Draft Title 1: लो, अब मुझे उठता हुआ देखो
Draft Title 2: मैं उठ रहा हूँ
Draft Title 3: लखनऊ का विकास नगर, ठूंठों का बढ़ता ठिकाना
मेरे शरीर और तना को काट कर
मुझे ठूंठ बनाकर,
य़ह न समझ लेना कि लड़ नहीं सका, तो हार गया।
मैं ओजस्व, अनंत और अमर हूँ,
रक्तबीज का बीज मैं ही हूँ।
मेरे रक्त का कतरा कतरा बहा दिया,
फिर भी मृत्यु शैय्या से अभी मैं कोसों दूर हूँ।
मानव उत्पत्ति के अजस्र, अभूतपूर्व से मैं मौजूद हूँ,
मानव के इति के पश्चात भी मौजूद रहूंगा।
मेरा नाश विनाश के प्रयास के लिए भी
मेरी ही ज़रुरत पड़ती है।
कुल्हाड़ी की धार तो लोहे से बनती है
परन्तु बूटा की लकड़ी तो मेरे तना को संजोकर ही बनता है।
मुझे हरे भरे पेड़ से ठूंठ बनाने के लिए भी
पहले मेरे ही तना का सहारा लेना पड़ता है।
मैं मानव नहीं कि एक वार में धराशायी हो जाऊं,
हज़ार बार कट कर भी पुनर्जीवित हो सकता हूँ।
मेरे लहू पर बारिश की दो बूंद गिरना ही मौत से मेरी माफ़ी है,
मेरा हर तना एक नया दरख्त बनने के लिए काफी है।
अक्सर मैं और मेरी तन्हाई,
(सॉरी, मेरा notes app मोबाइल फोन पर)
एक दूसरे से बातें करते हैं,
कभी कौमोड पर बैठे हुए, कभी गरम पानी के शावर में गुनगुनाते हुए:
कैसा होता अगर ये मोबाइल फोन ना होता,
यूट्यूब के शॉर्ट्स पर दिन में घंटों और महीने में दिनों का बर्बादी ना होता।
मैं कविता लिखता ही रहता,
कोई छापता या ना छापता,
तन्हाई की सोच को कोरे काग़ज़ से मिला तो देता।
अब हाथ में मोबाइल फोन को बिना पलक झपकाए देखता हूं,
जहां दिन दहाड़े पहले सपनों में खोया रहता था,
वहाँ अब यूट्यूब शॉर्ट्स और फेसबुक रील एकटक घूरता रहता हूं।
घरवालों के ताने खाकर ही खाने बैठता हूँ।
सोने के वक़्त का ठिकाना नहीं, उठ जाना मजबूरी है,
दिनभर के फ़र्ज़ निभाना भी हर हाल में ज़रूरी है।
कहने को तो है बहुत कुछ, लिखने बैठ जाता हूँ,
लो देखो तो मेरी मजबूरी,
वो भी मोबाइल फोन पर टाइप करने उतर जाता हूँ।
जिस मुसीबत से पिंड छुड़ाने की बात करता हूँ,
उसी का अखिरकार गुलाम बना रह जाता हूँ।
तेरा वो जानी, जानलेवा दुश्मन...
जिसने तुझे और तेरी सोच की तरक्की को रोक दिया,
तुझे पढ़ने से और बढ़ने से रोक दिया,
कभी तेरी इंसानियत और हमदर्दी को ठोंक दिया,
कभी तेरी अक्ल और जिम्मेदारी को आग में झोंक दिया।
उसे कब तक यूँ ही ढूँढता फिरेगा तू,
कभी आईने के सामने भी चला जा..उसके रुबरु खड़ा होगा तू।
I had the "misfortune" of reading about the very high AQI, (read air quality index) in Delhi and visiting it at the same time. Travelling around some of the busiest roads in what's variously known as New Delhi, Lutyen's Delhi or Central Delhi I felt somewhat silly trying to search the usual symptoms associated with heavy pollution....there was no smoke, no smog, no irritation in the throat we all read about in newspapers or online news portals and which the TV anchors are going hoarse screaming about everywhere and every time they imagine that someone is listening to them. In fact, the lack of visibility or low visibility that I was looking forward to "seeing" was conspicuous by it's absence.
If anything, the air seemed fresh and clean ; the overwhelming greenery on the sides and the centre of the road wearing a thin layer of dust....dust that settles after flying when it's struck by the brooms on the roads and sidewalks early in the morning everyday...dust, that certainly isn't coming off dirty vehicles or dirty tyres and definitely not off soil laden trucks that dare to traverse the city when it's supposedly sleeping.
One could point out the reason for my possible bias for the city to my love for everything and anything that goes with the letters D E L H I, and I have to admit that it's just about the cheapest city to live in if you know the right place to spend your moolah.
But.....
As usual, there always has to be a but/butt. It's not possible to earn decently and yet buy a house, a plot or a flat to live in this very happening city. I recall when a duplex would cost a hundred thousand, but I could barely afford fifty thousand with crushing loans. And now when they cost twenty crores, I cannot even afford one, even with loans.
But those are some of the factors that make Delhi unique. You could book a hotel room at 21 thousand for a night (about 250 US Dollars) and find another decent one for less than 10 about three hundred yards away. The priciest goods rub shoulders with the cheapest joints, and no one is complaining. Least of all the buyers. In some other city, you'd have the woke crowd descending in hordes upon such fraternising, screaming breach of trust and patents and copyrights and...what not.
Not Delhi. It has its share of wokes, perhaps more than any other metro city, thanks to its intolerable levels of tolerance and cosmopolitan culture. Scratch that...Delhi doesn't really have a so called "culture" ; if anything, it's a melting pot of cultures from all over the country, may be the world. Which has inevitably led to the ascension of something unique to the whole nation. A culture full of ironies. The Tamils and Bengalis of Delhi speak Hindi with a distinctly West and Central UP accent, the richest Sindhi and Punjabi businessmen occupy shops and houses in the locality known as Bengali market and NCR (National Capital Region) is just a nomenclature for Delhi extended beyond Delhi, but just can't be bothered to to be termed so because that might offend administrators in its two adjacent states.
Respect the ones who dared to think differently....irrespective of right or wrong. That's for history to endorse, criticise or at best, ignore.
It's amazing how many ideas float around one's mind, when the mobile phone isn't in the hand. It's as if the whole sky and earth were waiting to be explored, just with as simple as a distraction removed, the screen out of view...the device safely in the pant pockets. Not so far away, not exactly dominating the view either.
Horten flying wing examination for HAL
The chauffeur semi autonomous, self driving micro transport device (MTD) for light weight and low range
झूठ बोलना नहीं चाहिए। इसलिए सिर्फ नहीं कि झूठ बोलना बुरी बात है, बल्कि इसलिए भी कि यह याद रखना बहुत मुश्किल होता है कि कौन सा झूठ किससे कब बोला था। पकड़े जाने पर बड़ा शर्मनाक स्थिति का सामना करना पड़ सकता है।
The guidebook to surviving in a tight corporate or government hierarchy and calling the shots
What's the first thing you think, your family would miss if you weren't around for a couple of days or maybe a week.
Me: "The empty bottles of water in the refrigerator?!"
What distinguishes a lawyer from a good lawyer and a good lawyer from a great lawyer? It's the knowledge of precedents. If technology has its way, Artificial intelligence will make the greatest lawyer based on that criteria shortly.
I have to thank Amitabh Bachchan for saving a lot of time. His repeated and repeated and again repeated recorded message makes me often rethink about the call I planned to make. And just too often, I give up the idea of calling entirely.
Thank God for the ad breaks in YouTube and on the TV too. They remind you of the fact that you are wasting your time watching something you've barely liked.
The greatest regrets' compilation, in the 50th year of my life
First:
I forgot the 8 most embarrassing mistakes I compiled as a seven year old kid to calm down my overexcitement. The reminders used to make me humble and stay serious since their primary purpose was to remind me that I wasn't infallible.
Second:
During the pre RD camp at Brigade Parade grounds at Kolkata, I was returning after a dump to attend the evening roll call. It was already dark and I was sharply challenged by a group of soldiers for moving around in a restricted zone, and that too in a suspicious outfit with a half filled bottle of water in my hand. Their commandant, a handsome Sardarji, saw that I was just a kid when I removed my parka. With a crisp voice and in an almost fantastically accentless English, he questioned me a bit, and thus began a conversation that ended with the two of us clinking glasses on the bonnet of the military truck beside which we had stood in the midst of the soldiers. When I finally made it back to the roll call congregation, drunk and staggering in, it was nearly two hours late. I wasn't punished. The Sargent Major had been surprisingly sympathetic. Nodding his head in understanding how refusing a drink when offered by a senior officer could be extremely difficult. It was another seven or eight years (when I became an officer myself) before I understood that the commandant must've sent an advance message to the camp that I wasn't to be bothered just because I was drunk. I'd like to thank him for that favour. And maybe clink glasses again. I regret not having asked him at least his name. Especially since over the years, I have picked up the skill to trace people with just the barest of details.
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