ask-aks

सपने

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:19:00 +0100

यादों का एक पुल जोड़ा है
समय के दरिया के उस पार

कुछ यादें हैं कुछ खामोशी
ज्यादा नीरस थोडा सार

कुछ चेहेरों की कुछ बातें हैं
कुछ गीतों की चीख पुकार

सार खोजना बात गलत है
मत डालो सपनों पे भार

"Rule Number 6"

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:31:44 +0100

Some of my friends have become worried that I have taken Mumbai blast far too personally..

To all of them.. I have only two things

1. Don’t worry my memory is as strong/weak as yours… so I will forget like you will
2. I always remember the “”Rule Number 6”

Now what is rule number 6??

“Rule Number 6” is ‘Don’t take yourself so damn seriously.’

मैं हूँ उनके साथ,खड़ी जो सीधी रखते अपनी रीढ़

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:31:06 +0100

So I have to come back to the basic questions that I asked myself the last time..

Who is to blame.. what is the solution..

So I focused on .. what influenced our culture the most lately..
I have looked at the establishment(so called), so now I turn to softer things

Art is the expression of societies concern..

So our writing is not inspiring enough lately.. (not withstanding the number of Bookers we win)…
We are more concerned about extramarital relations that poverty eradication or social change..

But the popular ART in India.. so to say is Bollywood.. and on a 50 yr time frame .. I examined who made the biggest impact…

So you come to think of the BIG man… he was superhero for a decade.. the lost all of it and then re-invented himself.. to regain the glory..

Now what is the most recent example he has set as an Icon..

Oops… he is a scared man.. threatened by few local goons..

Who apologizes for unrelated stuff his better half uttered ..

(Don’t for a second think that I have any sympathy for the goons) ..

But here we have an icon who doesn’t know how to respond…

Someone whose father wrote following lines

कभी नही जो तज सकते हैं, अपना न्यायोचित अधिकार
कभी नही जो सह सकते हैं, शीश नवाकर अत्याचार
एक अकेले हों, या उनके साथ खड़ी हो भारी भीड़
मैं हूँ उनके साथ, खड़ी जो सीधी रखते अपनी रीढ़

निर्भय होकर घोषित करते, जो अपने उदगार विचार
जिनकी जिह्वा पर होता है, उनके अंतर का अंगार
नहीं जिन्हें, चुप कर सकती है, आतताइयों की शमशीर
मैं हूँ उनके साथ, खड़ी जो सीधी रखते अपनी रीढ़

Hard to believe.. a son forgetting his fathers word..

So when a local goon says “I can threaten you in a democracy, even if you are a cultural icon”

He is no different to a terrorist who say

“I will single-handedly threaten the stability the biggest democracy on planet”

Its almost the same.. it’s a difference in Degree not Intent..

But is it completely the icons fault…

Didn’t I allow it to happen.. not protesting when it was happening

Why couldn’t all Marathi’s living outside Maharashtra stand in his support??

Why didn’t we have a support rally for him??

Is it only sight of blood that moves us????

So we all share the blame…

(I was becoming too much for me.. so I have decided to share the blame..)

Somewhere unconsciously, directly or indirectly,
We allowed it to happen..
what happened in Mumbai, reflects our attitude to life…

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,But in ourselves

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:10:51 +0100

So I will continue from where I left in the last post.
I ended by hoping that I’ll know better today.

In the meanwhile, everywhere I go people are still discussing the same stuff “Mumbai Attack’s”
seems this time public memory is a bit longer, and I still don’t have anything to offer.

I decided “Today I will have my logic and my solution”

I have a good IQ, I’m educated enough I’ll bash somebody in the discussion today.

So I said what would be the logical place to start.

Hmmm..

“the highest office of the country”
the office of the President of India, she/he is the supreme commander of forces in India ,
She/he is responsible..
yes that’s point.

And I was very happy, I’m original, nobody talked about it.. I have something to say..

Hold on a sec.. who is there.. ??

A lady who has no credentials to be there, poor lady doesn’t even have a clue…

Who put her there… off course the “politicians”..
ok I can blame them

But we had a good man there… he was respected, he knew about terrorism..
Oh lately he was in news for India’s moon mission…

Oh he had another term serve if allowed… so what happened…
did I protest when the game of his removal was going on…
did I call up my local MP.. vote for the “Missile Man” .. don’t play politics…

Surely I didn’t … why nobody else did it??

Wasn’t that an act of terror??.. all that our politicians said was
“we as politicians will destroy the topmost office of the nation” and people will watch..

So when a terrorist says
“We will destroy the biggest symbol of economic progress of biggest democracy”

Its almost the same.. it’s a difference in Degree not Intent..

Today all the men are laughing away with throwing resignation??

Is resigning enough, why shouldn’t they be tried in a court of law for not doing what they were supposed to do??

When a soldier tries to run from war or works against the country, he is tried and then court-martialed and/or shot. Why these politicians be spared??

But then I didn’t say anything when they did the same to “Highest office of the Land”?

So who is to blame, politicians.. but we knew what they always do..

I still don’t have anyone to blame and I still don’t have solution…

Somewhere unconsciously, directly or indirectly,

I allowed it to happen.. what happened in Mumbai, reflects my attitude to life…

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Yaksha Prashna

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:02:07 +0100

Yaksha : What is the greatest wonder?

Dharma (Yudhsthir) : Day after day countless people die. Yet we live as if we will live forever.

साधो रे ये मुर्दों का गाँव

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:50:20 +0100

I spoke a lot and to a lot of people over the last seventy two hours.

Extremely correct analysis of who is to blame,
Pakistan… politicians… corruption… technology… religion …
all had logic that I could not deny and all seemed correct and…
emotionally passionate too..

So I said well everyone seems to know what the reason is and what the solution is.
I felt miserable because I had no solution to offer, no one to blame… I’m confused..

So I said I’ll examine my response to the event as they unfolded, without any bias and see if something comes out.

So let me narrate what happened.

Someone called me to me… what was happening in Mumbai, I said ..“NOT AGAIN” .

Picked up the phone called whoever I knew in Mumbai who knows my “Core Group” (people who I care about in Mumbai)..
asked him “ all OK”
And he said yes all people of my “Core Group” are OK.
I breathed a sigh of relief .. Then back to CNN on how the “EVENTS UNFOLD”

So next day on Facebook similar messages “Hoping all in their circles were safe”

Hold on a second.. something was wrong … those who were caught in & later died were part of Somebody’s “Core Group” …sons and daughters, husbands and wives, brothers ans sisters.. more importantly Friends..

I realized that I live in a Cocoon called “Core Group”.
I live life in weekend compartments. Waiting for the next weekend with my Cocoon, if I am not in their city then wait for the next vacation with our Cocoon.

And most of us live like this and will die like this someday.

I expect that somebody will take care of the bigger things. A mahatma will be born in the next house. Or that I pay my taxes to government to pay our armed forces for this day only.

Imagine if a NSG commando said,” I don’t get enough salary, as my pay increase is stuck at Finance ministry.” or “The people stuck in Mumbai are not part of my “Core Group””.

I’m still very confused, but somewhere I have to take up the blame. If I live in a Cocoon how can I expect anybody else to come out of his and take care of affairs?

Just electing them (politicians) or paying them (armed forces & police) is not enough.

Saint Kabir once said … this is a city of dead..

साधो रे ये मुर्दों का गाँव
पीर मरे, पयगम्बर मरे हैं
मरे हैं जिंदा जोगी
रजा मरे हैं, परजा मरी हैं
मरे हैं वैद्य और रोगी
नाम अनाम अनंत रहत है
दूजा तत्त्व न होई
कहे कबीर सुनो भाई साधो
भटक मरो मत कोई

I still have no explanations to offer,
I am extremely confused.
Somewhere unconsciously, directly or indirectly, I allowed it to happen.. what happened in Mumbai, reflects my attitude to life…

And today I am one among the dead.. last line Kabir said, don’t die in ignorance.. maybe tomorrow I will know a bit better

On Mumbai attacks - शक्ति और क्षमा / रामधारी सिंह "दिनकर

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:48:28 +0100

क्षमा, दया, तप, त्याग, मनोबल सबका लिया सहारा
पर नर व्याघ्र सुयोधन तुमसे कहो, कहाँ कब हारा ?

क्षमाशील हो रिपु-समक्ष तुम हुये विनीत जितना ही
दुष्ट कौरवों ने तुमको कायर समझा उतना ही।

अत्याचार सहन करने का कुफल यही होता है
पौरुष का आतंक मनुज कोमल होकर खोता है।

क्षमा शोभती उस भुजंग को जिसके पास गरल हो
उसको क्या जो दंतहीन विषरहित, विनीत, सरल हो ।

तीन दिवस तक पंथ मांगते रघुपति सिन्धु किनारे,
बैठे पढ़ते रहे छन्द अनुनय के प्यारे-प्यारे ।

उत्तर में जब एक नाद भी उठा नहीं सागर से
उठी अधीर धधक पौरुष की आग राम के शर से ।

सिन्धु देह धर त्राहि-त्राहि करता आ गिरा शरण में
चरण पूज दासता ग्रहण की बँधा मूढ़ बन्धन में।

सच पूछो , तो शर में ही बसती है दीप्ति विनय की
सन्धि-वचन संपूज्य उसी का जिसमें शक्ति विजय की ।

सहनशीलता, क्षमा, दया को तभी पूजता जग है
बल का दर्प चमकता उसके पीछे जब जगमग है।

Before Sunrise's Poem

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 09:06:00 +0100

Daydream delusion, limousine eyelash

Oh baby with your pretty face

Drop a tear in my wineglass

Look at those big eyes

See what you mean to me

Sweet-cakes and milkshakes

I’m a delusion angel

I’m a fantasy parade

I want you to know what I think

Don’t want you to guess anymore / You have no idea where I came from

We have no idea where we’re going

Lodged in life

Like branches in a river

Flowing downstream

Caught in the current

I carry you

You’ll carry me

That’s how it could be

Don’t you know me?

Don’t you know me by now?

मेरा साया !!

Wed, 14 May 2008 17:34:00 +0100

हवा में आवाज़ ढूंढ़ता, परछाई में राज ढूंढ़ता
तन्हाई का मतलब पूछे, मंजिल में आगाज़ ढूंढ़ता

मेरा साया !!

परिभाषा की भाषा सोचे, आशा और निराशा सोचे
अंतर और निरंतर सोचे, क्यों सोचे है यह भी सोचे

मेरा साया !!

परिवर्तन की आस लगाये, बीती भूलों पर पछताये
सपनों के तारांकित आकाश में, अपना सूरज ढूँढने जाए

मेरा साया !!

वही मंत्रणा , वही छलावा, वही पुनारुक्त तृष्णा और माया
सब पे हँसता , सब को सहता, आगे बढ़ता

मेरा साया !

Photo

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:19:50 +0100

Ballad of Reading Gaol

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:22:00 +0100

Yet each man kills the thing he loves

By each let this be heard,

Some do it with a bitter look,

Some with a flattering word,

The coward does it with a kiss,

The brave man with a sword!

Some kill their love when they are young,

And some when they are old;

Some strangle with the hands of Lust,

Some with the hands of Gold:

The kindest use a knife, because

The dead so soon grow cold.

Some love too little, some too long,

Some sell, and others buy;

Some do the deed with many tears,

And some without a sigh:

For each man kills the thing he loves,

Yet each man does not die.

Beautifully rendered “Jan Gana Mana”. The people of Kenya do...

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:54:00 +0100

Beautifully rendered “Jan Gana Mana”. The people of Kenya do it for India

the unbearable lightness of being

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 07:16:08 +0100

“Being” is full of “unbearable lightness” because each of us has only one life to live.
Therefore, each life is ultimately insignificant;
Every decision ultimately does not matter.
Since decisions do not matter, they are “light”: they do not tie us down.
But at the same time, the insignificance of our decisions - our lives, or being - is unbearable.
Hence, “the unbearable lightness of being”.

staying connected

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 09:31:00 +0100

Well, yesterday was diwali the day was busy Pooja in office, Buying bangers for Party, Lunch with friends, and yes it was a week day.. so all the firefighting of ofiice.

Evening after the pooja & the bangers, I sat with few gentlemen in my complex (first time in 2 yrs… usually I out to my friends .. or doing somthing alone).

As all of us are working the talk turns to Impression of Nigeria in India, and moves to hectic pace of life, and I had stong views on so called “Staying Connected”

Mobile Phones: Strictly after observation I still cant understand
- why you need to call people in your family (parents) everyday
- why do you need to check on your partner every 3 hrs
- does having 5 conversations about trivial things like, whats cooking, what show on TV, what the latest news
- and dont ask about young parents, they dont want their kids to even think, its almost a crime it they do anything without refering to parents, and more often than not its becoming a two way process ie parents not doing anything without asking the kids
Online connectivity: Now this is more of personal experience
- Email: is the best Creativity Killing tool, the reason being “you can never finish a clear line of thought when you most need it BECAUSE an email lands in-between
- CC: is Bad, its compulsivefor most people to have point of view, else they feel they are not adding value
- BCC:Even worse,if people know somone does BCC then its twice more compulsive to respond
- CHAT: more addictive that smoking (i’m on both chat and smoking), actually makes nobody feel better, whether you did it or not
- In all the above creativity is moving out of “Business Offices” to the so called consultants

Now turn the clock 10 year back, we were not so connected, we used to write letters (an art very clearly losing, but being replaced by blogs).

Think of it 15 yrs back, people lived without mobile phones.

I’m not for or against any technology or gadget want to know where this “Staying Connected” trend is going.

My hunch, its oly going to increase (look at social networking).

So more mails/phone calls/Chat in the coming days.

पानी केरा बुलबुला, त्यों मानुष की जात

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:14:36 +0100

आदमी बुलबुला है पानी का ,
और पानी की बहती सतह पर ,
टूटता भी है , डूबता भी है !
फिर उभरता है, फिर से बहता है,
ना समन्दर निगल सका इसको ,
ना तवारीख तोड़ पायी है!
वक़्त की मौज पर सदा बहता,
आदमी बुलबुला है पानी का !

Gulzar

Total Acceptance - Humour

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:58:17 +0100

Now attention itself is the Key, but … and thats a very BIG BUT….

The only way to perceive everything around is division, into categories..

The amount of choices that we make every moment is enormous e.g

which direction to look
what to do with your idle hand
which thought to follow
which song to hum in the deep background

to say it plainly .. attention - being here-now is a very difficult thing to achieve.. so the next logical thing is to make one choice.. with awareness..

But how does it feel to be here-now … the easiest and the closest is humor.. a good joke is something like ..

“Following a train of logical thought & sudden introduction on another thought which is perpendicular to it”

but the effect is magical, for once the listener becomes here-now & thats why a sense of humor is one of the best gifts a person can have.

now if you turn the logic upside down.. when everything in reality is looked at like a joke .. you get peculiar insights…

If you get any.. enjoy :)

Attention - being here-now

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:41:34 +0100

Its funny sometimes, that whenever I discuss a work of fiction with any serious reader (who has read more than 25 works of serious fiction) they always rave and rant about the details:

The description of fading paint.. or the lyrical crushing of leaves under feet.. or the smell of pickle.. or the stitches of the dress .. or the lights and so on..

the fun is that the same people never look at walls of their own house.. or the shadow of tree on the way to office.. their own clothes… just keep on walking…

The second clue I think on the way of life is Attention- being here-now..

I’ll quote Ryokan again

First days of spring

First days of spring — the sky
is bright blue, the sun huge and warm.
Everything’s turning green.
Carrying my monk’s bowl, I walk to the village
to beg for my daily meal.
The children spot me at the temple gate
and happily crowd around,
dragging to my arms till I stop.
I put my bowl on a white rock,
hang my bag on a branch.
First we braid grasses and play tug-of-war,
then we take turns singing and keeping a kick-ball in the air:
I kick the ball and they sing, they kick and I sing.
Time is forgotten, the hours fly.
People passing by point at me and laugh:
“Why are you acting like such a fool?”
I nod my head and don’t answer.
I could say something, but why?
Do you want to know what’s in my heart?
From the beginning of time: just this! just this

Ryokan

Accpetance

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:11:19 +0100

After the last post someone asked, whats the way of life.

The answer that I could come up was “I don’t know” , but have some clues to what is the way.

The first - Acceptance that the basis of life are opposites, and those opposites are combined, you choose one you automatically choose the other. Ryokan said it better

Where beauty is, then there is ugliness;
where right is, also there is wrong.
Knowledge and ignorance are interdependent;
delusion and enlightenment condition each other.
Since olden times it has been so.
How could it be otherwise now?
Wanting to get rid of one and grab the other
is merely realizing a scene of stupidity.
Even if you speak of the wonder of it all,
how do you deal with each thing changing?
-Ryokan-

Zen Poem

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:59:06 +0100

Zen lives in the present. The whole teaching is: how to be in the present, how to get out of the past which is no more and how not to get involved in the future which is not yet, and just to be rooted, centered, in that which is.

Too lazy to be ambitious

Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days’ worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.

By: Ryokan

the right technique of meditation

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:50:57 +0100

Of all the teachings and styles of meditation I have been exposed to (even last week), the simplest and i think the only way way to meditate was suggested by Tilopa.

According to Taranatha, Tilopa practised with a ksetra yogini, the daughter of a sesame seed pounder, and the monks expelled him from the monastery. Because he was a former Brahmin Pandita and Buddhist monk, he had lost all his opportunities for wealth and fame. He pursued the work of a sesame seed pounder in the town. He then came to be known as “Tillipa,” the sesame pounder.

Six Words of Advice from Tilopa

Let go of what has passed.

Let go of what may come.

Let go of what is happening now.

Don’t try to figure anything out.

Don’t try to make anything happen.

Relax, right now, and rest.

Please note its a technique for meditating, its not a way of life.