Good Bye 2010!

A decade is on the verge of culmination........

ohhhhh........ i do wish i could do something to make them stop.. alas... i can't.

How stoutly i claimed my right over each and every moment of the year and of the decade........... 

but they have all gone away........ and i can do nothing.... except being a silent witness to their departure.

My humble homage to all those wonderful moments of the decade:

O moments, lovely moments,

you enriched me no bounds.

Times were there 

when i cursed you,

having lost a fig of some trivia,

tried to rebel against you.

Then there were those,

when you pampered me,

tickled me, overwhelmed me.

and made me obliged.

Fickleness of my mind,

overjoyed and danced,

sometimes sulked and wept.

How calm were you,

poised and unfazed.

Meet you again,

will grin and grudge again,

With you again,

will be myself again.

टिनटिन

कल एक एक्वेरियम के सामने से गुजरते हुए दिमाग में ख़याल आया कि क्यों न मैं भी अपने घर में एक छोटा सा एक्वेरियम रखूँ, एक छोटी सी - सुन्दर सी मछली पालूँ. मुझमे उत्साह भर आया. मैंने लगभग यह निर्णय कर लिया. और तो और मैंने अपनी सखा – सुन्दर छोटी मछली का नाम भी तय कर लिया – टिनटिन.

नाम देने में मैं बड़ा आगे रहता हूँ. इससे पहले जब मैं भोपाल में रहता था तो वहाँ मैंने एक गुलाब का पौधा रखा था – तानी. कितना सुखद लगता है कि हम किसी को नाम दें, और वो उस नाम से जाना जाये. लेकिन इस एकांगी नामकरण कि प्रक्रिया के गहरे मनोविज्ञान में यदि जाया जाये तो हम पाएंगे कि यह सिर्फ अपने आत्माभिमान को तुष्ट करने का एक और तरीका है और इसके अलावा कुछ भी नहीं. आखिर क्यों हम किसी को अपने दिए गए नाम से बाँधे? क्या हम उसे ऐसे ही बिना किसी बंधन या पूर्व शर्त के स्वीकार नहीं कर सकते?

खैर, बावजूद इस सब वैचारिक कशमकश के मैंने उसका नाम टिनटिन रखना लगभग तय कर लिया. इस उद्देश्य से बाद में जब मैं उस दुकान में पहुँचा तो मछलियों की दुनिया के बारे में तथा उनके लालन-पालन से जुड़े विभिन्न पक्षों की जानकारी हुई. पता चला कि जिस आकार की मछली मैंने सोच रखी थी, लगभग डेढ़-दो इंच की, उसे एक छोटे से जार में पालने के लिए हर दो दिन बाद उसका पानी बदलना पड़ेगा. उस दुकानदार ने कुछ उससे भी छोटी मछलियाँ दिखाई जिनकी व्यवस्था उस छोटे जार में आसानी से हो सकती थी, साथ ही पानी भी चार-पांच दिनों में बदलने की आजादी थी. मुझे यह ठीक लगा. उसने कहा यह छोटी मछलियाँ एक की बजाय चार ले जाइये. अब गया मैं तो एक ही मछली की योजना के साथ था. पर फिर सोचा कि इतनी छोटी-छोटी तो मछलियाँ हैं, चार भी रखी तो कोई समस्या नहीं होगी, और फिर इनको भी साथ मिल जायेगा. अतः मैंने तय किया कि छोटी वाली ही चार मछलियाँ रखूँगा.

अब लेकिन एक नई दुविधा उत्पन्न हो गई. एक मछली के लिए नाम तो मैंने सोच रखा था, पर चारों के लिए नाम अब नए सिरे से सोचने पड़ेंगे. मैंने नाम सोचने शुरू किये तो फिर यह काम मुश्किल लगने लग गया, टिनटिन जैसा प्यारा और चुलबुला नाम दूसरा सूझ नहीं रहा था. फिर दिमाग में अचानक ख्याल आया की चार मछलियाँ तो हैं, क्यों न मैं इनका नाम ब्राह्मण, क्षत्रिय, वैश्य और शूद्र रख दूँ? अच्छा विचार था, रोचक और सामाजिक दृष्टिकोण से प्रासंगिक भी. लेकिन वे छोटी मछलियाँ दिखने में बिलकुल एक जैसी थीं, एक जैसा रंग एक जैसा रूप. सोचा कि ये नाम रखकर उनमें अंतर करने में आसानी होगी; कुछ वैसा ही जैसा हमारी आरंभिक सामाजिक वर्ण-व्यवस्था के प्रतिपादक, हमारे पूर्वजों ने किया था. लेकिन फिर एक भयंकर समस्या आन पड़ी - मैं ये नाम तो रख दूँगा इनका, परन्तु इन नादान मछलियों में हम मनुष्यों के जैसा अति-उत्तम मष्तिष्क तो है नहीं जो वे इतनी चतुर व्यवस्था का निर्वाह कर सके. न इनको अपने-पराये का भेद ही पता है. एक दूसरे के सापेक्ष अपनी विशिष्टता और श्रेष्ठता का महत्व भी ये नहीं समझ सकती थीं. ब्राह्मण, क्षत्रिय, वैश्य और शूद्र नाम रखे जाने पर भी ये मछलियाँ आपस में घुलना-मिलना, साथ रहना, खेलना, खाना-पीना आदि जारी रखेंगी. उफ्फ़! तब तो सारी सामाजिक व्यवस्था का सत्यानाश हो जायेगा. और यह किसी प्रलय से कम नहीं होगा. सामाजिक व्यवस्था के पैरोकारों के लिए तो इससे बड़ी दुर्घटना कुछ हो ही नहीं सकती.

इन सब अनिष्टों की आशंका से तौबा करते हुए मैंने इन चारों नामों से दूर ही रहने का निर्णय लिया. फिर कुछ सोच-विचार के बाद मैंने अंततः इनके लिए नाम सोच ही लिए: चेरी, डवी, चुनमुन और टिनटिन.

Short Story: Learning

“Oh Kapil! How come you are here wandering in the garden?” questioned Anil.

“Just walking around” responded Kapil.

“But you are rarely seen without books and that too in the garden?” said Anil sarcastically.

“Oh! I was only thinking about what I read today. You know there was a man called Rousseau who on the basis of his thoughts changed the course of history. How great he was! Isn’t it possible today? Can’t we change the system on our own instead of complaining and waiting for someone else to do everything for us?” asked Kapil with wrinkles in his forehead.

“Yeah! You are right. Ok Kapil, we’ve got to go somewhere. See you soon. Bye” said Prakash surreptitiously tugging at Anil’s elbow.

“Ok bye”.  Left Kapil.

“Isn’t he greater even than Rousseau? Stupid idealistic show-off” retorted Anil.

“Great authors, thick books, lofty ideas and noble thoughts…… this guy talks nothing else. And let a girl pass across and all nobility just disappears.” Prakash remarked.

“Isn’t he doing all these things only to impress people or more specifically girls?”

“Of course yes. There’s no single incident where he did any noble work or any substantial achievement for his own self let alone for others.”

      Though fond of reading, Kapil was not as bad at heart as Anil and Prakash debated. His only minus point could be this: he wanted to do something really great, something that would fetch him instant name and fame in the society. Kapil had a good collection of books and he visited library on a regular basis. In some ways Kapil represented modern youth, harbouring passion to make it big but unable to do so for want of right atmosphere or channelling of energy.

      One day he came across a beautiful girl in the library. As was his wont, he invoked names of some great thinkers and philosophers of the world and their noble deeds. The girl couldn’t match Kapil in the intellect. Kapil was relieved to have dominated the conversation with impressive talks.

      But his sense of relief was short lived as he later came to know that the girl recorded audio books for visually challenged children and thus she could not pursue her reading habits as much. Now Kapil was awestruck. A storm raised inside him.

      Back home he again sought refuge in the company of books. But as is said, Kapil was destined to have a change of heart that day, he read a line in the book that read “The idea that a great thinker must be a morally admirable human being is romantic, indeed childish, and is in any case contradicted by too many examples in the history to deem it genuine. The life of Leo Tolstoy is one such example.” Kapil found himself struggling to believe it. He couldn’t sleep for a moment the entire night. The very foundations of his motivation seemed precarious and flimsy. Those moments were moments of catharsis for him. Sort of enlightenment.

      Next morning brought a new light in Kapil’s life. He bundled together all his books and donated them to the library. Now his learned ignorance had come to an end and he was open to learn from the greatest teacher called ‘life’.
 

At Odds With Gods

Once upon a time, there lived a God who governed the daily chores of His people. But there existed more than one, in fact numerous communities, countries, and sects; therefore as a matter of fact there were many Gods to cater to their respective needs. The Gods were supposed to carry out seemingly impossible tasks, protect in times of need, punish the guilty, and establish rule of Their own law. Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and so many omni-‘s as They were, nothing in existence were beyond Their jurisdiction. Thus the universe functioned properly under Their respective administration.

This worked well so far as the communities remained isolated from one another. But this was not to be for long, and interactions began to take place among communities. Now, there were claims from communities of their Gods being loftier than those of other communities and such divergence of opinions gave way to disharmony among them. Gone were the peace and tranquillity and cynicism took control. This phenomenon led to random clashes among communities as well.

Of late, with growing awareness, education, development and prosperity, the dependency on such a divine existence has reduced. Yet with the firmly entrenched concept of Gods, the communities have developed a sense of belonging and have even associated their ego with Him. Though prevalent to varying extent everywhere, this confrontation of Gods occurs more fiercely among less prosperous communities.

In our country, India, such a communal belligerence has marred the prospects for a peaceful and prosperous nation in a greater amount. Despite being a Hindu and being a sincere one for that matter, it is of little concern to me whether there is a temple of Our Deity at his arguable place of birth or not. What should be of greater significance is, whether we follow the basic tenets of our respective religions and work together to make our country a better place to live and co-exist with the followers of different religions.

Gods are meant to ameliorate things, I guess!

A Poem By Me

शिकायत

मुझे तुमसे शिकायत है

तुम क्यों हो ऐसे

जैसे तुम हो?

और क्यों नहीं हो ऐसे

जैसे मैं चाहता हूँ

कि तुम हो?

क्यों करते हो कुछ भी ऐसा

जो मुझे पसंद नहीं?

क्यों नहीं है तुम्हारी पसंद

जैसे है मेरी पसंद?

तुम हो ही क्यों

ये शिकायत है मेरी?

क्या ये काफी नहीं था

कि मैं हूँ?

मुझे इस दुनिया से शिकायत है

कि वो क्यों है ऐसी

जैसा मैं नहीं चाहता?

क्यों नहीं होती सिर्फ वे चीजें

जो मैं चाहता हूँ?

क्यों लगता है

इस दुनिया को मेरी जरुरत नहीं?

क्या चल सकती है ये दुनिया

मेरे बगैर, मेरे बिना?

मुझे खुद से शिकायत है

कि मैं क्यों हूँ वो

जो मैं नहीं चाहता?

क्यों करता हूँ वो

जो मैं नहीं चाहता?

और क्यों नहीं हूँ ऐसा

जैसा मैं चाहता हूँ?

या फिर......

मुझे यही नहीं पता

... कि मैं चाहता क्या हूँ???

WHAT TO WRITE, WHY TO WRITE, HOW TO WRITE...!!!

“A man can do what man has done” goes the saying. Going by the same, an idea struck my mind way back, to start writing my own blog. Given my predilection for reading from various sources and idolising great thinkers and authors, it would be nothing short of a dream coming true, if at all I could write something significant. Thus I made up my mind to hop onto the bandwagon.

It can be supposed from this blogging phenomenon that it is one of the many ways of feeding one’s egoism and egotism. This is true for most of the cases, yet it would be gross injustice to the fellow human beings who are sincere and genuine in their expressions. I myself cannot categorically state that this is not a vehicle to showcase my self-centredness, but one thing I can assure everyone here is, that I shall try to be candid and frank to the core and shall try to stay away from hypocrisy and personal prejudices.

Now, in the run up to commence blogging, obtaining a good and attractive name for your blog seems a cherished requirement. I too spent a few weeks for securing an attractive and a relevant name for my blog. All the names which came to my mind earlier were already registered by someone else. At last I chanced upon the name ‘lazy reflections’. The facts that I am considerably lazy in my routine schedules and that, I enjoy offering my not-so-thoughtful analyses for anything and everything I come across; makes this title somewhat relevant for my blog.

The fact remains that I am no Amitabh Bachchan, Amir Khan or Rajdeep Sardesai, so it would not be humble on my part if I assume that very few people would want to spend their precious time in reading my blog. This should not affect me.. My purpose here is to give vent to my urges of articulation, develop a view-point, hone my communicative skills and put forth some readable pieces.

In the end of my first blog post, I would like to offer my gratitude to the readers, if any, of this post for going through this eccentric insanity of mine.