They also serve who stand and wait!

It looks philosophical but what Milton meant by saying ‘They also serve and wait’ was that in whatever shape or form a person is placed he/she is capable of doing his duty subject ofcourse to the respective physical capacities. The root point is that one should shirk of his/her responsibility. It is never expected that one should act as a Hercules but in a limited from it is possible for a limping person to have a giant spirit. Milton became blind as a result of his indefatigable attempts on work –writing,reading and creating historical books like Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained. What he indicated in ‘On his blindness’ was a definite message that handicapped one can be but not necessary that he rendered fully invalid to discharge a function which otherwise is possible for a person if not gigantically certainly in a frugal order.

Calling spade a spade !

Calling spade a spade is a matter of guts and all can’t do it. It is a different matter that many a people identify their ill speakings as being frank and calling a spade a spade but that’s not a correct proposition. Be firm, be clear in your thought and approach, be straight forward on your view points and then claim that you are really talking what you are doing in practice yourself. Call some thing by its name meaning what it actually is but it should never denote any malice or hatred. Candid utterances if made with malice or hatred in the background, the honesty part of it becomes a matter of doubt and the very purpose of being honest in expression is lost.

Blow,blow, thou winter wind !

There is nothing like a measuring rod to calculate how many types of men are there on earth –the type that speaks of their mode of conduct, their behaviour, their role as a human being, their conduct as a social factor. Urdu language calls a human being as ‘haivaan-e-natique’ meaning thereby that a human being is equally an animal with the difference that he can use his tongue and speakout to others what he feels as against an animal incapable of doing so or may be they are equally able to speak out their emotions but we the humans fail to understand it. Speaking out one’s mind is not enough in itself –what counts more is what is it that he talks. The saying ‘achhi vaani boliyey man ka aapa khoi, aapan ko sheetal lagey auran ko such deyeya’ is the purpose and purport of the talk a person can have. There are faithfuls and there are those who are ungrateful and innumerable stories on that count we have been hearing for ages. Out of disgust at certain delicate stage, Shakespeare had to say ‘..blow, blow thou winter wind, thou art not so unkind as the friends sometimes are’ For ages such a grievance has been there and again for ages it has to continue like this. What the man can do to satisfy himself is to express his agony and then keep quiet like his predecessor generations did.

Mysterious Woman

Came across a blog with a poem full of melancholy and sadness only the other day.It was something much more than what Keats penned in his ‘ode to melancholy’.Poem followed by some scriblings spoke volumes of seclusion pangs denoting a tempestuous depth of feelings she might be undergoing. ‘Save me against myself’ was the appeal. Her extraordinarily beautiful picture appearing in the blog was itself capable of telling a thousand stories through her deep looks glued to something just invisible. Sympathies sprangup from the core of my heart and I felt like I could share her grief whatever it was but she was inaccessible sans any consideration for her sympathizers –she could be callous or is helpless I don’t know. It’s like I see something and I don’t see. I possibly can’t identify her beyond what Shakespeare might have kept in his mind while talking about ‘Dark Lady’ of his sonnets

Gandhi's love affair !

Going through what Raj Mohan Gandhi has penned in his ‘Mohan Das: A true story of a Man’ makes it an interesting reading, ofcourse surprising too. When 50, Mahatma Gandhi fell in love with Sarla Devi, a niece (sister’s daughter) of Gurdev Ravindra Nath Tagore. She was 29, a singer, married to Ram Bhuj Dutt Chaudhary who was an editor of a paper in Lahore. Despite his hectic schedules otherwise, the Mahatmass could make it tobe a frequent visitor to Lahore to meet her. Her husband Ram Bhuj Chaudhary was taken aback when he could lay his hands upon certain diary notings made by Mahatma Gandhi in praise of Sarla Devi. The issue caused a furore aggressively turning to a highly unpleasant scenario at the family level with Mahatma’s son Dev Das making all efforts to get it resolved some way or the other.Since it is all revealed by the Mahatma’s own grandson Raj Mohan Gandhi, it is just difficult to doubt the authenticity of the contents.
Read in the context of certain other references like the Mahatma testing his celibacy by applying sexual acrobatics on the inmates of his Ashram e.g. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and other girls –his modus operandi being allowing erection to his male organ on contact with the opposite sex and then restraining himself from discharging. What a peculiar way of test for control on matters like celibacy and sex ? Read further in conjunction with the fact that he could afford a sexual session (with his wife ofcourse) at a time when his father was breathing his last obviously denotes what a tremendous urge of the kind of lust he had for sex.
No harm, nothing wrong in any one falling in love with someone irrespective of age,caste or creed. It is just human and natural too as love is something never to know barriers of any kind.. But identification wise, an individual’s personality –be it an ordinary person or a celebrity, is tobe analysed dispassionately. An era and a history in himself, Mahatma Gandhi was a giant figure of his time and even for times to come. The posterities can’t afford to ignore him. It was after all a Man in him that is revealed otherwise none could easily believe that the author of several dozens of books including ‘My Experiments with Truth’ too could stoop low to a dimension otherwise not considered quite ethical in social circles. One who could give a thousand sermons on ethics with unlimited advices on ‘DOs’ and ‘DON’Ts’ could equally suffer from this kind of routine weakness too. It just establishes that it is an ordinary person or a celebrity, a common Man in him ultimately dominates.

राम रावण युद्घ में यदि विजय रावण की हुयी होती ?

सभी पुराण और ग्रन्थ और इतिहास भी परमपरागत रूप से केवल उन्ही योधाओं की बात करते रहे हैं जो किसी युद्घ विशेष में विजयी घोषित हो सके । वह भी योद्धा ही थे जो पराजित हुये । सोच कर देखें कि जिन विजयी योधाओं को महापुरुष की संज्ञा देकर वृहद रूप से महिमामंडित किया गया है या किया जा रहा है वह यदि पराजित हो गए होते तो आज उनका स्वरुप क्या होता । निस्संदेह उनकी पूजा अर्चना का क्रम प्रारम्भ ही न होता और उन्हें कोई खराब सा नाम देकर आसानी से भुला दिया गया होता । वरनु होता यह कि कोई भी जो युद्घ में विजयी हुवा होता, भले ही वह कुछ भी रहा हो , जन मानस उसी को सम्मान देता और उसी की पूजा अर्चना करता। युगों युगों से यह सिलसिला चला आ रहा है कि जो जीता वह भगवान् हो गया और जो हार गया वह शैतान कहलाया ।
राम और रावण के मध्य जो महा युद्घ हुआ उसमे रावण का पराक्रम कहीं से कम नहीं दिखता । रामचरित्र मानस का यदि संदर्भ लें तो उस महा युद्घ के बीच एक ऐसा भी अवसर आया जब राम को अपनी सामर्थ्य के विशे में सोचने पर विवश होना पड़ा -

रावण रथी विरथ रघुबीरा, देख विभीषण भयो अधीरा
इस संबंध में बाल्मीकि का कथन महत्वपूर्ण है -कथन यह कि इस महायुद्ध में रावण ने राम को कयी कदम पीछे धकेल दिया था । यदि इस युद्घ में रावण अपने आप को विजयी घोषित करवाने में सफ़ल हो गया होता तो आज पूजा राम कि नहीं बल्कि रावण कि हो रही होती । लेकिन विजय घोषणा राम के पक्छ में हुयी । पराजित होने से रावण को निशाचर की संज्ञा मिलना स्वाभाविक था क्योंकि परस्पर विरोधी दो योद्धा न एक साथ विजयी हो सकते हैं और न उन्हें एक साथ भगवान की संज्ञा मिल सकती है। कुछ स्थान ऐसे हैं जहाँ लोग समूह बद्ध होकर रावण की पूजा आरती करते हैं और उसके पराक्रम को याद करते हैं । महाभारत में दुर्योधन का संदर्भ भी कम महत्वपूर्ण नहीं है । वोह भी एक महान पराक्रमी योद्धा था । छल कपट का सहारा लेकर भगवान् कृष्ण उसको पराजित देखने में सफ़ल हुये । महाराष्ट्र में एक स्थान ऐसा है जहाँ उसके नाम का मंदिर है और वहाँ दुर्योधन की पूजा की जाती है । आवश्यक नहीं कि इन गाथाओं को समग्र रूप से विपरीत दिशा में देखा जाये किन्तु स्थिति अनेक स्थानों पर भिन्न दिखेगी यदि शास्त्र, पुराण, ग्रंथ और इतिहास का अध्ययन परंपरागत कुंठा से हट कर तार्किक दृष्टिकोण से किया जाये । ध्यान से देखा जाये तो सारे संग्राम के पीछे कारण था वर्चस्व । किसी भी विषय विशेष को माध्यम बनाकर जिस किसी बात पर संघर्ष रचा गया उस सब के मूल में महत्वाकान्छी ब्याक्तियों की लिप्सापूर्ण लालसा वर्चस्व की ही थी। आज भी यही हो रहा है । कुछ एक वर्ष पहले धूल चाट रहे लोग राजनीति के अखाड़े में पहलवानी करते करते श्रीमान कहे जाने लगे। श्रीमान से महोदय , महोदय से माननीय, मान्यवर , अति सम्माननीय और फिर विकास पुरुष तथा युग पुरुष की संज्ञा से संबोधित किये जाने लगे। कोई विधायक हो अथवा सांसद प्रायः सब की भूमिका संदिग्ध ही होती है । इन को एकमात्र भय वोट का रहता है । इस भय से मुक्त होने का कोई विकल्प इन्हे यदि उपलब्ध हो सके तो पता नहीं ये क्या कर डालें । भ्रष्ट आचरण , भ्रष्टाचार और आतंकवाद की प्रतिमूर्ति इस प्रकार के ब्यक्ति इतिहास में वर्णित क्रूर मानसिकता के तमाम तानाशाहों को बहुत पीछे छोड़ सकते हैं यदि तमाम बातों की तरह वोट पर भी किसी प्रकार से इनका एकाधिकार स्थापित हो जाये । यह बहुत भारी विडम्बना है कि इनका स्वरूप कुछ भी हो परंतु यदि ये अपने बनावटी मसीहा की छवि बनाए रखने में सफ़ल हो जाएँ तो जन मानस को इन्हें दैत्य अथवा नर पिशाच के स्थान पर देवता अथवा भगवान् कह कर पुकारने में अधिक देर नहीं लगेगी । ठीक इसी प्रकार से सद्कार्य में संलग्न कुछ गिने चुने लोग यदि अपने विशुद्ध अनुष्ठान में अंततोगत्वा असफल हो जाएँ तो जन मानस को उन्हें विपरीत संज्ञा से विभूषित करने अथवा उन्हें भ्रष्ट एवं दुराचारी कह कर पुकारने में भी अधिक देर नहीं लगेगी।

क्यों कि मेरा नीड़ मुझ से दूर था !

जब कि शाम आयी पखेरू फिर चले
कारवाँ निज पन्थ पर आगे बढ़ा
मैं अकेला दर्द का मारा हुआ
उस घड़ी में भी अथक चलता रहा
क्योंकि मेरा नीड़ मुझ से दूर था ।

रात भर चलता रहा येह सोचकर
कभी तो गंतब्य की डेवोढ़ी दिखेगी
नियति के परिधान की गठरी समेटे
कभी तो मंतव्य को कुछ गति मिलेगी ।

सोच लो जितना तुम्हें स्वीकार है
फूल मन के हैं कि जो खिलते नहीं हैं
एक मन है एक मन की चाह है
येह सुबह और शाम हैं मिलते नहीं हैं ।

जब कि प्रात आया विहंग वर उड्चले
कारवाँ निज पन्थ पर आगे बढ़ा
मैं उदास, हताश , हटकर राह से
रूपसी को छितिज की तकता रहा
क्योंकि मेरा नीड़ अब भी दूर था ।