सवाल

काली रातों में टिमटिमाते तारे ऐसे लगते  हैं जैसे
हकीकत के समंदर में ख़्वाबो के टापू  ।

तारों के होने से रोशनी तो नहीं मिलती मगर
रोशनी होने का एह्शाश जरूर हो जाता है ।

ख्वाबो में रहकर हकीकत से छुटकारा तो नहीं मिलता
मगर खुशनुमे हकीकत का एक नजारा जरूर मिल जाता है ।

अंधरे - रोशनी , ख़्वाब - हकीकत इनकी जद्दो जिहद में
जिंदगी का कारवाँ आगे निकल ही चलता है ।

सवालों की गर्मी और जवाबों के बयार ऐसी जुगलबंदी करते हैं
मानो पुश्तैनी रिश्ता हो इनका ।

दुसरो के सवालों की गर्मी के लिए तो छतरी भी लगा लो
लेकिन खुद के जो सवाल हैं उनसे कोई कैसे बचे ।

क्या हर सवाल का जवाब होता है ?
क्या हर जवाब का अस्तित्व सवाल से ही होता है ?

चाँद का बैरी कौन ? चांदनी रातों में अँधेरा छटने के साथ साथ
तारों  की चमक भी धूमिल हो जाती है ।

बड़े टापूओ पर पहुच जाने वालों को छोटे टापुओ के पिघलने
से दर्द क्यों नहीं होता ?

जिंदगी के पैमाने नापते नापते इतनी दूर निकल जाते हैं
की प्रतीत  होता है शायद ये माप ही ज़िन्दगी हो ।

- चंचल प्रकाशम्

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Do Result Justify Means?

Should we accept that everything we did was great, if the outcome was a resounding success? Should we not learn from our successes too, as we are told to learn from our failures?

There is always a luck (uncertainty) factor in every success and once may be your compromises got overcompensated by luck factor, but you cannot always bank upon that. for example you didn't prepare one chapter but still you topped the exam because no question came from that chapter, that doesn't mean you should have not read all chapters and you can always top, leaving something behind.
No success is absolute, life is a race and you will always have bigger competition to participate in and always bigger goals to achieve.

I think that the biggest mistake that one can make is to assume that everything they did to succeed was good, or even worse if they believe that the compromises they made to succeed are justified after success.

So No, result do not always justify all means taken to achieve this.

When they say don't let the victory get to your head, I guess this is what they mean.

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Babies Born Behind Bars

Once upon a time, there was a king who feared
his death from babies of next generation,
apparently some astrologer told him so.

His life was dear to him, so he issued an order
to put behind bars all the gravid ladies of his kingdom.
He could have killed those women but sadly
that would have lowered the "human rights index".

Women were arrested and kept in possible farthest jail.
They delivered babies, took care of them for few months,
babies were chained and mothers were forced out. 
Babies started growing in the darkest jail of that time.

As they were human babies they maneuvered themselves
in the darkness  and started aging happily,
dark was their god, dark were their thoughts
They even dreamed darkly.

The only ornament they had, was their chains
They took care of it as their vital body parts.
They used it for music they used it for war
even organized  competition to determine mightiest so far. 

During competition, chain of a puny man broke,
He was labeled challenged and was out-casted.
He started spending his time in other things, at other corner,
with the broken piece of his chain he started scratching the wall

While scratching, the chain got hot and he got brunt finger
He unleashed his frustration on the wall,
hit repeatedly with his hot chain until it sparked
He told his few friends about this new blinding thing.

Words got out and mightiest of them came
and crushed him with their mightiest chain
for discovering something blinding and unfaithful.
He was thrown back in the same distant corner.

Forgetting his pain he again started scratching and hitting the wall
really the wall was not too strong and not too thick
it started cracking, he kept on scratching and hitting,
Finally a stone came out and prison was filled with blazing light.

People came running towards it covering their eyes
they were scared, they were terrified, puny man was leaping,
as he had seen the outside world with his watery eyes.

Mightiest of them came all frowned on this light of disbeliever 
They killed the puny man with their mightiest chain and
stuffed his bones in the vent, again there was darkness all around.




 - Chanchal Prakasham

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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.  

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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.

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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..

    

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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

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