Sarfaraz A Rehman: That Slice of Fame

Sarfaraz A Rehman: That Slice of Fame: Does anyone remember Jimmie Nicol? Why would they! But the sad truth is that Jimmie Nicol was famous for two weeks in 1964 and reached ...



There is a poignant photograph of Jimmie sitting waiting for his flight at the airport. Jimmie Nicol was going home to obscurity, after his two weeks of fame. Since then, he has lived 53 years in obscurity...

That Slice of Fame

Does anyone remember Jimmie Nicol? Why would they! But the sad truth is that Jimmie Nicol was famous for two weeks in 1964 and reached crazy stardom. He got 5000 fan mail letters from Australia alone, during that period.  

    

Ring any bells? Not really? You are not allowed to Google for the answer. 

    

In 1964 the Beatles were the talk of the world. Beatlemania was in full progress. Unlike the British Armies which lost the colony to the Patriots, the Beatles were conquering America. And was it a conquest. Manic screams, crazy crowds and millions were just pouring out, as John, Paul, George and Ringo toured the USA. It was a phenomenon no one had witnessed before and music has never- yes never! - replicated Beatlemania to date, fifty plus years on. Most likely, the world will never see that sort of mania again.    

  

In all this razzmatazz of stardom and crazy crowds, as the Beatles were planning a tour of Europe and Australia, there was trouble brewing just around the corner. The drummer Ringo Starr was just about done and not well. So much so, that he would not be able to perform. His throat gone, Ringo was hospitalised in June 1964. There was no likelihood of him getting back on his feet to make the tour. 

    

A crisis meeting with Epstein (the manager) and the remaining three was called. George absolutely refused to tour without Ringo and it looked like at its absolute peak, Beatlemania was to be nipped in the bud. You do not take crazy fandom lightly and it would look very bad that the Beatles had let them down. 

    

Enter Jimmie Nicol. A good drummer who had on various occasions played Beatle music and had his own band. It took some persuasion to get George on board, while McCartney and Lennon were quite welcoming. Beatle haircut and trendy suits were acquired and Jimmie Nicol was a Beatle. For the next eight concerts over two weeks, Nicol was part of Beatlemania. He fitted in and took the sudden stardom very well. It was really a dream come true for a young man. Also the money graduated from £40 a week to £10000 (not verified) a concert. The world must have been at his feet. 

   

Unfortunately, two weeks later Ringo Starr caught up with them in Melbourne. And so, Jimmie Nicol went home. There is a poignant photograph of Jimmie sitting waiting for his flight at the airport. Jimmie Nicol was going home to obscurity, after his two weeks of fame. Since then, he has lived 53 years in obscurity and shied from monetising his Beatles connection. In these years, success eluded him and he quit music. He also went bankrupt, as he struggled to get back to normalcy. His El Dorado never arrived. In later years he spoke about his life,

"Standing in for Ringo was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Until then I was quite happy earning £30 or £40 a week. After the headlines died, I began dying too."

Ringo Starr, was Knighted today, as Sir Richard Starkey (Ringo being a stage name). This event prompted me to write about Jimmie Nicol. For the life of me, I cannot explain why someone who was as good and occupied the same chair for a couple of weeks, should spend a life of obscurity, while another gets his Knighthood. In the background there is a small voice, which says this is life as designed by a greater power and intellect and it is not for us mortals to know why.

Sarfaraz A Rehman: Our Burden

Sarfaraz A Rehman: Our Burden:     The angels looking down on us from the heavens would see a world of people, bent over with the burden they each carry. They go abo...

Our Burden

 

 

The angels looking down on us from the heavens would see a world of people, bent over with the burden they each carry. They go about their daily chores, heavily laden and very few (if any) are actually able to lower this burden. The angels probably feel sorry for us; surely they realise that we need not carry these burdens.   

Part of all we carry is natural, systemic and a person would say, 'meant to be'. They are things we are born with, or which come in inheritance. Poverty, wealth, physical disabilities, health challenges. It is manageable to have these. We are designed to live life with them. The poor learn their limitation. The rich man learns the odd difficulties which come with inherited wealth, which generally so detracts from living a real life. A health burden too is mostly compensated, by greater abilities within. Most people, so challenged, learn bravery and patience and many lead fulfilling lives.  

  

It is the other burden which I speak of which is so debilitating. These burdens are all self created. Our filters are built on experience and we have then institutionalised these filters into characteristics, which then forces us to walk a life weighed down.  

What burdens are these? Generally, they come from two distinct mindsets. Both destructive. One is the persecuted mind. It feels the burden of hate, dislike, lack of opportunities, it is folded inwards and is not fulfilling its potential. The other is the superiority syndrome mind. It feels it owns the world, everything is designed for them. They are louder, confident, selfish, mostly dominant, and the so-called commoners are to be used for their goals. 

  

Both are high maintenance people. The poor inward looker has to be coaxed to participate, as they are demotivated, reactive, hurt inside and sad people. It's always them against the world, bad luck stories, persecution and unfairness. On the other hand, the brash mind overreaches, takes more than their share, exploits people and system and is unpleasant to deal with. For them it's exploitation and dealing out unfairness and unpleasantness. The system somehow has to control them or they become domineering. Mostly these type will fall along the way, when they run up against a wall which will not yield - this is fate equalising the misuse of their strength.

There is a concept of living in the moment. The sufis say there is only one reality. Which is Now. The past and the future are all brain impulses. Not reality! The past is gone and the future has not arrived. So just imagine a Now person, totally free of burdens and living this life to its utmost and no baggage! This person would be above any being, fulfilling their potential and a source of great admiration for the angels looking down. 

* the image is taken from Pinterest.com; the host site is stated on the image.     

Sarfaraz A Rehman: The Pale Blue Dot - that is Us

Sarfaraz A Rehman: The Pale Blue Dot - that is Us: Having served its mission, the old machine was let to travel on its lonely route to where nothing had gone before. Out of the sola...

The Pale Blue Dot - that is Us

Having served its mission, the old machine was let to travel on its lonely route to where nothing had gone before. Out of the solar system and into interstellar space, for a tryst with a star some 40000 years from now. Yet unknown to everyone, the best was to be served up last.  

On the fervent request of Carl Sagan, the iconic astronomer, finally in 1990 the Voyager 1 cameras were turned around to  face its mother planet Earth. This last service, some 13 years from launch and after 6 billion kilometres of lonely travel. Mans most unique servant was about to provide perspective to its master. More than 27 years ago, the Voyager 1, took 60 frames which were merged into what today is known as the Pale Blue Dot. A picture of our planet and home from way out there, showing us our reality. The picture is so small that one is not able to download it sufficiently for a proper view.  It has become the most poignant photograph in history and there is no better explanation of its importance, then from Sagan himself, the originator of the idea.

“Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.  

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

Once seen, one can never forget the Pale Blue Dot and the words of Sagan make the reality even more stark. Our feet on the ground, we should never be arrogant in this tiny circus of our existence. We have no reason to be. 

*picture is from Wikipedia.

  

Sarfaraz A Rehman: A Method of Life

Sarfaraz A Rehman: A Method of Life: Five day formula Mon-Friday :). Try it, it might stick. Fajar, read Quran with meaning walk  have a healthy breakfast be in ti...

A Method of Life

Five day formula Mon-Friday :). Try it, it might stick.

Fajar, read Quran with meaning

walk 

have a healthy breakfast

be in time for all commitments

never stress on the road

smile and appreciate others

when required, advise, never criticise, never talk down

let others be. Don't be holier than thou.

lunch, less carbs, Zohar.

play some brain challenging puzzles

have haldi, green tea with honey, ginger and kaali mirch

stay in touch with old friends

stay active and Asr

Maghrib 

dinner (light) and then Isha

watch TV, social media, read, play some more puzzles

contemplate on day, on life and times.

try and sleep early enough, unless some social event.

if at first do not succeed, keep trying.  :)

Sarfaraz A Rehman: The Passport

Sarfaraz A Rehman: The Passport: “One does not sell the land people walk on” Crazy Horse, Oglalala Sioux Chieftain, 1875  The nomads understood the earth was chan...

The Passport

 

“One does not sell the land people walk on” 

Crazy Horse, Oglalala Sioux Chieftain, 1875 

  

The nomads understood the earth was changing. Cold and  drought were making it difficult to survive on the vast steppes. To their East they had heard of a big water and on the West was the sea of dark water. But, there was enough land out their for the tribes. They would go both East and West. The great Aryan migration had begun. Slowly over  hundreds of years, they came to lands in India and Iran, the Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Germany. The Aryan migration was to change the world many millennia later. 

        

Even earlier than that, the sons of Hazrat Nuh, Shem; Haam; Japheth had migrated too, into empty lands and filled them with humans. Thus humans had spread through the world. 

The Quran speaks about migration. Indeed, the Islamic calendar started from the migration of the Prophet (saw). In the Islamic perspective, migration can be for religion, for education or to avoid repression. There is freedom to go from a land and no reason to be attached to it. 

“Was not the earth of God spacious enough for you to flee for refuge?” (4:97)

So many Prophets, Adam, Ibrahim, Ismael, Musa etc migrated. It is allowed and such sacrifice, if done for religion is greatly honoured. 

     

Ibn Battuta, left his native Moroccan land at 21. A wander lust and a thirst for knowledge led him for three decades through lands as far East as India. He came home to narrate his many adventures. Thus enriching history and bringing mankind ever closer together.

Humanity for much of history had the freedom of the lands. As Crazy Horse quoted, you cannot own land. Allah (swt) had given this for free, for humanity to use and succeeding generations of humans were just occupiers of the land, to eventually pass on the usage to the next generation.

Sometime after World War 1 came a change in the status of empires. The nation states were born and its first representative the League of Nations was created. Much was changed and one of the first things agreed was to stamp the identity of nation states; thus the Passport was born. Back in the Persian empire days, the Khusro would issue letters of authority to his representatives, when they traveled to other parts. Similarly, Henry Viii issued authorities for his people to travel. But by and large, the Passport was first put into effect around 1920.   

  

It seemed like a minor intervention, but the Passport and what it implied, has changed the world. The word “immigrant” has been stamped onto our psyche now. In the past large groups of people simply moved lands and no one stopped them. USA, the most iconic country of the last century, is also born out of this very immigration. When the Mayflower from Plymouth sailed across the seas bringing the Pilgrim Fathers, there were no passports or barriers to entry. The Passport is the basic tenet of nation hood and has become the tool of racism, wealth, barriers and has also led to conflicts. Whatever the intention of the League of Nations, it has so transpired, that the simple agreement to institute the Passport almost a 100 years ago, is suspiciously viewed by many as a sinister conspiracy to subjugate the people of humanity.

Just a further related footnote of history. A hundred years ago, much changed very suddenly. The Balfour Declaration was made, creating the vision of Israel; the Caliphate of Muslims was destroyed; USA took its role as the major power; the concept of modern nationhood was established; The Bolshevik Revolution took place in Russia; the Jewish people commenced their migration to the Middle East (all done without any Passport!!!); The division of Europe was done leaving the seeds for World War 2. The division of Arabia was done, leaving seeds for the present conflict. The Passport was born; The present day system was institutionalised (banks, stock markets, currencies, insurance companies, transnational organisations, democracy). All within a space of three years history was transformed. So who was the guiding hand? Are we humans so obtuse, that we do not see a pattern here? But, that is a question of a separate story.