How does a language not have a word, or even an expression, for something so recurrent, something so pervasive in the social life of a human being? Does it reflect the poverty of the language or the peculiarity of the … Continue reading Entropy of Words – on Language
دسوی جماعت تک اردو زبان میں کئیں مضمون لکھے۔ لیکن لکھنے کا مقصد عام طور پر امتحان میں پاس ہونے تک محدود تھا۔ اس عمر میں شاعری لکھنے کا شوق تو ضرور تھا، مگر نثر کی طرف دلچسپی نہیں تھی۔ اور انگریزی زبان مروجہ فن و ادب کے ہر پہلو پر غالب تھی ۔ (اچھی) فلمیں، ناولیں، یا عمومی سائنس کی کتابیں، یہ گمان ہوتا تھا ، سبھی انگریزی میں بنائیں/لکھیں گئ ہیں ۔ اس کے علاوہ، کئیں الفاظ جنہیں انگریزی میں استعمال کرنے میں کوئی دقت نہیں محسوس ہوتی، انکے اردو ترجمہ یا تو غیر موجود ہیں یا کہنے … Continue reading اردو
One wasn’t, the other was there. Life – a collection of accidents – is anything but fair. Die unstillbare Gier. Some afflictions are too brief; some heartaches are too long. But we all get our share. Die unstillbare Gier. Chaos makes no memory trivial. Future carries the burden of what passes now and here. Die unstillbare Gier. – O. Continue reading Die unstillbare Gier
I recently stumbled upon a somewhat provocative statement made in an article that featured in the National Geographic magazine. The piece claimed that the greatest innovation in the history of humankind has little to do with engineered tools or fire. It, to my surprise, is something much more abstract – the invention of symbolic expression. The need to convey meaning, both in time and space, it seems, outweighs many other human needs. And one can further posit that art and literature, with a blurred boundary separating the two, exist as a metamorphic form of the ancient cave paintings, collectively addressing … Continue reading Entropy of Words – on Beatrice’s Last Smile
Different attempts at poetry embody different virtues. Poems can be lyrical, evocative, subtle, mysteriously abstract or purposefully silly. Poetry is generally pardoned for its verbosity if the “overproduction of words” serves some purpose. Notwithstanding, poetic license quite frequently suffers from borderline abuse – where more is said and less is conveyed. Some of the fiercest and finest works of literature may be complex, wordy and labyrinthine. Nonetheless, complexity is only a tool, and not a desirable entity in and of itself. Every once in a while, however, we do come across lines that capture so much more than the space … Continue reading Entropy of Words – on Ikhtisaar
“Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you.” ― Kahlil Gibran Why do we write? Why do we, as writers, create? To understand this we may need to delve into the ontology of our audience. Putting it more audaciously – it is perhaps the audience that creates a writer. Orwell listed his motivation to write in a 1946 autobiographical essay. He begins the quartet of his reasons with sheer egoism and aesthetic enthusiasm. Esquirol, the French psychiatrist, had coined a term, around a century before Orwell, capturing these two impulses within … Continue reading Entropy of Words – on Writing
We were liberated from the burdens of acquaintance – strangers in absolute. We just happened to share a dust-ridden, dug-up road for a few minutes, walking side by side in the same direction. She had suddenly appeared out of a … Continue reading Entropy of Words – on Laughter
Entropy of Words 