Jinke apne ghar sheeshe ke hoN woh doosron pe patthar naheeN phenkaa karte

The sixties makes a debut on this blog!

One of my earlier posts had prompted a comment from one of the readers - he had indicated that this line was his favourite. Thought it was time to include it. This is from the 1965 movie Waqt (directed by Yash Chopra - the man who dominates most awards functions these days). Waqt was one of the original multi-starrers and lost and found story. This genre reached its zenith in the 70s and 80s. The movie is about a rich man - Lala Kedarnath (Balraj Sahni) who is destituted and devastated by an earthquake. His three sons are separated and end up in three different vocations. The eldest son Raja (Raj Kumar) becomes a thief, the middle son Ravi (Sunil Dutt) becomes a lawyer. Will leave out the other details - you might want to see the film yourself. Raja's 'boss' is Chenoy Seth (Rehman), who is quite upset with Raja's desire to mend his ways and walk the straight path. So the scene begins when Chenoy tells Raja

"to raaja main jitnee muhabbat kartaa hoon utnee nafrat bhee kar saktaa hoon"

Raja disdainfully and in characteristic style retorts with

"muhabbat aur nafrat...

chinaai seth jinke apne ghar sheeshe ke hon woh doosron par pathar nahee phenkaa karte"

and then he cracks the wine glass that he has been toying with all this while on the table. Chenoy's sidekick whips out a knife which prompts another classic line (but that I will feature later).

The line is pretty much a straightforward translation of the famous English proverb

"Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others"

But the charm here is the way Raj Kumar chews and spits out every word. It is said that Raj Kumar was asthmatic and hence had to devise that style to effectively deliver his lines. Reminds that the other great deliverer of dialogues the Big B is also asthmatic.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, it is not a precondition to be asthmatic to say this line. You can say this whenever a person seemingly vulnerable, tries to attack another person. Oblivious to the fact that if he is attacked he would be hurt badly. So if a person himself speaks in borderline English and pokes fun at somebody else's English, you could say

"Chinaai seth, jinke apne ghar sheeshe ke hoN ...woh doosron pe patthar naheeN phenkaa karte"