Whole month away

Wedneday, November 30 2005..... and that completes my "first calendar month outside India".

Wo kamra yaad aata hai

Main jab bhi zindagi ki chilchilatee dhoop mein tapkar

Main jab bhi doosron ke aur apne jhooth see thak kar
Main sabse lad ke khud se haar ke
Jab bhi us ik kamre mein jaata tha
Wo halke aur gehre katthai rangon ka ik kamra
Wo behad meherbaan kamra
Jo apni narm mutthi mein mujhe aise chhupa leta tha
Jaise koi maan bachche ko aanchal mein chhupa le
Pyaar se daante,
"Ye kya aadat hai, jalti dopahar mein maare maare ghoomte ho tum"

Wo kamra yaad aata hai

Dabeez aur khaasa bhaari kuch zara mushkil se khulne waala
wo sheesham ka darwaaza

Ki jaise koi akkhad baap apne khurdare seene mein
shafqat ke samandar ko chuupaye ho

Wo kursi, aur uske saath wo judwaan bahen uski
Wo dono dost thein meri

Wo ik gustakh munhphat aaina,
jo dil ka achchha tha

Wo behangam si almari,
jo kone mein khadi ik boodhi anna ki tarah
aaine ko tambeeh karti thee

Wo ik guldaan, nanha sa, bahut shaitan,
un dono pe hansta tha

Dareecha ya zahanat se bhari ik muskurahat
aur dareeche pe jhuki wo bel
Koi sabz sargoshi

Kitabein taakh mein aur shelf par sanjeeda ustaani bani baithein
Magar sab muntazir is baat ki main unse kuchh poochoon

Sirhane neend ka saathi, thakan ka charagar wo narm dil takiya
Main jiski god mein sir rakh ke chhat ko dekhta tha

Chhat ki kadiyon mein na jane kitne afsanon ki kadiyaan thein

Wo chhoti mez par aur saamne deewar par aawezaan tasveerein
Mujhe apnaiyat aur yaqeen se dekhtein thein, muskuratein thein

Unhein shak bhi nahi tha, ik din main unko aise chhod jaoonga
Main ik din yoon bhi jaoonga, ki phir wapas na aaoonga

Main ab jis ghar mein rehta hun, bahut hi khoobsoorat hai

Magar aksar yahan khamosh baitha yaad karta hoon

Wo kamra baat karta tha....!

• This is a poem by Javed Akhtar from his Album Tarkash. You may see the meanings of tough words and the poem in Devnagari script on the web-site.

Only in India?

Our sense of beauty and appreciation for aesthetics comes from the culture we have grown into, and when it comes to personify non-living objects, I think Indians have an edge over the rest of the world. But first - Why personification and aesthetics are so related? We want to perceive things in the most beautiful way (perhaps the way we, the human beings are) and try to locate faces, eyes and even emotions in those non-living things. Biologically many things may be non-living, but still there is a certain amount of life in those things which forces us to identify those things with us.

In my perception, a river is as dynamic and hence as alive as any other living creature. I'll say a river has more life than us - our lives stay for, say 80 years, but a rivers flows and is the witness of several human generations for centuries and millenniums.

This comparision of humans with a river came to my mind for two reasons: First - when someone here asked me the meaning of a Hindi song I was listening to ("Kaisee hai ye rut" from DCH, read its second stanza) and another was the news of passing away of Nirmal Verma, a well-known name in Hindi Literature.

I told someone here that in "Kaisee hai ye rut" the river is being compared to a lady who goes to meet her beloved, The Ocean - and the person replied - "Crazy!". I realised that he was not able to understand (forget apreciation) the beauty which lies in the words of the song. I do not blame him for it bacause the kind of culture he was grown into didn't see any beauty in comparing a river with a lady.

The second reason for writing this blog, as I have mentioned, is the death of Nirmal Verma last month. I'll mention the details in a future blog.

• PS: The "future blog" promised above is available here.