Book Review: Ghabraaye Hue Shabd - Leeladhar Jagudi

 

अगर कोई बहुत प्रख्यात कवि हो, और उस के बारे में आपको बीस-एक साल बाद पता चले, तो यह कवि के नहीं, आपके बारे में कुछ कहता है। मन पूछता है - कहाँ थे तुम? तुम्हें क्यूँ नहीं पता था इसके बारे में? 

ये किताब भी कुछ ऐसी ही है। इसे पढ़ कर अफसोस होता है कि पहले क्यूँ नहीं पढ़ा, खास तौर पर उन वक़्तों में, जब सपने देखना, आत्ममंथन करना, अच्छा भी लगता था? जबकि यह किताब लिखी जा चुकी थी?  

बरसात में बड़ी जब विकराल हो जाती है 

तो किनारों को पसंद नहीं करती 

हर ताकतवर की तरह 

वह भी अपने आधार को काटने लगती है। 

एक दिन घबराए हुए शब्द आए और कहने लगे 

- हमें बचाइए 

जगह जगह से हम काट दिए गए हैं 

पंक्ति से हटा दिए गए हैं 

या तो हमारे विकल्प खोज लिए गए हैं 

या हमारे बिना काम चलाया जाने लगा है 

इसी कविता में थोड़ा आगे जा कर लिखा है: 

सबसे आगे ही था वंचित पुण्य 

कहता हुआ कि पाप घास की तरह फैल गया है

अचरज के साथ खड़ा था पृथुल पाप 

कि मुझसे अब कोई नहीं डरता। 

आश्वासन, पेड़ की आजादी, तकरार, और  ऐसी कितनी ही कविताएँ इस संग्रह में हैं, जो एक पूरी कहानी सहलता से सुनाती हैं। 

 जब कविता के शब्द इतने वाक्पटु हों, तो समीक्षक को कुछ कहने की ज़रूरत ही क्या है?! ये शब्द अपने उजाले के स्वयं साक्षी हैं। 

Book Review: Thar ki Dhani थार की ढाणी

 

ढाणी खेत में बने घर को कहते हैं। 

ये पुस्तक छोटे छोटे लेखों के द्वारा हमें उन ढाणियों के संसार में ले जाती है।

कैसे हैं वो लोग, जो इन छोटे घरों में, ऐसे वातावरण में जहां न छाँव न पानी, अपना घर बनाते हैं? 

इंदिरा नहर ने इस मरुभूमि को हरित करने में तो सहायता की है, पर उस संस्कृति से क्या खो गया है? 

पुस्तक की शैली सरल और लेखनी रोचक है। 

छोटे छोटे, आसानी से समझे जाने वाले शब्द हैं। गाँव की भाषा भी समझा कर लिखी गई है। इसे पढ़ते हुए पता चलता है कि साहित्यिक लोग कितने अबूझ हैं। कितना कुछ है जो हम नहीं जानते। कितनी सारी दुनियाऐं हैं, जिनसे जीवन जीने की कला सीखी जा सकती है। 

पतली सी पुस्तक है, पर रोचक इतनी है कि एक मुश्त पढ़ी नहीं जा सकती। एक अध्याय पढ़ कर कुछ देर उस दुनिया में विचारणे का मन करता है, फिर कुछ दिन बाद अगला अध्याय पढ़ना शुरू किया जाता है। 

वह जीवन जो विलुप्त होते होते भी ठहर जाता है, रेगिस्तान के कीकर या आक की तरह अपने जीने भर का इंतेज़ाम कर ही लेता है - यह पुस्तक उस जीवन में झाँकने को, एक झरोखा है। 

More quotes

Shinier it is, but confetti is not gold. 

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My patience right now is the global gold standard for elasticity - nothing else has been spread so thin. 

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Of all the ways to shut someone up, the cruelest is by laughing at what they are trying to say. The next worst is by telling them to shut up. 

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A little empathy goes a long way. 

Book Review: i@S by Omesh Saigal

 Delightful book! Just read it! 

The real-life travails of an IAS officer, told in a funny way. 

Loved it! 

Film Review: Maja Ma (Hindi)

#MajaMa on Prime Video 

Even if you are pursuing a PhD on the subject, you never know what its like until you have to deal with it personally. 

There is a lot of nuance in this film. A lot of attention to detail. The costumes. The art direction. The hair and makeup. The music. I can't remember the last time such lovely lyrics made their way to the screen in the background while the story played out in the foreground. So much attention to tiny details. 

The way the story has been structured - two children - one pushing her towards "owning her truth", the other urging her to tell everyone that it's all a lie. And how she stands tall above both - owning her truth in her own way, at her own pace, with each stakeholder one by one. It's a slow process - the coming out. The movie takes us through that process as it is likely to really happen. Every character is human. Real. Relatable. Every episode is real and relatable. 

The performances are adorable. Every one of them. They own their characters - some written better than others, and deliver them. 

My favourite two episodes - Kanchan confronting Pam, and then Pam confronting Bob. Tejas is delightful and fresh. Very believable. Right down to his "I have always made you agree to my demands" stint. 

The only character I had trouble accepting is Tara. That character, imho, needed more work at the writer's desk. 

And finally: 

1. Accent sirf American nahi hota, Gujarati bhi hota hai. Its not easy to say "This is your house also now" like a Gujju, if you are not one. Full marks to Gajraj Rao for acing this one. 

2. Madhuri Dixit is a DIVA. She can make mommy roles so full of substance - whether it is Bucket List or The Fame Game, she brings a powerful mother alive on screen, looking effortlessly glamorous while at it. 

Film Review: Dangerous beauty

This film is from 1998, but I only saw it now! - Almost 24 years later! 

The production quality is excellent. Can't speak to the art direction bcs I have no idea what Venice of the first half of the 16th Cent looked like. 

The lighting is good. The costumes look vintage, and the background score is apt. 

The story telling is gripping. 

But the best part of this film is the dialogues. I feel like watching the film again just to record the amazing one-liners. 

It is, at its heart, a love story. A love story that dealt with the social and political truths of its time, and in my book, emerged victorious. A story that takes you back in time where a woman faced religious courts that could burn one at the stake, and a time in which every woman was condemned to eternal lovelessness. A time in which men secured favours through courtesans. 

It is a story about courtesans. About a group that has (almost) everything - access to education, deportment, high officials and intellectual conversations, lovemaking, financial freedom. Therefore, society must take something away from them. Something so important that women would want to avoid their fate. So, they take respect away. From Memoirs of a Geisha to Dangerous Beauty, the stories of women are the same. 

Recommendation: NSFW. Great story telling. No unnecessary nudity. 

English Vinglish best scenes

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw-LgakIhYg

Two lessons i learnt today

The trigger was someone posting that we are in the stage of reverse victimisation of men. Many men are punished because they are men. 

Then, someone wrote: The same is true of caste issues too. 

I wrote: There is a movement called One Family, One Reservation. This movement says that once a family has availaed of reservation, they should not be able to apply under the quota again. it should pass to another family. 

To which someone wrote: 

sure, we can do that once people stop getting killed for drinking water from the wrong well or growing a moustache. A one time reservation sadly doesn’t solve the entire caste issue.

Now, because caste has not been a factor in my growing up, I remain quiet on these caste related discussions. 

But this comment totally triggered me. 

So, here is the response that I did not put there: 

1. Hate is an end unto itself. Hate just follows the path of least privilege. It can be blacks, women, Dalit. It is a function of power. To consider that you have been singled out for hate is not right. 

2. If reservation has not solved the problem of casteism in 75 years, then it is definitely not the right solution. 

Why I shared Adtiya Tiwari's death

In India, hundreds of people are killed for hate each day. Aditya Tiwari was neither the first, nor the last blameless person to die. The very next day, a girl in Bulandshahr was so tarumatised by the rape and conversion threat that she hanged herself. 

So, why did I specifically share Aditya Tiwari's issue? 

3 things need to change:

1. Juvenile Law - Seriously needs to relook at the way serious criminals use it. There are gangs that use 17 year olds just because they will come under JJA. And these criminals definitely do not belong under JJA.

2. The crime of the silent bystander is as much as that of the perpetrator. Aditya Tiwari refused to be a silent bystander while his fellow student was sexually harassed and paid for it with his life. If the other bystanders had had half the integrity, he would be alive today. Even in death, this boy lives more than those who stood by and watched him being killed.

3. Something gives 15-year-olds the confidence to be this brazen in committing a public crime. Something gives them the feeling of entitlement to first sexually harass a young schoolgirl, and then to violently kill the person who opposes such behavior. Wherever that messaging is coming from - that the law will not catch up with you, or that you can do this and get away with it - that messaging needs to be systematically uprooted. Instead of showing what the criminals did, show where they ended up, and how fast. Don't show the picture of the Bulandshahr girl hanging from a rope. Show pictures of the boys in jail. Show pictures of the perpetrators in police vans, going to their court cases and getting no bail. Let the headlines scream - Bail Denied. Let the Headlines Scream - Life Sentence for 16 year old murderer.