The Right Kind of Wrongs

Why is it - that Life seems to test just us ordinary people...
It happens everyday. Don't you think?


Someone asks you to tell a little lie. No harm done, right? 
You'll tell it.
Something gives you a chance to make that extra buck without anyone finding out. Hey, it's not like you're taking it from someone else's pocket, hmmm? 
You make the extra buck. 


You find yourself in a spot where only cheating someone can make it better for you. 
You'll cheat right away, no one will ever know, right?


The human mind in so complicated and so simple. We can easily convince our self that something wrong is right. 
The right kinda wrong - and all the other nice ways to say it... we can bring all the logic, we can do all the mathematics, we can find all the right reasons, and we can get so used to it - get so used to killing our conscious. 
We evolve into a person who can justify absolutely any wrong done - because it works for us, for our life, our goals, our dreams.


But if you think about it - and no, you don't need to admit this to anyone - but admit it to your self - and it will change you. 


Anything wrong you do, no matter how small, no matter how hidden - cuts out a little bit of the child in you, kills a little bit of kindness in you, hardens a little bit of the heart in you. And at the end of it all, you will have taken all the shortcuts, told all the lies, gotten all the gains. But will you like who you become along the way? Will you not miss the innocence that only a truth can bring, the sweetness only earning something can bring, the satisfaction only doing the right thing can give you?


It makes no difference to me, or my life in the long run... but the little things you will do - will make the biggest difference in your Life and who You eventually become.


It's never too late to change your mind, or your heart.
Do it while you can still feel.


~ Jane Bravo

My translation of a thousands of desires, each one I could die for...

...hazaaron khwahishen aisi ke har khwahish pe dum nikle
bahot nikle mere armaan, lekin phir bhi kam nikle...

Thousands of desires, each one I could die for. Many of them I have fulfilled, but I still yearn for more. I died at the hands of a lover (my killer), why should he be afraid? No one will hold him responsible for my fate. Or for these bloody tears which will continuously flow through my eyes all of my life. Haven't we all heard of Adam disgraced out of Heaven? It is with more humiliation that I am leaving the streets of my lover. You killed me, but no one will know, unless I accidentally let my hair slip out of my scarf. Because things slip out sometimes, and we can not hide the truth from all people for all of time. Though the truth is complicated, and no one will believe it. 
And if ever someone wants to write you a letter, tell them to ask me to write it to you. 
I've been carrying my pen with me everywhere now, because there is still so much I have to say to you, so much I left unsaid.
When it was all over, I sang many whiskey lullabies to myself, until my whole universe was floating inside one big intoxication. I expected you to help me when I was weak, when I was in such a bad state; but then I realized: you are perhaps more injured than I. 
Love is so cruel? 
Life and death feel the same in love, there is nothing different, because we stay alive by looking for the traitor for whom we are willing to die. You should try to put a hand on your heart and pull the arrow out... fast. But remember, with this arrow your heart will come out too... and with your heart gone, your life will be no more. 
So, control yourself when you want to scream to the world and announce your secrets: traitors are not supposed be lovers. Just like the preacher and the addict have different doors, but I can see him enter the bar just as I leave it. 

Thousands of desires, each one I could die for. Many of them I have fulfilled, but I still yearn for more.


Dear readers,


This is my translation of the beautiful poetry of Ghalib. 
I doubt I have been able to do proper poetic justice... the words are best understood in the language they were written in. The first two lines are perhaps the most profound and famous in literary circles around the world - they capture the essence of man's desires, and how desire, like passion, all-consuming, and has no end. 


I look forward to reading your comments.


- JB