जिज्ञासा

"अजनबियों से सावधान"

2010-08-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

शहरों की समझदारी का आग्रह-

"अजनबियों से सावधान",

बस एक छोटी सी मुश्किल है

हमेशा

अजनबियों में ही मिलें

सबसे गहरे दोस्त

बिलकुल अपने-अपनों कि किसी अजनबी परत से हुई

अचानक मुठभेड़

और गहरा हो गया प्रेम

सबसे मजेदार बात तो यह

कि किसी अजनबी से नहीं होती

दुश्मनी

उसके लिए बनानी पड़ती है कोई न कोई

पहचान.

-लोकेश

एक पीड़ा,व्यक्तिगत..

2010-08-12T01:14:00.000-07:00

मै कहता हूँ

आकाश

अनंत

वो कहतें हैं

ज़मीन

पुख्ता ठोस .

मैं कहता हूँ

उड़ान

उन्मुक्त

वो कहते हैं

रखो पांव

मजबूत भारयुक्त.

मेरे सामने

अनगिनत दिशाएँ

उनकी भी

गहरी उम्मीदें

अपेक्षाएं .

मैं जनता हूँ

मैं मानूंगा नहीं हार

पर उनके सपनो से हो रही

रार लगातार ....

परत-दर-परत

झड़ रही

उष्म संवादों की रोशनाई

समय-दृष्टि भेद जन्य

उनके

मेरे बीच

क्या सचमुच एक गहराती खाई?

क्या मिलेगी क्षमा?

क्या मांगनी चाहिए क्षमा??

-lokesh

व्याकरण

2010-08-10T02:35:00.000-07:00

यह महान सांस्कृतिक देश...

"यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते.." का देश...

पाणिनि के वंशजों ने

अदभुत व्याकरण साधा है

एक छिद्र में बाँधी

औरत की परिभाषा है.

-lokesh

अनुभव

2010-08-05T16:40:00.000-07:00

प्रेम

निकटता

गहराता

अपनापा

सहेजने

समेटने को

फेंकनी ही पड़ेगी अब

चिलचिलाती नाराजगी

क्रोध

घृणा

दुराव

फिर भी

कम पडूंगा मै

इसीलिए

सबसे है साझा

प्रेम..

निकटता..

गहराता अपनापा..

-लोकेश

हत्या

2010-08-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

बीबीसी

समाचार

तीस मिनट....

कश्मीर

हिंसा जारी

२९ मारे गए

पिछले एक महीने में.

११०० मरे

बाढ़ में

संख्या बढ़ने की आशंका

पाकिस्तान.

गाज़ा

२० मरे

बम के धमाके से.

इधर एक वर्दी वाले लेखक को है

आपत्ति

नैतिकता की हत्या की है

कुछ दूसरे लेखकों ने....

तीस मिनट

ख़ास खबर

दबा हुआ हत्या का इतिहास.

-लोकेश

अर्थ-विवेचन

2010-07-08T12:31:00.000-07:00

जाने-पहचाने शब्दों के
अजनबी से अर्थ
अक्सर खड़े हो जाते हैं सामने
और अर्थों में निहित
आड़ी-तिरछी
कितनी गलियों
और चौराहों से मंतव्य .....
आकृतियाँ धकेल दी गयी हैं
परछाइयों के पीछे
निषिद्ध विवेचना
क्रिया-विश्लेषण निषिद्ध....
मूढ़ता है
अपराध है
अक्षम्य
देखना मान्य उपलब्धि व
सफलता की चमकती सतह के नीचे...
दोगले अर्थों और मंतव्यों
पर जमी हुई काई कुरेदना है मना
विवेक-दृष्टि की सतह पर जमी धूल की
सफाई है मना
सामाजिक सफलता की चमकती सतह को एलर्जी है
गर्द से
बाहर की हवा से
कहीं जाम न हो जाएँ फेंफड़े !
--लोकेश

भोपाल

2010-06-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

भो ....पा....ल
1984 की उस रात को
कैसे करना चाहोगे पारिभाषित -
नियति
दुर्घटना
त्रासदी
या
हत्याकांड????

भो...पा...ल..
कैसा लगता है
न्याय की कतार में खड़े होकर
इंतज़ार करना
हिंदुस्तान के हर शहर,कस्बे
गाँव के साथ ?
बेशक तुम आज़ाद हो
कतार में न खड़े होने के लिए
लेकिन
लोकतंत्र का
संविधान का
तकाज़ा है कि तुम इंतज़ार करो
इंतज़ार करो
नहीं तो बाग़ी करार दिए जाओगे
कतार से इनकार करने वालों कि तरह.

-LP

(image courtesy : Raghu Rai)

Poetry at 45°C

2010-05-16T01:35:00.000-07:00

It’s 45° C

North India is burning
but a stone does not melt at 45°C.
Of course adding zeroes to one
Doesn’t changes anything
But place a couple of zeroes after ‘one’
And water starts boiling
Place another couple
And it’s sufficient to make
a stone fluid.

At what temperature
one history changes into another?
At what temperature
the pumping-machine caged in bones
melts into a bursting heart?
It’s heat-wave here
at 45°C
But a dream does not melt at 45°C.

Its 2010 May
in Delhi its 45°C
and somewhere faraway or may be nearer
iron has melted into
women and men.
Don’t be surprised
You know 45°C multiplied by centuries
is sufficient to melt
Iron into Will.

But I know
Some of us frozen casted
Won’t melt at any temperature
we stay cool at 45°C
in our conditioned forts
(though I have gone crazy at 45°C).

The fire in the earth‘s womb has surfaced
Its burning everywhere
The tar roads in Delhi are melting
The iron-ores outside Delhi are melting
Sometimes even cold ash melts into iron......
Is it 45°C or more???
-LP

Loss

2010-05-11T05:03:00.001-07:00

You are not you- your "self"

your step, your stance is something else

a golden lace and a marbled face

silky hair, sporting ware

of glittering labels and branded fables

The moulded rhapsody

may be size-zero or a macho body

Sliding glaze fairness ablaze

So much and so many things to have

So much and so many things to be

Except the one that you are – your "self"

-LP

(this is an English version of my poem originally written in Hindi )

The National Anthem

2010-05-10T00:45:00.000-07:00

The national anthem
is a nice song
recited with pride
and thrilling gong
the glorious nation
its expansive stance.
But the national anthem
fares poor
its unable to arouse
the filthy ears
stupid folks stooped in misery
living a life
thats daily drudgery
beating rape and shit
of course thats not all gloomy
as i say
they too love music
and respond more
to Bombay's thrill and ding-dong
The national anthem is nice
but a poor song.
-LP
(this poem is not meant to dishonour Tagore.But its ironical that a person who was always suspicious of nationalism as an ideology his poem was selected to epitomize the same!)

Questions to a metal

2010-05-09T08:11:00.000-07:00

Suppose
one day
early in the morning
Moon knocks your door
and asks
'did the moon light
glittering last night
soothe your soul?'

Suppose one day
while you are crossing a busy lane
soot and dust smearing your collar
a Flower springs up
and asks you
'isn't my gentle fragrance better than this-
did you enjoy it last sunday in the park
kissing your beloved
didn't you feel me deep somewhere
inside you?'

Suppose one day
you busy in your office
cramped in piles
of data and files
a cuckoo comes
'I woke you yesterday
when your alarm didn't work
wasn't it sweet?'

You will think I have gone crazy
the moon , the flower, the cuckoo
shall never ask
how much we love them
or betray.

But
I have a question to ask
I ask
the
hard, tough, heavy metallic bullet
Were you hurt
when you got hit on a man's living flesh?
Were there any painful scratches when
piercing the head you sped?
Squeezed inside the dead lump
blood clotted around
did you feel suffocated?
Do you remember the hands which fired you?
(they might have got their share back!)
Can you distinguish between
the hands which fired you and
the hands which scratched you up from mud and earth?

The moon, the flower, the cuckoo
will never ask a question.
But I ask you questions
O heavy metal:
Would you refuse?

-LP

Advise to unemployed youth

2010-05-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

Nothing matches a government job
security, stability and a fixed income
and even much more that depends
on your capacity to scratch
and a post to match.

Civil services is the best you can have
if can't be a doctor or an engineer or
a petty 'babu' for lesser soul's not bad.
An IIM degree's another golden catch
great packages- forget recession
market's back to glorious days.

Don't waste your mind on silly themes
the world is now as always has been
romancing dreams should be secondary flavour
first comes your future
A bright career is the best thing
you can offer the world, after all
charity begins at home my dear!
-LP

MY DREAM

2010-05-03T01:16:00.000-07:00

i have always dreamt
one day
my words will become a spark.
i have always dreamt
one day
my words will have sharp edge
i have always dreamt
one day
my words will make you stand
i have always dreamt
one day
my words will hear you speaking
i have always dreamt
one day
our words will be CONVICTION
not convenience!
i have always dreamt....

-LP

poem

2010-03-06T09:54:00.000-08:00

Without exile, who am I?

-MAHMOUD DARVISH

Stranger on the bank, like the river . . . tied up to your

name by water. Nothing will bring me back from my free

distance to my palm tree: not peace, nor war. Nothing

will inscribe me in the Book of Testaments. Nothing,

nothing glints off the shore of ebb and flow, between

the Tigris and the Nile. Nothing

gets me off the chariots of Pharaoh. Nothing

carries me for a while, or makes me carry an idea: not

promises, nor nostalgia. What am I to do, then? What

am I to do without exile, without a long night

staring at the water?

Tied up

to your name

by water . . .

Nothing takes me away from the butterfly of my dreams

back into my present: not earth, nor fire. What

am I to do, then, without the roses of Samarkand? What

am I to do in a square that burnishes the chanters with

moon-shaped stones? Lighter we both have

become, like our homes in the distant winds. We have

both become friends with the clouds'

strange creatures; outside the reach of the gravity

of the Land of Identity. What are we to do, then . . . What

are we to do without exile, without a long night

staring at the water?

Tied up

to your name

by water . . .

Nothing's left of me except for you; nothing's left of you

except for me -- a stranger caressing his lover's thigh: O

my stranger! What are we to do with what's left for us

of the stillness, of the siesta that separates legend from legend?

Nothing will carry us: not the road, nor home.

Was this road the same from the start,

or did our dreams find a mare among the horses

of the Mongols on the hill, and trade us off?

And what are we to do, then?

What

are we to do

without

exile?

Translated by Anton Shammas from 'The Bed of the Stranger', Riad El-Rayyes Books, Beirut, 1999.

The Land Of Lakshmi

2009-10-17T04:18:00.000-07:00

Its DIWALI today. As the sun sets in the western sky and the begins spreading it arms all around slowly the age old procession of lighting lamps will begin. Little lights twinkling in the face of darkness. A great metaphor indeed for the relentless human struggle against darkness within and without. But the metaphor does not ends here. As India proceeds to acquire the status of a superpower among the great fraternity of civilised nations with free markets in one hand and nuclear bomb in the other Diwali too is witnessing a metamorphic mutation. The flirting lights , the sparkling crackers, the glittering dresses , the dazzling markets....all these have become the new metaphors of diwali. A metaphor of India shining in a sea of dinge. The anti-avatar of Lakshmi in a new age for a new country in awe of its newly discovered greatness...'india unbound' as they say!

SCIENCE AND NATIONALISM

2009-03-02T23:59:00.000-08:00

Why do we value science?A very innocent answer, and in all probability the best answer ought to be , is that science has shown infinite possibility to improve the lot of humanity. I think this to be true in many ways. NOT only the technical innovations that eased our life but also science as a thought process has brought to fore novel ways of thinking about philosophical and ethical problems.
However my concern here is not the school-book topic of 'boons and banes of science'. Iam thinking about how science or to be precise scientific developments become a mode of venting euphoric emotions of national pride and nationalism?very recently we saw this in Iran which made a public show of its newly developed satellite carrier. And this is not a stand alone case . In India we saw Chandrayaan mission or nuclear bombs used as symbols of 'national pride' more than their actual or probable potential to contribute to betterment of the people of this nation! Even in holywood films we see unworldly scientific stuff used to show the scientific prowess and hence the inescapable superiority of US.
So what is the connection between science and nationalism , if any?
One common denominator which springs in mind is POWER. Nationalism is the ideology of modern nation-state. To assert itself as a nation the state seeks power. The ideology of nationalism legitimises this power. Such a legitimacy is important for the political ruling classes to sustain thier claim of ruling on behalf of or for the people. Science comes handy in assertion of national power because scientific inventions are itself an important source of power..
(more on this later...)

Obama's America

2009-01-21T01:12:00.000-08:00

The significance of Barack H Obama's election as the US president cannot be denied. Notwithstanding the usual sceptics it vindicates that no system of oppression can be perpetuated for ever. Oppression produces resistance...it renews itself and so the resistance too is renewed...and the struggle continues.
However the question which concerns me more is , would Obama's America be any different from the America we have seen in contemporary history?
The writing on the wall is not quiet encouraging , to say the least. In fact if Obama seems a bit reasonable and moderate the credit goes more to Bush who pursued hawkishness to the extent of lunacy. The euphoria gathered around the inauguration of Obama presents some ominous signs of things about to come. Obama has picked up the theme of a nation in crisis and called for a spirit of national sacrifice.[Refer to his address on 19th Jan at Lincoln memorial ]. War..crisis..national character..this jingoistic language reinforces the image of a nation under seize endangered by some ferocious enemy all set to destroy the US. This symbolism serves well the empire.
Apart from this symbolism there are other more concrete signs that Obama's 'historia' is not going to last long. For example the stance taken by Obama on various issues does not marks any serious discontinuity in US policy. Here i will take up only two instances.
First, his economic agenda. Although he has drawn a blueprint of huge state intervention to shore up the falling economy, there is nothing in the agenda as yet to suggest that any serious thought is being given to the need of reviewing the economic philosophy underlying the crisis. There is no sign that Obama will seek to change the international economic and financial order created and perpetuated by US. Obama's strategy to tackle the current crisis is at best a swift and short-term effort to preserve tattering US dominance. So, at the most America's underprivileged can expect bits of relief but for rest of the world,specially the third world has nothing to look forward in terms of its demand for a just and equitable economic order.
Second, and a little more disappointing is Obama's stand on the Palestinian crisis. The stand he took on Israel's attack on Gaza showed his selective sympathies.Mr. Obama ,outraged at Hamas attacks killing Israeli children did not see the hundreds oh children killed by Israeli attack. That Israeli action in Gaza is not defence but an offence and crime against humanity, Mr. Obama need not take a law training to know this.

Jigyasa....???

2009-01-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

Jigyasa...

this simple word can be roughly translated as 'curiosity' in english. Though simple this word is of great significance. The moment i say that i am curious to know i acknowledge my ignorance about something.... and it is this acknowledgement which marks the moment when knowledge begins. So, the quest to know becomes the zealous guide which directs us to traverse ever widening horizons of knowledge.

Now, when i say knowledge i do not mean any transcendental, eternal knowkedge mystified in some heavenly other-worldly being or vision. No.The knowledge i seek is very much this -worldly, here-and-now.constantly created and destroyed, leaving a trail of history behind. Challenging us to grasp it if we can. It is real and illusive at the same time.In every moment of our life and experience we have to reason out this entangled mass of reality and illusion. Fluttering through this web we might have a glimpse of knowledge....or..might not!

So for me it is not "athato brahma jigyasa"(let's now seek knowledge of the 'brahma' or supreme reality) as the great upanishadic saints said. It's more like "athato vishwa jigyasa"...!