Satyapal Anands Column and its Reply

Never insist on proving your point
BY PROF SATYAPAL ANAN

Never insisit on proving your point

BY PROF SATYAPAL ANAND

I used to brag about myself a lot. Whenever, in a meeting or a social gathering, some people gathered around me and I was expected to give my opinion about a matter, I would always begin with my ‘shining’ autobiographical details. Gradually (and painfully) I learnt that this was the surest way of alienating people. Jo zarra jis jagah hai, wahin aaftab hai, says the Urdu proverb. A dust particle,wherever it is, is in itself a sun.
So I reached the conclusion that humility and inner peace go hand in hand. The less compelled one is to try to prove oneself to others, the easier it is to feel peaceful inside. It is a dangerous trap to prove your point. It
takes an enormous amount of energy to be continually pointing out your accomplishments, bragging, or trying
to convince others of your worth. Bragging actually dilutes the positive feelings you receive from an accomplishment or something you are proud of. To make matters worse, the more you try to prove your point, the more others will avoid you, talk behind your back about your insecure need to brag, and perhaps even resent you.
This resentment about my renown (or whatever you might call it!) in the world of Urdu letters has recently
prompted a group of ruffians known for their mean tactics to defame celebrities.
One of them took a video openly placed on YouTube for people to enjoy my poetry reading,
tempered with it to cut out portions and then displayed only those parts in which I am shown reciting a few couplets.
These Urdu couplets were from my old dear friend (now departed) Ghulam Mohammad Qasir from Peshawar.I was charged openly in an article published in a single-sheet Urdu newspaper for reciting these couplets as my own. Firstly I laughed the matter away. But then someone who edits the literary gup-shup page in AAJ, Peshawar followed with the same charge and put it on the internet. The dear-departed
friend Qasir was a part of the large group that included Khatir Ghaznavi, Arbab Yusuf Rija Chishti, Faraz, Mohsin Ehsan,Zahur Ewan, (all are no more alive), and some of us in the Western world like Dr. Amjad
Husain, Irshad Siddiqui, Atteeq Sahib, Yunus Sabir, and a couple of others.What do I do with these
“Adabi Dehshat-gard” people? Just forgive them because they would be quiet after they have done with their charges – or may continue with it for a while more. Imagine some one like me who has a sixty-year long literary career, 40 published books in four languages, a university professor,“stealing” someone’s two Urdu couplets and presenting on the stage without saying whose couplets they were – and then being charged that he has read them as his own! Laugh you may, but there is a serious side to it also. I gradually discovered
that people are drawn to those with a quiet, inner confidence, people who don’t need to make themselves look good, be “right” all the time, or steal the glory.
Most people love a person who doesn’t need to brag, a person who shares from his or her heart not from his or her ego. Years ago, while flying from London to Delhi I had a seat to share with an elderly couple who were conversing in chaste Urdu.
Since they were busy in themselves,I sat quietly and then took out an Urdu magazine from my handbag and started reading it. After some time, I felt their inquisitive eyes focused on me.
Then the husband politely asked me, “Do you know Urdu, sir?” I smiled and said, “Well, I do….I love Urdu.”
The conversation rested at that point and I kept on reading the journal till I came to a page where one of my poems was published with my photograph and my name. I was about to turn the page when I found the
man’s hand on my hand. “Don’t turn the page, Doctor Anand, Let me read your poem.”
I gave the magazine to him. He said almost reverently, “I knew all the time that I had seen you some where….and then when I saw your picture I discovered that I had never seen you in person, but only in
pictures…I mean your pictures in Urdu magazines.”Slow learner that I am, let me confess that all my life I have been a bragger, and it was only a few years back that I learnt the art of good judgment and humility. So, O my readers,
take a cue from my mistakes and never insist on proving a point in a social group. Try humility.

(Canadian Asian News,December 15-31, 2011 Page 24)

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Special NOTE by the Blogger

comments about the column

SPECIAL NOTE BY THE BLOGGER
comments about the column

"The matter was very simple that Satyapal Anand had recited two famous couplets from Mr. Ghulam Muhammad Qasir’s ghazal in a literary recitation gathering (mushaira / Kavi samelan) in Durga Temple in Washington. The video was recorded by the organizers/administrators of that very Kavi Samelan.

Those couplets were not only included in Qasir’s poetry collection “Darya-e-Gumaan’s flap” published in 1997 but Mr. Qasir had recited them in a PTV Mushaira in 1996. Its video is available on You tube.  

When this incident was brought in to Mr. Anand’s notice that whether or not he recited those couplets by quoting Mr. Qasir’s name; then surprisingly enough Mr. Anand came up with two different answers. On a literary forum he commented that he had recited couplets of many poets from Peshawar by formally quoting their names including Mr. Qasir; he further said that the video had been tempered.  On the other hand he wrote an email to Mr. Haider Qureshi clearly admitting that he had not mentioned the poets’ names as he did not remember then. By giving these two contradictory statements about the same incident it becomes evident that Mr. Anand had done this (not mentioning the name of the poet) intentionally  to receive more appreciation /admiration from the audience in the literary gathering.

Mr. Anand’s allegation of “video tempering” is ridiculous as the video was shot and uploaded on You Tube by the organizers / management of Durga Temple in Washington themselves.

It could be Mr. Anand’s ethics and etiquettes to call that person a “Terrorist” who has shown him (Mr. Anand) the mirror.  In fact Mr. Anand has no answer because he has been caught red-handedly. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so a video should be worth a million words, so one may refer to the video wherein Mr. Anand’s theft has been proved and requires no further proof"

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GHULAM MOHAMMAD QASIR is Reciting his ghazal in a PTV MUSHAIRA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0z0eebzZ_Q

DR. SATYA PAL ANAND is reciting the same
two famous couplets from Mr. Ghulam Muhammad Qasir’s ghazal

in DURGA MANDIR KAVI SAMMELAN USA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVXI0WWcv6g