Chhabees gyarah...

Painting by Jamini Roy

 

Shukriya! Jo aap ne mujhse baat ki hai
Yadon mein rahegi
Shabdo ki jagah aaj kal aap
Mujhse bolne lagi hai woh bhasha mein
Jo kaan se sunai deti nahi
Na lafz se bola jati
Woh bhasa jo hazaar khwaish karney se bhi
Sunai nahi deti

Khamoshi!

Shukriya! Aap ne mujhe yaad dila diya
Ki guzrey huye din, aab lout ke nahi aayenge
Marne walley kabhi lautke nahi aayenge
Jo guzar gaya woh mor ke nahi dekhtey
Unkey bhasha  kaan se sunai nahi deti
Na lafz se boli jati
Woh bhasa jo hazaar khwaish karney se bhi
Sunai nahi deti

Khamoshi!

Insaan hu mein, koi pari nahi
Sapna dekhna haq samajhti hu mein
Awaaz hai, dilki dharkan sunai deti hi mujhe
Zinda hu aab bhi, alvidah na kahiye

Afsos! Aap mere kareeb nahi rahe
Samay ne loot li sacchayi saarey
Aur chor gayey hamarey dono ke beech

Woh bhasha jo kaan se sunai deti nahi
Na lafz se bola jati
Woh bhasa jo hazaar khwaish karney se bhi
Sunai nahi deti

Khamoshi!

-          Julia Dutta, Delhi 26.11.11

छब्बीस ग्यारह...

शुक्रिया! जो आपने मुझसे बात की है

यादों में रहेगी

शब्दों की जगह आजकल आप

मुझसे बोलने लगे हैं वो भाषा में

जो कान से सुनाई देती नहीं

न लफ्ज़ से बोली जाती

वो भाषा जो हज़ार ख्वाहिश करने से भी

सुनाई नहीं देती

खामोशी!

शुक्रिया! आपने मुझे याद दिला दिया

कि गुज़रे हुए दिन, अब लौट के नहीं आएँगे

मरने वाले कभी लौटके नही आएँगे

जो गुज़र गया वो मुड़ के नहीं देखते

उनकी भाषा कान से सुनाई नहीं देती

न लफ्ज़ से बोली जाती

वो भाषा जो हज़ार ख्वाहिश करने से भी

सुनाई नहीं देती

खामोशी!

इन्सान हूँ मैं, कोई परी नहीं

सपना देखना हक समझती हूँ मैं

आवाज़ है, दिल की धड़कन सुनाई देती है मुझे

ज़िन्दा हूँ अब भी, अलविदा न कहिए

अफसोस! आप मेरे करीब नहीं रहे

समय ने लूट ली सच्चाई सारी

और छोड़ गए हमारे दोनों के बीच

वो भाषा जो कान से सुनाई देती नहीं

न लफ्ज़ से बोली जाती

वो भाषा जो हज़ार ख्वाहिश करने से भी

सुनाई नहीं देती

खामोशी!

जूलिया दत्ता, दिल्ली 26.11.11

Book review: A Songbird on my Shoulder

Arise! Awake! All you women who have been
screaming slogans, putting up banners and walking streets, forcing the nation to take notice of your movement demanding marginalised position, you are about to be joined by yet another group, the Madams. These “madams” will arrive in their chauffeur driven cars amply endowed in all fronts and yet demand from the Government a marginalised
status for themselves, as they are a growing number in India, who needs recognition and special allotment of space in public places for themselves! Like please to note, separate Parking Places for women who must drive their own cars because the driver gave them a slip!

Saaz Aggrawal in “The Songbird on my Shoulder” is the unrepentant Madam, who has had everything one can ask for in life, but now gushes forth to initiate the Society of Highly Opinionated and Amply- endowed Madams (SHOAM) in her debut autobiographical novel!

“We’re a tiny and sadly marginalised community, us Madams, with our headaches and bridge mornings and afternoon naps, especially these days with attrition figures in the house-hold industry marching ahead of the IT and even BPO sectors”. – pg 11, The Songbird on my Shoulder

Laugh out loud - LOL for short!

Mixed with a generous helping of humour, the book takes the reader through her life as a writer starting from her heart wrenching early life as a boarder at The Lawrence School, Lovedale and ending with a delicious blend of high living with Cocktail parties, world travels and coming down to basics like house-keeping, managing house-help and keeping a vigilant eye over their services trying to manage her home with 6 Sigma management principles. Not to forget the lessons
learned and shared as a hi-fi Corporate Trainer.

The book is a reminder that the so called SHOHAM group of Madams is a growing number in urban and semi-urban women, who mix the old with the new. Check them out at your buy 1 get 1 free, when they can afford much more because here is a new social sub-section of women, who can afford much more but are still thrifty. They are a confused blend of women who definitely identify as “elite” but don’t want to miss out on the bargains available to the less fortunate.

Therefore, dear reader, laugh through pages holding your sides. However, don’t miss a few chapters that bring tears to your eyes as well, including poems that make you laugh and cry at the
same time!

The power of this autobiographical book, lies in bringing out the dilemma of a woman, who no matter where she is in life, and how privileged, she still battles with the day to day struggles of life, not very far away from where you and I too struggle our way through.

“Once upon a time I fancied myself an intellectual, and put on airs and pretended, like many others in my generation, to read Sartre, Joyce and others...then one day I noticed weeks had slipped into months and years and all I’d done. Day after day, was ironed three even-sized but gradually expanding sets of school uniforms,,,fill water bottles ( and snack boxes and lunch
dabbas).” – pg 10 The Songbird on my Shoulder.

Saaz Aggarwal was born in Mumbai and worked as a Journalist for many years in Mumbai. The book has some of her articles formerly published in Times of India, Deccan Herald, Femina, The Little Magazine and many more. It also has a generous helping of Bombay life for those who stand up on the roof and say I love Mumbai!

“In 1998, the same year as she was awarded a “Best Mumma Ever” cup as a birthday present, Brown Critique, an eminent poetry journal, described her as ‘Well-known Mumbai-based journalist (editor) and columnist who lives in Pune’ which prompted her to rush about telling people that she was ‘well-known’. – pg 267, The Songbird on my Shoulder

Laugh out loud - LOL for short!

If last week I spent a weekend at a Zen Monastery, this weekend I have had a sumptuous helping of laughter, thereby completing my “Zorba, the Buddha” appetite! Life! Love and laughter!

Title: The Songbird on my Shoulder –Confessions of an Unrepentant Madam
Publisher: black-and-white fountain, 2, Flemington Terrace, Clover village, Wanowari, Pune 411040, India
Author: Saaz Aggrawal
Pages: 274
Buy copies online: www.blackandwhitefountain.com
Feedback and inquiry: blackandwhitefountain@gmail.com

Author read:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K81iTowkV74

Read more on her blog:
http://songbirdonmyshoulder.blogspot.com/2011/11/pain-drama-true-life-learning.html

Hey! Teacher, mother-father, leave them kids alone!

Last year in one of the most prestigious colleges in Delhi, the HoD of a certain Department along with many of his colleagues threatened to resign if a certain boy, the Principal had caught in a compromising position with his girlfriend in the college compound, on Valentine’s day, was rusticated for his behavior. The boy had earlier, on being checked several times, spoken back at the Principal saying that it was not his business to check his behavior as he was over 18 years.


The Principal gave in to the pressure raised by his teaching faculty.


Really, most of them had used the opportunity to strike back at the Principal, holding the gun on the boy’s shoulders.



In another incident, a school going girl threatened to kill herself if she was not allowed to bring in her boyfriend and spend hours with him locked inside her room, without being interrupted. The boy was a college going indulgent lover, ten years older than her. The parents, who had always been reasonable and taught the girl to reason out things and talk with them, had lost the battle with their brat. When they saw a Child Psychiatrist, they were advised to ‘keep their cool’ and not push it too much. The girl was only rebelling and it would soon change. It has been three years since then. The parents are now seeing a councilor to keep from breaking down.



What we are facing today is a fall out of what we as parents did in the past. We dropped the stick and reasoned with our children. Friends and doctors adviced, that parents and teachers must not wield the stick or be too adamant about what is right and wrong. The child had its own voice and its reasons too and that has to be respected. We did just that. How could we as parents, educated in Public Schools and convents, living in cities and hugely exposed to public opinion and parent peer pressure, reveal ourselves as rudimentary by picking up the stick and striking the calf muscle or the buttock of our child? Or even raise our hand on our child? Of course, we had to bear the tantrum and comply to every whim and fancy of our child. We could not scream or shout for fear that the child might take to rebellious behavior. When they were in their teens, we had to project the image of being a friend rather than a parent, so that we fitted into the prescribed formula of a city bred, yuppy parent, who is managing her home and her work efficiently. Also as a friend, we believed the child would not be afraid to tell us everything!



But alas! When the child grew up, in many cases they exhibited behavior that spoke louder than words – their actions spoke to say, that we as parents failed to be parents and they as children, grew up not really knowing what is right or wrong because, we gave them the liberty to do and to say, whatever they liked, because, after all, we were parents who wanted to see our children, free and creative.



Dr Eric Burne, famous author of Games People Play and founder of Transactional Analysis (See: http://www.ericberne.com/ ) spoke of three states –Parent, Child and Adult. In his breakthrough work, he states that the Parent symbolizes the figure of authority, one which has rules and regulations, do’s and don’ts, and is generally thought to be rigid in content. The Child is the one which is just opposite, it is free and without bindings and rules is the seat of all creativity. The Adult mixes the two extremes and is rational and thinking. We as humans therefore change and interchange these states to suit the requirement of our needs. Thus, an adult in real life might want to act like a Child or may be caught in the other extreme of being a rigid Parent and not reasoning Adult depending on what the situation asks for.



“Please do it for me, pleeeeeese!” is a Child speaking



“Listen, we can talk about this.” Is an Adult speaking



“No, you will not do that!” Is an Parent speaking.



At most times, we are only too anxious to be a Child with a child or become a rigid Adult.

Do you think then, that there is a mismatch here and the fault lies with the way we have dealt with our children or are we going to say that Mass Media, globalization etc etc are to be blamed more than the homes we gave our children?





Reference read: My question is: Who is to blame?

http://xebecbooks.sulekha.com/blog/post/2011/10/my-question-is-who-is-to-blame-in-this-case.htm


Immortal songs: The Wall by Pink Floyd

Book Review: Ten thousand miles without a cloud

Ten thousand miles without a cloud by Sun Shuyun

Don’t get carried away by the title and think that it is a book on Zen Buddhism. No, this is a travelogue really, sprinkled with a generous helping of personal experience and travel tracing the same route taken by Chinese monk Xuanzang,( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuanzang) who travelled across from China to India, via the silk route to study Yogacara, ( see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogacara)in the 8^th century. This according to Mahayana Buddhism is the practice of meditation and yoga which together can give rise to pure consciousness, a state which is to be totally alert, awake but “thought-less” – pure consciousness.

We know from History that it is the Records that Xuanzang kept so meticulously that lead, the British to find and resurrect the teachings of Buddha, only over a century ago. Buddhism was a thriving practice and a study in the early 6^th Century, India, which later was all covered by the already existing Hindu religion. Not to speak of the Muslims who came later to destroy as much as possible and instill in its place, Islam, forcefully. Many Buddhist monuments were raised to the ground and many Buddhist monks fled to finer pastures where they were welcomed, like in China and Japan.

However, for a keen learner, Xuanzang would have nothing except the truth, straight from the horses’ mouth. He had heard that in the great University of Nalanda, he could learn from him, who knows best the on Yogacara ( Sanskrit Yogācāra (योगाचार), Vijñānavāda (विज्ञानवाद), Vijñapti-mātra, Vijñapti-mātratā, or Cittamātra) which is the art and science of arriving at enlightenment, or a thoughtless state of Being.  

This book is a beautiful account retracing the journey that Xuanzang took and the author, Sun Shuyun, makes all the effort to reach each and every spot that the Chinese monk had travelled through, taking time to be in these places and make notes on the place as it existed now, in the late 1900 around, 1998 – 99, 1300 years after Zuanzang had visited these places. Many things had changed and yet, for the author, being in a place where the monk had been was a very live experience.

No, please do not think the author herself is a monk. Perhaps this journey was the closest, deepest brush she had had since her days with her grandmother, who was an ardent believer in Buddhism, placed in a very traumatic time, when China was undergoing its cultural revolution.

Although the book does not explain the title, I would like to dwell on it with my readers, just for a little bit.

Bertrand Russell once said – No matter; never mind! He was right, although his inference may have been borrowed from Indian thought travelling via the Greeks to his motherland.

We have known it for ages, that the world is, and therefore the mind too is. Mind is matter in a subtle form. Therefore thoughts which arise in the mind are matter too. Thought is material, no matter how subtle.

When the mind is trained over time, it can hold on to fewer and fewer thoughts through the practice of yoga and meditation. A carefully trained mind which has practiced for years, can hold on to one thought only. And at that point, also allow it to go, so that there is nothing left except pure consciousness, uncluttered even by a single thought. This has been the true pursuit of the Mahayana Buddhist, this state which is the ideal state of no thought. It is pure consciousness. This state is considered to be the highest.

Clouds are figurative language for thought, hence, ten thousand miles without a cloud, would literally mean, ten thousand miles without a thought, just pure consciousness. Yes, Xuanzang travelled the whole distance only to learn from Indians practicing Yogacara, the art of practice that lead to a state of “cloud-less-ness”.

“Self nature, complete and clear,
Like the moon in the water.
The mind in meditation, like the sky,
Ten thousand miles without a cloud.”

About the author: Sun Shuyun is a Chinese writer. She was born in China in the 1960s, graduated from Beijing University and won a scholarship to Oxford. Her books include:

Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud

The Long March: The True History of Communist China's Founding Myth

A Year in Tibet, a book made in conjunction with the BBC documentary A Year in Tibet.

Publisher: Harper Perennial (2004)
Price Rs 350
Buy: http://www.flipkart.com/books/0007129742

Fatehpur Sikri - staying close to Salim Chisti

Fatehpur Sikri – staying close to Salim Chisti

If only men were like Akbar!

The five feet three, had three wives and three hundred concubines and a bed large enough to have all three wives spread themselves in a foursome with their husband.

I am sure Akbar is not turning in his grave for I do not hear the slightest rustle of disbelief. But many women are, for I hear a loud rave and rant!

Son of the invader who began the Mughal Empire in India, Babur, Jalauddin Mohammad Akhbar was born on October 15, 1542. He married three women, a Hindu from Rajasthan, Jodha bai, a Muslim and a Christian from Goa. Unfortunately, none of the wives were able to produce an heir for him, until he heard of the Sufi saint, who was sitting on a hill in a village called Sikri, about 40 kms from Agra. Akbar had already travelled to Ajmer to pray at the tomb of Ajmer Sheriff, but he walked on foot to pay homage to Salim Chisti and beg him for an heir. And he was blessed with a boy, from his Hindu wife, Jodha bai, on 30 August, 1569. They called him, Mohammad Salim. Also Jahangir.

Akbar decided that he would not only build a palace with a mosque for Salim Chisti, but go and stay close to him. Fatehpur Sikri was born at the same it and the impressive structure which is aworld heritahe monument was build over 12 years with 32,000 men working there. But after Salim Chisti left his body the dire water shortage in the [place made Akbar move after living there for 16 years, along with his family and son,

Fatehpur Sikri is a living example of an alishaan life of wine, women and song . The administration of his kingdom, was done by remote control, from the top of a minor hillock.  Although Akbar continued to rule his domain from there, what strikes the viewer most is the place he gave to all three women in him life. Equally honoured in all respect, each had their own living quarter, separate from the other. Jodha bai’s palace was large; she had her winter palace and her summer palace which faced each other across a very large quadrangle. She shared a close proximity in her living quarters with his Christian wife, from Goa. Hers was a smaller version of a palace, with separate rooms. But the one, that is most engaging though, is the sheesh mahal – the official residence of his Muslim wife. Set at the farthest end of the main monument across the central water lake, where Tansen sang his songs in the evening, sheesh mahal is intricately carved with art at every wall, pillar, window. A small room, most elegantly designed, for perhaps a lady with much artistic taste, or someone Akbar honoured the most, although Jodha bai may have been his priority in other ways.

The ladies, also had their own jewellery rooms, or tijoris, in which they kept their precious jewels and money.

Fatehpur Sikri had its own hospital, with its own Hakim ji. A horse and camel stable which would have done the horses proud!

Akbar had a message in his marriages – he did want so much to bring together all religions together. I am told he even proposed a new religious sect called “Din-e-lahi” which included the best tenets of all religions existing those times. Why I have chosen to say, that if only men were like Akbar, is, while men may still like many women, behind the purdah, most would not give all their women the same honour or status in their lives through marriage or otherwise. Protesting feminists must concede this point.

Perhaps a ruler with a gentle heart and an open mind to all religions, Akbar must be remembered not for the second Mughal to rule over his domain in India, but a man who put to practice, what he believed in, all roads lead to One!

Akbar died in 1606 on the night of 25^th – 26^th October, in Agra Fort where he had moved from Fatehpur Sikri and was buried in Sikandara a little away from Agra Fort.

Picture gallery:

Radha Kund - Divine ecstacy

Thirty kilometres from Mathura and four kilometres Goverdhan, a small village resembling the unkempt lanes and by lanes of Kasi, is Radha Kund. Famous among the Bengali vaishanava, the little spiritual village, is home for many who have left their homes and families in Bengal, to be here where Radha is supposed to have bathed with her gopis, right next to Shyama kund where the divine lover, Sri Krishna, himself had taken his bath. Thus, the place is full of kunds (lakes) which have natural water, in spite of being in arid, water starved Mathura of these days.

The two famous kunds, Radha and Shyama kunds are separated by a small wall. And while Radha kund still has clear water, Shyama is enveloped by sludge around the sides for want of cleaning.

Yet, the people living there are happy. They live in divine ecstasy of Radha rani.

Wikipedia says, that “following the sacred writing “Sri Upadeshamrita” (The Nectar of Instruction) by early 16th century saint Srila Rupa Gosvami of Vrindavan, a close associate of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Vaishnava Hindus consider Radha-Kund to be the supreme of all holy places. Mythology has it that when Lord Krishna slayed a mighty asura (demon) in the form of a bull, his consort Radha tersely told Krishna to wash off his sins by taking dips in various holy rivers. Krishna laughed it off and struck the ground with his foot whereupon the mighty rivers emerged, welled up and formed a kunda (little water body). Subsequently the Lord bathed in the water to please Radha. The kunda came to be called “Shyam-Kund”. Indignant that Krishna used his powers for this, Radha and her girl attendants dug out a kunda with their bangles and filled it with water from “Manasi-Ganga”, another holy kunda at nearby Govardhan. That particular kunda is today's “Radha-Kund” where people come from far and wide to take a dip.

Since Radhaji is considered the most holy, chaste, pure, pious and greatest of all divinities, Radha-Kund holds its significance and spiritual grandeur by being made personally by Radharani.

Every twenty years or so Radha Kund is emptied revealing the original Kund that was rediscovered by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu on his travels, as prior to this the Kund had remained hidden for many years. The original pool becomes visible when Radha Kund is emptied and is named Kancan or Kankan Kund.”

Just behind Syama kund is the one and only Dharmashala – Miramanuranjan Banik Dharmashala, the only staying place in Radha kund. The rooms reminded me of Bharat Sevashram in Gaya. The bathroom floors is wet, the bedding not very appealing and of course you must have your own bed linen. Priced at only Rs 130 per 24 hrs, with food, surely one can’t ask for more.

Naturally, the thrifty Bengali, who is a travel bug, and prefers places like Bharat Sevashram, wherever, they go, finds Miramanuranjan Banik Dharmashala just the right place for their shoe-string budget for bhraman ( travels), especially, in the festival months of the vaishnavas.

How to reach: By bus or car via Goverdhan.
Stay: Miramanuranjan Banik Dharmashala,
P.O Radha Kund, Mathura, Mathura Distt.
Pin: 281504
Contact person: Shubhro Majumdar
Cell: 917417502381, 918899499676

Warning: Tie your purse strings tightly! You may be flogged by persistent beggars who pose as bhaktas. I am told that many of them have Bank accounts and lakhs of money, which the generous hearted may themselves not have.






Photo gallery:

Radha kund

More info on Radha Kund:

http://www.mvtindia.com/radha_kunda.htm

More pictures and videos on Radha Kund

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PENjCOylx_c

http://www.stephen-knapp.com/radha_kund_photos_one.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elishams/427970450/

Radha kund