कुछ किताबें खरीदी ही जाती हैं
अलमारी में सजा कर, सबको दिखाने भर के लिए
Trophy वाइफ, IAS पति
*************
Some books are bought to be displayed
and never read.
Trophy wife. Millionaire husband.
***********
ਕੂਜ ਕਿਤਾਬਾਂ ਬੰਦਾ ਲੈਂਦਾ ਹੀ ਇਹ ਸੋਚ ਕੇ ਹੈ
ਕੇ ਅਲਮਾਰੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਡਾਡੀ ਸੋਹਣੀ ਲਗੂਗੀ
ਗੋਰੀ ਚਿਟੱਟੀ ਵੋਹਤੀ, ਨਮਬਰਦਾਰ ਖਸਮ
Kujj kitabaan bandaa lainda hee eh soch ke hai
Ke almari vich DaaDi sohni lagugi...
Gori Chitti Vohti, Numberdaar Khasam
***********
This day in history
someone got married
Someone lost a loved one
Someone got through school
and Someone graduated.
The collective weight
of human hopes,
lay as heavily on this day
as the day before
and the day after.
Peel the greasepaint of headlines, darling
and then show me
what happened this day
in history.
Logically speaking, I went for Anand L Rai and Akshay Kumar - professionals whose earlier work I have liked.
But the honest truth is that since watching the trailer, I knew I was going to watch this movie - reasons unknown. It was just one of those things that would happen. That happens to me very rarely, but when it does, there is no point resisting the mandate. One just does what one is told to do.
Given that everything today gets political, didn't even bother checking with friends before booking the ticket. Chose a small theater with limited seating and just booked.
**********
This movie was a huge revelation for me. I have always believed that Akshay Kumar has a certain honesty in his heart that shines through his work - irrespective of the character he is playing.
You know those nagging questions in your head that are neither important nor urgent but gnaw at you nonetheless? This was one of those. One usually likes an actor for his own work, but in this case, I knew there was something more, and couldn't place it. Watching Akshay Kumar on screen filled a huge hole in my heart, but I didn't know what that hole was called.
Within the first three minutes of the movie, I knew why i was mandated to come watch this film. Here is the answer:
बहुधा भारतीय दर्शनशास्त्र में माया को मोह का, दुख का आधार बताया जाता है। उसे मोक्ष के पथ में अवरोध के रूप में दर्शाया जाता है। किन्तु यदि वह इतनी ही अवांछनीय है, तो इतनी सर्वव्यापी क्यूँ है? यदि सर्वव्यापी है, तो उसका कोई उद्देश्य भी होगा? उद्देश्य है, तो उसे मनुष्य की आध्यात्मिक यात्रा में अपना स्थान आदरसहित मिलना चाहिए!
यह कविता आज की meditation के बाद स्वत: ही प्रकट हो गई। बहुत समय से इच्छा थी, कि भारत की प्रसिद्ध प्रश्नोत्तर शैली में कुछ लिख पाऊँ। आज वह इच्छा कुछ कुछ पूरी हुई। आभार।
(संस्कृत काव्य में प्रश्नोत्तर विधा का प्राय: उपयोग किया जाता था। वहीं से इच्छा जागृत हुई।)
"तेरी माया अपरंपार है,
सब ध्यान है, सब ध्यान है
माया ठगे बन मोहिनी
नवरस दिखाए सोहिनी
किन्तु ये सब व्यापार है
सब ध्यान है, सब ध्यान है"
ऐसा थे कहते संत जी
जिनकी थी धूम मस्त जी
"सब ध्यान है, सब ध्यान है!"
टकरा उन्हें एक मसखरा
बिना माथा टेके खड़ा मिला
भक्तों की बढ़ती भीड़ ने
डांटा, पर वह भी ना टला
गुरु जी ने दी उसे दीक्षा,
"सब ध्यान है, सब ध्यान है"
"सब ध्यान है तो हे प्रभु
जग पालते क्यूँ विष्णु?
क्यूँ माया मन को मोहती?
किस प्रारब्ध को जोहती?
ये किस विधि का विधान है,
कि माया अपरंपार है? "
"माया तो बच्चा मार्ग है
मोक्ष की जड़ त्याग है"
"क्यूँ मोक्ष पाने को जुटा,
संसार सारा ही कुटा?
इतने विविध संसार में
क्या एक गंतव्य मात्र है?
सब ध्यान है, सब ध्यान है?"
सब शांत हैं, सब मौन हैं
जग का प्रयोजन गौण है?
क्यूँ मोक्ष मात्र लक्ष्य बना?
क्यूँ पथ भी न उत्तम लगा?
पथ की प्रतिष्ठा है बड़ी
यश उसका भी गाए कोई
माया न केवल मोहिनी
उसका भी अपना स्थान है
कुछ भोग है, कुछ ध्यान है।
This piece came on its own after my meditation today
Rough translation
Dhyaan means Meditation.
"Meditation is all, Meditation is all,
Thus spake the Great Saint.
The world calls to us
in a thousand siren songs
But we must not deviate
From the path of the Eternal.
Meditation is all, meditation is all"
One day, a vagabond
found his way to the Agent of God
The surging crowds bid him to bow
But budging he was not now.
"If all is dhyaan, O Great One,
Why does the Great Vishnnu
sustain the world, and
everything in it?"
"The world and
all things in it
are but routes to the
Eternal Truth
Meditation is the only way
To meet The Eternal God.
Meditation is all. Meditation is all."
"How, dear Great One
Can a world so vivid and varied
Have a single destination
for every soul?
If Maya (the world) is our path
Why should we belittle the path?
The path has its own importance
And to some,
the milestones of the path
are destinations too.
Let us celebrate the path
As we celebrate the Destination."
उस दिन तुमने ला कर दी थी, मुझको धूप जो थोड़ी सी,
उसको बोया, फसल उगी है, क्यारी क्यारी धूप सजी है
अब झाड़फानूस बनने का समय आएगा।
*************
The little drop of sunshine
you got for me that day
I sowed it, it has blossomed
Now, light dances on every flower bed
Now, the plants will be converted to chandeliers.
**************
It is very easy to say that a boycott is hurting a movie. But Bollywood has given 3 hits in 2 years. Were all those films affected by trolls? Is any amount of introspection in order? As many people have said, trolls cannot keep a good film down. So, maybe, instead of blaming everyone else, people could pay attention to the quality of their work? Has even a single Bollywood person come out and said, "Audience have been rejecting us for 2 years. Maybe we should sit and think about what we are doing wrong in our story telling, our execution?"
Very easy to sit and blame the audience for "not appreciating how much hard work goes into making a film."The way private universities approach you for admissions once you have submitted an enquiry at even one site.. reminds one of the mini bus conductors of Delhi in the 1980s... Aa jao Law vaale, aa jao engineering vaale, Aa jao BBA, BBA, BBA..
मेरी माँ
हर माँ जैसी थीं
प्रेम देने में उत्तम
पाने में अक्षम
मेरे पिता
हर पिता जैसे थे
प्रेम पाने में उत्तम
देने में
अक्षम
उनकी जोड़ी
परफेक्ट थी।
Lets talk about the exchange of affection.
All relationships are based on an exchange of energy.
In a family, that exchange is love and affection.
Yet, in families, we pay so little attention to how much we are giving, and how much we are getting.
Love is not a current account. It does not need to be balanced on a day to day basis.
But it needs to be balanced.
In most couples, I find that one partner considers it their entitlement to be loved and fussed over, while the emotional needs of another partner are ignored as a matter of course. It is considered weird to even focus on the mental health of the giving partner, while the emotional (and other needs) of the earning partner are paramount.
This imbalance in energy exchange is not sustainable, but it can only be addressed if we talk about this silent emotional starvation of one partner and the entitlement of the other partner.
You are a complex person.
From the inside, all the pieces of the Rubik's cube are the same colour. So its very simple. People make it complex by pasting those stickers on top.
Seeing people without stickers is very easy. What is tough is the willingness to see a person as they are. Remember that the cube never pastes any stickers. The users do.
My mother paints me white, so I may always be calm.
Love paints me red, so the passion never runs out.
The children paint green, because in my shade they breathe.
Friends paint me yellow, for the laughter and the joys.
Colleagues paint blue, so everything is professional and straightjacketed.
It is always the user who pastes the stickers, never the cube. Remove the stickers, and there is no puzzle, no complexity, no challenge.
The irreverent child takes the pieces apart, discards the pieces, and realises that there aren't 6 sides, only one core. The small pieces are all pasted on.
Just my luck that I had to review this book right after reading about the mysterious deaths of India's nuclear scientists.
For starters, this is not an easy book to read. If you are sensitive (like I am), you will have to put the book down multiple times to stop reading about the atrocities faced by the Zoroastrian people. While I studied at Parsi High School and lived close to the Parsi Compound, had excellent Parsi teachers, and we knew a little bit about their having fled Iran because of religious persecution, the extent of that persecution was not known to us at all.
We always knew the Parsis to be a lovely, jovial, happy people, welcoming in their homes but not in their fire temples or their religion. That their history is streaked in red, we had no idea.
This book is a mini encyclopedia of 2 separate topics, but one is more important than the other - Parsi history (and I mean, H-I-S-T-O-R-Y going as far back as the origin of the religion, and even before that), and the modern geopolitical situation in India-Pak-Afghan-Iran lands.
The 2 stories come together rather effortlessly, and end with a rather shocking hypothesis, which slowly becomes more and more credible. (Won't spoil it for you)
If you are looking for a book that is a mental gym, intellectually engaging and challenging, opening the mind to something totally unprecedented with a rather loud "Pop" sound, this book is totally for you.
If history is not your thing, please avoid. This is really a mini-encyclopedia that covers such interesting ground.
