Are We Agitated For Nothing?

“Why don’t you ask the kids at Tiananmen Square?
Was fashion the reason why they were there?” ---- ‘Hypnotize’, System of A Down

One or two individuals are saying, what is going on in the Ramleela Maidan is a 'circus'. According to them, people who are waving flags, chanting bhajans or sitting for a dharna in front of a MP's residence are all participants in this so called 'circus'. Well, suppose we agree with you (hypothetically), ye spectators of the great Indian ‘circus’. But you know, had this ‘circus’ been never brought to the show, the incorrigibly deaf people whom we chose to run the government would never care to actually listen to what we are saying (I know that you who give this great movement such insulting names fully understand my point as well as that this is no ordinary event and this is going to change the history of our land; but alas – pretending that you are a different species has always been you favourite sport).

One can recall, not from some distant period of history but from rather recent past an event which took place just a few months ago, and not too far from our homeland, when our brothers and sisters in Egypt assembled at the Tahir Square in their capital of Cairo; to bring down an anarchy which had snatched away their freedom long ago. They had their national flags and many posters and festoons in their hand; chanting the good name of God. What happened thereafter is now a part of History. Everyone is aware that they did change their fate. Was it a circus, too, my friend?

Our times are turbulent, hard time, no doubt in that. But what is quiet satisfactory is that we are now able to voice our concern, our disappointment, our outrage to those who have always pretended to be deaf, always pretended as if there has been no grievance, that everyone is better off, everyone is happy with the way we are forced to live. Imagine how it feels when a country, supposed to teach the whole world the philosophy of the Vedanta and the Bhagvad Gita, is ranked 87th among 178 countries of the world in the 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International. Shame on us if we can’t follow the footsteps of our fathers and their fathers. Shame on us if we can’t accomplish our job which is specific to our nation, i.e. to teach others how to hold your head high, how to conquer your inner enemies and what is morality and Dharma all about. Are we going to be the Guru of the world, with our standards as low as 87th?

Here’s what we have decided: NO. We shall purify ourselves. First we’ll clean up our household, first we’ll stop giving and taking bribes or favouring someone over others just because they are our ally. We’ll stop using wrong shortcuts to achieve anything. We’ll stop exploiting the weak, and will consider everyone as our equals. As the Lord has said: you (the same soul) are in everyone, and everyone is in you. Others’ pain we shall consider as our own. We are the children of this great ancient land, where the Lord Himself took birth as a human being, in the home of the poor, the downtrodden, the oppressed, in a small cell in a jail. Again he was born to the king’s palace, and went to live as a beggar, renounced everything (remember Lord Buddha); he even took food from someone they considered untouchable (remember Lord Rama accepting food from Shabri).

So this is how we are. This is how our fathers, and their fathers have been. Let us not forget, in the humdrum of the agitation and the cacophony of the debates around us, that we are the children of the Immortal Being (“Shrinwantu Vishwe Amritasya Putrah” ---“ Hear ye all the children of the Immortal”; from the Vedanta). We must first conquer our inner enemies of greed, jealousy and anger. We must succeed in this, and then no one can stop us reach the heights of Humanity or raise fingers of suspicion at us.

This is not just fashion to gather at places and shout slogans against corruption, or against a draconian law like AFSPA or support the farmers of Singur, Nandigram, Noida, Maharashtra or from any corner of our land; against the exploitation of our Adivasi brothers and sisters and their land, rivers and forests. We feel genuine concern towards these problems, for they pose a threat to our existence as a nation. We are not mere ghosts of the past. We live, and we are thriving. We have every right given to us by the Constitution itself to gather and protest and wave our beloved Tricolour and die to save The Ganga from the hands of its looters and polluters or for any other cause.

We are free people, and so are you. For Freedom we live, and for Freedom we die. We are working to secure the future of our children. To work in that direction and to achieve it, we are ready to do hold our flags high in the air, even if it seems a ‘circus’ to anybody. Vande Mataram.

J barandaay aar jete parbo na

Ei tobe shesh chhilo, erokom-i
Aar aayu chhilo na amader |
Najehal train chhute chole gyachhe
Shopner kon ek duuuuur barandaay |
Ek haath-e jol achhe, aar haath-e biskut,
PoRe achhe na-pawRa shaw-khaanek chirkut |
K jaabe footpath-e? k jaabe barandaay
k giye chhNuye debe sona nupurer paay

Ekbela kete gyalo | ekbela ei jaay |
Kaalkeo belabeli neme jeo rastaay |
Gondho nei. Rong nei | Aalo-tao kom kom |
K jeno chole gyalo awleek barandaay |

aay re paani jhNepe : 2

Kothay paani, din ke din shukiye jacche khNacha
Taar uporei haaste bolo, taar bhetorei bNacha

KhoNik sukhee, khoNer tore lukiye meghe rod-e
Ontorjamee ke jyano ek maapchhe asol sud-e

tukro aalo; paoar jhuRi bhorte bhorte khaali
aNchoR kete rokto makhi, makhai shudhu kaali

shukno khNachay roilo daana, roilo paalok, beRi
bhulei gele paani-r kotha | sondhe onek deri.

Kawtha-r paak-e jawRaay awaaj, matha-r kole byatha
Kothay paani? kothay? kothay? kothay kNaplo paata?

Sheta Tomaar Byapaar

Bhalobashbar joggo hao ni tumi |
Aar to tomay ek-i sur-e
Daak debona; jhogRa, baayna
Sab milalo phone-er bill-e |
Raat jaagbar teebro byatha
Bhuru-r upor jomaat bNaadhe
KNaadh chhNuye jaay preteder nishwash

Aamar
Bhalobashbar din phuriye gyachhe |

A Star in the Eastern Sky

You looked up and found
A star
In the eastern sky.



It was the brightest of all, and
You didn't notice it before. Huh!

It was a Friday evening, sultry summer.



The terrace was lonely as always. And it will ever be.
The air brought flower and dust; dry was your mind.

Someone started playing your tune at the horizon, east.



Thrice was it repeated, no, may be four times
Melancholy notes and sweet, familiar rhymes

Weary evening turns into night.

There are other stars,
They too should be reflected in the crystal.



It's gonna be the same.
Why bother?

Soaps

Sorry guys! This is not for those melodramatic t.v. stuff and considering me as the last person to check out what's going on in every random gharelu maamla, 'amaay maap koro baba' if you are in a bright/light hope for getting Star Jalsha or Colors update. Though I do know what's happening in Lolita's (the semi-neku and angry-young-wife of a bhyablakanto actor) world or what are the colors of the three sarees Anandi (does she need an intro anyway? heh!) wears with different permutations over the six days of a week----I feel the urge of banging my fist onto the t.v. screen everytime I walk past it in my drawing room these days. Whatever, you have to be aware of their daily nyakaamo if you are to live with your mom.

I understand that was a bit too long an introductory para, and I apologize as well; but I hope you won't get bored to the extent of watching an Indian T.F.D (didn't you get? it's Tele-Family-Drama, dear!) ;)...anyway, let's come to the point. I'm talking about soaps, my dear friends, the lump of chemicals that you play with and rub/don't touch (as choices may differ) while you bathe. Yes, I'm talking about those soaps, which give us 'tandroosti', save us from all those Satan-looking, trident-in-hand 'keetanoo's', and make us fall in love with the girl who was so ugly 2weeks before she used a particular soap and now looks all fair and is crowned in an anonymous beauty contest while the defending winner throws jealous looks and curses under her breathe. I love soaps. They kept me in a long-standing hope in my primary-school days that one fine morning I might discover a whole new bright & fair skin wrapping my flesh. I love playing with the bubbles and transparent films and memebranes with a hint of rainbow on them. And I love soaps for its ads with Ash, Priyanka, Katrina, Kareena et al ;)

I hate soaps, too. It slips off my hands almost everytime I hold them. I hesitate to pick them up from the bathroom floor. I hate to touch them when they slip from my hands to go right into the sink. Then, with utmost 'ghenna' I collect them as if it is an untouchable person and I'm a proud upper caste of the medieval(?) age. I have, though, taken some international-level catches to stop them from reaching the floor. I hate them when I wake up from a nap, don't ask me why, for I don't know the reason, as simple as that!