When We'll ?

Dear Friends,

I was wondering as to how quietly India is going to general elections this time. Has economic slowdown taken it's toll in political realm as well ?

Well, in the backdrop of the most electrified elections on the planet, i.e. US Presidential election 2008, general election 2009 in India is an utterly dull affair. If 26/11 carnage and economic mess are the concerns of ruling UPA, waiting NDA too can't boast of anything better and plausible suggestion/solution put forward by it before the people of India. Do the political leaders/parties in India are so bankrupt mentally that they can't even offer to sell something good to people this time ? It's a pity that the oldest party in India, who's ruled the country for more than 50 years has to tell the people that Slumdog's success at Oscars & Chandrayaan's flight to Moon are the shining example of "Achieving India" & it's better administration than that of NDA. Well, tomorrow we can hear from an erudite spokesman of this "Monarch" (than the party) that even Arvind Adiga's "enterprenurial" success at Manbooker's Prize is attributable to UPA's "The-White-Tiger-inspiring" rule !

I may sound cynical in writing this but frankly speaking, sometimes I wonder that democracy in India has become a 'joke' and elections a sort of 'tamasha' for its politicians. And we electorates are kind of 'tamashabeens", who enjoys, clapps and merrily throw our hard-earned money to these madaris as election expenditure.

• Will be ever pause and think twice before casting our vote that where this "vote" will lead to our beloved country in next five years ?
• Are we really serious about seeking the solutions of the problems and hardships that we common Indians are facing in our day-today life ?
• Do we ever see the future of our coming generations in our franchise the way America did this time ?
• Do we ever ask our politicians to tell us about a concrete workplan that they have to offer us for next five years of their rule, if voted to power ?

It's 60 years now, and we have 60 Crores youths in our country at the moment, when will we dare do this ? If not now, then when ?

Just think over it ?

बराक ओबामा की राजनीति

अमेरिका के राष्ट्रपति के रूप में अपने कार्यकाल के १०० दिन पूरे कर चुके बराक ओबामा ने कल यानि २५ फरबरी को अमेरिकन कांग्रेस को पहली बार संबोधित करते हुए कुछ ऐसा किया जो संभवतः अमेरिकी इतिहास में पहली बार हुआ है । बराक ओबामा कांग्रेस से अमेरिका को आर्थिक मंदी से उबारने के लिए प्रस्तुत अपने ७५० बिलियन डॉलर के पैकेज को पास करने की अपील करते हुए एक ऐसा कारनामा किया जो बराक ओबामा की अपनी ही किस्म की नई राजनीति की शुरुआत का संकेत है ।

जिन लोगों ने कल टेलीविजन पर बराक ओबामा का भाषण देखा है, उन्होंने उनकी पत्नी मिशेल ओबामा के पास में बैठी उस अश्वेत लड़की को भी देखा होगा जो बड़े ही शांत भाव से ओबामा का भाषण सुनते हुए अमेरिकन कांग्रेस की कार्यवाही भी देख रही थी । दरअसल ये अमेरिका के सुदूर प्रान्त साउथ कैरोलिना के एक गाँव की लड़की थी, जिसने अमेरिकन कांग्रेस को एक पत्र लिखा था । उस पत्र में उसने लिखा था कि वो जिस स्कूल में पढ़ती है, उसकी छत बरसात में टपकती है, उसकी दीवारों से पेंट झड़ गया है और उसके पास से निकलने वाली ट्रेनों से इतना शोर होता है, कि वो पढ़ नहीं पाती है । इतना ही नहीं उसने यह भी लिखा कि ऐसी स्थिति में उसके पास स्कूल छोड़ने के अलावा कोई और विकल्प नहीं है । यहाँ तक कि उस पत्र पर आने वाले डाक खर्च के पैसे भी उसने अपने स्कूल की प्रिंसिपल से लिए थे ।

ओबामा ने न केवल उस लड़की को वहां से वाशिंगटन बुलाकर अमेरिकन कांग्रेस में बैठाया, बल्कि उसके जरिये एक संदेश दिया कि हर अमेरिकी को कम से कम १० वी पास करना होगा और अगर इसके लिए उनके पास पैसे की कमी है तो सरकार उसे पूरी पढ़ाई के लिए २५००० डॉलर की सहायता देगी । ओबामा ने यह भी कहा कि दुनिया का कोई भी स्कूल माता-पिता की जगह नहीं ले सकता, इसलिए अमेरिका के अभिभावकों को बच्चों को टेलीविजन देखने से रोकना होगा, वीडियो गेम्स खेलना बंद कराना होगा और बच्चों को पढने के लिए प्रेरित करना होगा । कुछ समय पहले राहुल गाँधी ने संसद में अपने भाषण में कलावती का जिक्र करते हुए भारत के आम आदमी को भारत-अमेरिका परमाणु संधि से होने वाले फायदे की बात कही थी, लेकिन यहीं भारतीय नेताओं की कोरी लफ्फाजी और बराक ओबामा की संवेदनशीलता में अन्तर का पता चलता है । क्या आज कोई आम आदमी इस बात की अपेक्षा कर सकता है कि उसके द्वारा संसद को संबोधित पत्र को उतनी ही संवेदनशीलता के साथ सरकार द्वारा लिया जायेगा, जितनी आशा और व्यवस्था में विश्वास के साथ उसने वो पत्र लिखा है ? दरअसल हमारे नेताओं ने बीते ६० वर्षों में व्यवस्था को इतना कमजोर बना दिया है, कि उसमे आम आदमी के नाम पर योजनायें तो बनायी जाती हैं और उन पर करोड़ों रुपये का कागजी खर्च भी दिखाया जाता है । बेशर्मी की हद तो तब हो जाती है, जब फर्जी आंकडों के जरिये देश को यह बताने की पुरजोर कोशिश भी की जाती है, कि देश हर साल बहुत तरक्की कर रहा है । शायद ऐसे में आर.के.लक्ष्मण का 'आम आदमी' का कार्टून ही प्यारा लगता है ।

हमारे नेता अपने आप को आम आदमी का कितना भी बड़ा हमदर्द साबित करने की होड़ में शामिल क्यों न हों, लेकिन संस्कृति और सभ्यता के नाम पर अमेरिका को पानी पी-पीकर कोसने की जगह ओबामा की राजनीति से कुछ सीखने का साहस जुटा पायेंगे ? यह तो बराक ओबामा की राजनीति की केवल शुरुआत है, आगे-आगे देखिये होता है क्या !

हिन्दी लेखन और पाठक

हिन्दी में लेखन अपने आप में एक अद्भुत अनुभव है ! वैसे भी मातृभाषा में लिखना ठीक वैसा ही है, जैसे माँ की गोद में बैठकर कोई कहानी सुनना । मेरे इस चिट्ठे में पहली बार मैं हिन्दी में लिख रहा हूँ । मेरी पारिवारिक पृष्ठभूमि के कारण यूँ तो विद्यार्थी जीवन से ही मेरी हिन्दी बहुत अच्छी रही है और मैंने १२ वीं बोर्ड की परीक्षा में इस भाषा में विशेष योग्यता भी हासिल की थी, परन्तु मुझे हिन्दी में स्वविचारों के लेखन एवं उसके लिए प्रथम पारितोषिक मेरी स्नातक प्रथम वर्ष की पढ़ाई के दौरान "हिन्दी दिवस" पर आयोजित निबंध प्रतियोगिता में मिला था, जिसे मैं कभी नहीं भूल सकता । शायद उसका एक कारण यह भी है कि मुझे यह पुरस्कार उस समय मेरे गृह नगर अशोक नगर के तत्कालीन एस डी एम, आई ए एस अधिकारी श्री चितरंजन कुमार खेतान के हाथों मिला था जो कि स्वयं एम ए (हिन्दी) में गोल्ड मेडलिस्ट थे और सिविल सर्विसेस परीक्षा में उन्होंने हिन्दी माध्यम से सफलता पाई थी । तब मैं यह नहीं जानता था कि एक दिन मुझे इनके साथ काम करने का सौभाग्य भी प्राप्त होगा ।

हिन्दी में चिट्ठा लेखन का जनक आलोक कुमार को कहा जाता है । "देवनागरी" शीर्षक से लिखे जाने वाले अपने चिट्ठे में वे न केवल समसामयिक विषयों पर अपने विचार व्यक्त करते हैं, अपितु पाठकों की हिन्दी में लेखन की समस्याओं का भी हल बताते हैं । आजकल हिन्दी में काफी लिखा जा रहा है और हिन्दी में चिट्ठा लेखन ने इसको और भी सुगम बना दिया है । फिर भी एक बात जो शायद मैं ठीक से नहीं समझ पाया वो ये कि क्यों आज प्रेमचंद, महादेवी वर्मा, सूर्यकांत त्रिपाठी 'निराला', हरिवंश राय बच्चन जैसे लेखक और उनके जैसी कालजयी कृतियाँ पाठकों को पढने नही मिलतीं । चूंकि आजकल अंग्रेज़ी गद्य में अच्छे लेखक और अच्छे उपन्यास लिखे जा रहे हैं इसलिए बरबस ही अपनी पढने की क्षुधा को शांत करने के लिए उनको पढ़ रहा हूँ । चेतन भगत, विकास स्वरुप, अरविन्द अदिगा, झुम्पा लाहिडी, जैसे लेखकों की किताबें पढने में काफी रुचिकर लगती हैं । दुर्भाग्यवश हिन्दी में इस तरह का लेखन आजकल या तो नही हो रहा है या इनको छापने के लिए प्रकाशकों का अभाव है, जिसके कारण ऐसी रचनाएँ देखने में नही आ रही हैं । कारण जो भी हो, पर हिन्दी के पाठकों के लिए यह सुखद स्थिति नही है ।

कुछ समय पहले मैंने प्रसिद्ध ब्राजीली लेखक पाउलो कोएल्हो द्वारा लिखित किताब 'दा अल्केमिस्ट' का स्वर्गीय कमलेश्वर द्वारा अनुवादित हिन्दी संस्करण पढ़ा था, उसके तुंरत बाद मैंने उसका मूल अंग्रेज़ी संस्करण पढ़ा । मेरी खुशी का तब कोई ठिकाना नहीं रहा जब मैंने हिन्दी अनुवाद को अंग्रेज़ी मूल से किसी भी तरह कमतर नहीं पाया । ऐसा शायद इसलिए क्योंकि स्वर्गीय कमलेश्वर की स्वयं की रचना 'कितने पाकिस्तान' एक कालजयी कृति है और वे हिन्दी के उत्कृष्ट लेखक होने के साथ साथ अंग्रेज़ी किताबों के भी एक अच्छे पाठक थे । शायद यह बात आज के हिन्दी के लेखक और उनके लेखन की सच्ची दास्तान को बयां करती है । भाषा अभिव्यक्ति का माध्यम है पर विचार किसी भाषा विशेष तक ही सीमित नही होते । इसलिए विचारों को ग्रहण करने के लिए एक अच्छा पाठक होना बहुत आवश्यक है ।

आज के लिए बस इतना ही......
रिषभ

Reality Bites ?

Nice to see a journalist like Rajdeep Sardesai in sombre mood of introspection and his comments on his profession & colleagues in India http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/rajdeepsardesai/1/53198/pakistans-reality-bytes.html , but somehow it seems that this is yet another piece of fine advocacy of Pakistan & Pakistanis by you (this time Pak media being your darling) after 26/11. Let's discuss it threadware here :

1. The point that you have made here of mainstream Paki news channel scoring over Indian mainstream news channels, is a complete farce. I am following our mainstream English news channels almost without an escape and have found that the quality of debate that our main English news channels like Times Now (Arnab Goswami leading the lot), CNBC-TV18 (Karan Thapar-the most erudite and perhaps one of the finest media anchors in the world), NDTV 24x7(Barkha Dutt-"Kiran Bedi of India Media" & the suave Vikram Chandra with flawless accent) and Hindi channels like Zee News (Punya Prasoon Vajpai-a clone of SP), CNBC Awaaz (Sanjay Pugalia) had had on scores of contemporary & current affairs were treat to watch & listen. Sadly both CNN-IBN & its Hindi channel IBN7 are still legging way behind, understandably because of its anchors being in no comparison to the abovelisted mavericks (excluding of course you and your wife Sagarika). Infact far from being trivia driven, jingoistic and less enterprising than its Paki counterpart, mainstream Indian Television has by & large fared much better.

2. To swallow the prescription that the incumbent government in Pakistan has admitted it's non-state actors' "partial role" in 26/11 owing to the investigative journalism of Geo TV & Dawn newspaper, is as bitter as a Quinane pill. This is in tune with Indian political leadership's bagpiper tune of Pakistan wilting under its "diplomatic pressure" to make such a "brave" admission. As if, this hollow claim was not enough, you've now appeared with such a wonderful "investigative story". As if, people in India are fool enough and they can't just see this one simple truth of Barack Obama's "man on mission" Richard Holbrooke being in Islamabad right at the moment. As a testimony to this fact, Pak's Interior Minister Rehman Malik sweating (under air conditioner) before the international media while informing them about the connivance of its bad boys' in Mumbai massacre have been seen by millions of Indians. Now please, don't say that the AC was not working that day ! Ha !

3. If at all, Pak media can be credited, even slightly, with bringing out the truth of Ajmal Kasab being a Faridkot resident (when the whole world knew it), much belated corrective steps of scalping of then incompetent political honchos (Patils, Deshmukh etc) by the drowsy leadership in India can be attributed to Indian media as well.

4. If you are really damn serious about the superior quality of Pak's mainstream television over their Indian counterpart & really wanna form some kind of positive opinion about them in India, then please ask Mr. Hamid Mir (Geo TV) & Mr. Nazam Sethi (Dawn) to show only this much generosity of providing some slot/space in their media to at least people like you so that if not listening to what the majority of Indians have to say about Pak, they can have access to first hand view of an Indo-Pak Friendship ambassador.

I can really write a whole article here on this issue, but what's preventing me is the shortage of time and that too for an issue of much lesser priority-the ever impossible "Indo-Paki" friendship.

Regards,

-Rish

How Can I ?

Forests can die, mountains can fly.
You can forget me, but how can I ?

Cuckoos can cry, oceans can dry.
You can forget me, but how can I ?

Winds can be shy, tides can be tie.
You can forget me, but how can I ?

Grass can grow high, Sequoia can go bonsai.
You can forget me, but how can I ?

There may be no sky & even God may lie.
You can forget me, but how can I ?

These all are just words, which may go by.
But you'll remain in my heart always,
Till the life bids good bye.

-Rish

Deep inside..............

Deep inside..............
Core of the Earth,
lies the enduring fire.

Deep inside..............
Core of my heart,
lies an intense desire.

Deep inside..............
Bottom of the ocean,
lies clusters of sea-shells.

Deep inside..............
One of those fine sea-shells,
lies an awesome white pearl.

Deep inside..............
Me is an everlasting thirst,
to clinch that glittering jewel first.

- Rish

A FRIEND

As I am sitting alone,
few thoughts are going along,
Trying to put them into words,
For the one who touches my chords.

A friend for life I'll be
& this comes from my heart.

As beautiful as white snow on hills in winter,
As we share a thought or an idea or a smile,
As deep as the endless blue ocean,
No matter what the distance is,
Be it close or be very far.

As warm as the summer sun
As fresh as first raindrop
Be it on roof or at hill top.
In an idea, a book or in star
& With everyday something new.

-Rish

An Open Letter to AB

Dear Sir,

Following your blog for quite sometime & read the recent entry on SM (Day 292(i)) with great interest. Being a TOI freak for almost 15 years, I've already read the piece that has been displayed here the very same day of its appearence in the esteemed national daily, but couldn't resist myself from commenting upon it here.

Though, I haven't seen the movie (SM) yet, but have already read a lot about it in media. I didn't see it till now for two reasons, precisely. One, I can't tolerate any shit being thrown at/shown to us by anyone (especially the West) for screwing us at international arena, even in fiction/film. Two, I first wanted to read the novel Q & A (which I am reading these days) to understand what Vikas Swarup, an IFS Officer has written actually, and how Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy have adapted it in their story/screenplay to show it on the screen. Here, it seems right in poiting out that in the celluloid version of Q&A, VS's original story has been concocted, distorted, mutilated & has been fabricated by Boyle-Beaufoy duo to a large extent to show the world about the "reality" of India's progress. Infact, SM is India's story in the eyes of West.

Now coming to the more vital point, if Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy are "guilty" of showcasing India in SM as a country of shanties, accidentally barged into the the royal premises of the West, Vikas Swarup is no less responsible for portraying his own country as a "sick nation" in his fiction "Q & A". Being an Indian Foreign Service Officer, he's expected to work as India's real ambassador to the outside world rather than busy writing fictions for reel about the filth, crime, abject poverty, gangwars, paedophiles & all kind of shits. Another classic example of this intellectual bankruptcy is Aravind Adiga of "The White Tiger" fame, who has been awarded with Manbooker's Prize, the highest literary award of Britain. (Sir, you may have got it for "Baghwaan" in the reel but one would be living in fool's paradise, if he expects it for such kind of story in real...ha!) "The White Tiger" too is a hyper-tale of sorry state of affairs in India. Written with abysmally dismal & utterly pessimistic view of the country, Adiga went on to admire China as a freedom loving nation, suitably forgetting the "Thienmann Square" massacre of students demonstrating for the very "freedom" and a whole set of records that wreaks of gross human right violations behind 'bamboo curtains'.

"What a fucking joke !"

This is nothing but the height of hypocrisy on the part of writers like Swarup & Adiga (the Indian poster boys of West) to feed such adrenaline-pumping stories to the Western audience, tired & bored of sex & all kind of perversion, & getting a Dollar-Pound laced pat on the back. If India & Indians have anything to make a hue & cry about, it's not SM but these kinds of Indian writers who should face the music first.

It's no wonder that foreign authors like Dominique Lappierre, Larry Collins, William Dalrymple, A.L. Basham & John Key have written (well-researched & impeccably ordered) so much & so beautifully about India and so has been done by Richard Attenborough in "Gandhi" but in modern India, we have a generation of Swarup, Adiga, Arundhati & likes who are busy in using their "talent" and energy in showing the "real" India to the world, especially West.

"What a fucking joke !"

Sir, besides this, I'd also like to share with you the joy of being at the last point of our beloved country, the Kanniyakumari, where one can not only have an eye-feast of watching the confluence of three oceans - Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean & Bay of Bengal but can also see the two great sages of modern India from East & South, Swami Vivekanand & Saint Thiruvalluwar standing side by side with majestic 'Samudra-Sangam' touching their feet and feel the radiance of Swami Vivekanand's sheer power of 'dhyana' he did at the rock where his memorial stands aloft today. I've visited this place in 2002 en route to my South sojourn and still reminisce those beautiful moments of my life. Enjoy your stay there!

With love n regards,

Rish

Compassion

O Mother !

I don't know the meaning of 'Compassion',
I think and ask my teacher in continuation,
He tells me numerous in succession,
But, unable to convince even one in lesson.

I say, "Let it go, Sir", in desperation,
I'll ask to my mother for explanation,
He laughs with surprise n exclamation,
But, I know, "I am right", in elation.

When the pall of gloom & dark start receding,
And the first gleams of morning Sun peeping,
In that soft bright light, I see your face glowing,
In those hopeless days my all troubles race blowing.

In very plain & simple words that you spell,
The best possible meaning how easily you tell,
Don't know which school you went,
& how many classes did you attend.

-Rish