Not About Wine

       

Not About Wine

     “Parag, the day you die, I am sure you will knock the doors of heaven but I am equally confident that you will be sent back. The reasons are simple but obvious. You don’t smoke, don’t drink and even don’t eat meat. At the doors itself you will be denied the entry saying that you haven’t done anything on Earth what would you do here? Just go back” He was on high. Couple of pegs in and he was on his favourite theory. He never forces me to have one which has blown him but he always is extremely optimistic about me joining him one day, for which he is ready to wait indefinitely. For me it is always a fun to be part of a party where this strange liquid gets into the mind through stomach. I have no idea what those who jump in to it experience but I do enjoy watching them swimming in the realm of their dreams, despair, sentiments, emotions, successes, failures and there are some who maintain great composure irrespective of how much they pour inside. Reticent bursting into great orator, arid men breaking down, some locked in colourful past, some travelling in golden future, the optimistic taking a highly negative line and pessimistic resoundingly advocating positive thinking, someone accidently getting on to singing the old Kishorkumar hits, jokes after jokes coming from one, all timeline exposed, reinvented, some simply knocked out… it is all due to the magical spell of that extraordinary liquid pushing them into a world, they say, fantastic, awesome that makes peace with mind and body.

     Life is really strange journey just making you move along unknown route in a world you never imagined. Belonging to a family with no background of drinking wine, and associated with it sinful activity tag, I abhorred men with wine. As a child for me wine and sin were partners. In the engineering being away from home without any kind of restrictions I had great opportunities to taste it but then I had no attraction for it. The time and experience taught me not to be prejudiced about it and those who drink it. After graduation and joining the college I got associated with number of friend circles. In every group there were men with glasses in their hands. In the beginning there were attempts in encouraging me to have ‘Cheers’ but then I developed no appeal for it but certainly no aversion for those who drink. And didn’t think it in anyway a sinful act. I stood by the logic that the day I feel I should have it; you will find a glass in my hand with a promise that you will foot the bill. But till them let me have fun in just accompanying you in this great voyage. This in fact was the hope behind his wait.

          One day it must have been around 9pm I got a call from my optimistic friend. His voice ecstatic, was in inebriated state and as usual started talking to me with great excitement. Before he said anything I said, “You seems to be having a great time.” Yes came the reply but he had different agenda. He started, “You know Parag what Gaalib says,”Sharab pine de Masjid me baithkar, ya woh jagah bata janha khuda nahi” ( Allow me to drink in  place of worship else show me a place where God does not exist).” He continued dragging this to his favourite theory but I was stunned by the brilliant lines written by Gaalib. I don’t understand much about Urdu poetry but love Jagjit Singh singing gazals. Knowing very well that there was no possibility of him reading any book of Gaalib’s poetry I just wanted to know where he read. The answer came, to my great surprise Facebook. Just thought it might be a page dedicated to the great poet.

        I couldn’t log on to facebook to read it immediately but the fascination was unstoppable. The lines were simply brilliant. Allow me to drink at place which we consider place of God else show me a place where He is not there. Absolutely stunning. What a way to tell that God is everywhere. It overwhelms us. It tells us that we go to place of God and worship but fail to experience His existence everywhere. But then what’s the point in going there if we miss Him elsewhere? It is painfully disturbing as the message is bluntly conveyed. It strikes our comfort zone, forces us to see the world as it is. Challenges us to travel inward, just for self assessment, reminding us to our extreme discomfort that we go to place of God and immediately forget his omnipresence out of it.

    The more I thought of it more meaningful it became. Why was he referring to wine? What message he wanted to convey? Existence of God everywhere? There are lot of religious scriptures for this. Then why wine? Reference to place of God, what it has to do with drinking wine? I was pushing my imagination farther and farther. All of a sudden breaks were applied; the process of thinking came to standstill. Yes… it’s a comment on our hypocrisy. Nobody drinks wine at a place of God but is Gaalib really interested in wine only. No he is referring to an act not allowed at place of God, symbolic mention of sinful act?.. We all indulge in sinful acts but go to place of God, feel complacent about it, revert back to normal life, miss God everywhere and continue indulgence in sinful acts but certainly not at a place of God for we fear his wrath. We are not averse to anything sinful to achieve personal interests but don’t want anybody to know it. Can it be hidden from God if he is everywhere? We want God but for personal gains, only at a fixed place but don’t want to acknowledge His omnipresence, or maybe we want to forget it conveniently so that we can continue with our routine. Anything less that hypocrisy?   

    Just two lines giving us chilling reminder of our hypocritical attitude. Brilliant, just fantastic. I was now desperate to log on to facebook. When I logged on there were two more couplets, one by Iqbal and other by Faraz. Iqbal says, as if replying to Gaalib, “Masjid Khuda ka ghar hai, pine ki jagah nahi,  Kafir ke ghar ja vanha Khuda nahi”( Place of prayer is a place of God, it’s not for drinking, go to house of non-believer He doesn’t live there). But who is a non-believer? Almost everyone believes in God. There are few who do not believe but they are in minority. Some pretend to be non-believer but in the event of crisis turn to God or some simply maintain two faces, atheist for claiming special intellectual position at public and believer in private. Nonetheless the true atheists are rare. So, you rarely find a place where He doesn’t exist. But does Iqbal want us to search for non-believer’s place and then drink, as  you won’t find God there.

      No. What the poet wants to say is different. If we continue with the sinful act interpretation then the non-believer is the one at his house sinful act is committed. In fact the question hidden in the simple lines by Iqbal is who is a believer? Answer is one who does not commit sinful act for it is committed only at non-believer’s place. It is a question that Iqbal wants all of us to ask ourselves. Am I a believer? What will be the honest answer? To be a true believer no sinful act anywhere. No need to share the answer with anybody, a poetic way of self assessment. Gaalib wants us to realize the presence of God everywhere and we should not be hypocritical about it and Iqbal, he questions our faith. We cannot maintain duplicity of being sinful and believer at the same time. See any difference in what Gaalib says and what Iqbal wants ourselves to assess? In fact apart from the poetic presentation the core issue addressed by them is same, put differently with exceptional brilliance.

        The poetic journey is not over yet. Faraz simply stumps us by saying,” Kafir ke dil se aya hun main, yeh dekh kar, Khuda maujud hai vanha, use pata nahi” ( I have seen non-believer’s heart, he doesn’t know but God exists there). OMG. Brilliant… Stunning. Completely captures the imagination. Non believer doesn’t know but the God exists in his heart. Is it for non-believer or for us to see that God is everywhere, in the believer and non-believer as well? Can we see His presence in all the human being, believer, non-believer? And more importantly in oneself. Can we feel his presence in us? These are all uncomfortable questions. Personal interests, sinful acts all vanish if we see Him everywhere, in the heart of all. Will hate survive if God is seen in the heart of so called adversary? Is Faraz speaking a language differet than Gaalib and Iqbal? No. They speak the same language of humanity.

      Gaalib challenges us to show a place where God does not exist, so that he can drink there, Iqbal shows the place where God doesn’t exist and you can drink, a reference to non-believer, and Faraz tells about the ignorance of non-believer about the presence of God in him. But this is not about wine and drinking, it is all about our hypocrisy in believing in God and conveniently ignoring His omnipresence in committing sinful act for self interest. It’s about humanity expressed in brilliant way, and here lies the greatness of these poets, and their splendid imagination.