Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Monday, November 19, 2018
This too will pass…
This too will pass…
But with this will pass the time,
That can’t be brought back by any
dime.
This too will pass…
But with this will pass my prime,
That can’t be brought back by any
enzyme.
This too will pass…
But with this will pass the liberty
to go awry,
That can’t be brought back by any
sorcery.
This too will pass…
But with this will pass the emotions,
That make the life bloomy and flowery.
This too will pass…
But with this will pass the emotions,
That take us away from the elements
of life,
That are gloomy and dreary,
And these can’t be brought back by
any wizardry.
This too will pass…
But with this will pass the sparkle
of her eyes,
And crackle of her voice,
That can’t be brought back by any exercise.
Yes this too will pass…
But it will leave behind only,
Stinky mud and wilted grass,
That would serve only as a relic,
For belief and faith in almighty,
As a total farce, a total crass.
###
P.S: Written for Indispire prompt
#ThisTooWillPass
P.S: Written for Indispire prompt
#ThisTooWillPass
Friday, November 16, 2018
बाद मुद्दत के आराम मिला है...
कल किताब में...
तेरी तस्वीर का इनाम मिला है I
बुझती आँखों को,
अंजन बेदाम मिला है,
डूबते दिल को फिर से,
धड़कने का काम मिला है I
ज़िंदगी के बियाबाँ में बरसों के बाद ,
कोई इंसान मिला है,
बरसों बाद कोई... दिलोजान मिला है I
Monday, November 12, 2018
The Chath Puja & Immature Social Response!
Pic Credits:https://economictimes.indiatimes.com
Nowadays,
there is hustle and bustle in the markets and makeshift shops, in my part of
the country, for chath festival. The
environs are filled with the melodious chath
songs. The local edition of newspapers
are fraught with stories of how much allegiance the people belonging to
Bihar and U.P put to this festival that even after settling miles away from
their native place they perform the Puja without
fail.
This way the
people living abroad get to be in touch with their cultural roots and the whole
eastern India media goes gaga over such cosmetic attempts of gratitude towards
the cultural root embalming.
The news
channels and newspapers are announcing the arrival of Lok Astha Ka Mahaparv Chath. Sometimes I wonder if Chath is alone the Lok Astha Ka Mahaparv then what are Holi and Diwali. Are they
Raj Astha Ka Parv? I have seldom seen
any aristocrat wallowing in the mud in Holi,
it is only common man (the Lok) who
wallows in the mud making it also a Lok
Astha Ka Parv.
In this
festival several folk songs are sung and in these songs there is one line that
says that Chathi Mata and the Sun God
can cure the leprosy among other troubling issues. Now, I can tell from my
experience that there is an unreasonable kind of fear attached to this Parv. People believe that any mistake
committed in the process of following the rituals of Chath puja can result in turning you a leper.
And leprosy
has a macabre stigma attached to it. Several societies including Indian have
ostracized the leprosy infested humans in the past as there was no other
logical and medical way to fight the spread of the leprosy bacteria. And since
the leprosy bacteria eat up the body parts that make the hands and legs turn
into stump and the face into not a pretty sight to watch, the fear that the
disease creates in the human mind is enormous and debilitating. And thus it
serves as great deterrent against committing any mistakes during the festival.
In a way the festival rituals flourish and feed on fear.
I guess that the centuries of living under the
slavery made the Indian psyche bereft of logical thinking. Otherwise what might
be the reason that the India that had the legends of medical fields like Dhanwantari and Sushrut believed and continue to believe that leprosy is the upshot
of bad past karma instead of the bacteria?
The draconian
rules related to Chath as regards the
cleanliness shows that people in ancient times had the idea that the filthy
environments lead to the development of mycobacterium leprae even if they
didn’t know the cure. Sometime ago, I had read in a magazine that during the
era of St. Paul*, bathing used to be considered as luxury, so many devotees of
the lord refrained from bathing. But after some extended period of non- bathing,
several diseases started to spread and leprosy was one of them. So, this gives
a hint that leprosy does have a link to unclean and unhygienic environment.
But during
the Chath festival the concept of
cleanliness gets the face of insanity. People believe that if the wheat grains
getting dried for the Prasad get
tasted by birds the Chathi Mata and
Sun Lord will punish the devotees with the dreaded disease leprosy. I mean this
is utterly illogical and irrational to think so. Why will the Chathi Mata (who is the 6th
part of the nature) and the Sun Lord (Who is the evident emblem of the nature)
will get angry if birds (which are by all means the integral part and child of
nature) taste the wheat grains to placate their hunger?
In the
pastoral Indian life (especially in Bihar,I come from Bihar so I know Bihar
closely enough to comment on) people take pride in defecating in their fields
where they sow the seeds of wheat. I want to say that excreta is the prime
reason to transmit many dreaded diseases and if god never got furious for
defecating in open and consequently spreading the diseases, then I fail to
understand how come the gods can get angry if the birds taste the wheat grains?
During the
festival the fasting ladies are revered as pious souls. And these ladies behave
as if they have been blessed by the god and goddess personally. They feel very
valued because people believe that they are purely pious soul for four days of
the festival. And these are the same women who torment their daughter-in-laws
for rest of the year. So the rigorous rituals of the Chath festival alone should not be regarded as a yardstick to
measure the piety of the souls. Because, after the completion of the festival
the women don the hat of devil mother in laws as soon as possible. If the
rituals fail to make you a better person then you fail the festival also that
celebrates the change of season and teaches that however strong you might be,
you will set as the Sun sets and remains whole night under the thrall of
darkness.
The Chath Puja is advised to people who have
Leucoderma or other skin related diseases. Once, I was in a metropolitan city
and there in my apartment a sweet bubbly girl of 10-odd years used to reside
with her parents. She had a small white patch. And her mother was advised to
observe the fasts of Chath . I used
to feel very bad for that little girl who was made to feel kind of
uncomfortable because she had just a small white patch. The tender mind can
have devastating imprints of embarrassments, when made to feel different due to
some medical condition.
Though, I am
still to encounter any medical literature that says that doing Chath Puja alone treated leprosy and
advised against Dapsone, the unfounded belief that Chath Puja can cure leprosy and white patches run deep in the
society.
Though right
from western to Indian saints have been tested on touch stone of treating leprosy
to prove their divine attributes.
The Indian
society that used to question beliefs and philosophies and argue the established
leanings now meekly acknowledge what is meted out to it. We hardly find any
debating nature as regards the popular usage and rituals like Adi Guru Shankaracharya and Mandan Misara had in the past that only
enriched our tradition and culture with notional sanity.
I hope that someday
the name of Baba Amte is incorporated
in folk Chath songs, for the magnificent
son of Chathi Maiya who served the
lepers with all probity, sincerity and proved to be the savior for them. You
might argue that Chath is the
festival of U.P,Bihar then how come a Marathi
Manus be incorporated in the Chath folk
songs? Mind you Chathi Mata is an
omnipresent part of nature and can Mother Nature be restricted in demarcated regions
like we parochial thinking humans try to restrict the regions?
As long as
the Chath festival is celebrated as
the gratitude towards the boon of nature it is sublime but as soon as it is
there as overbearing panacea for all troubling diseases and situations, it
loses it shine of sublimity. The festival should be used to include people
instead of excluding and segregating human souls.
The Chath festival should be used as a tool to
attain spiritual ascension instead of getting entangled in ritual injunction.
*St. Paul
story is based on memory; I don’t have any documentary evidence at hand when I
am writing the post.
###
Friday, November 9, 2018
कहीं तो उड़ने को पूरा आकाश है...
कहीं तो उड़ने को पूरा आकाश है,
तो कहीं रेंगना हीं उपलब्ध प्रयास है I
कहीं तो कपटता हीं उच्च विन्यास है,
तो कहीं निष्ठा भी पूर्ण उपहास है I
कहीं तो इंसान हीं करता निराश है,
तो कहीं पत्थर से हीं आस है I
कहीं तो दिन हीं बोझिल बनवास है,
तो कहीं रात भी झिलमिल उजास है I
कहीं तो गागर को तृप्ति का एहसास है,
तो कहीं सागर को अतृप्त प्यास है I
कहीं तो जीवन अटल विजयी विश्वास है,
तो कहीं ज़िंदगी...
अटकल है, तुक्का है, कयास है I
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Sunshine Blogger Award Nominees!
I am writing this post to thank a fellow blogger, Mr. Shri Krishna Sharma who found me eligible enough to nominate for Sunshine Blogger Award. Mr. Shri Krishna Sharma is a prolific writer and has equal command and right in both Hindi and English languages. The best part of his writing is that sometimes he incorporates a one or two line satire in his articles, keeping the other parts of the post clinging to its core issues. The satires from Mr. Sharma force us to rethink about our stand on several issues that plague our society. He writes flowery poetries as well that touch the soul.
You can find more about him here: http://www.samaysakshi.in
Now the time for rules to accept
the award that I need to follow:
• To thank the
persons who nominated you and link the post back to
him/her.
him/her.
• Display the Sunshine Blogger Award picture on your post.
• Answer the 11 questions the nominator gave you.
• Nominate 11 bloggers who motivate you.
• Provide 11 questions to your nominees.
Here are the replies to the questions posed by my nominator Mr.
Shri Krishna Sharma.
Why Do You Blog?
I blog
because I want the white space of paper or MS word (for that matter) to talk
the language of my thoughts. I blog to let others know about how good, bad or
uncomfortable I feel about a given aspect of life. And in the process, I happen
to meet some wonderful people who remind me that finding like minded people in
the world is not so difficult.
I blog to
improve my writing skills; I blog to understand the world with a better
perspective; I blog to inspire myself to think better.
What does blogging mean to you?
I guess I have
answered it in the first question itself.
What is your favorite blogging topic and why?
My favorite topic
entails the understanding of day to day struggles that humanity goes through.
The struggles that strive to make the life and the world a better place.
Who is your audience and how do you reach out to them?
My audience is the whole
world who knows how to read. I want to reach everyone interested in reading. My
google aided blogspot.com and www.indiblogger.in are the best two platforms
through which I try to reach my readers.
How do you intend to expand your reach and your reader base?
Writing something
meaningful is the first step to attract the minds of the readers, so I try to
write something meaningful every time I think of writing something.
Who is your favorite blogger from your genre?
Actually, I read from
a variety of topics, so to pinpoint a single one would be quite impossible. It
is not that I like one and I don’t like others. Actually several flowers make a
bouquet…so I like the bouquet far more than I like a single flower.
Do you intend to be a professional blogger ever?
Actually, I write
blogs on the topics that interests me and I don’t think that going professional
way would give me this latitude. Though, I have done some professional content
writing in the past but for blogging I would like to keep it personal instead
of professional.
Do you intend to convert your blogposts into a book?
Can’t say quite
clearly about it. Actually, book publishing depends on the requirements of the
publishing market. In the past, I have failed miserably in the publishing
market (I mean my fiction writing was not found eligible enough to be published
and after that I have stopped thinking in that direction) Yes, I have been a
failure in the publishing world and I have no qualms in accepting that! I am
happy with the blogging platforms’ flexibility to write on any topic that I want
to write on and there is no fear of getting rejected either. I can publish my writings at my convenience.
What is the importance of Sun Shine Blogger nomination to you?
Look, writing (or
blogging in any genre for that matter) is all about recognition and when you
are recognized as a writer (or a blogger of a particular genre) a zillion liters
of inspiration get infused in the mind to do better with writing and blogging.
In addition to blogging, what else is your hobby?
Reading daily news- papers online about the
happenings of the world is one of my interests. The commentaries on how the
present scenario of the world is woven intricately with the past intrigue me.
What is one thing that no one knows about you?
If the one thing that
no one knows about me, it must be something qualifying for the respect of
secrecy. So, let it be that way.
Here is my list of nominees in alphabetical order:
1) Anita ( www.anitaexplorer.com)
2) Binita Bora (
https://educatedunemployedindian.com)
3) Bhawana (https://code2cook.com)
4) Dipali
Bhasin (https://www.spoonsandsneakers.com)
5) Dr. Amrita
Basu (https://healthwealthbridge.com)
6) Jitendra
Mathur (https://jmathur.wordpress.com)
7) Magiceye (https://mumbai-eyed.blogspot.com)
8) Manoj (https://www.bloggingtriggers.com)
9) Rajkumar (http://viewtraveling.com)
10) Sachin
Baikar (http://sachinbaikar.com)
11) Sunil Deepak
(http://www.deepaksunil.com)
The questions to my
nominees are:
1) Could you remember the time for us when you decided to
start a blog?
2) What motivates you to blog ?
3) Do you have a feeling that blogging helps you
understand the world better and vice versa?
4) Who is your audience and how do you reach out to them?
5) Do you intend to be a professional blogger ever?
6) Do you intend to convert your blog posts into a book?
7) What is the importance of Sun Shine Blogger nomination to
you?
8) In addition to blogging, what else is your hobby?
9) Who is your favorite blogger from your genre?
10) How other bloggers’ blogs help you shape your
perspective towards life?
11) Are you in the habit of reading? Tell us about your
favourite book.
###
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