जुगनू

काँच के महल टूटें,
तो उन्हें छोड़ना अच्छा है ।
फिर से जोड़ने की कोशिश में,
चुभन के साथ लहू निकलता है।
किनारे के घरौंदे सुहाने हैं,
लहरों से खेलना अच्छा लगता है।
टूट भी जाएँ अगर,
हर बार एक नया मकान बनता है।

संगमर्मर चाहे ताज महल का हो ,
धुप में तपिश, जाड़े में गलन ही देता है।
सावन भी दस्तक दे अगर,
फिसलने का डर भी रहता है।
घास के तिनके कितने अच्छे हैं,
नंगे पाँव भी ओस की नरमी देते हैं ।
दौड़ते हुए गिर भी जाऊं अगर,
छिले घुटनों को मिट्टी  की खुशबू में  लपेट देते हैं ।

तो चलो फिर,
नीले आसमान को छत बना कर ,
ज़मीन के पलंग पर धूप की चादर लपेट लेते हैं ।
अँधेरा भी हो जाए अगर ,
हर लम्हे को जुगनू बना कर,
कुछ जुगनूओं की टॉर्च बना लेते हैं ।
टूटे हुए शब्दों की सही ,
अपनी दास्ताँ  तुम्हे सुना देते हैं ।

करवट

करवट यूँ ही आज भी बदली मैंने,
पर तुम्हारी जगह कुछ सिलवटों ने ले ली थी ।
उन्हें छेड़ा नहीं मैंने,
ना ही चादर बदली ।
तुम्हारे सिरहाने पर छूटे कुछ बाल,
और तुम्हारी खुशबू,
अब भी वहीं हैं तुम्हारी याद समेटे ।
यकीन है मुझे अब भी,
कि फिर तुम्हारे पास आऊंगा मैं ।
और तब एक नए घर में ,
जब करवट बदलूंगा ,
तो सलवटों की जगह तुम होगी,
शायद चाय का एक प्याला लिए । 

I am India. I have North as much as I have South. As usual Sun rises in East and sets in West.

Something disturbing (you can read it here) brought me back to my blog. Below is my response. 

Geography: 'South' is indeed a direction and so is North. Anything above Vindhyas is not exactly Bihar. Patna is in Bihar and Jaipur is in Rajasthan. They are both North of South but 1100 kms apart. No matter how much you may use it to deny my Visa to “South” last I know being a “Northie” is not a crime as per any IPC 

Language: Just because I happen to work in Bangalore or Chennai and don’t happen to know Kannada or Tamil doesn’t make me any less of any Indian (my parents were Indian but they didn’t know that I needed a language passport to prove myself to you). Some of us do know that Telugu and Tamil are not same, just as you may know that not what Bollywood speaks is all Hindi. Urdu is a separate language.

Pronunciations: Pardon our lack of understanding the phonetics. But there are enough number of people who would know that da and dha or ta and tha are also different. Not every word has to end with and extra dollop of “aa”. For that matter as much as you use a “da” or an “aa” a Mumbaikar may use “ya” or a Delhiite “bhai” for a friend.

Names : As much as Abhishek is not Abishek or Abhisheikh, Thilak can also be written and pronounced as Tilak. And not all names have middle names or are necessitated to have one.

People: We know people who speak Kannada are Kannadigas and people who speak Tulu also come from Karnataka. But please also know that not everyone who speaks hindi is a “bhaiyya”. And no, not everyone from Rajasthan is a marwari (go figure in Geography which are the regions in Rajasthan) or a baniya.

Appearance: You don’t have to be resentful if we happen to be slightly away from Equator. We empathise with you if you are in Chennai when we also face the heat. And no matter how much it may surprise us but we don’t mock you for wearing scarves and gloves during winters in Chennai.

Professions: Not everyone from North is a thief. There are enough professions for us as much as you have. Despite exporting enough labour to South there are enough starving in Orissa and Bihar. Not all of us want a US Visa, not all of us give GRE not all of us are maths whiz kids. 

Religion: Not everyone can be Brahmin. Not everyone can be non-veg. Not everyone is a low life just because he is a Northie. Not everyone is out there to “maaro line on your daughter”. So just rent out the house to us or don’t bloody advertise it.

Food: Yes, in North chapatis can be cheaper than naan. We love our paranthas in the morning as much as we may love idli in the evening. We love them both. South Indian is a fabulous cuisine for us. And we also love Ghee / Butter

Arts: Don’t even want to respond to that. Downright lame.To even mention a Bharat Ratna awardee in such a post is pathetic.

And if you friggin call me Northie again, please do so. I’m not gonna smash your balls. I know you are one of those who is so concerned about the direction beween North and South that you forget each point in this country has infinite directions to look at and infinite reasons to smile. On my left when I need is my best friend who is a Kannadiga born and brought up in Mantralayam, studied in Banaras with me and now lives in Bengaluru. For the first three months in Chennai when I had my first job, another best friend of mine who hailed from Chennai gave me place to live. Another one of mine from Delhi is working in Kurnool (and even though I know how to pronounce it I tease my friend with the wrong one). Another one from Bihar smokes me off in Badminton when I play with him in a court in Bangalore. The others from different places went to US and call themselves Indians. They are no more madrasis or biharis. If I had not reassured myself that you are blind I would have felt them to be lucky. So if you still have sense, please put your education to some good use rather than penning such pathetic satires. Sadly enough you have many of your ilk as I can see from comments on your post.

P.S: I love Lola Kutty. She's not squeamish.

काँच टूटने की आवाज़

आज कल काँच जब टूटता है,
तो आवाज़ नहीं होती |
इतनी भीड़ है मेरे चारों ओर,
कि मुझे अपनी ही आवाज़ ,
सुनाई नहीं देती |

टूटे काँच पर चलो भी,
तो वह चुभता नहीं |
इतने जूते हैं मेरे पास कि,
कितने तिनकों को मैंने रौंदा,
उसका हिसाब ही नहीं |

काँच से अगर कट भी जाए ,
तो लहू दिखता नहीं है|
मयखाने के गिलास से देखती ,
मेरी आँखों को,
लहू का रंग ही पता नहीं है |

अभी कल की बात है शायद ,
नंगे पाँव , गीली घास पर दौड़ कर,
काँटों से बेख़ौफ़ मेरी उंगलियाँ ,
कुछ फूल ले आती थी|
और मैं रक्त की बूंदों को चख कर,
उन्हें काँच के गुलदस्तों में सजा देता था|
और काँच अगर चटख भी जाए ,
तो आँखें नम हो आती थी ,
मैं डर जाता था| 


फूल आज भी हैं,
प्लास्टिक के , एक बुके में सजे,
सड़क के उस पार, एक दुकान से ,
चंद सौ रुपये में खरीदे |
गुलदस्ते में सजाता भी हूँ|
मगर गुलदस्ता टूटे भी तो ,
कालीन पर आवाज़ नहीं होती|
आज कल काँच टूटने की आवाज़ ,

सुनाई ही नहीं देती | 

भूख

भूख,
तू ज़िन्दगी की लंगोटिया यार,
जो सिर्फ मौत के साथ ख़त्म होती है|
भूख,
तू एक पत्थर की लकीर,
जो घिस घिस कर हाथों में समा जाती है|

भूख,
तू अगर सिर्फ पैसे की होती,
तो चंद टकसालें लूट कर,
शायद मैं शांत हो जाता|

भूख,
तू अगर सिर्फ हवस की होती,
तो कुछ कोठों पर गजरे बाँध,
तेरी खुशबू में खो जाता|

भूख,
तू अगर सिर्फ हमसफ़र की होती,
तो कहीं अग्नि के फेरे ले कर,
सात जन्मों तक तुझे भुला देता|

भूख,
तू अगर सिर्फ ज़िन्दगी की होती,
तो कहीं मौत को लगे लगा,
तुझे यूँ ही हरा देता|

भूख,
क्या अच्छा होता गर तू बिकाऊ होती,
कुछ सिक्कों में तोल,
तुझे बीच चौराहे पर बेच आता|

भूख,
काश कि तू दुआओं से मिटती ,
किसी, दरगाह में सर झुका कर,
या किसी मंदिर के घंटी बजा,
तुझे वहीँ छोड़ आता|

मगर भूख,
तू भी तो साली अय्यार है,
रूप बदल बदल कर दिखती,
यारों की यार है|
कभी धूप में मिट जाती है,
तो कभी छाया में कुलबुलाती है|
कभी सूखी आँखों में जगती है,
तो कभी आँसूओं में बह जाती है|
कितना भी मिटा लूँ मैं मगर,
मिट बिल्कुल नहीं पाती है|

Are we a nation starved on self esteem?

Its an issue that keeps bothering me every now and then. Be it the euphoria around the success of an "Indian origin" (latest example a candidate for Britain's speaker) person or be it our hypocrisy of dealing with issues of discrimination on the basis of caste / race / religion.

Lets face it, once and for all, any success of an Indian origin person is at best his own success or of his/her respective nation. India's got nothing, absolutely nothing to it. Vikram Pandit left India when he was sixteen and Indira Nooyi may owe as much to Yale (if not more) to her success as much as IIM-C does. So lets study their success with as much objectivity as we can to look within ourselves instead of just laying ourselves down on our bellies to roll a red carpet just for their Indian roots. Its perhaps more than a slap on our face that an Indian sportsperson looks to foreign shores for training while any engineer / MBA looks to Ivy League as ticket to success. Till such time we look within and do something about it, we would perhaps continue to beat our chests for hollow pride in the colour of our skin (read Indian origin).

That brings us to the other issue of current racism crisis in Australia. Haven't the stories suddenly died down? What happened? Indian students urged Indian media to play it down and our media heeded? Why did Indians urge so? Why are they hesitant to come back if there is so much of fear? Simple, its too lucrative to let go. Australian dollar is still earning more than an Indian rupee! Then why crib? Any country goes through cultural transformation when faced with an immigration flux. Nowhere I intend to downplay the issue. But then, lets also look what we do on a day to day basis. Reverse racism as some people call it, is as rampant as one can imagine. Be it the fetish for the fair skin to the hatred for black or fear of a beard. I'm not even getting into the casteism. It smacks of such blatant hypocrisy that it makes me squirm.

Though the two topics above may seem disconnected but I feel they are symptomatic of a common disease (if I may call it so). Its a serious lack of esteem or a complex of hiding behind the wall of jingoism or perhaps just a lid on the darker side of our psyche. Which in turn prompts us to jump at the first instance of success for brown skin or a collective mob behaviour when a specimen is under threat or is undone by a wrong.

Honestly this is what I feel. High time we became more mature in handling things and stand up for ourselves. Introspect. Amend. And progress. Till such time maybe the question will keep lingering.

Do you agree?

Top 5 IPLs

While in my previous post, I discussed about the other IPL (Indian Parliamentary League). And it struck me that these may not be the only ones, and I came up with my favourite list.

Number 5 : It has to be the original the BCCI Indian Premier League. For one its original. People wait more for zoo zoos than the match. Strategy breaks are wasted on a fully clothed Mandira Bedi. Members of this league just do what they are expected to do. Give hugs, run like headless chicken (remember appam C when he got Dhoni out?) or just call 50 grand USD as motivation and loose the next one. Can you get more boring/interesting (the glass is half full or empty)?

Number 4 : Indian perverse league. This is an interesting league. Even the non-Indians know about it. Members of this all pervasive tribe can be found right from the beaches of Varkala in south to the banks of Ganga (dare ask me to use Ganges anyone) in Rishikesh. Any tourist (foreigner or Indian) who has shown a certain square inch of skin more than the permissible limit would have experienced them. Oh btw did I say permissible limit? It varies as per each members standards.

Number 3 : Indian Paisa League. This one is a million dollar league literally and figuratively. To know the members of this league you either need to be able to answer this million dollar question - Who has the black money? or have an account in Swiss bank or be building an 8000 cr house on the Altamount road in Mumbai. You can choose your own path to know them.

Number 2: Indian PITA league. This is a relatively new breed of members. They include the MNS, Sriram Sene, SIMI, shucks, I don't even remember the name of the group in Kashmir who asked woman to stay in houses in burkas.

And the top honour goes to ....

Indian parliamentary league ... You name it and you have it in this. Black money. Sting operation. Technology (the use of it in CD or failure of it on the blogosphere, sorry Advani ji). Flip flops. Third front. Fourth front. Back to front ;). Betting. Slog overs. Surprises (who thought about a big win for Congress?). Numbers (on screen as well as under the table). Its just a fascinating amalgamation of all the ingredients of a pot boiler. Can't get the eyes off. Even the results can change. It has an intriguing league before the thrilling semis and finals (assuming 2 days before counting and two days after). And yes, it doesn't have strategy breaks!!


There were other close competitors, The Indian Punter League, Indian Paradox League, Indian Pessimissm League .. and if there are more, do let me know you can think of !!