An 85 Seconds Response to Despondency

Posted on March 20, 2010
Filed Under >Adil Najam, People, Poetry
14 Comments
Total Views: 37187

Adil Najam

I arrived back in Pakistan early on Friday and, as always happens, have been enjoying good food and frantic conversation ever since. The food I continue to enjoy. The conversations are increasingly disturbing. The palpable disenchatment, but even more than that a sense of despondency – the “we can do nothing” feeling – gets under your skin. And very quickly.

So, I did what I have done ever since I first stumbled upon this audio rendition back last August. I replayed and heard these 85 seconds of Zakintosh reciting his father’s wonderful poem.

[Audio:http://www.kidvai.com/windmills/Media/Latee fah.mp3]

For the last many months this little poem has provided me with frequent solace. Turning moments of despondency into a needed dose of introspection. I hope it might do so for our readers too.

If you have not heard it before, you must.

If you have heard it before, its certainly worth another listen.

It takes all of 1 minute and 25 seconds, and as we approach Pakistan Day, March 23, it is well worth hearing again. And again.

14 responses to “An 85 Seconds Response to Despondency”

  1. Azra says:

    Wise words indeed. And beautifully recited. Thank you.

    I have found that those who complain the most are usually the ones who do the least!

  2. Like Jawed said ‘ Simple Yet powerful”.

    What we have become, including me, is a country of preachers cum drawing-room-politicians cum finger-pointing-maniacs, always finding somebody else to blame.

  3. Omar Salam Ansari says:

    Can someone post a written script of this poem online? Yes I am one of those people who still do not have speakers/headphones attached with their computers. There might be many like me around and then there are people around who can’t listen at all. Something should be shared with everybody.

  4. Abbas Raza says:

    Lovely, Adil. Thanks.

  5. Jawed says:

    What an excellent find. Simple and yet powerful. We should all think about this.

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