 7:30, the poor guy was trying hard to explain his slides (ironically, on motivation).

Finally after warning for a couple of times, he gets exasperated. Says: "Please behave yourself, and understand that this is the first time I am taking a course in India. I have previously taken many courses in Sweden, Taiwan and the US. This is the first time I am taking a course here, please behave yourself". At this point the students look at him incredulity of his statement and after it sinks in to them what he actually said, they don't even bother to understand it and start guffawing loudly. The poor man is hassled but still tudges on with his slides. And in one of the most ironical moments I have seen in classroom for any professor, the power goes out (later realised it went out in the whole campus).

Hahahaha... poor guy. Standing there... was just talking about India. And the wily one that she is, she gave him the taste of India. Thank goodness it was very dark, else one could've seen the redness in his cheeks as the students hooted and just left the class.

It'was soooo much fun!

----------------******---------******----------******---------******---------------------



As I was writing all this, wishing to potray initially how "It happens only in India" jingle still holds, C-125 sent me this article link. I am just copying the introductory paragraph:

America’s oldest institution of higher learning, Harvard University, will soon have India as a subject. And teachers will include visiting faculty members like Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Gardiner professor of history at Harvard Sugata Bose and Harvard Business School professor Tarun Khanna.

This sets me off laughing. Imagine the hallowed classrooms of the illustrious institution. In the darkened classrooms, the glow of the projector falls on the audience. They are being shown 'India' in a nice capsulated form. By the some of the shining sons and daughters of the nation. I wonder what they would learn... What would the lab be like? Would they have specimens?

"On your left is the stuffed specimen of Engineerias IITius. He (99% of the time, the specimen is male) mostly sleeps on whatever surface he finds, and can also go without food and sleep for extended periods of time when they spot Pandas with bamboos in their paws. Their pet fear is failure"

"On your right is Bloodsuckerus Netais. A species which thrives on other subordinate species. Mostly sports white colour garments, is led by a foreign bred species and finds indigenous uses for fodder and guns. Some large specimens has a fetish for shoes and may possess upto 600 pairs of various types."

"Next up is Cricketix Inditeamus. Clad in blue, these are amongst the most thriving of the species and is known throughout India's 1 billion fauna. A good number genetically advanced specimens of the Cricketix genus are from this country. In a recent experiment by Moronus Bccis (pronounced as: mOrOnus bitches), mixing up the team with a senior specimen from Cricketix Ausiteamus caused the latter to injure a finger in its paw."

Seriously, I really don't see what I can learn about other cultures from such classes. I am sure the grey hairs at Harvard would have their reasons. But I sure want to see the recording of such a class.

Why recording, you ask?? Why attend an extra class? :D


Mera Bharat mahaaan!



P.S.Damn! I wanted to make this a serious post about India and its perceptions.... but what the heck!

.

200 things that you might have done

Saw this in a few blogs... Liked it... Thought i'd put it up. Things I have done in Red. Things I have done similar to description in Green. And one particular thing I want to do in Blue.
Score are: 51 10 1

And this score is going to increase WAY more...


01.Bought everyone in the pub a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula.
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said ‘I love you’ and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game.
17.Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. Touched an iceberg
20. Slept under the stars
21. Changed a baby’s diaper
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. Watched a meteor shower
24. Gotten drunk on champagne
25. Given more than you can afford to charity
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment (Siggh... the librarian sure still remembers me)
28. Had a food fight
29. Bet on a winning horse
30. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
35. Held a lamb
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. Seen a total eclipse
41. Ridden a roller coaster
42. Hit a home run ('Match'-winning Six runs!)
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day
46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
47. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment (Yes, there was a time when...)
48. Had two hard drives for your computer
49. Visited all 50 states
50. Loved your job for all accounts
51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (10 bucks in my pocket... But was grinning all the
way!)
53. Had amazing friends
54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
55. Watched wild whales
56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip (Was over in a day...)
59. Rock climbing
60. Lied to foreign government’s official in that country to avoid notice
61. Midnight walk on the beach (Sat on teh beach with friends till late night)
62. Sky diving.
63.Visited Ireland
64. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
66. Visited Japan
67. Benchpressed your own weight
68. Milked a cow
69. Alphabetized your records (MP3 folders surely count)
70. Pretended to be a superhero (long time back... don't ask)
71. Sung karaoke
72. Lounged around in bed all day
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Scuba diving
75. Got it on to “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain
79. Gone to a drive-in theater
80. Done something you should regret, but don’t regret it
81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who’s not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered
your blog
83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better
84. Started a business
85. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
86. Toured ancient sites
87. Taken a martial arts class
88. Swordfought for the honor of a woman
89. Played Counter-Strike(& AOE & IGI & MOHAA & NFS & HL2) for more than 6 hours
straight
90. Gotten married
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone you shouldn’t have
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Gone without food for 5 days
98. Made cookies from scratch (Does cake count? While your helping your elder sis i.e. :D)
99. Won first prize in a costume contest (Was a ventriloquoist)
100. Ridden a gondola in Venice
101. Gotten a tattoo (Not permanent though, some stuff in goa...)
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on
103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
105. Got flowers for no reason
106. Masturbated in a public place
107. Got so drunk you don’t remember anything
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
109. Performed on stage (Yay!)
110. Been to Las Vegas
111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark
113. Had a one-night stand
114. Gone to Thailand
115. Seen Siouxsie live
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
120. Been on a cruise ship
121. Spoken more than one language fluently
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. Bounced a check
124. Performed in Rocky Horror
125. Read - and understood - your credit report (As of now, it is verrry simple)
126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
128. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named your own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
132. Called or written your Congress person
133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
134. …more than once? - More than thrice?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
137. Had an abortion or your female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
140. Wrote articles for a large publication
141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a seizure
143. Piloted an airplane
144. Petted a stingray
145. Broken someone’s heart
146. Helped an animal give birth
147. Been fired or laid off from a job
148. Won money on a T.V. game show
149. Broken a bone
150. Killed a human being (I wish)
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. Ridden a motorcycle ( Yeah baby! )
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100mph (greater than 100 kmph anyway )
154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol (NCC in 6th class :D)
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
157. Ridden a horse
158. Had major surgery
159. Had sex on a moving train
160. Had a snake as a pet
161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
164. Visited more foreign countries than Indian states
165. Visited all 7 continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167. Eaten kangaroo meat
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169. Been a sperm or egg donor
170. Eaten sushi
171. Had your picture in the newspaper
172. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime
173. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
174. Gotten someone fired for their actions
175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed your name
178. Petted a cockroach
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad (First book I issued in the CL... Forgot most of it though...)
181. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read (Will do this my whole life)
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed
them
183. …and gotten 86′ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
184. Taught yourself an art from scratch (Amateur greeting card making! :D)
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. Skipped all your school reunions
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language (Singapore-la!)
189. Been elected to public office
190. Written your own computer language
191. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
193. Built your own PC from parts (Love you, my super-problematic comp.!)
194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
195. Had a booth at a street fair(Some fete...)
196: Dyed your hair
197: Been a DJ
198: Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal
199: Written your own role playing game
200: Been arrested


P.S. Some of them have not been answered intentionally

When the skies were purple....

Sometime I wish I had been born in the medieval ages (latter half of the previous millenium) in Europe (or mebbe I already did and am really just longing for that lifetime). I love the no nonsense attitude that those people had. Everything was fixed in a person's life the moment he was born. As a peasant boy you could become and apprentice at some skill shop (like blacksmith etc) at best. Else you could serve as the servant of the Chef of the Esquire of the Baron of the friggin land. It was simple. No ambition required. You would have a rugged drunk as a father (so you wouldn't have to love him or respect him too much). Guys of my size would have made an excellent right-hand man of the wily bully up the street. And by the time I was 21, frequent fights would've made it unnecessary for me to have a dentist.

Also amazing is what I would have to do even if I was a member of the intelligensia. As an artist I would have to paint potraits of rich fat balding nobles and make them look like debonaire conquerors of yore else paint vivid potrayals of what today would be called PG-18. As a musician, I would write pieces as and when they struck me and dedicate them to people and places to gain money and glory (Bach's brandenburg concerts are an excellent eexample of this). Medicine would also be supremely lucrative. Setting a bone would have very simple instructions: Twist, pull, pivot the affected joint/ligament until there is a resounding crack. The side-advantage of medicine would be exploring new frontiers of medicine by experimenting with various herbs (if you know what I mean). Best would've been science. There was no perceivable way in which I would've been busy. My sole duty would've been to learn how old farts talk about the purpose of this world and the related metaphysics... of course, I would occassionally have to wait for the apple to fall on my head.

But, as I was telling Psycho and C-125 today, I personally wanted to be in the Emperor's Elite torture division. Any stupid idiot would be slapped just for the heck of it. And some morons could be hung from a tree by their arms and then beaten with an iron pestle... Ya just imagine... There is this tree just in front of my room... with two thick gnarled branches hanging out from either side... Two amazingly stupid imbeciles who dared to displease the Baron would be hanging from there.. One of them with his arms strung up to a branch and the other with his feet to the other. And me with the Iron pestle.

I know that by this point, the scene would've become very disturbing for many of you. Where as some of you repressed frustrated souls would actually want the pestle in your hand and the persons hanging there to resemble someone you know.

But as I said... I only wish I had been born in that age. Times when morons would not be suffered for the sake of decency.


Publisher's note: The author of this article is known to be a very gentle, loving and caring person. These thoughts potrayed above are, but just the manifestations of the dark undercurrents in his psyche. The publisher wishes to categorically state that the Author has never intentionally harmed any living soul. Except red ants... and them friggin mosquitoes. *cough cough* and the occassional mental strain on his wingies.

I know not who I am...

I know not who I am…
I know not who I am…

Nor am I the believer in the mosque
Nor am I in the rituals of the infidel
Nor am I the pure in the impure
Nor am I inherent in the Vedas
Nor am I present in intoxicants

Nor am I the lost, nor the corrupt
Nor am I union, nor grief
Nor am I intrinsic in the pure/impure
Nor am I of the water, nor of the land
Nor am I fire, nor air

I know not who I am…
I know not who I am…

Nor am I from Arabia, nor Lahore
Nor am I from the Indian city of nagaur
Nor a hindu, nor a turk

Nor did I create the difference of faith
Nor did I create adam and eve
Nor did I name myself

Beginning or the end, I know just the self
Do not acknowledge duality
There’s none wiser than I…

I know not who I am…
I know not who I am…

I am not moses or the pharaoh
I am not sleep or wakefulness
I am not fire or the wind
I do not stay in Nether
I am not inertia or travel


Who is this Bullah shah?

I know not who I am…
I know not who I am.



The sufi poet Bulleh shah was a resident of Kasur, Pakistan in the 17th-18th century. He wrote mainly in Punjabi


This is a translation of one of his works, which was given music by Rabbi Shergill, a newly successful singer
The translation was taken (painstakingly) from the music video.