Reminiscing about our recent trip together to the oldest city in India, Banaras

Episode 11: Today we touch on topics of pain and healing, and how art and poetry has been a companion in those times.

Remembering Kabir, his dohe and the infinite wisdom he shared with us centuries ago.

The world is so full of a number of things,

- R. L Stevenson : Child’s Garden of Verses

We discuss stories and storytelling and how good stories are a portal to eternal camaraderie and self-knowledge. We linger on some stories like the story of Sohni Mahiwal through the popular Coke Studio rendition of Par Chanaa De, which captures that fateful night of Sohni's conversation with the pot in which she is trying to cross the Chenab to meet Mahiwal,  and a fictional  story that Manto tells Ghalib in the afterworld.  

In this episode we talk about Mountains, beaches, waves, surfing, the joy of small things and everything original in our daily lives. Sometimes they go unnoticed because we are lost in a routine and at times, even after realization we fall short of words to describe them.


“To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson


Nature by Emerson: https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/nature.html

" Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything."
-Rainer Maria Rilke

In this episode we talk about Johnny Cash's immortal cover, "Hurt"; its importance to the classic Marvel movie, "Logan", and some context to the cover done by Cash in the twilight of his career.
We also dwell on pain, life, and what makes us happy, our ego and steps we could take against egotism.

Johny Cash's Hurt https://youtu.be/8AHCfZTRGiI

Let the waters settle and you will see the moon and the stars mirrored in your own being. - Rumi

Putting the year behind us in this episode, all the good the bad and the ugly. 

In this episode, we talk about the purpose of art and the consequences of it.

Should art be for art's sake? Or should art be for life's sake?

We recite Bulleh Shah's popular Kafi as well and then leave you with Abdullah Qureshi's beautiful version of it - https://soundcloud.com/abdulmunimqadri/sufi-medley-abdullah-qureshi

Music credits:

• Abdullah Qureshi
• Tajdar Junaid