Category: Prose n Poetry

I write

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

Hot Sams

It was 9:15 AM and I was hungry, having skipped dinner the previous night. I stepped into Haldiram’s to pick up a loaf of bread for breakfast and nearly drowned in nostalgia looking at the fresh Hot Samosa’s being laid into the trays at the counter.

We had morning college, 7.30 AM and during winter its darn early in Nagpur to be in the college at 7.30 -but still a bunch of us were very regular – we would attend first two classes, get thoroughly bored and hungry by 9.30 .

Our respite was a small chai-samosa thela in front of the college run by a “Kaku” and “Kaka” (a middle aged women who we would call kaku and her husband). Alpana insisted on calling her Maushi though showing her true kokonast breed 😉

So four of us I, Pattu, Alpana and Shishir would invariably find ourselves gorging steaming hot samosa’s -straight out of the kadahai sipping ginger tea. Alpana in her trademark style would ask for more mirche and then say the mirch is too hot. We would tease her for riding her bicycle on the footpath instead of the road and generally pull each others leg eating atleast four samosa’s each…

Samosa!! I use to love them -I still do, but I rarely get to eat them now 🙁

Pyaas

I wrote this sometime in 1986

प्यास 

मैं ज्योति, तुम उजियारा
मैं नभ प्रतीक, तुम सूरज हो
मैं सौरभ, तुम हो सुवास
मैं हूँ प्रार्थना, तुम बने शिवि
मैं प्रकृित निश्चछल, तुम उज्जवल मानव
मैं पूर्ण, तुम हो संपूर्ण
मैं सरिता कलकल, तुम सागर सम
बहती बहती पवन हूँ मैं, तुम मंद हवा का झोंका हो
मैं गति, तुम हो ठहराव
मैं आकाश, तुम ब्रम्हांड हो
मैं प्रेरणा, तुम कल्पना
मैं बूंद बनी प्यासे तुम
मैं स्वाति, तुम चातक

::

She a window flower and he a winter breeze… …

She was a charming girl, always smiling, always had something nice to say, she was my best friend.

I love him dad, he has asked me to marry… …. On her brief visit home she spoke to her father about the boy who she was friends with in the town she studied. She was inclined towards the proposal, the boy had always made her feel special, he made her feel like a woman he deeply cared for her . Her father was not sure of her choice, the boy belonged to a different community, different religion, a background totally different from theirs. Somewhere in her heart she too had the same fears but the fears were far less and took a back seat in comparison to the happiness she was seeing ahead.

Her dad finally agreed to meet the boy and told the boy very confidently, I know my daughter. He said to the daughter , its your decision, its your life you have to take the step forward if you want to marry him and bear all responsibilities of the action.

It was a good meeting, the boy was happy, the girl went back to her hometown back promising to return in a month.

Weeks passed, I saw him every day, we would sit and talk for hours about life about her about the lives they will live, it wasn’t easy for him to talk to his own dad about the marriage, but he had done that, he was ecstatic.

The month passed away, she did not come, her letters came periodically but they were non committal she was now between yes and no.

31st December 1990 was the cut off date if she did not come by then or at least give a firm commitment, he had said he will forget her… the wait was getting to be too much.

She did not come, a letter arrived saying it is best that they do not marry each other she further said that her father stands by his words that she can marry if she wants to, but it is her decision and that she has decided not to get married to him.

He was heartbroken. he woke up sad everyday, mornings are the toughest, he once told me.

Days went by, the boy missed her he felt he did not deserve this. All he had given was love, all his love and all he wanted in return was love, just love. Its so unfair to be left alone like this.

Years passed, she married the boy who was her father’s junior in office.

14 years is a long time I remember it all as if it happened only yesterday.

Most of all I remember the meeting her father had with the boy I was not there but I know what transpired in great details.

Had her father insisted and resisted his daughter marrying the boy, I am sure she would have put up a fight did everything she could to marry him. They would have been together if there was an opposition from her family.

Things changed when she was allowed to take her own decision and bear the consequences.

What happened to him after she left him is another story.

Aasim’s poem on planets

Aasim’s Summer Holidays started from yesterday and as expected, the first day of staying home he got throughly bored -here’s a creative result of his boredom- he told me to write down (as he can’t write himself) a poem he made on planets

Mercury is the hottest planet
Venus is molten and very hot too
Earth is the third and we just live there
Mars has storms and no body can live there
Jupiter is medium temperature
Saturn is very little far from the sun
Uranus is cold planet and so is Neptune
Pluto is coldest planet and nobody can live there because they will freeze
Sedna is a very small planet
and Quaoar is a planetoid

P.S Aasim is 6.5 yrs old .