Made after Supreme Court of India thought of not messing with Article 377 and passing the buck to Parliament.
You may be as straight as straight can be and non-gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. You have your fundamental rights to do whatever you want to do in your privacy provided that you don’t hurt anybody or yourself. From where should I take out time to be even bothered to be annoyed at someone else’s lifestyle, apart from being jealous, is beyond me.
पास के क्रिकेट के मैदान में अब घास नहीं उगती, हर कहीं पैर पड़ने की वजह से अब ज़मीन बंजर हो चली है | खेल तो अब भी खेले जाते हैं, पास दूर से बहुत बच्चे रोज़ आते हैं, दिन भर चिल्ल-पों मचता ही रहता है, मैदान यह सब चुपचाप सहता है |
बाउंड्री पर अब झाड़ भी सूख चूका है, कोना कोना मटमैला रूख चूका है | गेंद जब सरक कर कोने की दीवार पर आके टकराती है, कराह उठता है वो मैदान जैसे कोई सुई चुभो दी हो |
नाराज़ तो होता है लेकिन बच्चो की ख़ुशी देख कर लौटा देता है गेंद, उसे तो इंतज़ार रहता है कि अँधेरा हो और बच्चे घर लौट जाएँ | शाम ढलते ही बाउंड्री के बाहर वाले पेड़ो पर पक्षी लौट आते हैं, सुरीली से करतल ध्वनि उस मैदान को गाके सुनाते हैं |
उन्ही पेड़ों से रोड-लाइट की रौशनी जब छन के आती है मैदान पर, कोई नहीं होता क्रिकेट खेलने वाला, असली तब आता है मज़ा उस मैदान को | पक्षी भी सोचुके होते हैं तब तक, अलग सा सन्नाटा छा जाता है, बाउंड्री की दीवारें तत्पर रहती है अँधेरे के लिए, मन ही मन मुस्कुराती हुई |
थोडा और अँधेरा ढलने पर, दीवारों पर फूल खिल उठते हैं, थोड़े थोड़े अंतराल पर, जहां जहां रोशनी नहीं होती | चहचहाते हैं फूल, अठखेलियाँ करते हैं, मैदान खुश हो उठता है, पेड़ो से रौशनी और कम कर देता है |
जब तक फूल आपस में व्यस्त रहते हैं, निहारता रहता है सुनसान मैदान उन्हें, दिन भर जो बंजर रहा, जैसे अँधेरा होते हैं वसंत ऋतू आ गई हो | जो दिन भर हुल्लड़ बाजी और शोर शराबा होता रहा, अँधेरे में वहीँ वायलिन और सैक्सोफोन बजने लगते हैं |
जब कोई गुज़रता है मैदान के बाहर से, कोशिश करता है मैदान के फूल disturb न हो, गुजरने वाले को जिज्ञासा भी होती हो, तो होने दो, मैदान तो फूला नहीं समाता | थोड़ा सा कभी बाहर वाला भी मुस्कुरा देता है फूलों को देख कर, मैदान को आँख मार कर इशारा कर देता है, कि लगे रहो, अपने को क्या |
कुछ तुनकमिजाज़ियों को फूल पसंद नहीं, खांस कर वो जता देते हैं, फूल भी समझ जाते हैं, कि अँधेरा काफी हो चला है | उलझी हुई अपनी डालियों को सुलझा के बिछड़ जाते हैं, मिलेंगे फिर यहीं, इसी वक़्त कह के एक बार फिर से बंजर कर जाते हैं मैदान |
Here are some pictures from Day 2 of Bangalore Literature Festival 2013. I was just happy to witness Gulzar Sahab speaking and attending my 2nd Literature Fest after attending Jaipur’s 2012 edition.
Aao phir nazm kahein with Gulzar and Prasoon Joshi
Gular and Prasson Joshi
The Anatomy of Literature Festivals William Dalrymple, Anjum Katyal and Nirmala Lakshman Moderator: Vikram Sampath
BLF
BLF
Book Signing by Gulzar Sa’ab
BLF
Ashwin Sanghi
Writing on Indian Cinema Baradwaj Rangan, Sidharth Bhatia, M. K. Raghavendra and Nasreen Munni Kabir Moderator: Sharmistha Gooptu
Interviewer: So, where do you see yourself after 5 years from now? Me: (Ohh man! What have you asked?!? *gulp*) Pass!
Isn’t this a difficult question to answer? After ‘Tell me something about yourself’ question at least, which I like as much as I like eating Brinjal on my birthday which means I hate it. You wish to accomplish thousand things in next 5 years and you forget 990 of them because it is difficult to remember 1000 things, let alone do them. You will buy certain things, visit certain places and meet certain people. Easier said than done, isn’t it? Well, today I complete 5 years of working, and earning. Yes really! Even I don’t believe. But Thanks. And also a long time since I studied in a college. Phew, time flies. FYI, I had stopped sharing what I (actually) felt on this blog a long time ago but I have to get something out of the mind so I will do that here.
It seems like it was yesterday. Cliché but actually time has gone past in a very Usain Boltish fashion. Just yesterday, you were studying and wearing pyjamas having no clue about life and then suddenly you are now this tie-wearing, running after a bus man who has no clue about why one has to wear tie in 2013?. Started with doing a timepass job which continued to be more than a timepass job and lasted 15 months. Then started working with those campus companies and became the so called IT guy. And now after 5 years, one tends to think whether you’re in correct profession? Of course you are but what is correct anyways? The appearance of such thought itself means something is little out of place. But then, what one has on hands is what is real. So living in present, I have certain questions regarding bloody cubicle life (and life outside cubicle) after 5 years. Such as: Why one has to laugh at jokes your senior cracks even when they aren’t funny? Even if the joke was poorer than an engineer, they look towards you as if the joke would guarantee them heavens and make such a face that makes you open your mouth and laugh as if they tickled you? Why people go berserk after they are away from their home for the first time? Those who couldn’t speak a word at home, become crow-ish-loud. Those who never touched alcohol, drool buckets if they get invited to a party where liquor will be served. Even when liquor is not that a big deal, people still carry it in black polythene. No girl will usually be found buying alcohol. Their guy friends will do the honors. Why? Usually people are friendly when they start working. As soon as they complete a couple of years of work experience, life gets sucked out of them and they turn out to be zombies. Death Eaters is not a fictional character, people do actually look as if their patronum committed suicide after watching a Sajid Khan movie? Why that if you join a new team, people don’t notice you? They keep staring into the monitors and still hear everything but they don’t react? Where have the expressions gone? Why are HR people invisible? If HR people call for ‘Friday Fun’, that happens once every 2 years, nobody moves from their place. Why should they if the event happens rarely as it was Haley’s comet’s appearance? Though some people are in office just waiting for Friday Fun to happen so they readily jump in. Also, why people are called to work on weekends? Is there no planning ever? Also, there’s nothing called as Free Lunch which is an observation and not a question.
Anyways, life goes one. But this friendship day 4th of August, a sudden gush of feelings hit me on the face like hot air out of a truck’s silencer. I could hear it saying that I was getting old. Not age wise but rather socially. Emotionally, I don’t think I grew up much. Just that I become slightly colder. But that’s okay to be when you are on your own in a city which you still cannot call your home. By socially, as I was saying, I mean the people around are getting busier. Things aren’t like what they used to be 5 years ago. Some of the best-est friends are married now and not just that, now they have even become fatherly figure now literally. Wow. Probably that’s the best thing they have done in all their lives I think. I am not much expressive but I can’t tell how proud I feel as an Uncle. Wow. And I might not even be able to express it ever anyways. Many people are not in touch anymore. College friends have ended up being numbers on Facebook friend list. Some have stayed and they will stay for some more time. Also, thanks to technology, people like staring in the screens more than each other’s eyes. Face to Face communication is obsolete. Heh, but someone must have blogged about the same when TV was invented. Just finished watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. last week (yeah I know I started 2 decades late but completed it in 2 months by watching 4 episodes in a day on an average) and the last episode made me realize (again) that things won’t always be the same like they are now so change will be a constant thingy. When you complete these years which are in multiple of 5, it is good to contemplate what all you did in last 5 years. Few things could have been different and few could have been better handled. Thinking too far in the future is not a great idea IMHO and regretting about what you didn’t do in last 5 isn’t great either. So I am writing this just to refresh the sleeping cells in the brain. Some of them have procrastinated so may be this is the time to put them to work.
P.S.: When I started writing this, the tone was totally different and probably sad. Thankfully, this blog is not made on paper, or I would have had to dry it up before publishing. Heh. But this turned out to be just bad, not sad so publishing it as it is. 🙂 The title of the post is taken from a Bob Dylan song which I got to know about from Steve Jobs biography by Walter Issacson, I am reading nowadays and getting amazed by it page by page. May be, may be, it could change few things or it might not. We shall see.
