एकांत की रागिनी.

ना दोपहर की धूप है,
ना रात की चांदनी.
ना घने बादल है,
ना प्यासी माटि .

ना खिलता यौवन है,
ना जाती जवानी.
ना 'उस' की कोई माया है,
ना वृद्ध की कोई वाणी.

ना उजड़ते बाग़ है,
ना खिलती क्यारी.
ना होटों की हंसी है,
ना आँखों का पानी.

ये है एकांत की कहानी,
      ये है एकांत की रागिनी.

this is my favourite creation.
please feel free to give your opinion and comments

फकीर तनहाई का....

न जाने क्यूँ, आज जाने पहचाने रास्तों में खो जाने का जी है.
पहचान भुलाकर अपनी, भीड़ में खो जाने का जी है...

रोको न अब, बह जाने दो, बहुत रह लिए बाँध में.
हटाओ लगाम, भागने दो आज, फुर्सत, मध्मस्त, मर्ज़ी में...

वहाँ, दरिया में एक कश्ती है,
छोड़ो, आज तैर के पार जाना है,
लहरों को बाँहों से चीरना है,
पार जाकर चैन से सोयेंगे...

आज बस फिरना है...
रंगों से अंधेरो तक,
शोर से ख़ामोशी तक,
समाज से एकांत तक.
नहीं चाहिए मंज़िल की परछाई,
नहीं चहिये नक्षा ज़िंदगी का.
यूँही जीने दो आज,
बनकर फकीर तनहाई का.

Life between Love and Love lost

Sometimes it’s good to be a cold, mean capitalist. You manage to do great even at worst of times.
Capitalist in love? Well, why not? You are great when you’re in it; you are great even when you’re out of it. You seem to do what is best for you, really doesn’t matter if your actions are going against anyone, even the person who loves you. And when the person (you’re love) drops you, it really doesn’t matter. It sounds rude, yes, but it really does work, though I somehow could not ‘yet’ become that kind.

Life between Love and Love lost…

The stage when we still love the person who’d dropped us ages ago, is the most pathetic stage of our lives, no matter who we are, what we do, where we live, it hurts equally bad. And how terrible can it be when you know that the person has moved on.

The person, the love of our lives, the character of our poems, the most important part of us and if that person shrugs and elbows us out as if we never mattered, is still pardoned by us, just because our love can’t transform into hate.

What do we do? Our conscious does not allow us to stray and then you see the person has moved on as if nothing has happened. How do control that anger, that anguish, that fear? Isn’t it good to become a cold, mean capitalist here? We can take this painkilling pill and live in that exo-hormonal peace and calm.

If not, what else?

The Divided Union of India.

The title may sound a little embarrassing; it may not give a picture as perceived by others, both in positive and negative sense.  To some it may just be theoretical mess, to some it may be a glance of reality. Reality which exists but, not entirely, not accurately, yet it sometimes exist in its fullest form. It’s like the case with ‘black’ population in America, sometimes they are over sympathised and sometimes they are still at the receiving end of racism, though very minutely, but still does. Similarly, the case of ‘Divided Union of India’ is there in very minute but yet substantial way. Substantial - because this divides is often ignited and profiled for specific benefits of a specific few, e.g. political agendas and propagandas.

Some may say this divide exists everywhere, but the divide in India it exists in so many forms, natures, theatres and platform that if one sees it from the above, it would be hard for him to believe that this is one country and people here are collectively, in some way, are called Indians.

India is divided in countless manners, Geo-politically, Culturally, Ethnically, etc. so when it comes to India as a country, it is a mess of everything.

I’ll begin with Ethnic division. Indian Ethnic bifurcation is so complex that sometimes it actually seems like a miracle. Our Ethnic background, unlike America where Europeans settled with the natives of totally different Ethnicity, is mix of every Ethnic background in the world. 3000 years ago, when the Indus valley civilisation was at peak, the people were of Indo-Euro Ethnic background. When the Aryan civilisation grew, people were already mix of Asians, Europeans and Mongoloids. Whereas the Dravidians had African Ethnic background. Today an Indian's Ethnic background can be traced and matched with every human on face of the earth as we’ve had mixed generic settlements through out history, this theory can be proved true to a great extent, though not accurately.
So, when we see this point of division, it is present in a form of majority settlement of a particular Ethnic group. The North, West and Central Indians have majority trait of Indo-European Ethnic background. They share this with people of countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. The East and North-East parts' settlers have majority traits of Mongoloid Ethnic background and have similarities with the people from China, Mongol and other eastern Asian countries. And finally, South-Central, South Western, Southern and South-Eastern people share Ethnic background with Africans, with thin body frame, curly top, etc.
Everyone, though have different majority traits that distinguish their appearance from the others in India, they have some common traits, though dormant, that distinguishes them from their original Ethnic tribes.
This division is then drwan politically. And people of different traits, are categorised in a peculiar way. N-E region and it's people are left behind in the main stream and thus serves as an example of this devide.

Culturally, O God, this is like the worst thing. India is divided into countless sub-cultures- Religions, Castes, Languages, Foods, etc. most of the times, these cultures are not integrated and made into one. It’s because of the diversity in our masses and weak (intentional) political will. We know how America integrated all its subjects and also the migrants and used their ability for not only individual but national growth.
Indians have this peculiar character, when they go out of their cultural region; they become the most tolerant folks, adjusting to everything and create good conditions for living, and expect (host) people to accept them. While the same Indians, when return to their regions, they become the most intolerant men on earth. When they’re guest, they want respect and coherence from the host, and when things reverse, and they become the hosts, they want their guests to be at helm’s end, extracting their right to steer their (guests/migrants) lives to grow and prosper, for example, Tamils in Tamilnadu can’t tolerate North Indians in their state doing business, but the same Tamils would come to Mumbai and become the most friendly peoples.
Another sub-cultural factor is Language. Most of the Indians, belonging to semi-urban areas and rural areas are the most intolerant folks towards other languages. If a person speaks his native language in that place, he’s considered a chauvinistic, un-adjusting, prudent alien.
Well as far as religion is considered, I think India is the most vibrant place in the world. Every major religion in the world is represented in India. Not only represented, but given nourishment to grow and prosper. There are Hindus (inclusive of Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, etc.), Muslims, Christians, Jews, Parsis and Iranis, and everyone has adapted to the local culture. Since, most of Indian Muslims and Christians are converts (thus they’re still unacceptable to Arabs and Europeans) so they easily survive and adjust. There’re some cases of violence, but they are politically motivated (almost always). Caste, well as a student in school I never knew what this (Caste) thing meant, same is the case with majority of the youth. Caste is a politically created phenomenon. If you talk of suppression of lower castes, god, stop kidding me, in 21^st century who has the time to think over such things. It’s the card of those god damn, jobless idiots who can’t help but create dramas and issues of petty things. Ironically, almost 51% of government seats in government offices (all the types) are reserved for the minorities. Did the Americans reserve even half that number for the natives? Huh! Dirty politics.

The last ‘division’ I would like to discuss is through geo-political reasons. India is formed into several states. These states are formed on the basis of regional cultures, languages, etc. like Maharashtra is formed where Marathi’s spoken, Gujarat is formed where Guajarati’s spoken, Tamil Nadu is formed where Tamil is spoken, etc. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, N-E states, J & K and disputed Telangana and Vidharbha are based on Cultural statehood phenomena. Such ideas cause immense intolerance amongst the locals. Political leverage from "son-of-the-soil" agenda works miracle in rural areas (sometimes urban ares too). Now, since this is a political subject I won’t write more, I can give an example though; just imagine an absolute Hispanic state in US, I’m not talking of the majority here, I meas a state for the Hispanics exculsively.

Solution, the only solution is that we revert to our tolerance. The trait of Tolerance through which the Indian civilisation is still standing, standing for more than 5000 years now. We’re losing tolerance, and that is why we’re falling. Indians have another peculiar character, we don’t stand by our own examples, we just stick to the west for examples. The example here is the US. Its success is based on tolerance, Tolerance of Africans, Italians, Hispanics, Irish, and all the other migrants. The end of civil war is a sample; its demography is a sample. If we look, we can find numerous examples, we just need to learn to live in coherence with everyone in this country. We know to live in coherence with the world, now we must learn the same thing amongst ourselves (Indians). And not try to politicise every god damn thing.

Life between Sorrow and Joy...

Ever thought what Life is like when you’re neither happy nor sad?

When we’re happy, we feel that the world’s colourful, we see everything around us is beautiful. And when we’re sad, our world becomes dark, grey, nothing remains beautiful. What’s it like when we’re neither?

It could either be that we’re at divine peace, a step closer to Nirvana, Or in Surrender.
It’s hard to know which is true for us. In both the cases, we accept the world the way it is. Though, when at peace, our acceptance is more positive as we try to nexus ourselves with everything around. And when we surrender, we kill our hopes and expectations.

Although, the stage in between Sorrow and Joy is very short, it leaves a mark or sometimes a scar. It’s the time of self-realisation, understanding our own selves and trying to find solutions to situations / problems/ LIFE. The phase leads us back to either Sorrow or Joy. Sorrow, because self-realisation could end in guilt, inferiority and a darker journey. Joy, because a new, fresh hope is harvested after understanding the world in and outside us.

I have experienced both Peace and Surrender. And sometimes a complex of both. If asked to give a name to my experience, it would be Melancholy. Melancholy, a topic for the writers and poets, a picture for the painters and photographers. A subject most sought, but least achievable. I have just experienced it, maybe one day I'll be able to write on it... Until then 'Life' goes the Path destiny chooses.

Life between Sorrow and Joy, I define it as a strange, clumsy, sometimes un-easy, sometimes soothing experience, an escape from reality, a Mirage in Desert, it’s there but, it’s not there.
It’s you how you define it for yourself…

I Found Myself

I seek You here, I seek You there...
I find You nowhere....

Deep down the lanes of yesterday, I lost You on the way...
When I woke up from my slumber, I lost the dream of summer...
And the fog fills the streets, the frost steals the leaves...
And empty roads and dead streets remain, to witness the winter and its game...
In grey skies and dark holes, My candle dies and and the flame blows...
I wait for the night to die and melting light...

I sought You here, I sought You there...
I found myself....

The Darkness was wiped and the sorrows cried, When the sun shined and the lips smiled...
The summer showed its face, with a little green's trace...
The snow vanished, the river flourished...
The roses blossomed and the doves flew, o, what a sight of peace and delight...
And the roads were full and streets got life, with flourishing folks and and their rhymes...
All turned bright when I bade my sorrows g’bye, and walked on embracing my life...
On the path of ecstasy and joy My journey begins....

I Survive

I Survive

How fresh is the morning and Me.,
Like the dawn melting red and pink.,
Like the little girl blushing...


I sing and write., trying to rhyme...
Looking out of a window., a gush of air raises my brow..,
I see the crisp green and grey., dying green and rising grey...
With the folks beaming like bees., to chores & cheers & happy feet..,
Dancing to the chimes of running times...
And slowly the morning dies...,

But I survive....

How fine is the day and Me.,
Like the curtained sky drizzling.,
Like the little boy running...

My hopes were built on the ruins of my dreams...
I started to live a life free of sorrow and grief..,
The 'I' who loved 'Her'., has died as his dead love...
The poems and songs of life has only me and my smile..,
And the World sublime...
With endless stream of cigarettes and coffee..,
I travel across many miles...
And slowly the day dies...,

But I survive....

How calm is the night and Me.,
Like the beaming stars lighting the ceiling.,
Like the little child sleeping...


Seldom you come in my dreams.,
In Kingdom of fairies and lilies...
I see us together, flying..,
But I know, my dreams are lying...
And slowly the night dies...,


But I survive....

- Me...

Death of Love

What's a death that occurs before dying? It’s the death of Love…

Love… what is it? Only one who has loved anyone will know what love is. It’s permanent. No one can measure it. It’s an equation beyond simplification.  It’s like a perennial river, sometimes it shrinks and sometimes it floods, but there’s never a drought.

I never believed in love. Not until I fell in it. And now it’s like I’m in love and she’s jumped out of it. No reasons, no solutions, no begging, no cribbing and crying, nothing works. I live like I’m dead. Like a zombie. No hope, no destination, no path, no aspiration, nothing remains. My one desire was the cause of the collapse, now all my desires are collapsed.

This was my experience of love. It was no fairy tale for me. Hope there is love, between everyone in the family, society, nation and world.

Life between 430am and 1130pm..!

This is the story of Me and a parallel story of most of my fellow citizens in Mumbai… I could have named it ‘life in Mumbai’ or ‘Mumbai 360 degrees’ or 'Mumbai local', but this title is more personal as i try to reflect the lives of many through my story…

Since I live in a suburb of Mumbai and have to go to college in the heart of the city, my day begins as early as 430. Most people here (working class) live in suburbs and outskirts of the city. Since housing and cost of living in the town (Downtown Mumbai is referred to as Town) is far beyond the means of many, they have no option but to live in far corners and suburbs. Many find the suburbs more comfortable, as they are new and better developed. As in my case, my dad has got a business of transportation and has his office in New Mumbai (transport sector is shifting base from Mumbai to New Mumbai), so we live here in the newest city of India (Not official).

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Local Trains form the most important aspect of Mumbai

Well, I start my travel at around 530, taking 549 from Panvel (place where I live) to CST (formerly VT.) The train is relaxingly filled or I should put, it is relaxingly empty (least in first class). Most of my co-travellers are senior (in age) corporate employees who are nearing their retirement. Now, the reason why they travel so far is because they had invested in homes here (New Mumbai) and since they are retiring soon, they prefer to stay in their new OWN HOMES (I put this in CAPS ‘cause owning a home in Mumbai is a distant dream). For a humble student like me, it is the worst part to wake up that early (430!! That’s pretty too early). But, I’m not alone, there are many like me who travel for 4 FOUR hours to attend 3 three hours of college (that’s really ironical).

Now, it’s not that New Mumbai has no colleges (it has few of the best in state), but when you get admitted to colleges like the one I’m in, you can certainly take the pain. It’s like if you get a chance in Harvard, you’d certainly skip Ohio.

Most travel least an hour to reach to their places of work, study, whatever and in transit (local train) most follow the same routine, maximum sleep (including me), a quarter pray (with pocket sized books and beads) and the remaining read their newspapers. It’s pretty interesting to see people sleeping in trains, trust me, it’s the best sleep of the day, with the continuous rocking of the bogies, it seems one can sleep endlessly. Sleeping, in Mumbai’s locals (suburban trains are generally referred as locals), is not the only interesting thing you’ll see. It’s just the one thing; the other is making train mates. Train mates (my term) are friends who become friends ‘cause they are co-travellers for a very long time. Now what’s special in that, people make friends with people who they meet regularly, special are their activities. Train mates indulge in many weird things, Singing popular songs in chorus (it sometimes cause fights) then playing Cards and sometimes betting too. It reflects how people in Mumbai try to do maximum in their limited resources (time, place and money).

As of me, I simply sleep, or occasionally study (students like me study only when they have their exams). I get down at VT at around 710 (it usually takes 1hr. 20 mins. for the train to reach VT).
VT, it’s the best place for an artist who seek art (VT is the best built train station in the world, acc. to me), for poets, authors and documentary makers, who seek humanity and life as their subjects, journalists as there are million things happening in VT and nearby areas every day, shoppers as there are a million vendors outside VT, foodies, as VT has some amazing Vada Pav and other local and continental food joints. VT is a place for everyone except for those who hate crowd. VT sees endless humanity coming in and going out every day.

Lectures are always boring and most people who work complain the same too. But as students, we’ve a little flexibility, we can bunk. Why most people find their work boring? The answer is the SYSTEM. The education system is antique in the university (throughout India) and the work culture in private sector is very demanding. It isn’t the case with the government employees ( why.? it's not discussed here).

My college ends at around 1030, after which the actual Mumbai college life starts. College life in Mumbai is more hyped than any other places I have been to. The reason could be, life in Mumbai is very scaled. By scaled I mean, running in very tight schedule until you retire. So students try to make use of their college time as much as they can ‘cause there’s no time for next 35 years.

I won’t discuss the college life in this post. So, I’ll jump back to my journey (back home). While returning, it’s around 12 and sometimes or even late. That’s the time when the school children either return to their homes (morning batches) or go to school (day batches). Since the morning rush hour is over, I get to travel easy again. It’s usually irritating to travel with school (government) children, they are too loud and cheeky. The fact that railways (railway is government entity) allow every school children (until 10^th grade) to travel in first class (super expensive otherwise) without ticket (this is the way in which government is promoting child education for the poor masses) it welcomes all the hooligans to have a gala. Not that I’m class biased, no, but who likes urchins shouting on their faces, least I don’t.

My day doesn’t end here as for the other Mumbaites. I usually go for tutorials (though not necessary, but that’s one place you really can study). While others have their meal breaks. Meal brake is very famous (especially after The Dabba wallas won the Sigma Six) here. People in Mumbai hate when they have to skip their meal breaks, especially in government offices. Government offices are practically shut during that time, let it be judiciary or even public hospitals. Work is suspended, however important, for that couple of hours. This is again a feature unique to Mumbai.

Its evening and I’m done with my tutorials. It’s time for the college assignments. While I’m doing my assignments, people are returning back to their homes. This time it’s the rush hour and the locals are jam packed (still an inferior adjective). Roads are jam packed too. It’s a struggle to get back to home, people fight this battle six days a week.

Night time and I join my fellow citizens with the same routine. Dinner and TV is the most common combination in every Mumbai home. It’s 8 and the TV starts (though they could be on before that). After a long dinner (though actual eating is done in very less time), I usually prepare for the next day. So do the other men and women. Housewives prepare the menu for the next day, while students pack their bags (it’s a common routine of every Indian school student), men fix and ready their files. And thus my day ends, usually with a chat on phone.

The day ends, and most of the citizens have spent almost 16 hours working… well, if you see, I’ve done nothing but four things 1) travel, 2) college, 3) travel again and 4) tutorials (including my own studies). Same is the case with most of my fellow citizens. Life is folded in this circle. It’s such an interesting mix, but not personally productive. I’d like to sometime compare the lifestyles of a Mumbaite with maybe a New Yorker. Our lives are always bound and controlled with very little free spaces (time). We hardly move out of our circles. But then, when you see it from the top (as in like from outside), it’s the fu*king most interesting and entertaining. That’s why there are numerous movies and plays casting Mumbai in their backgrounds.

Then there comes the most beloved day, the Sunday. Sundays mean sleeping, eating and again sleeping, grabbing a movie (mostly on TVs as cinemas are full and people are tired to move out of their houses), and sleeping again. I’d a text message from a close friend on Sunday, it was “deep sigh..! Another Sunday gone…. Please God, when I wake up let it be Sunday afternoon..!” lol…

Well., it is just an overview of mine and my fellow citizen’s life in this Megacity - Mumbai… it has many more colours and shades. A lot of fights, quarrels, love, laughter, despair, complains and many more things are part of everybody's everyday. But then as they say, Yeh hai Mumbai meri Jaan..! People love this city as it gives them a dream, a dream to prosper, grow and retire in peace. Happily ever after.! This dream is nothing less than a fairy tale, some realise it, some try until they realise and some never realise it at all. This mix bag of dreams, cultures, languages and PEOPLE, is the city of Mumbai.

Interesting pics...

This one's from GUJARAT..!.

How seriously can security be taken, it sometimes become hilarious, like above.

Instrument of surrender of the Pakistani army.

DISCLAIMER : The above pictures are from the internet.

To be or not to be Mr. Nehru...?

It's 14th November. The day our first PM, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru was born...

And I feel bound to write my opinions on him…

Mr. Nehru was certainly a very popular man for he’d been in the office for more time than anybody else. People of that generation (1940s) swears on him, they still think that time was the best modern India has ever seen.

So, was PT. Nehru actually so great?

There’s been a parallel theory running along. The theories that show the darker side of Panditji. But, every human has a greyer, if not darker side. So, why is it different for Nehru?

In India, there is this practise of Hero Praising with unbound devotion and love. So when a cricketer scores a century, he’s treated as God, and if he get out in duck, he’s publicly ridiculed. I think this was and still is the case with Nehru. He’s done his lot of good things and bad things both in his personal and official life. I shall not consider his personal life (no discussion on his affair with Lady Mountbatten). His role as the PM of India is the matter of my concern… I’m writing the main criticism he faced (still faces) because the good things he did would not start the debate…

Pre-Independence era,

I shall start with pre-independence era, the time India was boiling in the heat of Hindu-Muslim violence (it still does, but with much less or controlled tremor) that was the time where major Right or Wrong decisions were taken.

During that time, as some scholars say, Nehru took decisions in haste. India was not ready to bear the fruits of independence. Some say, it was his greed for power that led to the formation of two separate countries. But we bore independence at a cost far devastating than ever imagined… Millions lost their Lives; Millions lost their Wealth during transition and living in sheer desperation. I personally know a few friends and members of family who were hugely affected in terms of their wealth, properties and fame…

Who’s to be blamed for it, Jinnah, Nehru, Gandhi ji or the British? We’ll never have the answer…

Kashmir issue,

Nehru is criticised for his Kashmir stand. Being a Kashmiri Pandit himself, his actions are criticised very boldly. Despite the advice of his military generals, his deputy, Sardar Patel, he signed the Cease Fire treaty with Pakistan and allowed to hold elections under the UN. This led to the formation of POK, the cause of the trouble in Kashmir. His critics feel that Nehru was sensationalised by the idea of the US and the UN involvement. Had he taken advices of his advisors, we might not have been facing large scale terrorism in Kashmir, least the tremor would have been less.

China issue,

The 1961 war with China was an embarrassment largely due to Nehru’s China (Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai) Policies. Had he taken the advices of his military generals, our losses would have been far less and we could have easily gone for Kailash pilgrimage (Kailash is now under China's Tibet occupation). The border development in Ladhak and Arunanchal sectors were ignored, neither he took actions in Tibet against China. The soldiers were left to die in the only defeat India faced after independence. Vast tracts of land were lost (Akasi Chin). Had India prepared a course of action with strong political will, it could have been in a better position to barter.



Criticism are endless, we always think had this been done, this would have been better. Nehru was undoubtedly short sighted (he didn’t support family planning), not a great economist and ignored the advices of his advisors. Nothing could be done now. The only question remains, does he deserve the Celebrity, National figure status.? Now that the UPA government rules, guess he does…

Inroduction

"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

The words were immortalised by the Tom Hanks starrer Forrest Gump...

Since this is my first post, I decided to write about the most frequent receiver of our temper, LIFE… As my topic suggests, life is uncertain, its unpredictable, I remember the story I read in school, it was about this one chap David Swan (don’t remember the name of the story). This guy travels on foot and is tired; he finds a shady spot off the road and sleeps. Now, while he’s sleeping, Wealth, Love, and Death passes him of which our David is not aware. The author tries to bring out that if we know or try to know or think over everything that could (or couldn’t) have happened to or will happen to us, our lives would be Hell…

No one knows the best way of leading life, No Babas, No Psychiatrists, No old hag Grannies, No one. These folks can help us by their opinions, experiences, but they can’t dictate their accomplishments (Though many of them do), Life is our own possession and only we’re to Judge if we’re Right or Wrong.

Life’s a mix of everything, all the shades and the colours add flavour to it, without which Life would be a pale Dal without the Tadka…

My Blog is about the person I know the best, Me and my box of chocolates…

With more to come…

Thank you…