Husn hai to

हुस्न  है  तो  आशिक  भी  होंगे ,
समुन्दर  है  तो  साहिल  भी  होंगे ,
इश्क  नहीं  लेती  कभी  जान  किसी  की ,
क़त्ल  हुआ  है  तो  कातिल  भी  होंगे ।

Kalakar

कलाकार का करिश्मा है तू , या खुद ही कलाकार है ,
होता नहीं है अब मुझसे , तेरा इख़्तियार है ,
तेरे दमकते चेहरे को चाँद ने देखा होगा सजनी ,
तभी अंधियारे में तुझसे मिलने आई है चाँदनी ।

Friends and the Writer

Whenever I feel lonely I would go to a park or a tea stall to make new friends and start a conversation. These friends are never high profile people but old aged people scolded by their sons, cleaners who came daily to clean government offices knowing the officer will not come today. The kids collecting the polythene bags, working at tea stalls and sometimes begging. The maid who wishes her son to be an educated man. She works hard to send her son to two tuitions so he could pass the matric exam. The sweeper who is having fever but still working in the sun or he will not be paid. The old woman who comes along with her granddaughter so she could get rest from the household work. The retired colonel with three sons working in abroad. He is quite lonely but never leaves the smile from his face. The guy who makes tea and thinks I am a reporter for he saw me writing things often. The bhelpuri wala who learnt making bhelpuri in Maharashtra but is resident of a small village at border of U.P. and Bihar. He does well in noida and says soon he will open a burger stall along with it. They are my friends. They expect nothing but my time to talk if they ever meet me, again.

The colonel impresses me a lot with his experiences. The story of wars, comrades and lifestyle is all what makes your life perfect. I was a bit depressed, he was never posted to Kashmir or any ice caps. He knows about my engineering, frowns though on my idea as a writer. He keeps on saying big things about working abroad. There is money, social status, and fame. Though he never told me where his sons worked. He never told me anything about them. I came to know about them from the sweeper of the park.

Ramdas is the owner of the tea shop. In his late fourties and works much more than the teenagers. Wearing a lungi and a vest, he is always shouting. Not in the voice to fury you but not pleasant also. He doesn’t like me. He has some grudge against reporters and thinks me to be one. I don’t complain, neither I tried to remove his doubts. His tea is famous around that corner. You could see peoples with multinational companies ID hung around their neck drinking tea there. Hardly any one of them has tried the coconut cookie there or they would have noted down the address of the bakery and bought packets. He never complains for me sitting there even though I have finished my tea long enough. I was his regular customer after all. But chhotu often got scolded because of chatting to me.

Chhotu is the boy who worked at the stall. He is 10 years old. His family is 1000 km far away but he was sent to get work and money. His real name is Rajendra. He neither knows its meaning nor does that he shares his name with our first president. He studied till 2^nd grade and was happy to be removed from school. He doesn’t want to study but wish to buy a cell just like mine so that he can also play games in it all day. Even munna is also of same age. He would always run to me if he caught my view. He lives in the slum behind and begs with other slum children in near localities. He knows that I will not give him money but chocolates instead. He never demanded his favourite one till now. He wishes to study but her mother hasn’t got money to send her to. He would always make toys out of scraps. Sometimes they would just wonder me and I would make a little upgraded version of it with useful stuffs and show off in my friends. He only wishes her mother to get cured of the disease she is suffering from.

The old lady at the park is very sweet. Mainly because she makes good sweets and often brings them for me. Her granddaughter’s name is Richa. She is a cute angel with chubby cheeks. The lady laughs that I know cooking. She teases me that after marriage I will have to cook for my wife. She says she is old, she needs to have a little more rest but richa is growing and her working mom isn’t there to take care of her. Her son loves her a lot. She wishes to go to Vaishno Devi trip but her son didn’t take her along because someone had to stay back and take care of the house.

They all love me and share their time and secrets with me. They expect me to be there at our meeting spot the next day too. They never complain if I fail. I wish that they knew the reality. The reality in which I was a very selfish guy. I would show them dreams and give hopes but may not be there to help them out. All they were to me was subjects to write upon.

Ek Anadi

I was going to my nanighar when at the next station a poor man with his 10 yr old kid boarded the train. They sat just behind me. The faces of the people were gross when they crossed them. May be they didn’t wished their costly dresses to get spoiled by the touch of those torn clothes. The gross eyes filled with hatred when they realized that the child was mentally disabled. Now they were trying hard to protect themselves from the touch of the child.

  

नहीं  जानता  मैं  कौन  हूँ ,

वादियाँ  चीख  रही  हैं,  मैं  मौन  हूँ ,

मुसाफिर  नहीं  हूँ,  मैं  अनजान  सवारी ,

मैं  तो  हूँ  बस,  एक  अनाड़ी ।

रखते  हैं  बाबा,  सीने  से  लगाकर ,

माँ  का  आँचल,  चाहता  हूँ  अकसर ,

इतना  प्यार  किस्मत  ने  है  वारी ,

मैं  तो  हूँ  बस,  एक  अनाड़ी ।

घूरते  हैं  मुझको,  मैं  खिलौना  हूँ ,

उनकी  नज़रों  में,  मैं  घिनौना  हूँ ,

मुंह  फेरकर  भी  बद्दुआ  है  जारी ,

मैं  तो  हूँ  बस,  एक  अनाड़ी ।

खुश  होता  हूँ,  तो  चीखता  हूँ ,

रोता  हूँ  जब  मैं,  तो  चीखता  हूँ ,

पेड़  चल  रहे  हैं,  या  ये  रेलगाड़ी ,

मैं  तो  हूँ  बस,  एक  अनाड़ी ।

तन  नहीं,  दिल  साफ़  है  मेरा ,

होटों  पे  मुस्कान,  खुद  खुदा  ने  बिखेरा ,

जिंदा  हूँ,  मुझको  ज़िन्दगी  है  प्यारी ,

मैं  तो  हूँ  बस,  एक  अनाड़ी ।

हो  सके  तो  मुझे,  देख  मुस्कुरा  देना ,

कर  सको  तो  मुझे,  गले  से  लगा  लेना ,

रोती  हैं  पर  नहीं  ये  आँखें  मेरी ,

मैं  तो  हूँ  बस,  एक  अनाड़ी ।

न  धर्म,  न  कोई  जात  है  मेरी , 

मोहब्बत  और  प्यार,  पहचान  है  मेरी ,

फिर  भी  मंदबुद्धि  कहती  दुनिया  सारी ,

मैं  तो  हूँ  बस,  एक  अनाड़ी ।

Change the Mentality

I am writing this article in a situation where everyone I love to read is talking about women security and empowerment. Some of them have used harsh words and measures. Some wrote them in anger, frustration and some still thinking logically. Even I wish to express my views on the burning topic but there is nothing left to say. Everything which I will write and mesmerize the readers will be something I liked in my fellow blogger. I have packed my mind with such great statements and explicit lines that it always diverts my mind to them and I can’t think of anything new. I can’t even suppress my feelings to pin down something on it and let people know that even I care about the situation. Though I have an option, I should better give suggestions to improve the situation than fighting on it.

A lot needs to be changed in the system, all, police, government and legislature. I prefer a much easier suggestion. Change the mentality of the people. Now it sounds a much easier task with solutions like moral education, counseling, etc. Yes, that’s all what is needed to be done and it will surely eradicate this problem like a cat removes rats from the room. However, I would like you all to take a closer look at the problems. Some of them are –

        1) Eve teasing – Everyone is familiar with this term. Eve teasing is the less offensive meaning of sexual harassment which is committed by lower mentality persons to fulfill their sexual urge. All of us wish it to be stopped but is there any guy who has not done it and is at the age of above 20. Many of you reading it would be happy that you are not one of those criminal minded person so let’s have a look at the things which are considered as eve teasing.

·         Gesticulating obscene signals

·         Staring/Leering

·         Calling/ messaging after unnecessarily or asking for dates constantly desite refusing.

·         Touching

·         Winking / Pinching

·         Singing songs / Passing double meaning comments

·         Calling Obscene nicknames such as sexy, patakha, bomb, phuljhari, etc.

·         Following on vehicle / Honking against you deliberately

·         Making kissing sounds

·         Stalking

These things are not even considered as bad these days. Guys even of good reputed families can be easily seen doing this in a group of friends. If still there is a guy there who has never done this is telling a lie. He may not have done it but he supported his friends to do it by still staying there. We need to stop eve teasing. I don’t know how to stop it neither I could think of suggesting something. I want to find out some measures but till then I will try my best not to be involved in eve teasing ever.

  2) A guy and a girl together are lovers. Every time we see a teenage guy and girl roaming around on bike or enjoying at a theatre/ restaurant, the first impression, we think them to be lovers. Why can’t we just let them be friends or even worse brother and sister? This may not seem to be a serious problem but that’s how our mentality is. We have rotten our mindset. How can such a brain be made to understand better things when we are still not letting ourselves go of such simple things.

  3) Ego – Almost 90% of the boys in India cannot still take defeat from a girl. They may think and say themselves to be modern mentality but they don’t even know when they are doing this thing. Every time they propose a girl and hear a NO, in 90% cases it’s not love but rejection from a girl which hurts them. They don’t prefer to be house-husbands after the birth of their child even though their wife may have a higher income. So, they allowed the wives to work and keep caretakers for the child.

  4) Space & Easiness – Teenagers these days think it cool to do stuff with friends which they don’t think it to be ethical in-front of their parents. These idiots think that starting every line with slang, drinking, smoking, having lots of gf/bf, giving extreme statements on every burning topic makes you look like a dude. The problem is that world is filled with such filthy mentality people and people with reasonable thinking are thought to be dumb. According to me the problem lies at space given to these kids at home. Friends are just another set of idiots who can’t help. Parents have passed this stage and will surely come out with solutions to change this thinking. The only problem that lies is that Indian family system is too cozy to talk on such issues with their kids. Another situation where I don’t know how to change this mentality of the generation above me.

  5) Wrong is wrong – If your child is doing something wrong, stop him right there. You may shower love and affection and let him follow his heart but what you don’t realize is you are the worst parent. Restricting your child’s wants and letting him know about right and wrong is as important as thinking about his safety. Kids spoiled like this are the ones who can’t handle rejections or will do anything to get the thing (person) they want. Sometimes things which is fun for them turns out to be disasters for others.

Some of you may think that these are not related to the current problem, others may contradict. All I want is to say that change the way of thinking of the people and make it a better place. Criminals and people with such thoughts are a bitter truth of society and it’s impossible to remove them. However, we can ensure that we are not giving them boost in any way. Making the society a better one is all that is needed right now.