Ok this is not is rebuttal to hamza’s post “ali noor bara chalak hai” but i just felt like making this the title of my post….in fact I think what would be fun is to actually find out the true meaning and connotation of this word …thanks to this kickass online Urdu dictionary, I am reproducing the meaning:

چالاک [چا + لاک] (سنسکرت)

چالا—> چالاک:  سنسکرت سے ماخوذ ‘چال’ کے ساتھ ‘ا’ لاحقہ صفت لگا کر ‘چالا’ بنا۔ ‘چالا’ کے ساتھ ‘ک’ بطور لاحقۂ صفت لگا کر ‘چالاک’ بنا۔ اردو میں بطور صفت استعمال ہوتا ہے۔ 1649ء کو “خاور نامہ” میں مستعمل ملتا ہے۔ صفت  ذاتی (  واحد  ) 1. پھرتیلا، کام کرنے میں چست (اکثر چست کے ساتھ مستعمل)، محنتی، جفکا کش، ماہر۔ “ابن بطوطہ نے اس عہد کے چالاک اور مشاق تیر اندازوں …. کا ذکر کیا ہے۔”     ( 1958ء، ہندوستان کے عہد وسطٰی کی ایک جھلک، 2:28 ) 2. تیز رفتار، زو درو۔  مرے دل کو اوہام سے پاک کر مجھے اپنے رستہ میں چالاک کر     ( 1911ء، کلیات اسمٰعیل، 15 ) 3. اپنی فراست یا ذہانت کو دھوکے اور فریب میں صرف کرنے والا، عیار، مکار، فریبی۔ “وہ کدورت جو …. ان وزیروں سے پیدا ہو گئی تھی جو اس کے ماقبل حکومت کے لیے آخر میں بہت کچھ چالاک ہو رہے تھے …. دور ہو گئی۔”     ( 1893ء، بست سالہ عہد حکومت، 132 ) 4. شوخ وشنگ۔  لیا بوسہ تو فرمایا بگڑ کر نہایت آپکو چالاک پایا     ( 1865ء، نسیم دہلوی، دیوان، 93 ) 5. ہوشیار، زیرک۔  کیسے چالاک ہیں یہ ترک کہ کرتے ہیں نگاہ سرمہ تلوار آنکھوں میں لگا جاتے ہیں     ( 1872ء، مرآۃ الغیب، 303 ) 6. فتنہ پرداز۔ (نوراللغات) انگریزی ترجمہ active, alert, fleet, nimble, quick, smart;  expert, dexterous;  clever, ingenious;  laborious, hard-working;  vigilant;  artful, cunning, designing

As you can see this word is not at all limited in its meaning…though I’m sure we all tend to use it in a mildly negative connotation of the word “clever”..

I’d like to think that “chalaki” is in fact smartness mixed with an unconscious tendency to exploit……..were it conscious… we would’ve had to translate it as “conniving”…

When I was young I had a bit of a screwed up superiority complex…no it was not because I thought I was more rich or better in studies or anything like that cuz i wasn’t ….I think I got it through a bit of a misinterpretation of what  my dad said to me:

He like, every father said:

“beta you must try to be different and not do the run of the mill things”

…these words kinda engraved themselves on my feeble mind

…and by the time I said “yes Abba I will be different…” ( which was a split second later btw)..I thought I had already become the world’s eighth wonder!!!

I thought that everything I do is different and also correct!!!.…so everyone around me was mundane, ordinary and in fact wrong…talk about a warped mindset!!!

I must be 5 or 6 then…by the time I was in O’ Level’s I  had almost turned into a friendless freak..

But I never felt bad or lonely because my conviction about my uniqueness always stayed intact…please don’t think that I am cursing or regretting my past or rather my misinterpretation…I was never vain or conceited or over-confident…I just felt different and never less than anyone else…

In fact  it is only in retrospect that I can attempt to fathom the reasons for a lot of my traits…(I guess everyone has a Freud in them!!!)

Well by the time I finished my O’ levels, music had become a very important part of my life and the main reason for that was that being in Pakistan, where in 1990, you could count the number of guitar players in Lahore on the fingers of you left hand only,…doing music made you the most unique person…I was the only one in my entire school…my celebrity status had automatically begun…. at least in my mind!!!

I am what I am because of this mindset….but I only got things going for me when I broke the curse of chalaki!!!!

So how am I chalak…

I am as chalak as you all are….because every time we fib or tell an innocent lie or manipulate a situation to our benefit and actually succeed without hurting anyone…unconsciously, we tell our mind not to regret our action….. instead we enjoy the success and pleasure of our achievement…soon the usage of our smartness in this context becomes a genetic program and when it does…I’d like to call it chalaki…

A more screwed up manifestation of chalaki is when you are doing some work and you lie to yourself that you have done it well….only because you want to avoid the extra rigor ….and then you try to find a shortcut….or cover things up…that’s chalaki

I have done it all my life…I am doing it right now by trying to wrap this post up even though I know I can write and elaborate a lot more….I’m being lazy …

but be sure to know that to get anywhere I have had to fight “chalaki” all my life as well…

Is it good or bad…….

I’ll let you decide……and  that’s a chalaki!!!

November 27th, 2008
Categories: The Diary . Author: Ali Noor

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