Author: Swati Sani

कभी न सोचा था प्यार बाँटा तो दर्द पाऊँगी

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Shared Love

कभी न सोचा था प्यार बाँटा
तो दर्द पाऊँगी

कभी न सोचा था कि दर्द होगा तो इतना
कि उसे न बाँट पाऊँगी

वक्त लगता है संभलने में मगर
यकीं है मुझे कि संभल जाऊँगी

Who killed Prof Sabherwal?- Nadeem Sani

As a human being, I hold multiple identities simultaneously. I am a retired naval officer, an out-of-work executive, a henpecked husband, and a doting father. I am from X course of NDA, Y Squadron and belong to Nagpur etc. I can think of numerous affiliations to derive my specific identity BUT all my roles and identities are subservient to a core, basic, irrefutable one – I am an INDIAN – foremost and always. And it pains me to see fellow countrymen squabble over and parade their narrower identities for personal or political interests.

Prof Sabherwal was murdered on Sep 06 in the city of Ujjain. The country was shocked into witnessing the sordid crime live on their TV sets home. After a lot of hue and cry, the assailants were arrested and charged with murder. Today, they walk free after the Nagpur High Court acquitted them for want of proper evidence and poor case preparation by the prosecution.

As an Indian and a rational human being, killing is an anathema to me. The killing of a professor over narrow political causes is thus an even more distasteful, dastardly, and blasphemous act. On a national TV debate regarding the issue, we had a strident defender of the accused stating that the Professor was not killed but died of natural causes, spewing venom and espousing her parochial view of politics. Despite the prophecy of kalyug , I still regard teaching as a noble profession and a Guru as a demigod. The fact that this defender of the killers was a woman Professor shows the abysmal state of our quest for narrow personal and political gains. And we have the Chief Minister of the state where this heinous crime was committed lauding the release of the accused in media!

The Professor’s case for some reason has not sparked the furor and debate akin to say, Jessica Lal. Neither has the media taken up the case with the same fervor. Is it because espousing this cause will not increase the TRP anymore? Perhaps the Jessica Lal case was about the privileged vs the non-privileged whereas this case is against the workers of the ruling party in the state! Are we to assume that the “Indian- ness” of the people of the state is subservient to their narrow political views?

Whatever may be the case, it seems that no one killed Prof Sabherwal after all. Or is it that each one of us is guilty of his murder by accepting a system that condones it?

(Written by Nadeem Sani)

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

Straight

Straight
Straight

Bought the “Straight” DVD  for Sunday afternoon viewing as the cast looked promising . I did not have any expectations from the movie but it surprised me with some real good editing and direction techniques. One technique I particularly liked was dropping of a truck in front of the moving car to show the transition between London to  India…

The movie is not really racy, but its  a light flick -so it serves the purpose. Subject of the move is bold/controversial/taboo which speaks for the A certificate from censor board..

Vinay Pathak as Pinu, the protagonist has done some good work – but then he is a fine actor and nothing less can be expected of him. Gul Panag looks ravishing, the dimples on her cheeks particularly cute, has done a great job of her somewhat limited role. She has lovely husky voice that sounds very sincere as she delivers her dialogues.

Pinu Patel (Vinay Pathak) is a London based restaurateur and owns Gaylord, which serves Indian cuisine. A simple man with tiny complexities in life such as being a virgin and his to be wife running away from the marriage pendal (he goes to India to get married) makes him doubt his self worth. An introvert, he has a nagging aunt, an uncle and a cousin (Rajat) who is a friend. He returns from India and lies about his marital status and tells everyone that his wife will join him later. Continue reading Straight

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