Shaikh Chilli - A Story

Every language has its own stock characters to make the reader laugh.
Shaikh Chilli is the jester for Urdu
Here is a sample story of the inimitable Chilli!

‘She Told Me Herself’

One day when Shaikh Chilli was away from home some mischief-maker went to his wife and told her that he had died. His wife and children began to cry, and his wife took off her ornaments and began to wail in lamentation,‘Alas! I am widowed. Alas! my children are orphaned.’

While this was happening Shaikh Chilli returned home. Seeing that his whole family was crying he too began to cry. The sound of their crying brought all the neighbours round to ask what had happened. Shaikh Chilli did not know, so he asked his wife. She said,‘Someone told me that you had died and I was a widow.’ He, still weeping, repeated these words to the neighbours.‘My wife has been widowed!’ One of them said,‘What nonsense are you talking? You’re here—alive and well, fit and strong. How can your wife be a widow?’ He said,‘I may be well and strong, but my wife told me herself that she was a widow. How can I doubt her word?’

Ghalib ko Salaam

baazeecha e atfaal hai duniya mere aage

hota hai shab o roz tamaasha mere aage

बाजीचा ए अतफाल है दुनिया मेरे आगे

होता है षब ओ रोज तमाषा मेरे आगे

The world is but a game that children play before me,

A spectacle that passes night and day before me.

Salaam to the Shair who knew what he was doing and did it, though the world scorned him!

Film Poster 4

Can you believe NTR's name appears at the end of the star list.

Raghuramayya was the Hero!

More information on this film welcome.

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Can Science be fun?

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Madilona Yochana - Tyagaraja

Shravanam with a rare song.

Madilona Yochana buttaleda of Tyagaraja

(Did a thought not occur in mind questions the bard!)

Ragam Kolahalam

pallavi

madilOna yOcana puTTa lEdA
maharAja rAj(E)SvarA

---

anupallavi

padi vEsamulalO rAma vEsamu
bahu bAg(a)nucu kOru nannu brOva (madi)

---

caraNam

iTTi vELa nIdu maTTu jUpum(a)ni
illAlu nItO muccaT(A)DadO nA
raTTu nI manasuk(e)TTu tOcenO
rakshincuTaku tyAgarAja nuta (madi)

ప. మదిలోన యోచన పుట్ట లేదా
మహరాజ రాజేశ్వరా

అ. పది వేసములలో రామ వేసము
బహు బాగనుచు కోరు నన్ను బ్రోవ (మది)

చ. ఇట్టి వేళ నీదు మట్టు జూపుమని
ఇల్లాలు నీతో ముచ్చటాడదో నా
రట్టు నీ మనసుకెట్టు తోచెనో
రక్షించుటకు త్యాగరాజ నుత (మది)

ப. மதி3லோன யோசன புட்ட லேதா3
மஹராஜ ரா(ஜே)ஸ்1வரா

அ. பதி3 வேஸமுலலோ ராம வேஸமு
ப3ஹு பா3(க3)னுசு கோரு நன்னு ப்3ரோவ (மதி3)

ச. இட்டி வேள நீது3 மட்டு ஜூபு(ம)னி
இல்லாலு நீதோ முச்ச(டா)ட3தோ3 நா
ரட்டு நீ மனஸு(கெ)ட்டு தோசெனோ
ரக்ஷிஞ்சுடகு த்யாக3ராஜ நுத (மதி3)

Thanks to all the sources for the material used in this post.

Removing the Rubbish - A Story by Sadi

WHEN THE YOUNG TRAVELER got off the boat, they saw that he looked so wise, devout and humble that there was only one place at which he could possibly stay.

They deposited his luggage at the monastery. There the youth was made welcome by the pious community.

One day the head of the community said to the youth:

‘Would you please sweep the rubbish away from the mosque?’

That was the last they saw of him. All were puzzled, but decided that he had no aptitude for work.

But next day, one of the servants of the community happened to catch sight of the youth, and stopped him.

‘It was foolish of you to go off like that,’ he remarked. ‘Don’t you know that it is only by service that you climb the ladder?’

At this the youth wept.

‘Oh my friend,’ he cried, ‘what could I do? I looked around and the place was spotless. I therefore concluded that the head of the community was referring to me! I removed myself so that the place should remain pure and spotless.’

Old Chinese Poetry

Man is the same everywhere.
Old Chinese poetry illustrates the fact.
Don't we have similar poems in our languages too?

What is written in Chinese in the image has no connection to the article here 

The Odes represents those of peasants—perspectives not seen in Zhou inscriptions. In addition to the view seen from the top, the Odes also includes songs showing ordinary people at work: the men clearing weeds from the fields, plowing, planting, and harvesting; the girls and women
gathering mulberry leaves for the silkworms, making thread, and carrying food
hampers out to the fields for their men to have lunch. There is much about millet—
both the eating variety and that used for brewing wine for use in rites. There
are joyful references to granaries full of grain and to the men gathering thatch for
their roofs in the off-season. Mention is made of lords’ fields and private fields, and
a bailiff is referred to, but the details of the system are not provided. There are also,
more strikingly, odes of political protest. One compares tax collectors to big rats:

Big rat, big rat,

Do not gobble our millet!

Three years we have slaved for you,

Yet you take no notice of us.

At last we are going to leave you

And go to that happy land;

Happy land, happy land,

Where we shall have our place.

Another tells of the hardships of military service: men constantly on the march,
living in the wilds like rhinoceroses and tigers, day and night without rest. Sometimes
a soldier survives the hardships and dangers of war and returns home only to find
that his wife has given him up for dead and remarried. Consider the following:
We plucked the bracken, plucked the bracken;

While the shoots were soft

Oh, to go back, go back!

Our hearts are sad,

Our sad hearts burn,

We are hungry and thirsty,

But our campaign is not over,

Nor is any of us sent home with news.

Still other odes give us glimpses of the day-to-day hardships of Zhou peasants,
who lived at the mercy of what was becoming an increasingly inhospitable
environment:

The drought is long and deep,

Parched and barren in the landscape.

The drought demon is vicious

Like a burn, like a blaze.

Our hearts are tormented by the heat,

Our grieved hearts as if aflame.

The former ministers and their lords,

Even they do not hear our plea.

Mighty Heaven,

God on High

Why do you force us to flee?

In addition to royal and peasant perspectives, the Odes is also famous for its
love poetry, which often reveals a feminine perspective:
In the wilds, a dead doe.

White reeds to wrap it.

A girl, spring-touched:

A fine man to seduce her.

In the woods bushes.

In the wilds, a dead deer

White reeds in bundles

A girl like jade

Slowly. Take it easy.

Don’t feel my sash!

Don’t make the dog bark!

The feminine perspective in ancient China could be quite erotic or even ribald,
as this ode reveals:

That the mere glimpse of a plain cap

Could harry me with such longing,

Cause pain so dire!

That the mere glimpse of a plain coat

Could stab my heart with grief!

Enough! Take me with you to your home.

That a mere glimpse of plain leggings

Could tie my heart in tangles!

Enough! Let us two be one.

To be sure, with these odes, as with all poetry, much depends on the vision of
the translator and interpreter. For Liu Wu-chi, the ode tells of “the tragedy of
love.” In the mind of another contemporary scholar, Wai-lim Yip, the first ode
cited in the last paragraph is an “animated pastiche of a lovely rural
inducement song.

Old Indian Story

This is supposed to be a story told to a British Child by his Ayah.
He was the son of an officer and later wrote all the stories he heard into a book.

THE VORACIOUS FROG.

HERE were a rat and a frog. And the rat said to the frog, “Go and get me some sticks, while I go and get some flour and milk.” So the frog went out far into the jungle and brought home plenty of sticks, and the rat went out and brought home flour and milk for their dinner. Then she cooked the dinner, and when it was cooked she said to the frog, “Now, you sit here while I go to bathe, and take care of the food so that no one may come and eat it up.” Then the rat went to take her bath, and as soon as she had gone the frog made haste and ate up the dinner quickly, and went away.

When the rat came back she found no dinner, and she could not find the frog. So she went out to look for him, calling to him as loudly as she could, and she saw him in the distance, and overtook him. “Why have you eaten my dinner? Why did you go away?” said the rat. Said the frog, “Oh, dear! it was not I that ate your dinner, but a huge dog that came; and I was only a tiny, tiny thing, and he was a great big dog, and so he frightened me, and I ran away.” “Very well,” said the rat; “go and fetch me more sticks while I go for flour and milk.” 

So the frog went out far into the jungle and brought back plenty of sticks. And the rat went to fetch flour and milk. Then she lit the fire and cooked the dinner, and told the frog to take care of the dinner while she went to bathe. As soon as she had gone, the frog ate up all the dinner, and went away and hid himself. 

When the rat came back she saw no frog, no dinner. She went away into the jungle and called to him, and the frog answered from behind a tree, “Here I am, here I am.” The rat went to him and said, “Why did you eat my dinner?” “I didn’t,” said the frog. “It was a great big dog ate the dinner, and he wanted to eat me too, and so I ran away.” 

The rat said, “Very well. Go and fetch me some more sticks, and I will go for flour and milk.” Then she cooked the dinner again and went to bathe. The frog ate up all the dinner, and went away and hid himself. When the rat returned she saw no dinner, no frog. So she went far into the jungle, found the frog, and told him that it was he that had eaten the dinner. And the frog said, “No,” and the rat said, “Yes.” And the frog said, “If you say that again, I will eat you up.” “All right,” says the rat, “eat me up.” 

So he ate her up and sat behind a tree, and the baker came past. The frog called out, “Baker, come here! come here! Give me some bread.” The baker looked about everywhere, could not see anybody, could not think who was calling him. At last he saw the frog sitting behind a tree. “Give me some bread,” says the frog. The man said, “No, I won’t give you any bread. I am a great big man, and you are only a little frog, and you have no money.” “Yes, I have money. I will give you some price, and you will give me some bread.” But the man said, “No, I won’t.” “Well,” said the frog, “if you won’t give me bread, I will eat you up first, and then I will eat up your bread.” 

So he ate up the man, and then ate up his bread. Presently a man with oranges and lemons passed by. The frog called to him, “Come here! come here!” The man was very much afraid. He didn’t know who had called him. Then he saw the frog, and the frog said, “Give me some lemons.” The man wouldn’t, and said, “No.” “Very well,” says the frog, “if you won’t, I’ll eat you up.” 

So he ate up the man with his lemons and oranges. Presently a horse and his groom went by. The frog says, “Please give me a ride, and I will give you some money.” “No,” said the horse, “I won’t let you ride on me. You are like a monkey,—very little—I won’t let you ride on my back.” The frog said, “If you won’t, I’ll eat you up.” Then the frog ate him up, and his groom too. Then a barber passed by. “Come and shave me,” says the frog. “Good,” says the barber, “I’ll come and shave you.” 

So he shaved him, and he thought the frog looked very fat, and so as he was shaving him he suddenly made a cut in his stomach. Out jumped the rat with her flour and milk—the baker with his bread—the lemon-seller with his oranges and lemons—the horse and his groom. And the barber ran away home. And the frog died.

Film Poster 3

Famous Chittor Nagayya is the hero!
None other than M S Subbalakshmi is Heroine!
Film is Meera!
Announcement is in Telugu, but the film is in Tamil!

Peanuts 1952

Charlie Brown is older than me!
Oh! Boy!!

Note the date at the bottom of the cartoon.

( Click to see it bigger )

Ragi tandirya - Purandara

Shravanam goes to Kannada.

This is one more song that haunted me for long.
It has many charanams.
I am unable to get the full text.

Many people have sung it many tunes.
Best was by a cook at Kanchipuram!

Here I get you the version by Sri R K Srikanthan Sir!

Ragi Tandirya - Punnagavarali

The meaning of the song is profound as much I understand.

Kannada friends should come up with good commentary!

Contemporary Painting

Is it a painting?

Yes!

Film Poster 2

Did you know about this film?
I did not till the other day!