Category: Prose n Poetry

I write

कुछ आँसूं कुछ मोती

Sangita is a friend who shares my love for poetry and was one of the very few readers of my early writings. When she visited my site yesterday, she wanted to know as to why have I not published any of my new Hindi poetry here – I promised her I will and here it is –

अपने रिसते हुए घावों की तरफ मत देखो
उनके बहते हुए मोती समेटो पहले

वो टपके तो ये जख्म तारी होंगे
वो डूबे तो ले डूबेंगे सब कुछ

दर्द की तराशी हुइ है यह जिन्दगी
कुछ और दुख से न बिखर जाएगी

उनका दर्द कर सको तो कम कर लो
उनकी मुस्कुराहटों से ये जीस्त बहल जाएगी

Friends forever

A Friend forever - Alpana
A Friend forever - Alpana

I have not heard from her since ages, last time I called her she was busy shifting back to India from another country and we could hardly talk.

Cute and petite, she was the life of our group. Her anecdotes with smatterings of “uno bola, to fir main boli” in typical Hyderabadi style kept the conversation alive. We called h er “Hauli” a slang for cutely silly. She loved the road side chinese and I would very often gatecrash  on her road side dining dates which she went with her “Quack”. Her boyfriend “Quack” was a friend of mine studying to be a doctor.  I still don’t know if I was an intrusion, but I was close enough to both of them to be allowed to do that. Continue reading Friends forever

Gulgul

“Go straight inside baby” Bhiku the rickshaw wala told her before dropping her off at the gate. It was the month of July, schools had just re-opened and all of 8 year old, Gulgul, the girl with chubby cheeks felt liberated. It had rained heavily in the afternoon and at 4 o’clock when the school ended, the roadside was full of big and small puddles  making her mind race and imagination run wild as she sat in the rickshaw to reach home.

And there it was, a huge puddle just outside the entrance of her home. There was a stone way through the puddle to the veranda of the old bungalow and it was easy to reach the door without getting her feet soiled -as she was told time and again, girls ought to behave demurely and in proper fashion, she even started to walk on the pathway. One step and the second one, she saw her own reflection in the puddle, stood there admiring the sky being reflected in water. Continue reading Gulgul

आहुती

उषा की निमर्ति
निशा की आहुति
तारों का टूटना
गिरना ‌और बिखरना
सपनों की आहुति
पत्थरों की पूजा
धरती की ठोकर
गिरती हुयी मंजिल
उडती हुयी राहें
जिन्दगी की आहुती

अश्क

गमों की रहगुज़र पर जब अश्कों ने भी साथ न दिया
तो हम चल पडे अकेले ही मंज़िल की तलाश में
आंख की कोर पर बूंद मानों लटक कर रह गयी
और धीरे धीरे हालात की आंधी ने उसे भी सोख लिया

मैं!

मैं निराशा की गर्त में डूबने वालों में नहीं
आशा की कोर को छूना जानती हूं ।
यथार्थ को जी कर सपनों को पालती हूं
इस छोर पर खडी हो उस छोर की
बाट जोहने वालों में नहीं
मैं अंतहीन होना जानती हूं ।
विध्वंसक न सही
मैं हौले से आंचल के कोर से
खुद अपने आंसू पोछना जानती हूं ।
शब्दों की गहराइ में उतरती भी हूँ
पर उथले कीचड को पहचानती हूं
ज़रा सी ठेस से टूटने वालों में मैं नहीं,
अपने टुकडों को समेटना जानती हूं ।
निराशा के अंधेरों में डूबने वालों में नहीं
मैं आशा की हर सहर बिताना जानती हूं ।

Cut and Paste

I think there should be a serious research done on the influence of ‘cut and paste’ command in the realms of academics in particular and the society in general. This ubiquitous command has given every individual the ability to plagiarise at the click of a mouse. The morality of this issue would depend upon which side of the fence one belongs to – taken from a different and rather liberal perspective, plagiarism makes for a  very effective system for dissemination of information! On a more serious note, let’s consider this – without the facility of ‘cut and paste’, an individual would mandatorily need to read through and copy the text/synopsis/what-have-you. This would atleast ensure that he ( or she) reads what is being plagiarised and perhaps even understand some part of it. As a freelance editor, I frequently get manuscripts which are so blatantly borrowed from the net that the new owner does not even bother to get the numbers/genders/timelines in consonance with the rest of his text. In a similar vein, my children ‘research’ their projects on the net – and produce fabulous looking reports that does their father proud. Atleast they don’t have the pretensions or snobbery of claiming to have submitted an original document ! So, is this ‘cut and paste’ making us more knowledgeable by more effective dissemination of knowledge or is it ‘dumbing down’ our intellect by reducing our ability of original thinking ? Maybe I can prevail upon my daughter’s class teacher to hold a debate on the topic.

Return of the King

Yesterday was a day which we will not forget all our lives. Returning back from the new home (site) while I was driving at a breakneck speed of 75-80, Tarique told me stop the car immediately. “STOP STOP VULTURE!!!” Tarique almost shouted.

I shushed him “ stop day dreaming! vulture, here? you are crazy!!, must be Osprey or something”. But, by then I had already slowed down a bit and I stopped a little ahead. I spotted something too. Sitting on an almost bare tree, along with black kites, was a form that looked much bigger than the black kite and the form did look like a … (gulp) Vulture.

So, while Tarique stood guard, I rushed back home to get the camera (our current home is just 1.5 kms away from the sighting place) I made a few phone calls to city birders thinking if it really is a vulture, more pair of eyes should see it, I reached back 15 mins later, to see the bird still sitting there, Tarique took over the camera, while I parked the car and followed him. The clicking begins, and we see the results, IT IS A VULTURE!! WOW!!! more frantic phone calls and I found out that people have already left their respective work places and residences to reach the spot. We prayed, this bird should wait here for some more time atleast till some of the birders arrive.

We also discovered a carcass down below , black kites were troubling the vulture and we were perhaps approaching nearer to its comfort zone, the vulture flew, right over my head, but the sun shone in my eyes so could I not identify which vulture. We left the identification to later and kept clicking. The bird then flew away far after being with us for a good 35-40 minutes.

Jaimesh, Mr. Gopal Thosar (Hon.Wild life Warden ) and Dr. Pimplapure arrive and see the photos, discuss the carcass (it was a calf freshly killed by someone and thrown) and while we all were gloating over the find when all of us shout again almost in unison IT’S BACK! the majestic bird, as if to prove a point, came back and circled for about 10 minutes and then vanished.

So which vulture was it? Long billed ? White back? No! it was the Red necked Vulture AKA the King Vulture