Thursday, 29 December 2011
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Urdu shayari
KARNA CHAHTA HOON KYA MAIN, MAIN KHUD TOH JAAN LOON PEHLE,
SAPNE TOH BOHOT HAI, HAI PAR WOH ABHI DHUNDHLEIN MAIYLEIN…
NA JAANE KYU MERI KOSHISHEIN NAKAAM JAA RAHI HAI,
NA JAANE KYU MERI UMEEDEIN PAANI MEIN BEH RAHI HAI,
BEHNA CHAHTA HOON MAIN JHARNE KI TARAH,
PAR JAISE KOI BAANDH MUJHE ROKE JAA RAHI HAI.
NAHI KOI KAAMYABI MERE PAAS,
REHTA HOON MAIN HAR PAL UDAAS,
AISE MEIN YAAD AATI HAI KABHI KABHI,
EK KHUSHI JO KHO GAYI HAI KAHI.
EK WAQT THA JAB SAARA JAHAAN THA MUTTHI MEIN MERE,
LEKIN AB HAR GALAT KADAM PAR SAKT HO RAHI HAI BEDIYAAN PAIRO MEIN MERE,
LADTA HOON MAIN APNO KE HI SAATH,
KABOO MEIN NAHI HAI MERE JAZBAAT.
SEHMA SEHMA DARA DARA HOON MAIN AAJ BHI,
KYA HONEWALA HAI KAL KO,
YEH PATA NAHI MUJHE KHUDKO,
KHUDKO KHOTE JAA RAHA HOON MAIN KAHI,
SUNNE KE LIYE MERI DASTAAN AB KOI HAI BHI NAHI.
PAR AB BHI HAUSLE HAI BULAND MERE,
PHIR KARNA HAI DUNIYA MUTTHI MEIN MERE,
PAANA HAI MUJHE KHUSHIYON KA JAHAAN,
KARNA CHAHTA HOON KYA MAIN,
AB PATA KARNA MUJHE HAI YAHAAN…
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
the story of a watchman
A small
crowd had gathered at the building gate. All of them were standing in a kind of
semicircle, except for one. He was standing alone, facing the crowd, and was
afraid that soon he will have to also face their wrath. His fear was quite
reasonable; around ten people had surrounded him, and he was a lanky man, and
he looked even thinner in his oversized blue uniform. Watchmen in this city
could hardly make their ends meet. But this watchman was not worried about that
at all at that moment. At that moment, he just wanted to run away from that
building as far as he could; after all, he was being accused for a heinous
crime.
The crowd
was getting restless. A man wearing all whites and a saffron turban shouted at
him, “Tell the truth. Did you do it or not?” Another man, who was quite hefty
and had gone all red with rage, added, “Of course he did it. He is afraid to
admit it. Why will the little girl lie? I know how to bring out the truth.” He
grabbed the watchman’s hand and twisted it hard. The watchman shrieked in pain.
“No, I have done nothing wrong with the girl. I don’t know why she is saying
that,” he whimpered. Someone from the crowd said, “Leave him, Dubeyji. We will
hand this bastard to the police, they will deal with him.”
“Did you
hear him? Do you want to rot in jail? Accept your crime now and we will not involve
the police. Esha has told us everything. How dare you molest her?” He gave a
hard slap to the watchman.
The
watchman, cowering in a corner and clutching the side of the face where he got
slapped, said, “Sir, it is true that I was drunk, but I did not molest the
little girl. I am telling the truth. Believe me.”
“So you
won’t open up like this. Fine, let the police come then,” Dubeyji growled.
The
police van arrived after some time. Two policemen stepped out of the van and
one of them stationed himself in front of it. The other policeman headed
straight towards the crowd. He talked with the people present for a while and
then enquired, “Where is the girl?”
“Rohit,
call Esha down,” the man wearing the turban told the person standing next to
him. Rohit went inside one of the wings and came back with Esha, a
pale-looking, frightened 11 year old girl. Walking behind them was Esha’s
mother, her face expressing a mixture of shock and anger.
“Beta, tell the inspector whatever
happened. Don’t be afraid,” Dubeyji told Esha.
Esha gave
one short look at the watchman and then turned to the inspector. “I wanted to
go inside my wing, but that stray dog was sitting at the entrance. I am very
scared of that dog. So I told the watchman to take me inside the wing. He
agreed. But as soon as we entered the wing he lifted my skirt up and I felt his
hands brushing around my…” She stopped talking and looked down. “I knew
something is wrong, because my mom always used to warn me of such things. So I
ran above towards my home,” saying this she inched closer towards her mother.
She hugged Esha and gave the watchman a disdainful look.
“She is
confused, sir. I was just trying to get her away from the dog. I did nothing
wrong with her,” the watchman pleaded.
Thaaat… The watchman got slapped again,
this time by the police inspector. “Shut up! We will hear what you have to say in
the lock-up.” He turned towards Esha’s mother and said, “Madam, your daughter
will have to come to the police station to give her statement. I know it is a
bit traumatic but you will have to follow the procedure if you want him
punished. You can bring her tomorrow.”
“And you
are coming with us,” he directed the watchman towards the van. The watchman
took his belongings and followed the two policemen into the van. The van sped
off and slowly the crowd dispersed.
The next
day, the watchman was booked under a non-bailable offence. He had no
money to bribe the police and get out. He had no choice but to spend his next three
years in prison. All he could do day and night was to narrate and re-narrate his
story to the other inmate in the prison cell.
“She was
afraid of the dog. So I pushed her away from the dog. I did not do anything
else, not a thing. My only fault was that I was drunk. This is too big a
punishment for being drunk. This is not fair. Why doesn’t anyone understand
that I am innocent?”
“Why
don’t you understand that it doesn’t matter whether you are innocent or not?
Your blabbering isn’t going to change anything. You are going to remain in this
cell no matter what, and that makes you a criminal.” But the other inmate’s
words fell on deaf ears.
“My wife
hasn’t heard from me from such a long time. She must have got so worried. I
couldn’t even send any money to her. What if she is dying of hunger? She can’t
live alone. Or I guess she must have married someone else.” As soon as the last
thought crossed his mind, the watchman wished that the earth below him would
open up and bury him alive.
After
some days, Esha went to meet her friends. “I couldn’t believe that the plan
worked! You were right, Sheetal. As soon as I said that he touched me
inappropriately, everybody believed me and started beating him up.”
“Told
you,” Sheetal replied.
“I fooled
everyone so easily, I guess I should become an actress,” Esha giggled, and then
went on. “Gosh! I was so sick of him! He never used to let me go out of the
building because of my mom’s orders.
Thank God he doesn’t work anymore in my society.”
(The only message I wish to convey through this
story is that lies/mischief, however innocent or small they may seem to you,
could totally alter the other person’s life. In this story, due to her
innocence and small age, the girl never realised the actual consequences the watchman would
have to face.)
the beach
Standing on the
seashore you can clearly see the city’s stark contrast. There are imposing
5-star hotels facing the sea behind a huge wall. Ahead of this wall are cheap
food stalls, handcarts and hutments on the beach. Welcome to Juhu Beach,
Mumbai.
Once you become a regular visitor at
Juhu Beach though, you notice that it is the cheap stalls that define Juhu
Beach and not the hotels. The hotels just stand there, silent, cold and
indifferent to the crowd on the beach, whereas the stalls are where all the
activity happens. The stall owners compete with each other shouting at the top
of their voices, inviting you in to have a bite or quench your thirst. It is
just a matter of time before you get enticed by one of them. They make sure
that you have a large variety to choose from – Indian cuisine and snacks,
ice-cream, popcorn, candy floss, cold drinks, coconut water and so on. The
aroma of sweet corn cobs been barbecued on live charcoal is just as much a part
of the beach as the waves. It makes the experience of that place complete. But
the sad part is that you find the leftover of all these things on the beach
itself. You find garbage everywhere, on the beach as well as in the sea. It
becomes very difficult to take a walk without stumbling on anything!
Nevertheless, you always find people
on Juhu Beach, no matter what time it is. Some come for morning jogs, some come
to enjoy the cool breeze at night, while some come in the evening to see the
sunset, a must-see sight. A friend of mine had once gone to the beach early in
the morning expecting to see sunrise, but the poor chap realised on reaching
there that the beach is on the west coast, and the sun rises in the east, a
universal fact that he has been studying since childhood!
Whenever you take a walk on Juhu
Beach, you notice that some things are always there. You always see some pet
monkey dancing on the beats of the drum being played by his master. You always
see people clicking pictures with their camera phones, and I am sure you will
hear the words ‘camera’ or ‘photograph’ every two minutes. You always see
excited children either on merry-go-rounds or making sand castles in a corner.
And you always see the omnipresent garbage…
The beaches of Mumbai are the
dirtiest. Despite this, they are the favourite spots of the people of Mumbai.
When they are happy they come here and enjoy; they party with their family and
friends. When they are sad they come here and take a silent walk; the waves
come towards them, give them a hug, and then go back, taking away all their
sorrows with them. The beach is their friend in bright as well as dark days.
The beach is all they have. The beach is and always will be special to Mumbai.
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