The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Saturday 30 April 2011

O’ those vibes!!


Mighty clouds, mighty sun
And the interlude to the rain
Clash of the titans once again
O’ those vibes, you make gain
Thoughts of you and their rein
O’ mighty clouds, O’ mighty sun
Let the interlude,
Make way to the rain, once again 



Life, finally, settles down here!

Manikarnika and Harishchandra ghats. For most, death is the cruel departure of their loved ones. For some it is point of pondering over the questions of life and death and illusion of this whole existence. For some death signifies life here. They survive here. Live on giving the final liberation to the departed. Learning their way of life through the bylanes of death.

The sites are never great visually.

Dilapidated buildings! Rugged texture! Rough terrain! Dirty aisles! Polluted and charged atmosphere!

Blackened outlines! Greenish flow of eternal Ganga! Its multicoloured sewage component! Its diminishing flowline!

Pure thoughts! Absolute thoughts! Confused thoughts! Questioning thoughts! Answering thoughts! No thoughts!

Whatever!

They pull the conscious as they symbolize the only truth in life. Death and associate questions of life and relations! Yet we fear it so much!



Manikarnika Ghat 

Manikarnika Ghat
Harishchandra Ghat

कदम जहाँ चले थे, फिर चल पड़े!


जब मैंने खुद को सुना था 
 जिंदगी मैं मैं ही था 
जब मैंने तुझे सुना 
उस वक़्त भी मैं मैं ही था 
हाँ ख्यालों से कुछ बेख्याली जरूर थी 
पर वो मेरा मैं 'मैंनहीं था 
जब तू मेरे काफिले के हाशिये पे थी 
कुछ गुमां भी  हुआ 
और वही मेरा मैं 'मैंहो गया 
जब मैं जिंदगी 
तेरे छलावे में  गया 
हम से वो मैं का फासला 
मेरे मैं से तेरे 'मैंका रास्ता 
और कुछ अनसुनी 
पर आवाज़ देती चीखें 
भटका चला जा रहा था 
तेरे भुलावे में 
जब तेरी बेवफाई ने फिर से दस्तक दी 
पर तुझे क्या लगा
मेरे शख्श को मुझीसे जुदा करना 
कभी तेरे बस में रहा ही नहीं 
मैं तो भुलावे में कुछ दूर चला 
पर  जिंदगी 
तू तो भुलावे में बहती ही रही 
मैं वहीँ थामेरा मैं वहीँ था 
हाँ, इस भटकाव ने कुछ नए पैमाने गढ़े 
रास्ते फिर से मिले
कदम जहाँ चले थे, फिर चल पड़े! 

Monday 18 April 2011

DR SEN WALKS FREE TODAY—CONTROVERSY ON ‘JAN LOKPAL COMMITTEE’ -- LET’S BE THERE, FIGHT IS NOT OVER YET


Dr Sen will walk free today after Dec 24 last year while the Chhattisgarh government is preparing to exploit loopholes of Indian legal system even more and has challenged Dr Sen's acquittal in 'waging war against Nation' allegations. Outrageously ridiculous as earlier said but it tells to prepare for the long battle ahead. We all need to be there, in whatever capacity we are, to sustain and strengthen the civil society movements like the 'Campaign to free Dr Sen' or 'Anna Hazare's campaign against corruption'. Let's be there!

Also, we need to be very, very cautious in our approach because we are fighting for a change; a change that is bound to have antagonizing results for most of the power elite. Let’s try to read some symbolic yet powerful messages out of the recent civil society movements.

Like I wrote (and certainly I was not alone in thinking so) on the day government agreed to Anna Hazare’s demands for the ‘Jan Lokpal Bill’, the controversy to put the father-son duo of Bhushans was avoidable. Here I am not questioning integrity of Bhushans, yes, but we needed to present every move of ours in as puritan a way possible; we needed to do away with even an iota of the spark that could create controversy later on. Civil society movements are about creating the highest possible order of congregating ideals when we propose and fight for masses with support of masses and decide to follow a Gandhian path for it.

So the energy that should go in preparing an all comprehensive draft (we have only two months!) is being drifted to tackle the petty politicking of CDs and allegations like nepotism. Politicians always wanted it this way but we need to see, as an awakening civil society, that we don’t let this rare opportunity that could be a building block for the days to come, simply go down the pages of the history, due to something which was easily manageable.

We do not have time; in fact we never had time. We lost the track when we started on the path to get free as dignified individuals way back in 1947. 1947 was just the beginning of a long journey. And, we derailed!

Since then, it has been occasional endeavors of the civil society movement with public figures like Vinoba Bhave, JP, Lohia, Sunder Lal Bahuguna, Anna Hazare, Binayak Sen. Off late, we have started witnessing the mobilization on a larger scale with more and more middle class and youth volunteers coming to form a vital support base. It is an important indicator for India of the moment—that previously had a largely alienated, fractured, aimless youth base and an almost insulated middle class, always wary for earning some easy way to secure life in monetary life, and, in-turn, everything got monetized, commoditized, and corruption became a way of life—that it is yet another turn now to make and see the change creep in—to change the ways how we think, how we administer and how we get administered.

We need to capitalize on these symbolic factors. We need to factor in how the power elite are flexing muscles, be it Dr Sen’s case or be it Anna’s campaign, to derail whatever little gains that we seemed to gain. We hope for good things to come but history tells us to prepare for the worst. We need to closely watch the High Court’s observations on Chhattishgarh government’s plea to reconsider the acquittal of Dr Sen and two others under Section 121 A of the IPC. We need to cautiously watch the conditions of the bail for Dr Sen as the Chhattisgarh government has requested to put in a clause that would debar Dr Sen from entering Chhattishgarh. What rubbish!

We need to watch and we sincerely need to move ahead in a planned way. We need to capitalize on the gains that we have made in recent days. And we all need to be there with commitment that innocence and conviction in voices of Dr Sen and Anna deserve. Let’s be there! It’s never too late to begin again! 

Saturday 16 April 2011

O’ Ganga, what else my ‘Soul’ needs


Majesty of the golden beads
Words are lost when one reads
The unwritten script of,
The mighty sun for its gentler rays
And their foreplay,
O’ Ganga, with your nimbler
Month of March waves
The unsung song, the invisible ink
A quiet Ganga at your side to think
What else my ‘Soul’ needs


Moments n the place: Life becomes irrelevant n gets back its relevance: The spontaneous art of introspection fueled by a compelling set-up!