Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Since When "Aadmi" Doesn't Mean Women Too?

It has always been a trait of civilized society to rummage the odds, and eliminate it if it can be, or inculcate it in life, like it would no longer remain odd. Humans have ruled the only planet with existence of life (as of now) not because they are the mightiest but because they have what it takes to rule. Using their gifted mind they overpowered some really vigorous animals in those initial days that sometime seems unimaginable. But when it came to interact with their fellow human beings they used their physical strength.  Unfortunately the beautifully crafted and filled with dearness idols lost their battle in the war of physical strength. But the game winning tactic seems to be changing now, we are in the twenty first century, an era of science and technology and now again what it takes to rule is nothing but intelligence and women are nowhere less than their men counterpart provided they are getting same opportunities.

The millenniums long strong foothold of men have engraved very deep foot print on the surface of civilization. Be it literature, crafts, nomenclature, religion, no matter where you see you can get the glimpse of masculinity. Leaving Hinduism aside, no other religion have given proper recognition to women in deity. Why prophets of all religions are only male? Did it never occur to god to send any female messenger? Why it is assumed that word Aadmi (as in Aam Aadmi party) means women too and not just men. Why only father's name of male and female(unmarried) and husbands name of female(married) is required in case of filling any form? (I was going through the voter list of my constituency to find my name and what I saw was very bizarre. In the list along with the name of elector, one name was also mentioned and it has to be male's name, in case of male it was always father's name, dead or alive and in case of female it was father's name if unmarried and husband's name if married). May be many women don't care about it, that's not because they are happy with it but because they are facing far too more differences to care about such "nonsense stuffs". But those women who have got their scores settled in other dimensions of life would certainly point out these minute things no matter you label them as FemiNazi or Female Chauvinist.
Well, the deep engraved foot print of masculinity can be obliterated if women walks over it with even firmer foothold, but then level of civilization will get even more down so its better to help each other in filling the dent.


Recent hyped cases:

Controversy regarding Mr ShriPrakash Jaiswal, the then Coal Minister, Govt. of India arose when during attending a cultural event in Kanpur he made sexist remarks against women by saying A new victory and a new marriage have their own importance. But as times passes, the memories of a victory go old and as time passes, a wife gets old, the same charm is not there. Female protesters went down on roads and later the minister had to apologize.

Chief Minister of Gujarat Mr Narendra Modi during his rally in Himachal Pradesh amidst talking corruption, made a sexist comment about Mr. Shashi Throor's wife as "has anybody seen 50 crore girlfriend". He was slammed for his remark. and I don't remember he even apologized (well some people lack humility).

A news in foreign media was much hyped while defending her party member on some sexist message, Australian Prime Minister Ms Julia Gillard quoted her opposition leader Tony Abbott's ditch the bitch remark and commented  “I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man .... if he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn't need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror.”

A twitter war of word over why Arvind Kejriwal named his party "Aam Aadmi Party". A female pilot twitted-- sir please change the name to something like "Aam Junta party", or "Rastriya Kranti Party" or " Rastriya Vikas party" as it doesn't sound proper. Then many started tweeting "here another pseudo feminist, FemiNazi , Female chauvinist started again". 


To those who thinks women should not care about these words:

If you are the youngest in your siblings how will you feel when some one asks your parents about children and your parents only mentioned the eldest one, even if they love you the same but the mere not being referred there wouldn't hurt you? I think in most of the case it does. and clearly eldest son doesn't inherently mean youngest son too. 


To self proclaimed women protectors: 

This is for someone with Taliban mindset. Have you really given a thought on your self proclaimed protector attitude. I fully agree with your noble intention to protect and preserve the dignity of women by keeping her in burqa. . But isn't it important to take care of what she really feels, does she really need a protection or not. Remember your early teenage days when parents thinks we are still kids who always need their umbrella of patronage and we feel we are old enough to fly solo. How does interests clash then. Let her endure the heat and dust of the road if she really thinks she can.    

Liberate the women
Let them fly
If they will use their wings too
We all can fly high.





              

Thursday, October 25, 2012

अधिग्रहण

चमकते सूरज और सुलगती ज़मीन के बीच
मग्न था वो बाड़ लगाने में
पसीने बदन से रिशने के पहले ही
सूरज की तपती किरण में सूख रहें थे ।

मगर बाहर के आग से ज्यादा
उसे पेट की आग सता रही थी
दोपहरी बीतने को थी और
मंगलू की माँ अब तक नहीं लायी थी खाना ।

तबियत भी कुछ ढीली थी आज,
पर बाड़ लगाना ज़रूरी था
अब रात भर रखवाली भी तो नहीं होती
उन भेड़ियो से जो रौन्द देते हैं सारी फसल ।

तभी एक पथराई हुई सी आवाज़ सुनाई दी
"बंद करो ए बाड़ वाड़ लगाना और खाना खा लो",
"मेरे मरने के बाद ही लाती" झुझुलाते हुए पलटा था वो,
"मै कोई सोयी नहीं थी, शहर से बाबू आये थे,
ज़मीन अधिग्रहण के पन्ने पर अंगूठा लेने "

खाना निचे रखते हुए बोली
"इस्पेसल इकोनोमिक ज़ोन बनेगा हमारी खेतो पर
और दिन भर धूप में देह तपाने की भी जरूरत नहीं है अब,
नाईट वाचमैन की नौकरी का भी वादा किया है बाबू ने "


अवाक् सा फटी आखो से देख रहा था वो
अपनी ज़मीन के इर्द-गिर्द भेड़ियो के पांवो के निशान  ।



-चंचल प्रकाशम्



Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Where Did God Come From?

Yeah! you read it right. This question popped up in my mind when whole country is in festive mood of celebrating Navratri and Dussehra. Actually there is set of questions
1. We created God or God created us? 2. where did God come from?  3. Is God immortal?  4. Do God really protect us when we worship? 5. What if we are atheists?  

Let us find out the answer which makes some sense. No I am not an atheist. I am a man of science who believes in god. I presume science and religion should go hand in hand and this would be the perfect moment to quote Albert Einstein 
Science without Religion is lame and Religion without Science is blind.
 Einstein was right but I don't know what he had in mind when he said this. He was a truly remarkable man and I guess he believed in god though many historians says he was not a religious person.

Anyway lets contemplate a little bit about life before moving on God.  Whats the basic purpose of life? I guess its survival. We breath to live, we eat to live, we sense our environment to live, in short, we live to live. This is true for all living organism and not only for human. We go into all sorts of troubles to ensure our survival. A bird learn to fly, a deer learn to run, a cat learn to jump, we humans educate ourselves right from our birth. why? So that we get enough resources for our livelihood. But a bird don't know for sure which direction to fly to get enough food without meeting its own predators, a deer don't know for sure which direction to run to outrun lion without getting her horns entangled in bushes, we don't know for sure which path to choose to get success. There are uncertainties everywhere and at every moment. We are not sure of whats going to happen next so we made God. We can't predict the future so we made God. God is just a faith inside our conscience that make us believe that coming moment won't be a threat to our survival. Had there been no God we wouldn't have taken a step forward or backward fearing a lighting may strike that place or rock may fall on our head(since probability of these are more than zero). So we keep God in our heart and move fearlessly believing that lighting would strike anywhere but on us. So its the moment of uncertainties which leads to the birth of God. If a man is standing at war front facing coming bullets, where probability of getting hit by bullet in neither zero nor one, must have something to hold on. That is God.  

But the more experienced and acquainted with the forest a deer is, more certain it is for her to choose right direction. The more educated  a man is, it is more certain for him to choose a befitting career path with lesser probability of failure . The better equipped and trained a soldier is, the more will be his chance of not getting hit. In all these cases there will be lesser chance of failure and subsequently lesser dependency on God.

The God takes birth from the womb of tossed coin and die as soon as coin settles.  

There is no God, there is just faith to overcome fear of uncertainty. Every moment God takes birth and every moment he dies. The more we will equip ourselves to predict future, the lesser will be the life time of god. The day we will write an equation which governs all worldly phenomena, the God will cease to exist, until then he is immortal.  


Monday, October 15, 2012

Suggestion: Impartial Investigation


In India, President is the head of republic. But since India is a democratic nation and the President is not directly elected by the people of India, he is not the supreme leader, though he is the formal head of legislative, judiciary and executive.
Rashtrapati Bhawan
Presidential Standard of India




President is the commander-in-chief of Indian Armed Forces and as we know the person who controls army is the omnipotent. But is that the case with our President? The answer is no. He appoints the chief of Army, Air-Force and Navy and can declare a war and conclude peace, subject to consultation with Parliament, the apex governing body of democratic of India. All international treaties and agreements are done on his behalf by the head of the party who enjoys majority in parliament. All money bill originates in parliament on his recommendation, he can declare emergency and dissolve any federal government given the consent of parliament. The 42nd amendment of the constitution has made it obligatory on the part of president to accept the advice of council of ministers. So in short he does everything in the country but can't do anything really without consultation with the parliament.

Whats the problem?

Back in 1946 when Indian constituent assembly started drafting constitution they wanted to give all power to common street people. Since each and every member[1] of the parliament is chosen by the people and from among the people, they had hardly doubted that people will lose faith in them. It was supposed that losing faith in parliament is like losing faith in self. So they vested all power in parliament and made it an apex governing body. But they kept the judiciary independent of legislative to have impartial judgement even on the matters that involves government. Now what is the case? Judiciary is independent but the investigative agencies on whose findings the court will give its verdict is in the hand of government.

Imagine the fate of a university where grading copies and declaring results is in the hand of professors but examination control committee which conduct exams is headed by student body.  

Recent case: A Hindi news channel Aaj Tak conducted a sting operation on the working of Dr. Zakir Hussain Memorial trust and came up with irregularities of INR 71 lakh which was endowed to trust to conduct a camp for differently-abled people, but that camp never happened. This trust is run by wife of Mr. Salman Khurshid, Union law minister of Govt. of India. Social Activist Mr Arvind kejriwal along with many supposedly beneficiaries from this camp wanted to meet Prime Minister to complain but they all were jailed. Mr Salman Khurshid came live on national TV and bashed all the protesters along with TV which conducted sting and heard saying "I will not give answer to anyone on streets". He also challenged to litigate the controversy to court.

Now, the aforesaid trust is in UP so the case will be between UP state government and trust run by family of union law minister. Chief minister of UP is Mr Akhilesh Yadav of samajwadi party and a case against his father Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav for disproportionate assets is pending in supreme court which will be investigated by CBI(investigative agency under govt.). So do we need Sherlock Holmes to figure out what will happen? Can we overlook the 'quid pro quo' case here? This wouldn't be the first time for central government to avail CBI.

Solution:  

Make the post of President apolitical. which can only be done by changing the way president is elected and not by giving resignation from primary membership of party after filling nomination for president. Anyway common people is not voting for president directly don't let MP's and MLA's vote either. I believe that the President should have an idea about the functioning of government and he should not be completely aloof of governance. So lets make it a bureaucratic post like a chief election commissioner of India or chief justice of supreme court.  Only all the IAS rank officers, few elite universities professors, judges of courts and high court will vote and elect the President. So will be the election procedure for governors for states.
All investigative agencies should be under President and Governors of states  and they don't need to consult government for any kind of investigation. Now a government or a "street person" anyone can knock the door of president for impartial investigation against each other. Let all other power of the President as it is. Even presidential judicial power like pardon, reprieve,remission, respite would now make some sense.


Give the man at least something so that  he wouldn't find it satirical when someone says His Excellency.   




      

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Story of Lord Ganesha

While browsing on Internet, I came across a very nice mythological story and its superb interpretation on www.reddit.com. And after doing some background research I found out this article was originally published in a blog Sounds Interesting. So after giving proper credit to the blogger, I want to share this on my blog.

The Article goes like this.....

The birth of Lord Ganesha is one of the weirdest tales I have ever come across, here it is modified and modernized for your reading pleasure.


Lord Shiva’s wife Parvati decides to take a bath… While bathing, a lot of dirt comes off her body (may have been meditating many years… these things accumulate), being creative (pun intended) puts that dirt into the form of a really handsome child, and being a Goddess blows life into the child and asked him to wait outside (she could be modest too) and not let anyone come in till she finished her bath (and accessorizing). So the child goes out and waits, and soon enough along comes Lord Shiva, and asks the boy to step aside and let him go in. Boy refuses. Shiva gets angry. Shiva shouts and threatens. Boy doesn’t budge. Shiva chops off boy’s head! (Children in those days faced pretty harsh disciplining)

Parvati is very upset when she comes to know Shiva has killed her son and so to appease her, Shiva chops off the head of a passing elephant and attaches that to the body of the fallen child and gives Him Life.

Parvati is aghast at how her son looks and says everyone will mock him… no one will respect him… Lord Shiva smiles benignly and says that He will grant a boon to little Ganesha - before any Pooja or ritual of any kind is started, He, Ganesha will have to be worshiped first!

Parvati is quite mollified by this, but demands a vehicle for Ganesha… Shiva presents Ganesha with a mouse as his vehicle. Parvati was very happy with that and the family lived happily for many eons to come (ever after really as far as us humans are concerned) And that’s how Lord Ganesha was born… like I said it is a very weird story with plenty of really big loop holes and questions! To start with Parvati must have been really, REALLY dirty for so much dirt to come off her.

Then Shiva is the Lord of the Universe, if a small child told Him to come back later, He could have gone somewhere, looked after a galaxy or two, meditated or something, but no, He chops off the child’s head!
Then He puts an elephant’s head on the child and gives a mouse as a vehicle… no sense of proportion whatsoever! Should have been the other way round Given a mouse’s head and the elephant as a vehicle.
We could go on and on…


The stories of Indian mythology were always narrated on two levels. One level is a story with lots of special effects, one that will leave us amused and in wonder. The other is, where through the symbolism that is used, the Knowledgeable One can unfold the secrets inherent in the story and get deep insights on how Life works and how to tread lightly and gracefully on our planet.


However as usual there is a superb secret interpretation to this story:


Photo Credit: http://www.tirupatidarshan.org/lord-ganesha-names-of-kanipakam-vinayaka-temple/



Parvati is the Celebrative aspect of our consciousness. Parvat means mountain: The Earth herself rising up in celebration.
Parvati was dirty, meaning, the celebration had gone out of life, feeling of sadness, etc had arisen, and she decides to take a bath (be alone)…When you are not feeling good (your celebratory aspect is dirty), you say, give me my space, leave me alone. The dirt that comes off her and she gives life to is the Ego… She tells the Ego see that no one disturbs me while I am not feeling good… don’t let anyone come in!
That’s exactly what most people do when they are not feeling good: They isolate themselves, feel separate from everyone and don’t like others around them or intrusion of any sort.
This is the significance of Parvati animating her ego and asking it not to let anyone disturb her because she is feeling low.
Lord Shiva is the protector of Parvati. So when He sees her that way with her ego standing guard, keeping the Bliss of the Self out, He does what any protector would do… Kills it.
Chopping off the head signifies killing the ego. When you have had your ego trampled upon, you are going to feel even more hurt and bewildered, which is where Parvati flares up. To appease her and teach her, Lord Shiva replaces the Ego’s head with an elephant head.
The Elephant in Indian mythology is held in great reverence. In old times, if a lover wanted to praise his girlfriend, he would tell her she is like an elephant. She is Gajagamini - literally, you walk like an elephant. Meaning you have the majesty and Grace of an elephant. That was supposed to be the ultimate praise! Please don’t try this today… you just might get flattened.



The big head symbolizes Knowledge. The eyes of the elephant are kind, full of compassion and innocence: the most beautiful in the animal Kingdom. So Shiva replaces the head of ego (ignorance) with Knowledge and Innocence! That’s not all, if you have ever seen an elephant walk, stately and strong, you can see that nothing can stand in its way! This way Shivji removed the ego and replaced it with Strength, Grace, Knowledge and Innocence. What a superb combination! And the perfect gift for an angry, sulking wife! Lord Shiva then names the child, Ganesh - The Lord of Knowledge and Wisdom.



Saturday, September 15, 2012

What did you just say?

There was a casual conversation going on between a husband and his wife and amidst of discussing many things, husband said "Sometime you overreact". The wife got angry and said "What did you just say? you are being so unreasonable and inappropriate right now". Husband smiled. 

Sometime our reaction to contradict a viewpoint ends up validating it. Its like someone is saying to you "you are a hot headed guy" and you got offended and slapped him. you just unknowingly proved his point.

Okay enough with the meticulous examples, I am writing this blog in response to what is going on recently in India and abroad. All Muslims are showing their outrage over an anti-Islamic movie Innocence of Muslims, made by an Egyptian-American. Some of the protesters went ahead and attacked US consulate in Libya which resulted in at least 14 deaths, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. In India around 1500 people from Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam and few other Muslims outfits targeted US general Consulate on Anna Salai in Chennai. They pelted it with stones, burnt American flags, damaged CCTV cameras, a police booth and instruction board for visitors.[News: The Hindu ]

Picture Credit: Wikipedia.


The content of the film is indeed outrageously offensive and highly demeaning to a great religion like Islam and those behind this should be treated with hard hands, but to oppose whatever allegations being made in the film, people are doing the same and hence vindicating offenders. 






      

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Ironic Incidents



To hell with the logic, this world is full of chaos. You can easily witness ironical incidents at every nook and corner. One news I read in 'The Hindu' newspaper website this evening which prompted me to write this very blog. Few people gathered in Azad Maidan, Mumbai to protest against the violence which happened in Assam and the gathering itself turned violent which resulted in death of two people. In all, 11 vehicles, including 3 OB vans gutted, 45 policemen and some journalist were injured. This was just one incident like this many happens, many time at many places.

Who are we? what we think while making any decisions? Is catastrophe our ultimate goal? because this is where we are heading. I have always read, all system try to attain stability and the process of attaining stability is spontaneous. But this does not seem to me a similar case for humans. If a person A kills B, the close relative or friends of B try to kill A, as soon as this happens, situation gets reversed victim becomes killer and killer becomes victim and this process goes on. Isn't this like we are trying to wipe blood using blood and in the process making the whole floor bloody messy.

One very common news is "honor killing". The word means, killing to preserve the honor. If a girl or boy, usually its girl (as in our Indian society lot of "Honor" is associated with girls) fall in love with someone who is not approved by the parents, that girl or boy is killed, sometime along with their lovers. Then this news comes in media, police do arresting and all those "saviors of honor" spend rest of their life in prison. what kind of public esteem did they bring to the family? What kind of honor preservation is this?

We worship god for the mental peace. But what we do during dussehera, Eid, Muharram, Ganesh Chaturthi or during any such holy festive moments we play such loud music that whole town literally goes deaf, and it creates lot of heart and mental problem. Even daily in the morning you can hear temples and mosques playing Hamumaan Chalisa and Azaan in very loud volume.

We earn money to live luxurious and comfortable life and in that process we forget to take proper care of our health and we end up with frail body. I can't imagine a comfortable life on dialysis, can you?








                

Monday, May 14, 2012

Pendulum: Tracing a Life Curve






From where to start? I haven't slept for like 40 hours, right now sitting in lab studying about nuclear bombardment and its effect on thin film, undergoing a very unusual kind of screwed thoughts process, so a little piece of warning before you start reading. This post is being written in a very "unstable" frame of mind.

Well enough with the caution. let’s get back to original content. For making a thin film, we have to first create a capacitor and for that I was cutting a aluminium foil with a scissor hanging with the help of a thread pivoted in wall. The purpose of keeping that scissor in that fashion was to avoid its misplacement. In life nature has pivoted us with some responsibilities, relationships to avoid our misplacement in this world full of yearning. I took the scissor cut the foil and left it, and then I saw something that I would like to share. The scissor underwent damped oscillation. It was not like that I was witnessing oscillation for the first time, being a Physics Student I have studied in a very detailed manner about all aspect of oscillation but this time I got different outcome. As a fact of physics that tell us that


"In any experiment we get the result what we are looking for, the outcome of experiment is not independent, it depends on who is performing experiment and with what mindset"

So what I observed was, when I left scissor, "she" fell down tracing a semi-circular curve and went past her lowest trajectory point with maximum velocity, but she slowed down when approached the highest point as if she was longing to reach there all her life. She almost stopped there for few time, but alas! life is not fair, it won’t give you what you want, it will give you what you deserve. Feeling very unfortunate of herself, scissor decided to change her love spot, again she went past the lowest point with high velocity (not as high as before) and slowly and smoothly came up, touched her new love spot, wished to stay there forever but again gravity (fate) pulled her down. Again she regressed the same process but what was different in her approach was, though the velocity of going past the lowest point was higher in her whole motion for that round but it was decreasing as compared to the last one (she was getting tired), similarly her love spot was coming down and down with each failure. Each time she tried to move past the lowest point as quickly as possible but since gravity had already decided her destination her all craving went in vain and she got her peace at the point she was avoiding all through her life..






    

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

अतीत


























याद है तुम्हे वो काली स्याही सी रात
जब हम  मिले थे
दिल के धड़कन के आगे
ट्रेन की आवाज़ भी सुनाई नहीं पड़ती थी ।

तुम्हारा उठ के आना
चेहरे पर मुस्कान लिए
हाथ मिलाने के लिए आगे बढ़ाना
सब कुछ सुहाने सपने सा लगता है ।

आँखों के इशारो में इतनी पैनी धार थी की
शब्द छत विछत होकर बिखर गए थे
लेकिन  उस ख़ामोशी में भी सुकून था
और आज सुकून हीं खामोशियो से भरा है ।

बाहर ठिठुरती ठण्ड थी
फिर भी दिलों में नरमी और गर्मी थी
आज बाहर का मौसम  इतना गर्म  हैं 
फिर भी  दिलों में बर्फ जमी है ।


-  चंचल  प्रकाशम्  



Monday, May 7, 2012

अवस्था




















मैंने बहुत कोशिश  की

तुमसे दूर जाने की

पर हर बार जब भी

सैकड़ो मिल दूर

चलने  के बाद

वापस मुड़ का देखता हूँ,

तो खुद को तुम्हारे

उतने ही करीब पता हूँ |




या तो तुम्हारे समीप

वृत्त की परिधि

बन गया हूँ  मै ,

या इस सफ़र में तुम भी

मेरे साथ चल रही हो

समान दुरी बनाये हुए |



- चंचल  प्रकाशम्  





Sunday, May 6, 2012

Satyamev Jayate: Daughters are Precious



Kudos to the effort of Aamir Khan for this wonderful TV show Satyamev Jayate. We all are aware of the problem prevailing around us, but most of the time we need someone to remind us that, yes we are capable of curbing the menace, if we just put little more effort together. And the show Satyamev Jayate is acting as that reminder. 
                              "Just listen to the alarm and act wisely."      

You were precious for your parents and so is your daughter for you. Don't Kill Her .







Monday, April 30, 2012

Worst Fear

















I am not moving a step forward
fearing, it might creep you out.

I am not moving a step backward
fearing, I might lose something which otherwise would have been mine.

I am unable to stand there
fearing, I might be left longing forever.

But my worst fear is not,
me not moving anywhere

its the incognizance of your whereabout
and what if, you are in the same dilemma.



- Chanchal Prakasham









Saturday, April 7, 2012

ठहराव















तपती मरुभूमि में मरूद्यान सी
प्रतीत हुई थी तुम्हारी आँखें
थके निर्जलित पथिक की तरह
बिना सोचे ही कूद पड़ा था खुद को सराबोर करने ।

तुम मंजिल नहीं थी,
ना तो थी तुम रास्ता
तुम तो बस एक ठहराव थी
जहाँ प्यास बुझाने को रुका था कारवां हमारा ।


गर्म हवा की लपटों से बचने और
सूखते कंठ को तर करने के आनन-फानन में
तैरने ना आने का संज्ञान विलुप्त सा हो गया था
तुम्हारी आँखों में गहराई बहुत थी, मै डूब गया ।


- चंचल प्रकाशम्







Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Will This Dismay Vaporize?

It was a long, hot, simmering summer ahead. Vacation was announced in college after semester examinations. All students had departed with jolly mood to their homes and why wouldn't they, it was summer vacation which was two and half month long time of doing whatever they liked.  It was euphoric moment for everyone except Sophia, Prity, Rukhsana and Harpreet. They all had their own reasons for not liking summer vacations.

Sophia, the only child of working parents. She had prior experiences of her gloomy vacations. Sitting whole day alone in front of TV switching channels, no one around to talk to and not permitted to go out in absence of her parents. Prity, hated attending marriages putting lot of makeups and always following lot of family rules and getting second preference over her brother. Rukhsana was frustrated with her marriage talks even after her repetitive denial and wearing Burqa whenever going out with her Ammi and Harpreet disliked meeting her never ending family tree.

They all looked into each other's eyes and a same thought flashed, We have adult franchise, we can choose the government for a country, why can't we choose what interests us? Is it always necessary for a girl to bandage her thoughts within the wrappers of society conviction? The answer was definitely NO in their eyes. Sometime insurgency eludes cognizance.

They planned to go on camping and hiking, arranged all accoutrement and went on to pursue their adventures dream. They were very excited because they were about to see the world through their own eye and not through the eye of the male members of their family.

On first day the tour guide instructed everyone to always remain in groups and return to camp one hour before dusk because the forest was not safe and recently it was in news for tourists assaults. This instruction was against the sole motive of the trip of all those four girls, so on one fine morning they decided to desert their hiking group members and tour guide, and went inside the jungle. The jungle was enriched with flora and fauna, taking pictures of wildlife, fountains, birds, they went too far. Now they had to return and it was already late afternoon, they looked into each other's eyes and thought what if we couldn't return to camp before dusk?
According to Murphy's Law "Any thing that can go wrong will go wrong"
But Murphy can't be wrong. A storm hit the forest uprooting many trees, they protected themselves inside a stone cave kind of structure. when the storm subsided all routes in the forest were completely changed and it was dark too. They again tried to look into the eyes of each other but it was too dark to see the solution but dismay was obvious. Now the atmosphere was so calm as if nothing happened there, the storm was sucked up into heart and mind of girls. They were sitting closely holding each others hand without making any sound, though there was lot of roaring going on in every one's mind. They dozed off because of whole day tiresome hiking.

The crumbling sound of leaves interrupted their temporary calmness, they pressed each others hands tightly as if no blow can throw them apart. Rukhsana said "I guess something is coming toward us". Prity was almost crying. Harpreet explored the area near her with her another hand and got a branch. She said "okay, you girls sit closely I am going to see what is it". she modified that branch into stick and stood up to go. Every one's heart was throbbing very hard. Sophia pulled Harpreet by her hand and said "You don't go alone let it come whatever it is, if we will be together we can face it effectively". Prity affirmed and took out her mobile torch. The crumbling sound became more intense, Prity flashed her light in the direction of sound, they were all sweating with fear and praying their gods. Suddenly Rukhsana shouted, "look there is something", mobile torchlight was getting reflected from the eye of an animal, they all threw whatever was in their hands and chased that animal away. They again looked into each other's eyes, their eyes were looking vividly in torchlight , they inhaled deeply, exhaled, smiled and said unanimously "Thank god it was wolf, we thought it's men ".     

[It's a work of fiction and any resemblance with anyone is mere a coincidence.]                

     





            

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Who Killed?

Swarm of people joining their hands with flowers sandwiched within palms, lips fluttering with spiritual songs and with restless heart were moving towards the door of the temple. It was not an early morning, the sun was quite high in the sky but the day was not so sunny. Soft breeze stirring the leaves was also mixed with Bhajan songs that was creating the ripples of hope in every one's heart. Among them there was a man in police uniform so restless, uneasy and bathed in his own sweat. Everyone was coming offering flower to the god's statue, joining their hands, closing their eyes and wishing from god what they came for. That uneasy man too came before statue but he had no flowers, his hands were stained in blood, he looked furiously at the statue, tears were dripping down from his eyes in form of lava, he closed his eyes and flashback started.

How he was offered with bribe to set free a criminal which he had refused remembering the oath of his service and today morning when he was in office a phone came that his house was attacked and his wife and both children were killed.

Remembering the face of his wife and children stained in their own blood he started shivering with anger. He opened his eyes and shouted "why you did this to me I worship you daily, I do my duty honestly, I speak truth. If you are real, why you didn't stop them from committing such a heinous act and if you are not real, why should I let you stand there and deceive the faith of millions. He took out his service revolver and fired at the statue. The statue crumbled with a roar.

People started crying and fleeing in random directions, they were bewildered after seeing what just happened inside. The pujaries of the temple were nowhere to be seen. The serene atmosphere of the temple became chaotic.  The policeman was also shocked what he just did. He came out of the temple putting his gun back in his waist. Seeing him coming out of the temple people started shouting "this is the demon, this is the devil man who shot at god, how can he shot at god ?, god will surely punish him, god won't let him go, he broke his statue, he fired at him" some were thinking "now volcano will come and will engulf him as he has started direct fight with god". Few started stone pelting at him, seeing his death right in front of his eyes he took out his revolver, the circle of crowd moved backward, everyone was trying to get behind someone. Some started praying please god do something show us some of your miracle your enemy is right in front of us.

The policeman's body was trembling with anger and fear. A "daring" man from crowd aimed a stone at his revolver and revolver fell down from his hand. He was too stoned to bend down and pick it up. The throng pushed forward to do the god's job. They battered him with stones, sticks, his body converted in to the lump of muscles plunged in blood but people kept beating even after knowing he was dead. The crowd was celebrating around his dead body this was the day they had witnessed the god's super natural power. They were shouting happily, god took his revenge, a wave of rejoice propagated among them, the god did not create volcano lest more people would have got killed he only punished this demon.

Meanwhile a kid came out of the crowd staring at them puzzled, he was murmuring "God did not kill him, you all people did".

   


     

Saturday, February 18, 2012

उम्मीदों की किश्ती















समंदर को पार  करने की  ख्वाहिश में
उम्मीदों की एक किश्ती बनायीं थी 
आत्मविश्वास के झोको ने धक्का भी लगाया था 
दुआओं  की लहरें भी सफ़र का सहारा बनी थी 
डगमगाते हीं सही पर किस्ती बढ़ चली थी ।

किनारों का शोर और कोलाहल छूट चूका था 
मन में उमंगो की तरंगे कई इन्द्रधनुष बना रहे थे 
आशा की हल्की हल्की धुप में मौसम खुशनुमा था 
क्षितिज को देख के लगता नहीं था मंजिल दूर होगी ।

सफ़र का वेग तेज़ था 
छोटे छोटे टापुओ को देख हौसला अफजाई भी हुई थी 
मगर समंदर का अपना ही अज़ीब  शोर था, गरज़ना थी 
हवाओ के झोको में नमी थी, गर्मी थी  और अज़ीब सा गंध था 
खुद से क्षितिज की दूरी कम होते न देख मन व्याकुल हो उठा ।

आत्मविश्वास के झोके धीमे पड़ने लगे हैं 
दुआओं की लहरें थमी हुई  सी लगने लगी है 
ये कैसी अज़ीब सी उदासी है, पानी पर तैरते हुए बर्फ़ और 
अति-आत्मविश्वास के तुफानो की चेतावनी तो दी थी लोगो ने 
मगर इस उदासी के बारे में किसी ने नहीं बताया था ।

शायद विषुव-प्रशांत है ये, ये वक़्त भी गुज़र जायेगा  
फिर से ख़ुशी के बयार बहेंगे , फिर से अच्छी धुप खिलेगी 
फिर से इंद्रधनुषी सपने आयेंगे, फिर से लहरों में चंचलता आएगी 
डगमगाते हीं सही पर किस्ती बढ़ चलेगी ।


- चंचल प्रकाशम्



Wednesday, February 8, 2012

यादें


पलक झपकाते हीं तेरा चेहरा नज़र आता है
नींद उड़ जाती है बस ख्वाब रह जाता है,
ख्वाबों की फंखुडिया समेटते समेटते, सवेरा हो जाता है,
और सुबह की हकीकत हृदय को अंधकार में धकेल देता है |

ये अँधेरा भी अजीब है सब कुछ दिखता है इसमें
जो न देखना चाहो उसकी चमक और भी प्रबल होती है,
अँधेरे की चमक से व्याकुल आँखे, आँसू की नदियाँ बहाती है,
और उन आँसू की नदियों से बने समंदर में दिल डूब सा जाता है |


सुनामी सी ऊची होते हुए भी लहरे न जाने क्यूँ
समय की रेत पर बने चिन्हों को मिटा नहीं पातीं,
उन अमिट सी चिन्हों में ही घिसती हुई ज़िन्दगी सोचती है
ए चंचल मन तू चंचल ही क्यू न रहा |


- चंचल प्रकाशम्