मिट्टी और पानी

तुमसे हम यूँ दूर हुए

जैसे पानी से किनारा था 

तुम बहते रहे दरिया बन के 

हम चलते रहे किनारा करके 

बस एक बारिश का आना था 

बाड़ तेरे सीने उमड़ी

और डूब हमें फिर जाना था 

अब मिट्टी मेरी तुझमें है 

तू ऐसे ही मटमैला हुआ 

ये सब बारिश की ग़लती है 

ज़बरन हमको मिलवाना था 

कब मौसम बदले

पता नहीं

कब सूरज चमके पता नहीं

तू कब बह निकले 

पता नहीं

ज़मीं तो मेरी अपनी है 

थक कर यूँ ही बैठ जाना था 

अब बाट निहारे 

बैठी हूँ

कब बादल गरजे 

ऐंठी हूँ 

कब तेरे दिल मैं 

लहर उठे 

कब बहता दरिया 

सिहर उठे 

कब तुझमें यूँ रम जाऊँ मैं 

फिर दूर कहीं बिखर जाऊँ मैं 

हर मंज़िल तेरे सदके है 

या मूर्त मैं ढल जाना था !

The Success story

I am successful 

I guess I have reached the summit 

Beyond being the obedient daughter

Ahead of the subservient wife

Far away from the good enough daughter in law

Somewhere above the all sacrificing mother

And I climbed 

Above and beyond 

The clouds of my dream land

Which is supposed to be green

And vibrant

All breezy and sunshine

Here I stand 

Looking down on the steps 

I had to hop and skip

There goes the witty laughter

And there falls the halo

Here scatters the ego

There evaporates the glory

I spread my wings

I have to fly

The free sky beckons 

Towards the breezy sunshine

Here I come

I have climbed above the tentacles

The society bound me with

Here I rise

The agony strikes

The tug is stronger

The pull inevitable

Tied to my womanhood

Here I come

Back to the earth

Of my reality!

Reflections V- Are we creating digital memories at the cost of experiencing them?

Few years back I attended a wedding ceremony and found it amusing that the various props and well rehearsed performances had made it more of a video shoot than the actual event of meeting and blessing the bride and groom. Since then, the blitzkrieg of high performance mobile cameras and incessant activity on social networking sites has converted life into a role play at virtual Broadway than a real experience felt and stored in the by lanes of sensitive human brain.Similar sentiment was expressed by another writer in news article recently that we are emphasizing on creating digital memories at the cost of experiencing the event and forming an emotional memory in our brain.
But the shock of my life happened recently when I had to spend several hours at my son's school because he was unable to adjust in his new class where I saw that all school activities were being shot or recorded on camera by teachers while children were performing them. On the second day, when I saw it being repeated in my son's class, it irked my sensibilities as to what are we teaching our young ones. Philosophically, life is a play and we are all actors, but to be in front of camera while important lessons of life are being learnt was stretching it a bit too far. Here I must emphasize that the shock had not struck me while I was contemplating about the assistant teacher who, instead of being involved with the kids was recording and setting the light and positioning of class room, it was not even at the thought that sensitive and easily moulded minds of kids were observing and learning from teacher's behavior that will eventually promote the idea of posing for the moment rather than enjoying or learning from the moment and projecting a better picture rather than being a better person, it actually hit me after my interaction with the center supervisor.
When I vocalized my concern to the center supervisor, she immediately went into a defensive mode and responded that that was what the parents expected that their children's activity should be chronicled on face book. My attempt at reasoning with her that the effective student teacher ratio went down if one teacher was involved in recording the activities met with a stubborn effort to emphasize that it was not happening because children were anyway learning. Further discussions again met at a rigid wall that they were expected by the management to put up pictures so that school's activities could be highlighted.
"And what about the children?"
"Aren't they learning their alphabets?"
I mean really, is that all they come to school for, to learn alphabets? How about lessons of life, how to interact with people, build friendships and nurture a base for positive life philosophies like living in the moment and learning from experiences? School is a place where little children learn by watching adult behavior, the educationist therefore holds the biggest responsibility, perhaps even before a parent because at times even parents need guidance regarding how they should handle a child.
The selfie culture being debated nowadays has generated enough concern among mental health practitioners that there is a move to consider and list the deleterious effect of such behavior on human psyche. The excessive use of electronic gadgets is already  considered on the spectrum of addiction and obsession and defined under electronic screen syndrome. The ill effects of overt emphasis on social networking sites to build virtual social world at the cost of real human interaction is being discussed on regular basis in media and in intellectual circuits. Behavioral addictions are being explored and researched due to the disruptive effect of increase of internet and gaming on routine life activities and withdrawal symptoms seen in their absence. Despite all of this, school authorities are unable to understand the importance of a concern of how exposing the growing child to 24x7 digital recording. Moreover, school is emphasizing more on marketing strategies and what satisfies the parent as a client instead of addressing their responsibility of nurturing the next generation.
Yes, I am concerned, and I am afraid as to the impact of this lack of concern at the educationist's level and at society's level at large on the personality of future generation. Are we creating individuals who will spend life for display or would experience life while living and evolving with every moment spent.

Stains

Don't we love

Our bright white shirt

And then there is that stain

The yellow curry

He tried to feed 

The tea that trickled

When the hand shivered

The mud that splashed

On the rainy night

The salty tears

She cried at the shoulder 

The lipstick smudge

During the hasty kiss

The bright white shirt

With all those stains

Isn't bright anymore

Nor is it white

The story of our lives

Filling empty spaces....

I am the light!

The virtue of being lit

enthralls the dark

But being lit

is being burnt 

And while my shadow

is what I dwell in

You see the light

The flame is sapping 

the life force

Soon the burning will cease

Soon the shroud

of cool dark shadows 

will drown the pain of burning

Should there be no virtue

in the ease and comfort of darkness

For things to lie low

and not grow

But then what's the purpose of me

While I burn

I make your shadows

dance on the wall

I burn

Not because I am lit

I burn

Because I am the light!

देखो बादलों का दिल टूट रहा है!

देखो बादलों का दिल टूट रहा है

कोई बंदिशों से लड़ रहा है

कोई बंधन संजो रहा है

पर रेत गीली होती है

तो बह जाती है

और मिट्टी समन्दर को भी कैद कर लेती है

दिल में जो उमड़ रही है

वो हसरत है

छलक कर बहती है तो आँसू हैं

सिमट कर रहती है तो आह है

कोई बिलख के सो जाता है

कोई सिसक के सहम जाता है

आसमान की पेशानी पे

उसके नूर का इंतज़ार है

जो कशमकश की सिलवटे

सहला के बिठा दे

किसी को जगाना है

किसी ने दूर जाना है।

The Woman

I have been here Forever

Surviving as we all do

I am not always perfect

I strive to be

I am not always strong

I try to be

I don't mean to be put on pedestal

I don't need to be worshipped 

I need you

As much as you need me

I am a human

You call me a woman