Why this blog is called "Gallimaufry".

gal-uh-MAW-free\, noun.

Originally meaning "a hash of various kinds of meats," "gallimaufry" comes from French galimafrée; in Old French, from the word galer, "to rejoice, to make merry"; in old English: gala + mafrer: "to eat much," and from Medieval Dutch maffelen: "to open one's mouth wide."

It's also a dish made by hashing up odds and ends of food; a heterogeneous mixture; a hodge-podge; a ragout; a confused jumble; a ridiculous medley; a promiscuous (!) assemblage of persons.

Those of you who know me, will, I’m sure, understand how well some of these phrases (barring the "promiscuous" bit!) fit me.

More importantly, this blog is an ode to my love for Shimla. I hope to show you this little town through my eyes. If you don't see too many people in it, forgive me, because I'm a little chary of turning this into a human zoo.

Stop by for a spell, look at my pictures, ask me questions about Shimla, if you wish. I shall try and answer them as best as I can. Let's be friends for a while....

26 March 2010

You are my hidden treasure... my cross, my dampened pain...

This post is inspired by, and therefore, dedicated to my old friend and soul-sister Ranjani. Our shared love of Urdu poetry goes back to the time when we were teenagers. At that time, as students in Srinagar (Kashmir) we would scribble our favourite lines on the last pages of each other's notebooks.
Last evening Ranjani called me, frantic, because a fragment of a ghazal she's loved for long was stuck in a corner of her mind. She couldn't remember all its words and wanted me to look it up for her, for she knew that the poet is someone very close to my heart: Ahmed Faraz. It was with the greatest of pleasure that I pulled out a pile of books from my poetry shelf...
Serendipity!
This ghazal had been published as a part of Faraz's collection of ghazals and nazms called "Khanabadosh".

Read it and revel as I do in the felicity of Faraz's pen.
Thank you, Ranjani.

Kya aise kam-sukhan se koii guftagoo karey
jo mustakqil suuqoot se dil ko lahuu karey

Ab to humein bhi tarq-e-maraasim ka dukh nahi.n

par dil yeh chaahta hai ki aagaaz tuu karey


Tere baghair bhi to ganeemat hai zindagi

khud ko gawaa.n ke kaun teri justajuu karey


Ab to yeh arzoo hai ke wok zakhm khaiiye

taa-zindagi yeh dil na koii arzoo karey

Tujhko bhulaa ke dil hai woh sharmind-e-nazar

ab koii hadsaa hi tere rubaroo karey


Chupchaap apni aag mein jalte raho 'Faraz'

duniya to arz-e-haal se be-aabroo karey




6 comments:

Ranjani Mitra said...

Really beautiful.........book publish karaaaaaaaaaa

Ranjani Mitra said...

The way you write, it touches my heart........
Love you my soul mate.......

Geetali said...

Thanks, dear girl. After you!!!

Anonymous said...

G:
I am *not* stalking you, only genuinely loving your blog.
S.

CHINAR SHADE said...

beautiful and great poetry of ahmed faraz

Geetali said...

S: YAdmit it, you like stalking me :)

Autar-ji, thank you.

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