Hindi idioms

While reading, I've encountered these idioms, which I can't understand at all.

I'd be very grateful if any Hindi speaker here could clarify their meaning to me (I've put the idioms in bold font):

'मियाँ की दौड़ मस्जिद तक' के अनुसार उनके लिए यही बहुत था-इसे ही वे पर्याप्त समझते थे


मगर प्राय: सबके-सब 'लिख लोढ़ा, पढ़ पत्थर' थे

Thanks

It means that a person (मियाँ) with limited goals focuses on his narrow and confined world (मस्जिद). He knows not anything beyond that goal ( दौड़ मस्जिद तक) .

Thanks

I don't remember having heard this one before but I like the sound of it. I presume it has something to do with a lorha being a worked piece of stone. Could you give me the source? It has a very 1920s or 1930s sound about it. Also the previous quote with its "semi-tadbhav" paryaas has a very Premchandish look about it.

It is taken from Swami Sahajanand's autobiography - "mera jeevan sangharsh".

Neither have I, but then my grasp of language is not as deep as others

Put into Bhojpuri (after all Sahajanand's mother tongue) it becomes "likhile lorhi parhile pathri" and I would take that to mean a misundertanding or a failure of communication. Pathri actually means stone tray or slab (sil in Hindi) and lorhi/lorha is the grinding stone.

mostly we pray when the days are unhappy
If a pray is done during happy days there will be no unhappy days...

I think that second phrase means 'illiterate' or 'ignorant'

Thanks everyone.

Hi, I've another question that I'd love to get an answer to.
What is the logic behind the idiom: नौ दो ग्यारह होना

I know it means "to escape", "to slip away", but I don't understand the logical leap from the literal meaning to the idiomatic meaning of the phrase.

Could you please write these in the Roman script too? For some of us unfortunate ones the unicode doesn't work. All I see is a series of ????????. Thanks.

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shreder is looking for meaning of Nau Do Gyarah (9 2 11)

मियाँ की दौड़ मस्जिद तक (Miyan ki daud masjid tak) was first used in mughal times, for the trader peoples, not inducing them in local politics, then it was used in early British time, for "Babus" as they don't think anything else then the work assigned to them.
Literally it means working or thinking within limited focus, not thinking anything beyond that.
लिख लोढ़ा, पढ़ पत्थर (Likh Lodha padh pathhar)was said by perhaps by kabir. it was said to differentiate a person being educated and a person be knowledgeable in Hindi शिक्षित और ज्ञानी.
Literally it means be knowledgeable instead of being just educated, because even after being educated, if you don't have open mind and not adaptive of change you are just like लोढ़ा और पत्थर just stone.

Wow that's a very detailed explanation. Thanks a lot.
I should post in this thread more often.