"दिनकर" जी की कुछ पंक्तियाँ..

"समर शेष है, नहीं पाप का भागी केवल व्याघ्र,
जो तटस्थ हैं, समय लिखेगा उनका भी अपराध। "

''कुरुक्षेत्र'' से

..शान्ति खोलकर खड्ग क्रान्ति का जब वर्जन करती है,
तभी जान लो, किसी समर का वह सर्जन करती है।
शान्ति नहीं तब तक, जब तक सुख-भाग न नर का सम हो,
नहीं किसी को अधिक हो, नहीं किसी को कम हो।

ऐसी शान्ति राज्य करती है तन पर नहीं, हृदय पर,
नर के ऊँचे विश्वासों पर, श्रद्धा, भक्ति, प्रणय पर।
न्याय शान्ति का प्रथम न्यास है,जबतक न्याय न आता,
जैसा भी हो, महल शान्ति का सुदृढ नहीं रह पाता।

''कुरुक्षेत्र'' से
  _____________________________________________

..कहो मार्क्स से डरे हुओं का गाँधी चौकीदार नहीं है !
सर्वोदय का दूत किसी संचय का पहरेदार नहीं है !!

 ''नील कुसुम'' से
_____________________________________________

The Women's Coach

"Hell O"

...that's what i felt like saying when in a hurry i didn't realize and boarded a Women's Coach (it was newly introduced that the first coach in all metro-trains in Delhi will be for Women). The doors were too keen to close as if  a prey had fallen in the pitcher plant, and they closed.

I shuddered (i don't know why) the moment i saw it was women all around and i realized what i had 'committed'. A thought occurred that i should find my way to the other coach but it was too crowded inside. Atleast, that is what the 'legal travelers' of the coach made it look like. For, these specimen needed some more 'personal' space than their lesser male counterparts in the adjascent coches.(I realised why a friend back in office had said that women carry a 1BHK along with them) I saw a granny nearby and i apologised (for she seemed to be not taking it kindly that i had intruded). Before she opened fire i tried to explain her that i was in a hurry and it was by mistake and that i will change at the next station. Her expressions relaxed and i felt little comfortable and permitted though not accepted. I stood pressing against the door facing it while the drama was unfolding behind. Afterall it was not everyday that they would get a poor 'creature' like me caught in their zone.

I consoled myself that it was a matter of 2 minutes and will pass in 2 minutes. But had it been so, how could that day be 'fateful' in my mind. So, it happened that some train was moving immediately ahead of us and hence our train had to take halts in between. And in the meanwhile the drama inside had begun.

I think a group on my left in its 20's (but u can never be sure with the specimen in question!) took the lead and started booing and shooing and doing what they were best at (i think, passing comments!!). Taking the cue another group on my right followed. But they mostly giggled and maybe laughed. I chose to think they were not laughing at me but alas! they were. I felt they were shameless in doing so and i was for listening to all that. The comments covered a wide spectrum from my history to geography to sociology and i knew none was even close to truth. My self-confidence would have been irreparably dented had i not known that they were just ready-to-serve dialogues (as used in some hindi movies). Well, while the comments i could ignore the giggling was getting under my skin. It was so silly. It was so pointless.  It was so girlish that i chose to close my eyes and do some meditation. But neither Sri Sri, nor baba Ramdev came to rescue that day.

But the scheme of things were not so rude afterall. Suddenly i heard someone on my left saying "...........jane de yaar, dekh wo galti se aa gaya hai"...........

The comments were immediately re-oriented, the giggling had become loud and vampiric. Some new commentators were added. And I had immediately opened my eyes seeking that kind soul. Now there was a 'sympathetic heart' to share my agony in that hostile kingdom. Now there was a reversal in prayers and i didn't want the doors to open. But the next station had come and the doors opened against all my wishes. Darn!! Darn!! Darn!! I did not want to come out. But I had to and i did.

I couldn't help myself from looking back, infact searching for the source of that sweetest and most kind of voices in that coach!! I couldn't see her but i saw that all were smiling, even the granny was grinning. and someone shouted " Tanvi ke liye fir kabhi aa jana, galti se ........".

There was a loud HA HA HA in which i think all the remaining women had joined....and the pitcher plant closed. I took the next metro after some time feeling younger after a long time!!

मैं तुम्हारी मौन करुणा..

मैं तुम्हारी  मौन  करुणा  का  सहारा  चाहता  हूँ,
जानता हूँ इस जगत में  फूल की  है  आयु  कितनी,
और यौवन की उभरती सांस में  है  वायु  कितनी,
इस लिए संसार का  विस्तार सारा चाहता हूँ,
मैं तुम्हारी मौन करुणा का सहारा चाहता हूँ...

ये उठा कैसा प्रभंजन!! जुड़ गयीं जैसे दिशायें,
एक तरनी, एक नाविक, और कितनी आपदाएं...
क्या करूँ मझधार में ही मैं किनारा चाहता हूँ..
मैं तुम्हारी मौन करुणा का सहारा चाहता हूँ...

- रामकुमार वर्मा

सच हम नहीं सच तुम नहीं ..

सच हम नहीं सच तुम नहीं,
सच है सतत संघर्ष ही..

संघर्ष से हट कर जिए तो क्या जिए हम या की तुम,
जो नत हुआ वह मृत हुआ ज्यों वृंत से झड कर कुसुम |
जो पंथ भूल रुका नहीं, जो हार देख झुका नहीं,
जिसने प्रणय पाथेय माना, जीत उसकी है रही ||
सच हम नहीं सच तुम नहीं..

ऐसा करो जिससे न प्राणों में कहीं जड़ता रहे,
जो है जहाँ चुपचाप अपने आप से लड़ता रहे |
जो भी परिस्थितियां मिलें, कांटे चुभें कलियाँ खिलें,
टूटे नहीं इन्सान, है सन्देश जीवन का यही ||
सच हम नहीं सच तुम नहीं..

हमने रचा आओ हमी तोड़ दें इस प्यार को,
यह क्या मिलन, मिलना वह जो मोड़ दे मझधार को |
जो साथ फूलों के चले, जो ढाल पाते ही ढले,
वह जिंदगी क्या जिंदगी जो पानी सी बही ||
सच हम नहीं सच तुम नहीं..

अपने हृदय का सत्य अपने आप हमको खोजना,
अपने नयन का नीर अपने आप हमको पोंछना |
आकाश सुख देगा नहीं, धरती पसीजी है कहीं,
हर एक राही को भटक कर ही दिशा मिलती रही ||
सच हम नहीं सच तुम नहीं..

बेकार है मुस्कान से ढकना हृदय की खिन्नता,
आदर्श हो सकती नहीं तन और मन की भिन्नता |
जब तक बंधी है चेतना, जब तक हृदय दुःख से घना,
तब तक न मानूंगा कभी इस राह को ही मैं सही ||
सच हम नहीं सच तुम नहीं..


-जगदीश गुप्त

United we flourish, divided we perish..

I found this interesting & telling graphic at www.twocircles.net and thought of sharing with all. We must utilise the huge population and resource benefits this nation offers for an all-round development. With an eye on this development, which can be guaranteed only by peace and harmony, we will find it easier to dodge the propaganda to divide the masses on various lines of caste, religion, language, economics, grievance and gender. All of them co-exist but none of them alone can bring peace and progress. Hence the message United we flourish, divided we perish.. 

media kind of gender equality !!

Miss Pseudo read the newspaper more than she used to see it. Today she decided to SEE it more, following some hunch, just after she had read something more on gender equality.

Gender equality is a in-thing today being actively propagated by the de-facto powers-that-be like media--of the paid-news fame, primarily. And people across the gender divide are made to believe this dominant version, left, right and center. Let all have their own versions to uphold the spirit of same freedom and equality that is propagated. What does this gender equality strive for? What has it achieved so far? Who are its proponents? Is it a fight against history and for a new pre-designed future? (don't look for answers in this blog)

Pseudo thinks that since all this clamour for gender-equality and feminism (in its many many versions) started, all it has done is push one particular version of lifestyle for men and women equally across the globe, irrespective of the original culture and genre de vie (lifestyle). People and societies who have accepted it willingly, without question have been hailed as progressive.

Now coming back to "SEEING" the newspaper, Pseudo did an experiment. An interesting one. She counted the number of pictures of women and men in the newspaper for a week. Then she counted the pictures that were 'revealing' or 'provocative' or 'suggestive'!! She found that almost 60 % - 90 % of female pictures fell in this category, printed regularly, and thus 'gender equality' was 'upheld' and 'promoted'. The feminists felt happy that woman's body was her's and she had every right to use it and flaunt it the way she wanted to. The men were happy that they had been successful in their scheme of convincing womenfolk to bare all, without any strings attached, unlike before when women were very conservative in matters considered profane.

And Pseudo also found that the men had won in commodifying and 'robotifying' women as seen in most of the advertisements, endorsements and entertainment. To give the same "gender equality" a chance in the work field whole lot of  'femalish' jobs were created which are mostly brainless and monotonous in any organisation. Thus reality remains where we started.

However it was not all futile. All this gung-ho has given the chance to a few to have their 2-minutes of fame shouting slogans somewhere or debating somewhere on this non-issue. The old order has to change from time to time and it has to give way to the new one. True.

Pseudo concludes that the new is not always different from the old, in reality, though it may be packaged differently. She also noted that men will always rule either by beastly force or by dirty scheming wherein the prey will be made to believe that she is exercising her free will while happily walking into the beast's lair.

The shepherdress (1889)

Could she ever have existed in flesh-and-blood anymore beautiful than this..
I wonder who the inspiration was. Now, if anything, she could just be a part of anyone's imagination, at best.

Jesus wants you!!

Came across this thing. and have been wondering since. it's a LOCAL call to Jesus-believing men to guard their motherland and join air-force, army and navy in the far far WEST. innovative people use something for anything it seems.

don't really think J would like it.

Times and Sentiments..

Going through some of my past collections I suddenly felt how the call of the societal-leaders in the past were so very different from that of today. The people and situations create leaders and the leaders create the people and new situations. Falling standards in one affects the other and the process is cyclic until some Krishna, Jesus, Rousseau or Gandhi arrives.
Lets revisit some lines from the past and see how the popular mood, ethics, and thinking standards were in those times.

Jis khait say dehqan ko mayassar na ho roti,

us khait kay har khosha-e-gandum ko jala do..

[Iqbal, the great, referring to any land that does not produce any thing useful for the farmer/people calls to  burn every grain of wheat of that land, because britishers used to force the farmers to work hard and produce crops and then at the right time they used to capture the land and take everything away...leaving only penury for the already exhausted farmers.]

Deh khudaya yeh zameen teri nahin –

Teray aaba ki nahin, teri nahin, meri nahin.

[Iqbal referring to feudal lords and their tendency to capture everything for themselves, and in todays context where everyone is too willing to take ownership of anything he can lay his hands on.]

The current Indian leaders (politicians, sportsmen, film stars, MEDIA-PRESENTERS et al) are contributing their level best to the all-pervasive rot that has set in. If a person is 'simple and uneducated' he is helping in mines or fodder kind of ghotala, and if some one is  'charming and educated' he is getting into 3G and sweat-equity kind of ghotala, and some others are contributing their 'two cents' by promoting and popularising such trash events and personalities ignoring their very responsible goal. There are few others too who have either been virtuous or haven't got their 'golden chance' to get enlisted in this in-thing. Like any good phase this phase also wouldn't last forever and the silent majority will get up soon saying enough-is-enough. I am certainly not referring to Naxals. 

The Gandhians will rise but they won't need Guns.

my take on corruption..

Definition- Corrupt: willing to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain.

i was wondering why do we do corruption? do we do it or it happens? is it easier doing corruption or it takes pains and efforts??

you may like to think on these for 'some time' before reading my opinion.

we do corruption because we think it is easier and trying an alternative may be difficult. though it may not also be so. we do corruption because we think thats the only way to do it. Lets rethink and act fresh. there are many many people who get-up in reverence to such individuals who humbly state their intent to do things 'straight'. and many times they too pick up the thread-of-honesty you have held. We do corruption for getting more than we 'know' we need and deserve. but it is just a matter of time that such things come undone and we lose everything thus 'achieved'. we do corruption to make our lives little extra-comfortable. not going into philosophy but very factually speaking you never get the 'peace and comfort' you may have expected having had the best bed, house and bank-balance. most of the times doing and hiding such acts takes as much effort and pain as it would take in refusing to buckle under pressure. one only has to think if the deed is worth it. MOST OF THE TIMES it is not.

Well, there is another, and equally important, part to this thought. there are moments when 'corruption' saves lives and situations (during health emergency, getting a fast ticket booked in emergency for old parents, paying 'extra' for carrying/cremating a dead body, etc). At such point one may very well refer to the definition of corruption. Such acts may be termed illegal (and legality changes with time and space) but not corrupt.

Finally, the intent must always be the good of all and not just one's own self and not causing harm/loss to anyone for personal, undeserved, 'profit'.

Corruption, though widely prevalent, doesn't have deep roots, and it proliferates only for lack of any serious thought given to the seemingly complex but really simple issue.

See image above for some thoughts on integrity.

-harsh

what appealed to eyes and touched the heart..

found few oil paintings, worth sharing...

woods and the road.. I would like to walk this place in real, or may be fly slowly, without touching anything..

two little girls, with nice cap and slippers...

frozen in eternity...

atlast, whacky walking, clear colors... err do u have a name grl??

-harsh (Posted with a 'Thank You' to whoever made or clicked them)

recent experiences

Of late, i have had many many experiences-good and otherwise. It seemed life creeps slowly, as if recoiling, and then too many things happen in a burst, as if unwinding. You may expect me to have grown one full year in just one month.

The joy and the pains of life have been excellent, and i appreciate both. Good times are nothing but the way one looks at things. And this 'art of looking' one just can't think and decide - okay boy, now on I will have all 'good times' but one has to go through the grills and tortures presented by life and emerge winner to master 'The Art'.

Well before i sign off, a happy update is I have started respecting my father more- for both, he and i, have changed for the better (I never thought it would ever happen). I am proud of him.

- harsh (Unsoiled still)

Multi-cultural, multi-racial India

Blog written by Nita @ http://nitawriter.wordpress.com

(Though i have some reservations about the N-S multi-racial theory to the extent it is based on a false premise and is devisive, it is a good read. ~harsh)

Indians are very very different from each other,’ I said casually to a teacher once. He was American. I, an Indian.
‘Really, how different?’ the American asked me, staring at me with his pale blue eyes, eyes as alien to me as his blond hair. But he was a teacher who was interested in the peoples of the world and I could talk to him. I was a substitute teacher in the same school in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania, in a school called IST, the International School of Tanzania.
‘We are multi-cultural, like no other country in the world,’ I said.
‘You mean different religions? Lots of countries are like that,’ he said.
‘Not like India is. We are majority Hindus but we have the second largest population of Muslims in the world, Plus we have a sizeable population of Jains, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and Jews. That’s all the major religions of the world,’ I said.
There was a touch of arrogance in his blue eyes. ‘America is a multi-cultural society too. In fact we have people of different races living together.’
I sighed. ‘In India it’s the same. Only difference as that our different races have kept their identity…but in your country everyone talks the same, wears the same clothes…’
‘What are you talking about? Indians are all ethnically the same!’ he said.
‘No. People from the state of Kerala for example are different ethnically from lets say Maharashtra.’
‘Different accents you mean…’ he said.
I could see that he was irritated.
‘No no,’ I said. ‘Different racially, There is as much difference between a Keralite and a Maharashtrian as between a Spaniard and a German.’
You could see that he didn’t believe me, and I knew what he wanted to say. That he didn’t see the difference and that he knew quite a few Indians personally. I wanted to tell him that I too wouldn’t be able to see the difference between a Spaniard and a German. Or for that matter between a Britisher and an American. Sure I knew some people from these nationalities but to me they looked the same, from the same country. As for accents, I am still confused about them…
‘Look,’ I said in a diplomatic tone, ‘I’ll give you some examples of how different we are. A Hindu in Kerala or Kashmir or Bengal eats different food, and wears different clothes. In Bengal, Diwali is not as important as Durga Pooja while no other state in India celebrates Durga Pooja, and we are talking of people from the same religion. The Ganesh festival is a big thing only in Maharashtra. And I haven’t even got to the religious differences as yet! But I can assure you that there is far less difference between a Punjabi Hindu and Punjabi Muslim that between a Punjabi and a Sindhi! There is less difference between a Bengali Muslim and a Bengali Hindu than between a Bengali and a Bihari. There is less difference because they are the same race, they speak the same language, wear similar clothes…’
I could see that I had lost him.
‘That’s interesting,’ he murmured.
‘We have a different languages, more than thirty of them!’ I exclaimed, not a little proudly.
‘Dialects?’ he asked.
‘Oh no! Languages! Knowing Tamil doesn’t mean you can understand Gujarati or Punjabi…the languages are very very different. As different as English and French! Plus we have different scripts!’ I was enjoying myself now because he was surprised. ‘Doesn’t Spanish and Italian use the same script as English? And what about the Americans? Don’t they too use the same language as the British? English? And the same script as well?’ I asked.
He was silent, but I could see that he was fascinated.
‘We have an ancient culture. Almost as old as the Egyptians. Maybe older,’ I continued deliberately, because just a day earlier another teacher had asked me whether Indians were tribals before the British established the education system. ‘Ancient Indians were educated in maths and astrology and science before the west was. We had an ancient library called Nalanda in Bihar, which was destroyed by invaders.’
Well, this teacher was open to new knowledge. He pulled out a map of the world and spread it out in the empty staff-room. He pointed to India. ‘That’s a very large area, you are bound to have such differences. And yes, I know that India has a rich culture…’
‘Yes, rich and diverse. Do you know that the Parsis left their homeland of Iran hundreds of years ago just so that they could practice Zoroastrianism in peace, here in India? Today, Parsis are Indians, though they have maintained their distinct identity.’ I was getting late for class, but as I walked out I couldn’t resist my parting shot. ‘We are the most tolerant country in the world,’ I said.

(This is an actual conversation I had with a teacher at IST. I have combined two conversations into one.)

sense prevails...

Sense is taking over nonsense. Its good for the country and the nation-still-in-the-making.

"End Violence and come for talks" Mr. Chidambaram tells maoists.

Lets hope sense prevails over nonsense on the other side of the line too, and the maoists and others grab the opportunity and go for the talk. While, this kind of 'internal security' problem is best dealt with the "Talk-way", we can't prescribe the same medicine for all security-diseases caused by professional terrorist whose acts emanate with ulterior motives and whose intentions can never be relied upon.

Peter Eigen: How to expose the corrupt | Video on TED.com

Peter Eigen: How to expose the corrupt | Video on TED.com