OSAMA Bin LADEN

Osama Bin Laden is dead। The Tribune has aptly captioned the big news " Al - Qaida Loses its head and Pakistan its face ". The news and the reactions have reminded me of the great poet Mirja Ghalib.

The dead body of Osama Bin Laden has been consigned to the sea so that there is no funeral procession and grave which might become a destination for the followers of the dreaded leader of the fundamentalists. Ghalib's following couplet explained:

हुए मर के हम जो रुसवा; हुए क्यूँ न गरके दरया,
न कभी जनाज़ा उठता; न कहीं मजार होता !
The English translation by T.P. Issar:

A funeral, with those comments unkind; An epitaph rueing an affair,
All this ignominy of the one who is dead; I wish I had drowned instead.

Coming to the second aspect of the Tribune caption about the face of Pakistan, Pakistan position in the war against terror and its repeated protestations of innocence reminds one of Mirja Ghalib, in the wake of the killing of Osama Bin Laden in Abbotabad and other terrorists in our cities of Pakistan earlier and the safe heaven and sanctuaries to the terrorist leaders provided by Pakistan. The credibility of Pakistan has suffered yet another blow.

ये मस्सय्ले तस्सवुफ़ ; ये तेरा बयां ग़ालिब,
तुजे हम वली समजते; जो न वादा खुआर होता !

The English translation by T.P. Issar runs like this:

Ah Ghalib, the power of your words and your gift of a seeing eye !

These surely are the stuff of a saint, if only you had abstained.

Is it a co-incident that the death of Adolf Hitler was announced on May 1, 1945 and that of Osama Bin Laden on May 1, 2011. Nevertheless the May Day remains solemn.