आसमाँ को भी कद अपना दिखायेंगे हम

आसमाँ को भी कद अपना दिखायेंगे हम 

दिल का अरमाँ है क्या ये बतायेंगे हम 

पहले जैसी नहीं जिंदगी भी तो क्या

दिल में जज्बा तो है जीत जायेंगे हम 

देखते देखते देखो शब् कट गयी 

अगली सुबहो तलक गुनगुनायेंगे हम  

कल तो बारिश में डर भीग जाने का था 

आज फौलाद हैं भीग जायेंगे हम 

एक नया सा सबक जिंदगी दे गयी 

अब तो मरते हुए मुस्कुरायेंगे हम 

The Quiet One

                

The Quiet One

by Chakresh Singh

                “You might be thinking why I eat my lunch alone. I wish I could tell. Have you ever seen my lunch box, the white one? On the top of it is a picture of a boy, sitting in the sun under a tree with his back reclined on its trunk. But that is only the half of the picture. In the other half there is some English poem written in a miniature text. One surely can’t read it with naked eyes but it must be a beautify poem I am sure. You wanted to know why I keep quiet, it is because I believe there is a heaven beyond this classroom and there are plenty of trees unlike our school. I believe, there is a place where the day is bright and the shade of trees very thick and dense. I eat alone because I think of such a place my friend and I wish I were there. “

                It is not that anyone thinks like that about my being so aloof in the class, it is just that I talk to myself all the times and I give elaborate speech in my head to the imaginary kids I know. Those in real life are not so submissive I must say. They won’t bow their heads and stand in absolute reverence to listen to my flights of imagination. They are energetic, fun loving and somewhat stupid kids of real parents. They are dumb as well, I guess. For why will they take every instruction of every teacher who comes and teaches us with no resilience what so ever? I am not like them. On the very first day at school, I chose the last bench on the side of the window in the classroom. From here I see the cycle shop outside our school building and every hour, new faces coming with their bicycles and getting them mended or filling air in the flattened tubes. From here I can wonder in the boundary-less fields of my imagination. From here I can skip the mundane classroom activities of making and taking notes.

                It has been so for many years now. When I was in the Nursery sections, I was no different. Now I am in Middle section, still I am the same. Sometimes I feel, in doing all this what if I do not grow up ever? What if my imaginations mean nothing in the end of the school? Will it be so that the boring topper of our class, get into a good college and I won’t be able to get admission any where? Aah! Leave it. Why to think about all that? After all, those who get into colleges after school are humans only and they can’t be better than me. While I was busy in exercising my democratic-fundamental right of free thinking, our squeaky English teacher notices me being lost somewhere and looking from the open spaces of spectacles and face utter the following unpleasant and more than that very disrespectful words for a respected President of America who just finished a speech in the house of the commons: “Sid, are we on the same page?” “What page?” I was about to ask, but I knew it’s better to concentrate in reality for a change. “Yes, ma’am. Its page number 26!” The whole class roared into laughter. I realized she was not asking the page number, but asking whether I was listening to her all this time. “Aah! The third squeaky daughter of holy St. Aloysius!”, I said to myself. The first two being the Chemistry and the Drawing teachers. All three kept together make a perfect recipe comic drama of the seventeenth century English Literature. They bring these unheard phrases and try to mock the intelligence of the best brains in the classroom. But she wasn’t as good as me this time. I have master a skill of knowing what is going the classroom even while being deeply lost in my own world. It’s is a hard work of years I must say. “Ma’am you were taking about how Sindabad the sailor, left for the un-in habitat island of jewels and there he found himself surrounded my numerous poisonous snakes. He slips into a cave and waits for the night.” There was certainly something missing in my explanation and the whole class was willed with laughter once again. “Quiet!”, she roared. “Sid, if you are not interested in what is taught in the class why don’t you leave and go outside and roam around?” It’s funny these teachers make interrogative sentences and expect no answers to them. I wished I could ask happily, “Are you serious!” But I knew this witch. She would hang me upside down if I utter a single word now. She was visibly disturbed. Her ego was hurt. After all, my story was more interesting that the one written in the book. I knew she was jealous of my literary genius. The whole class for silent for thirty minutes of her lecture and just a few seconds of my speech made them enjoy the time and laugh like they naturally should. “Next time I catch you, only God can save you!”, she warned and asked to sit down. “God! Lift her please”. Though I am an ardent atheist but in the moments of utter despair even the best of the best atheists lose their religion. This I read in a Hindi novel, it was a hilarious thought but I experience it every now and then.

                There were few broken chalk pieces laying near my feet below the desk. For the rest of the fifteen minutes of her lecture, I wished I could pick those pieces and one by one hit her face with them, making perfect aim all the time. I kept biting my lips with my teeth, as I often do in anger. How can someone infringe in my private life and disturb me and that too with so much authority! I hate being so weak in real life. Anyhow, time passes by. The ringing bell softened my heart to some extent. When she was gone, Atul came to me and said, “Sindabad, on an un-in-habitat island! What a story mate! Where did you get that?” we laughed. I said, “chal sussu kar kea ate hain”. It’s not that I was willing to pee, but the next class was of Social Studies and wanted to skip the first ten minutes the same old, “India is a vast country”, kind of lecture.

                Atul has been a great friend all these years. He knows me very well. In our age everyone knows everyone very well. But he is a close friend. He always gets good grades in all subjects. I get good grades in subjects of my choosing. I love Mathematics, and I always get highest score in Mathematics in every examination right from the first class. Except for once, when I had small pox and I left section B of the question paper completely. I still think of that day and feel sad. Atul, knows that I am good in studies, I just do not put effort to do well and get my due respect in the class. Every year some new teachers come to teach and every year they make new perceptions about the kids. I have a reputation tough. Even the Principal knows that I don’t like to be in the classroom for long. Father, we call him. In his white robe with a short stick he was in the gallery of the third floor, when he saw me with Atul. “Yes, you two, why are you roaming here? Don’t you have class?” he asked pointing his nose towards us. I took the lead and walked in front of Atul and said, ’Good morning Father. We were going to the bathroom”.  “Quick quick, hurry to your class room. Quick” is all he said and allowed us to wander for a little more time, while the rest if the class was getting submersed into the discussions of renaissance of France. We took a lazy walk to towards the end of the corridor. Looking inside class 7^th B first door and then two windows and then the hind door, followed by class 8^th A first door, two windows and then the hind door.  I kept looking at the faces of the helpless students in all the classes that came across our walk. Helpless, weak, submissive kids I thought. “Hey Sid, I kept a chewing gum the teacher’s chair today.” Alut told me. We laughed. “Persia will look really sticky today”, he said and we laughed even more. The hind of our History teacher was disproportionately large. Once he was writing on the board something about Persia and looked back to ask Zafer, what was he laughing at? Zafer later told us, he was laughing at Persia of Mr.Siddique. Since then Persia came into picture. The joke has spread in the senior sections as well and now the whole school knows, where was Persia.

                After about ten minutes we reached our class, we were allowed to enter without any question. I went back to my seat in the back benches and Atul, took his middle row seat. All the time we kept exploring the fields of Persia and could not find the sticky gum any were on the map. Atul kept looking at me, all puzzled and I kept feeling disappointed. After the class was over, somebody told that he did not sit.

                It was lunch time now. I once again remained in class while the rest left for play. I kept thinking of the fields and the poem. Every day, I try to read it and fail. With regular brush of the tiffin box, while cleaning it, a fair portion of the picture has faded away. Mummy asks if I need a new lunch box, a steel one, I deny every time. I do not want anything else on earth but to read the poem that is written on it. The smell around the place of my imagination, and the poem as if dripping from the tree leaves as honey, is all I want to live with. No matter how notorious and at time ugly I get in my class room mischievous, I have a tender heart of the same nursery kid, who used to look out the school walls and think there is a place better than this.

                The pickle, the parantha, and the alloo ki sabzi is what I generally bring in lunch. Many friends bring bread, butter and jam. But I do not like bread. I do not like paranthas as well, but they are better than rotis. I eat very slow and leave the most of the lunch, only to go home and listen to the same old concern of mummy, “how will you grow strong if you do not eat?” I feel, for a person like me, who lives in a fantasy world all the time, what use is muscles and strength. For who do I need to fight? And after all, I want too less. I just want to know what that poem says.

               

  …..to be continued

               

                

गिनती है सांस जिंदगी पल पल उधार है

गिनती है सांस जिंदगी पल पल उधार है 

हमपे भी कर-गुजरने की कुछ ज़िद सवार है 

बारिश में भीगते रहे बेरोक टोक हम 

उनको तो छींक आ रही हमको बुखार है

दिल में रही खलिश जो था इक तीर-ऐ-नीमकश 

अफ़सोस अब यही के वो भी आर पार है 

मानव शरीर और जीवन चिंतन

         मानव शरीर में रहते हुए कुछ अनुभूतियाँ स्वतः ही होती रहती हैं| जीवन जीने की कला सीखने और नए अनुभवों को प्रयोग में लाने का क्रम चलता ही रहता है| हर नए साल का सावन जैसे हमें नया कुछ सिखाने को  दाइत्व समझ अत है, उम्र बड़ा जाता है| प्रायः हम सब कुछ जानने वाले होने की भूल कर, अपने आप नको नयी नयी विषमताओं में खड़ा करते रहते हैं| हम कौन हैं और इस शरीर को हमें किस प्रकार से प्रयोग में लाना है, एक बड़ा सवाल है| एक दूसरा बड़ा सवाल ये भी उठता साथ ही साथ उठ खड़ा होता है के जीवन अस्तित्व का प्रयोजन क्या है और किसकी मंशा है हमारे इस स्वरुप में होने के पीछे| इन प्रश्नों की परिधि पर फेरे लगता, आत्मा चिंतन में लीन हर बौधक व्यक्ति कई बार एक ही प्रकार के अंतर द्वंदों से जूझता हुआ जीवन बढ़ता जाता है|

                 मेरा मत है की प्रकृति में विभिन्न प्रकार के तत्त्वों का समागम है| हर तत्त्व प्रकृति को उसका स्वरुप देता है| हर तत्त्व, चाहे वह कोई छोटा सा पत्थर हो या फिर विशाल सी पृथ्वी, प्रकृति के अस्तित्व के लिए बहार का महत्व रखता है| और फिर देखा जाए तो छोटा और विशाल भी तो हम मानवों के मानने भर का फेर है बस| प्रकृति कभी भी अपने आप को स्वरुप देने वाले तत्त्वों में भेद भाव करती नहीं दिखाती| एक छोटी सी चींटी कर्म योग को जिस एकाग्रता से निभाती है, देखते ही बनता है| एक झरना जिस सौम्यता को अपने भीतर दबाये, एक मर्यादा में रह कर झरता है और प्रकृति में एक रंग भरता है, जिसे देख कर हम मानव आनंदमय हो जाते हैं, भी अपने आप में प्रकृति के अनेक नियमों को जीवंत करता है|

             मानव शरीर में रह कर कई बार हम चिंताओं से घिर जाते हैं| चिंता, जिसे जैसंकर प्रसाद जी कामायनी में एक जगह, 'अभाव की चपल भालिका कहते हुए' ये कहते हैं के: 

"मनन करवाएगी तू कितना ?

उस निश्चिन्त जाती का जीव; 

अमर मरेगा क्या? तू 

कितनी गहरी डाल रही है नींव"| 

            चिंता का कई बार असल कारन जान पाना, एक साधारण मनुष्य के लिए असंभव सा हो जाता है| चिंता से दुखों की दूरी ज्यादा नहीं होती| दुःख जीवन को अर्थहीनता की राह पर  धकेल देते  हैं|

           जीवन एक शूक्ष्म डोर है और यदि इसके दोनों सिरों को ध्यान से न पकड़ा जाए तो इसमें गांठें पद जाती हैं| तनाव के साथ ये गांठें और भी मजबूत होती जाती हैं|सही मार्गदर्शन, चाहे वह किसी गुरु से मिले या फिर अपने द्वारा की गयी तपस्या के फल स्वरुप जीवन अनुभव बन कर आये, जीवन को सुन्दर स्वरुप दे सकती है| यदि मानव के दुर्लभ शरीर में रह कर सृष्टि के गुड़ों का बोध  कर पाने में हम असक्षम हैं तो कहीं न कहीं बदलाव की आवश्यकता है|

         जीवन को नए दृष्टिकोण से देखना होगा| शरीर एक प्राकृतिक उपकरण  हो सकता है लेकिन जड़ता का स्वामी नहीं| जो जीवित है वह शरीर अवश्य है, परन्तु की अभिप्राय से यह इस स्वरुप में, इन इन्द्रियों के साथ जीवित है, वह अभ्प्राय किसी आवरण से ढाका हुआ है|इस आवरण को हटा कर साफ़ सुथरी समझ तक पहुँचाना की बुद्ध होना है|

               यह आभास होता है के जीवन का अभिप्राय जीवन आनंद से है|आनंद का अनुभव सतत मनन से संभव है| जितना ही हम बाह्य दुनिया में सम्मिलित होंगे उठाता ही हम अपने आप को बंधनों में बांधते जायेंगे और परिस्थितियों के अधीन होकर हर क्षण स्वयं को एक बेड़ियों से जकडे हुए कैदी सा पायेंगे| कैद में रहने से गुस्सा, निराशा, घृणा, अकर्मता आदि नकारात्मक शक्तियां हमें घेर लेंगी और जीवन-आनंद के अनुभव के दुर्लभ अवसर से हम अपने जीवन काल में वंचित रह जायेंगे| 

               परन्तु समाज में रहकर मोह बंधनों में न बंधने की कला कोई आसान कला नहीं है| हमारा मानव शरीर अपनी शक्ति से ओत-प्रोत होकर कई बार शांत-चित्त मन को उद्द्वेलित करता है और उसके जीवन जानने वाले होने पर ही प्रश्न चिन्ह लगा देता है| वह भला यह कैसे मान ले के जीवन आनंद सही मायनों में वही है जो एक मनन में लीं आत्मा अनुभव करती है? क्यूँ न रिश्ते-नातों से उपझते प्रेम बंधनों में रम कर जीवन-आनंद का अनुभव किया जाए? 

               मन की चंचलता ऐसे ही कई और प्रकार के मतों तक चेतना को भ्रमण पर ले जाती है और विक्रम-बेताल के इस खेल में दृढ निश्चय के साथ चल रहे विक्रम को अपनी बीताली बातें मनवा कर दोबारा उसी अज्ञानता के अरण्य में छोड़ आती है जहाँ से निकल कर वह काफी दूर चला आया था| 

दिल की इस बेकली को क्या कह दूं

दिल की इस बेकली को क्या कह दूं
अपनी सादादिली को क्या कह दूं

मुझको अलफ़ाज़ अब नहीं मिलते
आप की संघ्दिली को क्या कह दूं

मेहरबाँ आप के इशारों पे
खिल रही हर कलि को क्या कह दूं

नाम:बर अब  इधर  नहीं आते
प्यार वाली  गली को क्या कह दूं

उड़के आया है ख़त मेरे अंगने
नज़्म आधी जली को क्या कह दूं

चाह कर देख भूलना उसको
एक नसीहत भली को क्या कह दूं

आज 'चक्रेश' कह रहा दिल की
आज ग़ालिब वली को क्या कह दूं

मेरी उम्र नहीं बढती

चलती रेल की खिड़की से बाहर देखूं

तो आज भी मेरा बचपन

उसी दिलचस्पी के साथ

टकटकी बांधे, गाल हाथ धरे

देख रहा है दूर तक विस्तृत लहलहाते

खेत खलिहान 

हर टूटा फूटा माटी का घर किसी अपने ही  ताऊ,

चाचा- चाचीऔर भैया का सा लगता है 

आसमान में पंख फैलाये छोटी छोटी उड़ान भरती हर चिड़िया

हिंदी भाषी लगती है

 ये हिंद देश की सीमाएं हैं

वो दूर मेरे ही बागीचे 

समय के साथ कब उम्र बढ़ी 

कब कवितातें मुझतक आ पहुँचीं 

पता ही नहीं चला

हाँ पर कुछ देर की चुप्पी में 

सारा बचपन उसी खिड़की पर बैठा देखता हूँ 

जाने अंतिम दिन जीवन के कितना बड़ा हो पाऊंगा मैं 

हर रूप में तुमको देख लिया

हर रूप में तुमको देख लिया
हर रूप तुम्हारा प्यारा है
मैं फिर गुस्ताखी कर बैठा
कागज़ पर हुस्न उतारा है

दिल को बहलाकर देख लिया
तुमसे न कह कर देख लिया
मैं भूल गया था पहला प्यार
तुमसे ही प्यार दोबारा है

चाहा था कहना मंदिर में
पर सोच रहा था अपने गम
मेरी नैया मझधार प्रिये
दूर कहीं पे किनारा है

मैं आज भी अक्सर जाता हूँ
उस मंदिर तक, उन झूलों तक
वो मीठी हँसी भोली बातें
यादों में ऐसे संवारा है

कुछ न कहना गर हैराँ हो
मेरे दिल की इस कविता पर
मैं तन्हा तन्हा जी लूँगा
काफी इतना भी सहारा था

जाते जाते इक आखिरी बार
मेरे हमदम मुझसे मिल लो
मैं जानता हूँ इस जीवन में
इतना ही साथ हमारा है

-ckh

ये खलिश और ये जवानी भी

ये खलिश और ये जवानी भी 
ख़त्म होगी मेरी कहानी भी 

आप की चाहतों की बारिश में 
खिल उठी इक ग़ज़ल पुरानी भी 

अपनी मजबूरियाँ ये तकलीफें 
कुछ कही कुछ पड़ी छुपानी भी 

खैर अफ़सोस तो रहेगा ही

खो गयी प्यार की निशानी भी

जो न मिलते कभी भी उनसे तो
यूँ न होता गुहर ये पानी भी

Eyes Set On Kejriwal

Team Anna called off its fast until death move seeing that the ruling UPA party was in no mood of passing the Lokapal Bill in the coming parliamentary session. The move of calling off the fast was wise as there was no point of blackmailing the government in the first place itself. The government has been hostile towards the movement from the very beginning and had not shown the political will of doing something serious about the issue of corruption from the very beginning.

It was a treat to see the retired army general V.K. Singh sitting besides Anna ji on the Anshan stage. His short speech was energizing and must have made every Indian proud to see a courageous solider, Anna Hazare, and the humble general coming on one stage to raise their voice against the problems of the nation. The heart gets filled with respect when one sees a diabetic Arvind Kejriwal fasting for nine days and then coming on stage to recite one of Dushyant’s poem: ho chuki hai peer parvat si pighalni chahiye, is himalay se koi ganga nikalni chahiye…

Arvind Kejriwal talked about how they have decided to come to politics and give the Indian public a political alternative. Also, in his brief speech, he gave an inkling of how the party will look like. But amidst all this, one can see that Kejriwal, who is known to be the mind behind the movement, is going wrong in some of his calculations. In the equations of politics, corruption has never been a much talked of issue. Roti, kapada aur makan with a mix of communal, caste and varga politics has been the success mantra for most the political parties so far, not forgetting the money spent to buy votes and MPs. It has been accepted by the Indian masses, more importantly the ones’ who go to vote, as an inevitable evil of the system. A Bill against corruption is one thing and public perception about corruption is another.

There is no doubt that Team Anna, will act as an anti-congress, anti-BJP faction during the 2014 elections and both the parties can expect a shift in their vote banks, though one can’t say who will actually get the benefit of such shifts in general. Congress surely faces a tough task ahead of belittling the Anna movement and undermining each and every flaw in the team to make the whole movement look like a farce when it goes to election campaign. Being a party with great experience in politics, it has actually started questioning the sanctity of the IAC movement, by saying that they already knew that team Anna had political aims and the movement was just a means of fooling the people.

Anna ji says, that an effective Lokpal Bill can bring down corruption by 60%. What is 100% corruption? Is there any way in which the any country can even give an estimate amount of money that is lost due to corruption every year? Arvind Kejriwal counted two three major scams in his speech and reached a number four lack seventy thousand crore, by adding up the estimated loss to the exchequers in those scams. Let us start with the number assuming it to be the sum total of all the money lost to corruption (obviously it is just a poor approximation). There are twenty eight state (let’s leave the union territories for now). Let’s say each state has an equally corrupt political-bureaucratic nexus. Dividing the figure by twenty eight gives us sixteen thousand crore per state. Well, recently CBI made it public that the exCM of Uttar Pradesh has an asset of worth rupees one hundred and eleven crore against her name. Such a small number! By all logics she can be proved to be innocent and a politician with a clean record. She was the CM of for five years of a state which was entitled to rob its people by sixteen thousand crore an year (again reminding its just and understated approximation). Where probably is the rest of the money? Undeclared?

Where ever the money may be, it’s so neatly hidden that even the CBI could not bring it on paper. It is a matter of belief that we should go with the figures that the CAG gives us about 2G scam or alike. The art of hiding the act of corruption is not mastered overnight. Probably we can apply the Darwinian principle of survival of the fittest to explain the jungle raj and its workings here. But coming back to the equations of politics and corruption, team Anna seems to be too simplistic in thinking that framing of a strong Lokpal Bill will attain some miraculous feet in bringing down corruption. The politicians, including the fifteen ministers of cabinet who were earlier alleged of being corrupt, will neatly hide their corrupt acts and escape in most of the cases. Well, some will obviously be too thick to escape the nets of a strong bill, but bringing down the corruption by 60% is nothing but a tearfully laughable joke.

Team Anna’s view has made corruption synonymous the ruling UPA party. There is no doubt that the UPA government is left answerless to most of the charges of corruption and mismanagement of public fund in various schemes and policies is widely accepted. But can congress be made to leave the power politics in near future? If yes, then will it mean an end to corruption in India? Well, as of today both the questions will have to settle down with negative answers.

All that a pro-Anna, anti-corruption Indian can hope for today is that the movement that Anna started should not go in the gutters and should become more popular with people in near future so that the chances of new political alternative becoming stronger strengthens with time. Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal will have to do some homework in sorting out a meaningful agenda for the upcoming party and will have to rethink his understanding of the corruption that India is facing today.

-ckh