Strangers

We all are, in a way, strangers in this life. If somebody tries to talk to me or looks at me, I'll first think "Do I know this guy" or "Do I know this girl"? And at the same time, the vice versa, "Does he (or she) know me"? Answer comes most of the times as "No". Then next question comes in mind "Are we linked in some way? Do we have something in common? Can we be linked in some way?" And most of the times, answer comes as "Yes" and sometimes a new relation starts, although ratio is very less. We are no more strangers.

Few days back, I was watching a movie "Strangers". That time again, same thought came to mind that perhaps no one is a stranger, or perhaps everybody is. Family and friends are not strangers, but at some point of time, when this all started, they were strangers. I was a stranger to this world, when I came to life. A small baby who tried to understand the simplicity of relations and at the same time, the intricacies of life. Then that baby grew up and said, "it's my life". All who are or were linked said, "it's our life" and the journey was on.

Not only people but any thing, in start, looks like something strange. With time and with experience, it automatically mingles with life and we feel like we used to know about it for a long time, it is no more a strange thing. It is a friend. I found a number of books strange, when I see hundreds of pages in that book, it really scares. When we start, it's a slow process to be an acquaintance of that book. But when we start going past first couple of hundreds of pages, it becomes a friend for some time. If book is worthy enough, a life lasting relationship starts. This hope is always there that we would have lots of nice strangers in the form of written or unwritten books of life. Knowingly or unknowingly, it happens.

To end this short tidbit, I would recite a line from a hindi movie song. "Ajnabee, tum jaane pahchaane se lagte ho..."

- Neeraj Mathpal
March 23, 2008

Spring

With the spring arriving with full colors, nature seems to coming back to life. Although there is inherent beauty in nature after fall season, but nothing seems to be more beautiful than these new leaves and flowers of spring. Many poets have written a lot about spring. So I thought of googling a bit and refresh memories of spring with these nice poems.

Kalidasa's famous RITUSAMHARAN (the gathering of seasons) has six cantos (written in Sanskrit), in which he writes about 6 seasons. Here is the translated abstract for Spring.

..
..
Sprays of full blown mango blossoms – his sharp arrows,
honey-bees in rows- the humming bowstring;
warrior-Spring set to break the hearts
of Love’s devotees, is now approaching, my love.
..
..

Glancing at the amarnath’s blossoming sprays
glowing in exquisite loveliness, just-revealed,
-loveliness that rightly belongs to the beloved’s face-
how can a sensitive heart not flutter in panic
stung by proud Love’s flying arrows, my love?
..
..

Lost already to beautiful girls,
are not young men’s hearts pounded to bits
by Kimsuke blossoms bright as parrots’ beaks?
Are they not already burnt
by the golden champa’s brilliant blooms?
And now, the cuckoo with its honey-sweet notes
sounds their death knell.
..
..
- This translation of verses is taken from Penguin classics : "Kalidasa - The Loom of Time" By Chandra Rajan.

***********************

...
...
I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.
...
...

- William Wordsworth (1798)

**************************
...
...
When daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver-white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
“Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo!” O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.
...
...

- William Shakespeare (1598) Song from Act V, Scene 2 of Love's Labors Lost

***************************

In India, spring is known as "Basant Ritu", the Ritu-Raj - King of all six seasons. Kites start flying in the sky, children playing with lots of energy and a festival to welcome all this - "Basant Panchami", which comes with yellow color at it's best to spread the joy. I am not able to paste one of them here because of copyright act, but you can see a nice poem here - http://www.anubhuti-hindi.org/dishantar/s/sumanghei/kaisivasant.htm

To quote a great Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib,

The Spring came with such abandon
That the sun and the moon became mere spectators.

****************************
We are grateful to be descendants of these great poets. I hope one fine day, I'll also try my hand to write a poem about Spring. Our sincere thanks to the great poets / writers and following Web Sources :

http://www.geocities.com
http://poetry.about.com
http://www.anubhuti-hindi.org
http://indiasaijikiworlkhaiku.blogspot.com

And last, but not the least, three cheers for great search engine http://www.google.com ]

- Neeraj Mathpal
March 20, 2008

Do you care?

Ah, I know even before starting, this can be controversial and will lead to separation of opinions, but I have no intention of starting a debate here. I was impressed with views of Michael Crichton on global warming. His fiction "state of fear" clearly suggests no effects of global warming on life. Moreover, he refuses the concept as "unknowns are unknowns". I won't go into details of this. If you really want to go through a number of graphics and manipulated data, help yourself with "state of fear" from a book shop. Remember, it is a fiction, which gives an impression of scientific authority.

This leads me to one more question about extinction of rare animals, to be specific extinction of "Tiger". What if I say I don't care. What if I say that I don't care if I'll never ever see great Indian Tiger in my life again. Should I care? Do I care? What if I say that in another 20 years there will be no tigers. Do I care? Of the 8 species, there are only 5 left. Why should not I care? But am I the right person to care about them? With approximately 2000 tigers remaining, we are about to loose this magnificent species. We say, once upon a time, there was one Dinosaur era. What is the problem in saying in future that once upon a time, there used to be a great animal named tiger. These wild life organizations like WWF ( http://www.worldwildlife.org ) are doing their job, hats off to them. There are laws made by governments, hats off to them. But it's only about delaying the inevitable. Delay it as much as we can. But do I care if it happens today or tomorrow?

Yes, this question created some confusion, I'm not sure about. That was a cruel joke to not care about anything. Are we human, if we don't care about our surroundings, if we don't care about our forests? Being a nature lover, and specially a jungle lover, I should have said, I do care for it. But again in reality, I don't. Did I try to save some of the trees? Answer is no, so do I have any moral right to say, "Jungle bachao, Duniya bachao" (save forests, save world). No.
But in fact, it matters. Though actions are louder than talks, but awareness has a strong history of making miracles happen.

Now, what about the evolution? if we are loosing something, we are gaining as well. There are new species arriving almost everyday. Who can stop this evolution. Are we? We ourselves, the human beings, will be human beings after 10000 years? Who knows, tell me why should we have helix, antihelix, lobule and crest of helix, the outer parts of ear? Are they worth? No, we don't need them. They are just hanging there for no reason. Reason will prevail. These outer ears will disappear. That time dimension is definitely waiting somewhere for us. So, is loosing some spices not part of evolution? Is loosing trees also not part of evolution?

These developed countries are making too much noise about global warming, species, water and blah blah. But if they lost something for good, how does it matter? If, now, they are seeking some kind of redemption, why should developing countries help them. They also have to try for better infrastructure, better facilities. For that, obviously, they will have to loose something, some of their forests. May be with proper planning, we can reduce adverse affects, but the future is always about rising, whatever it takes. Human races will develop automatically, they will know to adjust with changing environments. With brains getting powerful, rest of the body will have to take the declining curve with open hands. There is hardly any choice in that.

I do love this greenery. I do love a sight of tigers. I do love earth. I would love to help in having more and more trees, but I don't care if we loose something for better. Do you?


- Neeraj Mathpal
March 18, 2008

किस्सा आम है

आज एक विचित्र सा ख्याल आया। आपने कभी सरिता, मेरी सहेली, गृह शोभा जैसी महिला
पत्रिकाएँ पड़ीं या देखी होंगी। आज सोचा की कुछ वैसा ही लिखा जाए। इन पत्रिकाओं की अपने अंदाज में टांग खींची जाए। तो फ़िर सुनाते हैं आपको एक किस्सा।

ये किस्सा है दिल्ली में रहने वाली एक गृहणी का। दक्षिणी दिल्ली के गोविन्दपुरी इलाके में रहने वाली मालती की शादी को अभी एक ही साल हुआ था। उसके पति विभोर एक सरकारी हस्पताल में कम्पाउन्डर थे। वैसे तो मालती एक हंसमुख मिजाज महिला थी, पर उसको पिछले कुछ समय से एक अजीब सा शौक लग गया था। डब्बे रखने का शौक। वैसे तो ये किसी भी मध्यम वर्गीय घर के लिए अनोखी बात नहीं। रसोई में हर चीज तो डब्बों के अन्दर आजादी की चाह में घुलती रहती है। पर मालती के दोनों कमरे तो जैसे डब्बों से ही भरे हुए थे। मिठाई के डब्बे, कपड़ों के डब्बे, चूड़ी बिंदी के डब्बे, सामानों के छोटे छोटे डब्बे, चाय पत्ती के पुराने डब्बे। जैसे डब्बों के लिए " इनकमिंग " सेवा तो अकूत हो, पर " आउटगोइंग " सेवा बंद पड़ीं हो। विभोर जब शाम को घर लौटते तो उन्हें सख्त हिदायत थी कि कोई भी डब्बा इधर से उधर नहीं होना चाहिए वरना उस दिन खाना ही नहीं बनेगा।

विभोर का मन इससे हमेशा उखड़ा उखड़ा सा रहने लगा था।

आज उनकी सालगिरह थी। मालती ने सोचा कि आज कुछ " गिफ्ट " खरीद के लाया जाए, जिससे पतिदेव खुश हो जायें और सारे गिले शिकवे मिट जाएं। बस निकल चली मालती की सवारी बाजार की तरफ़। पहले वो गयी फूलों की दुकान में, उसने सोचा फूल ले जाउंगी, घर को सजाउंगी। पर जब दुकानदार थैली में डालकर फूल देने लगा, आप समझ ही सकते हैं कि मालती उन्हें एक सुंदर से डब्बे में अच्छे से पैक करवा कर आगे बढी। फ़िर आगे जाकर विभोर के मनपसंद रंग की कमीज खरीदी और उसे शानदार डब्बे में पैक करवा के अगली दुकान की तरफ़ चली। वो जो भी लेती, हर जगह डब्बों में पैक करवाने का ख्याल उसका पीछा करता रहता।

जब वह घर पहुँचने वाली थी तो उसे अहसास हुआ कि क्यों आजकल विभोर उखड़े उखड़े रहते हैं, तो उसने इन नए डब्बों से सामान निकलकर डब्बों को कूड़ेदान में डाल दिया। इस सब के बाद वह उदास और हताश घर पहुँची। उसे डब्बों के न होने का दुःख तो था, पर वह खुश भी थी कि अब ये डब्बे उसके जीवन मे कलेश पैदा नहीं करेंगे।

अब आप सोच रहे होंगे कि इस किस्से में ख़ास क्या था। चलिए आप को शाम की बात भी बता देते हैं। शाम को विभोर भी मालती के लिए " गिफ्ट " लेकर आए, तो मालती अपना सर पकड़ कर रह गयी। विभोर की तरफ़ से सालगिरह का ये शानदार उपहार था - तीन बड़े बड़े डब्बे।

आशा है आपको गृह शोभा टाइप का ये किस्सा पसंद आया होगा। नहीं आया तो कोई परेशानी नहीं, आप इन महिला पत्रिकाओं के पाठक बन जाइए, फ़िर आने लगेगा।

- नीरज मठपाल
मार्च १५, २००८