The poet in me

Deep within, there is a poet in me. He appreciates beauty. He appreciates colors and patterns. He is always filled with a sense of wonder. He lives in dreams. He lives in stories. He lives in fantasies. He likes sitting on a river-side and throwing stones. He gazes at the moon for hours for no reason. He talks to trees. He feeds the birds. He likes to walk long distances. He likes to sit silently and observe others. He doesn't always make sense.

There is also a rationalist in me. He thinks that he knows a lot about the world. He has read a lot. He has a scientific outlook. He knows the molecular structure of water. He knows the real distance between earth and moon. He also knows which color of light has greater wavelength. He always talks logic and sense.

The poet and the rationalist try to be in good terms with each other. In case of a conflict, the poet lets the rationalist win. Because winning is important for the rationalist, not the poet. Being called wise is important for the rationalist, not the poet.

"We" vs "They"

For a fight to happen, there should be two sides. When two individuals fight, it's - Me vs him/her. When two communities fight - it's "We" vs "They". The damage in a fight between two individuals is of the participating individuals only. If an individual gets hurt or killed, he got a probable outcome of his/her own choice. 

However, In "We" vs "They", a group of people fight against another group of people. Quite often, the people who initiate these fights, fight in the name of an identity which is used by many. A lot of people using this identity do not want to fight. Sometimes, they are not even aware of a fight. Their participation in the fight is assumed. So, "We" and "They" are defined in an unfair manner. Those who do not want to fight become victims. They get hurt or killed in a fight they have not picked up by choice. In fact, they become easy targets because they are unarmed and not prepared. This insanity is happening everyday in this world. 

So many riots, so many wars, so many human rights violations !  

Why not keep the "We" large enough and embrace everyone.  "We" and "They" are not fixed anyway. If it's a regional fight, "We" is people living in a small region. If it's a religious fight - "We" is everyone following the religion.  If its a war between countries, "We" is countrymen. May be when aliens will attack us, "We" will include everyone on earth. But, think about it. If there will not be two sides, there will not be a fight.

   

Saibo - from "Shor in the city"

Here is another one of my singing attempts:

Religion should not be your identity.

A series of blasts have happened in BodhGaya, not more than 15kms from my home in Gaya city. Here is what's going on in media and social networking sites:

Modi Followers: Modi is only solution to Islamic extremism. 

Pigvijay Singh: Modi had talked about teaching Nitish a lesson only a day before this blast. Is this 'Saffron terror'?

XYZ Akhtar in a discussion on facebook: Why don't you talk about killing in Maynmar and fake encounter of Muslims? What about the Mecca Masjid and Samjhauta Express blasts? What about Gujrat riots?

ABC Mishra in a discussion on twitter: Why don't you talk about killing of Hindus in Bangladesh and kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir? What about Godhra? And what about the terrorism propagated world over by Muslims? 

And see what Dalai Lama has to say after these blasts:
"There are only few individuals who do such nasty things. We should not give them too much of attention."

Yes, these acts are done by individuals who are minority. Is it so difficult to understand? Nobody needs to accuse other religion or defend his own religion because of these extremists. Statistically speaking, any community will have about 50% women. Do you think they want a world of their own, won over by violence? Nature has not made them so. At least 20 % would be children, too innocent to value any religious identity. And then there would at least be 10% elderly people in 4th phase of their lives. Among the rest, there would be all kind of individuals, most of them aspiring for things normal human beings want in life. Most of them crazy about the same movies, sports, food, and career as individuals of their age in other communities. So, no community is a threat to other community unless these haters who are minorities take over. These haters sell the stupid idea of, we will wipe off the other community or even a whole country and live peacefully.

We need to change the way we look upon the world. The world should not be looked upon as people with different religious identities. The world should be looked upon as people at different levels of evolution. The more evolved ones know "Love", and the not so evolved ones know "Hate". The only solution is to include more people in the first category. As a Muslim, you need to carry the burden of all these terrorists in your group. As a Hindu, you need to carry the burden of equally horrible conspirators and human right violators. But if you assume brotherhood with people who know to "Love", you will have awesome human beings in your group. The group will have diverse human beings, but not the burden of murderers, criminals, racists, bombers and haters.
  

आम अच्छे नहीं लगे

आज जब किराने का सामान खरीदने पड़ोस के बड़े स्टोर में गया तो हमेशा की तरह ज़रूरत से ज़्यादा सामान अपने बास्केट में डाल रहा था. दो टीन किस्म के आम दिख रहे थे. दाम पूछ कर या देख कर लेने की आदत तो अब रही नही. पास ही में एक  माताजी अपनी १०-१२ साल की बेटी के साथ खड़ी उन्ही आमों को देख रही थी. दाम वहाँ लिखे नही थे. उन्होने मुझसे पूछा की ये आम कितने रुपये किलो है. मैने स्टोर की एक कर्मी से पूछ कर उन्हे बता दिया. चालीस रुपये किलो. फिर वापस अपनी बास्केट भरने में लग गया.

काउंटर पर बिल कराने आया तो वही माताजी कतार में मुझसे पीछे आ लगी. हाथ में १० रुपये के कुल चार नोट थे. बास्केट थी नही, एक छोटा प्लास्टिक का थैला था जो शायद वो घर से लेकर आई थी. आजकल प्लास्टिक के थैले के भी तो पैसे लगते हैं. शायद इसलिए. मेरा सामान कुछ ज़्यादा था. दो बड़े प्लास्टिक के थैले भर गये. कुल हज़ार रुपये का बिल आया. मेरे लिए कुछ ज़्यादा नही था. सामान लेकर निकलने को हुआ तो माताजी ने  अपनी छोटी थैली काउंटर पर रखी. उत्सुकतावश देखने लगा. उसमें ३-४ छोटे बैंगन थे, कोई ढाई सौ ग्राम भिंडी , थोड़ी मिर्ची और एक करेला. उनके एक हाथ में १० रुपये के चार नोट थे और दूसरे हाथ में २ आम. वही चालीस रुपये किलो वाले आम. पीछे उनकी बेटी खड़ी थी.  काउंटर का कर्मी एक एक सब्जी का वजन कर रहा था और वो हर बार दाम पूछती जा रही थी. कितने हुए - उन्होने पूछा. काउंटर के कर्मी ने कहा - ३७ रुपये. माताजी ने आपना सामान एक बार और देखा. शायद कुछ कम कर सकें, तो आम आ जाए. पर नही. गुंजाइश नही थी. आम उन्होने किनारे रख दिए और ४० रुपये उसकी तरफ बढ़ा दिए. ३ रुपये जो वापस मिले वो अपनी साड़ी के आँचल में गाँठ बना कर बाँध लिए. दिल भर आया. शायद पहली बार मुझे आम अच्छे नही लग रहे थे.

  

An attempt in singing :)

I am characterless

I am born and brought up in a culture that cares a lot about the character of a woman.  I have researched this for some time and i have a set of case studies to present and you may very well relate to these.

Case study 1:  Mrs Gupta, a small town Aunty to her kitty party friends - “Sharma Ji’s daughter is roaming around with some boy. He drops her to home after coaching classes. I always knew this girl is a loose character.”

Untold Truth:  Back in her 20s, Mrs. Gupta (then Miss Shalini) had a crush on a boy in her college and they used to bunk classes and watch movies in “Prithvi Theater”. The lovers knew that their families would never agree to this relationship and so this always remained an untold love story (there were no hidden cameras in those days). Years later, Miss Shalini married Mr. Prabhakar Gupta and became Mrs Gupta. Now, she is a self-proclaimed character certification officer in her neighbourhood.

Case study 2:  Mr Adarsh  is a perfect son.  He would marry a girl of her mother’s choice. He starts talking to a girl for arrange marriage. One of the questions asked by Mr. Adarsh in a personal interview for the position of wife -  “Have you ever had a boyfriend?” The honest girl replies with a “Yes”.  Mr Adarsh rejects her. He goes to his mom and says “I cannot marry this girl. She is characterless.” 

Untold Truth:  Mr. Adarsh is an NRI software engineer who earns in dollars. Back in his engineering days, he was an avid watcher of porn. He had a huge collection of adult movies and he was proud owner of a hidden porn server in his college.  So far, his profile has 3 short term relationships and a mid-term, 2 years of “casual dating” with a colleague at work. When he first got a chance to visit “
the US of A” on an onsite project, he got addicted to visiting strip clubs and found US to be a land where he could fulfil all his fantasies and attain “Niravana” through a limitless and uncontrolled execution of life. Such unbounded nature of life was a true spiritual liberation for him. But now, when he has to get married, he must marry a chaste woman, a virgin goddess, a girl with ‘samskaras’ who believes in Indian culture.  She must pass an intense character certification test for a profile as dignified and honourable as his wife.

   

Case study 3:  Mr.  RamaGunda Swamy is a self-proclaimed protector of Indian culture. He believes that the influence of western culture is a big threat to our centuries old civilization.  He, with his men often acts as parallel police and raids bars and public gardens to catch hold of lovers.  If they get hold of women who drink alcohol or wear less (in their words, provocative clothes), they act strongly by assaulting these women.  “These characterless women must be punished to protect our culture”, is their argument.

Untold Truth:   Mr RamGunda Swamy was an expert eve-teaser in his college days. In the eve-teaser’s community, his name is still taken in highest regard. He had a record of not sparing even a single girl in his college or neighbourhood back in his days.  One fine day, when his hormones settled down and he attained self-realization, he started thinking about the Indian culture that regards all women at par with mother and sister. So, he inspired the youngsters and created an army (sena) to protect this national identity. It’s a compulsion that he has to assault women for a bigger cause.

Case study 4:  Mr. Raju is very fond of expressing his opinion on social networking sites and other online public forums.  Whenever, he watches a video like Sunny Leone in Jism or Rekha in Kamasutra or some bold scene of an Indian actress, it disturbs him to the extent of causing some psychological imbalance. Immediately he expresses his opinion. “Such a characterless whore! Why does she have to defame our culture?”

Untold Truth:  Mr Raju has a genuine curiosity about women in body business. As part of his experiments and attempts to demystify this aspect of life, he has often been to women in this profession. In other words, he is often Devdas to a Paro. In fact, a significant amount of his salary is spent in these experiments. That’s why; he claims to know a characterless woman better than anyone else.

There are numerous such examples and you only have to look around to find them.  Giving character certificate to a woman is a very common practice in this country. And once a question about her character is well-raised, a comment or abuse or even sexual assault is justified by a self-proclaimed certifier.

There is a lot of anger and pain in the air due to the recent inhuman incident that has happened in Delhi.  Lot of people want death penalty for assaulters. A lot of us want them be stoned in public in a Taliban like manner.  This horrendous act is something that definitely leads us to think. But unfortunately, all this thinking is outward.  Next time, when you feel like giving character certificate to a woman, please ask yourself a question, “Am I someone of such high character, a pure soul, that I can give a character certificate to someone else?”

And if everyone is fallible like you and me, why have this business of judging the character of others? Stop this character nonsense. Because of this societal perception, a rape victim in India suffers more than anywhere else. She feels more dishonored than needed when it’s not her fault.

To hell with this hypocrisy.  I AM as CHARACTERLESS as anyone else in this world. And I am not good enough to hold myself higher than anyone in this world in terms of character.  I can only quote Kabirdas,

“Bura jo dekhan main chala, bura na milya koi,

Jo mann dekha aapna, mujh sa bura na koi”