Tuesday, October 16, 2012

पूरण सूरज ग्रहण / Total Solar Eclipse (a poem by Sh.Gulzar)

This is a lovely poem that I came across in the book 'Neglected Poems' by Sh.Gulzar. The translation to English is done by Sh.Pavan K.Varma. Happy to share this with you all!  :-)

Image Source - Google
पूरण सूरज ग्रहण
कॉलेज के रोमांस में ऐसा होता था
डेस्क के पीछे बैटे बैटे
चुपके से दो हाथ सरकते
धीरे धीरे पास आते...
और फिर एक, अचानक पूरा हाथ पकड़ लेता था
मुटटी में भर लेता था
सूरज ने युहीं पकड़ा हैं चाँद का हाथ फलक में आज!

 
Total Solar EclipseIn college romances it used to happen so:
From behind a desk two hands
Would furtively, slowly, one would completely hold the other
Cover it fully by the palm;
Today the sun has caught the hand of the moon
Just like that

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Another Excerpt from the book - 'Messages From The Masters'

In view of the innumerable 'super-gurus' and 'saints' selling spirituality these days, this serves as a helpful lesson in discerning the real spiritualists. Thank you, Brian Weiss!  :-)

// "The key to discerning a real teacher from a pretender is to follow your own intuitional wisdom. Do the teachings feel right to you? Are they loving, compassionate, non-violent and fear-reducing?  Do they include all other groups, all other humans as equals, as divine souls on the same path of destiny? Do they teach that one is no better than the other, that we are all rowing the very same boat? And do they acknowledge that though they can point out the way, they cannot “bring you” to spiritual fulfillment? Only you can reach your goal, because ultimately our journey home is an inward journey, a personal return." //

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

How to make changes around - From 'Messages From The Masters'

"We all dream of a better life in a better society. However, it has become difficult to go through a complete day without becoming disillusioned, disappointed, and drained by the mean-spirited and selfish people who surround us. So many people seem to be interested only in their personal gain. They have become rude and arrogant, critical and insensitive. Not only do their actions drag us down, but most of us feel that there’s nothing we can do to change this, that only those in power have the capacity to make a difference.

If we accept our task to be the enlightened beings of our planet, we can begin to change the world. Realistically, I think the changes will occur slowly as we begin to practice acts of kindness every day, doing little things to help make other people happier. Perhaps the answer is volunteering to help the less fortunate. Perhaps it’s something as simple as being nice to someone, doing a kindness without asking for or expecting anything in return."

- From the book ‘Messages From the Masters’ by Brian L.Weiss

Book Review – Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri

Give her a recipe with the following ingredients – NRI families in the USA, especially from West Bengal, neither old nor young, neither settled nor adrift, lives spiced up with emotions, with lots and lots of cooking to be written in between, and you can expect Jhumpa Lahiri to produce palatable stories for satiation. ‘Unaccustomed Earth’ is no exception!
This is the third book by this author and my third interaction with her ideas too. The book is a collection of eight short stories, with the last three deserving to be published as a novella themselves, since they are more of the episodes of the same story, rather than individual stories.

As always, Jhumpa has woven a colorful and lovely tapestry of human emotions, riding on her previous successes of ‘The Namesake’ and ‘Interpreter of Maladies’. These are characters that we might meet in our daily lives and interact on the markets or malls. These aren’t the fictional heroes and heroines of NRI lore, roaming around in costly cars or residing in swanky mansions. These are normal human beings, with loads of emotions and yearnings of their own, trying to come to terms with the fact of being in a stranger in a foreign land but at the same time not having their roots properly rooted in their native land either. With the background of this emotional chaos and their inner loneliness, they go through life and the other surprise packages that Life shares with each and every one of us.
The first story in the book, which shares the same title as the book, ‘Unaccustomed Earth’ is the story of a septuagenarian NRI who has recently lost his wife, but found a companion to fulfill the needs of companionship and the deep bond, not to forget the sense of belonging that comes with having a person of one’s own. The story revolves around the protagonist and his daughter and how graciously she accepts his need for a companion.

‘Hell-Heaven’ tells a subtle love story of a married Bengali woman – through her daughter’s words - that finds solace amidst her lonely NRI existence in the form of a Bengali stranger, whom she meets by chance. The person goes on to become a family friend and shares so many interests with the woman and makes her feel special and gives her the care and importance that her husband has not succeeded in giving. The woman develops a deep interest for the man, only to suffer deep emotional wounds when she finds him developing emotions for another woman and settling in life with her. Was the love worthy? Check it out.
‘A Choice of Accommodations’ is a story of an Indian man, married to an American woman 5 years elder than him. The age difference has got nothing to do with the story. It is rather a simple story of how love vanishes a few years into marriage and how routine makes people take things for granted, things which they once found so cherishable. It is a strange story of emotions being rekindled and love being rediscovered with a physical relationship at the strangest of places.

‘Only Goodness’ is the story of a younger brother becoming an alcoholic and losing out in life on more aspects than one, due to the elder sister’s ‘friendly’ offers. It goes on to show how one alcoholic in the family ruins the entire soul of a family and how the woman’s deeply-seated guilt at having introduced her brother to the drinks comes back to haunt and ruin her peaceful family life.
‘Nobody’s Business’ – what would you do when you have a friend, or even an acquaintance, who is being cheated by a philanderer? What would you do when another woman calls up asking for your support in getting her person back, only to brand you as a liar later on? Whom will you support in the game where a man plays with the emotions of more than one woman and uses them as mere pawns for his personal gratification? This story answers it all.

‘Hema and Kaushik’ – This story is split into three segments that could have very much been published as a separate novella. Hema is a young girl in an NRI Bengali family, who goes through life watching her parents accommodate another NRI Bengali family, trying to grapple certain hidden issues of its own. Kaushik is a boy of the other NRI Bengali family, trying to settle once again in the USA, but accommodated into Hema’s house for the time-being. How both of them create tangles of emotions in one another, how Life conspires to bring them back into one another’s lives and how Life decides who will stay with whom is all this segment is about.

As always, I found each of these stories readable and relatable. And, Jhumpa Lahiri’s vivid descriptions make you a part of the scene rather than keep you a mere reader. Her eye for details and the attention to the minutest of information in the scene is both a boon and a bane.

But, to tell something frankly to Jhumpa, it is a little tiresome to read only about Bengalis in USA. I, for one, believe that there are other Indians, from other parts of this country, settled in the USA. I know she is playing to her strength and isn’t willing to dilute her style. But she can’t always be dealing her trump card or delivering her best punch every time. She can do a bit of research about other cultures and inculcate them in her writings. Because, the more she is going to write, the themes and scenes have this risk of appearing repetitive and the zing will be lost with all the stories starting to sound like one another.

Also, I know that she is writing about NRI culture. But I found too much of focus on promiscuity, explicit discussions of sex, fleeting relationships and drinking to be a bit annoying. Paulo became boring when he repeatedly started using sex and wine as the only things to spice up his writing. I am not saying that she shouldn’t be explicitly writing certain things. But rather, if she adds more things like this in every story, it will be more of an erotica rather than an emotional indulgence. And, I, for one, don’t pick up Jhumpa’s works, hoping for any erotic gratification!

Overall, a good book, with its occasional flaws and staggered flows, but worth picking a copy of your own!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

ट्राफिक सिग्नल / Traffic Signal, by Sh.Gulzar

This morning, came across this poem in the book 'Neglected Poems', a collection of poems by Sh.Gulzar. Was pleasantly surprised to find the theme very similar to my humble work, 'Guilty Coins'. Happy to see that one of my poems is matching the wavelength of a great poet himself.  :-)

ट्राफिक सिग्नल
होंट हिलते हैं भिकारी के, सुनाई नहीं देता
हाथ के लफ़ज उछालते हैं, वो कुछ बोल रहा हैं
थपथपाता हैं हर इक कार का शीशा आकर
और उजलत में हैं
ट्राफिक के सिग्नल पे नज़र हैं!

'चेंज' हैं तो सही
कौन इस गर्मी में अब कार का शीशा खोले
अगले सिग्नल पे सही
रोज़ कुछ देना ज़रूरी हैं, खुदा राज़ी रहे!


Traffic Signal (English translation of the same, by Sh.Pavan K.Varma)

The beggar's lip move, but can't be heard
Words, formed by hands, spring up
Indicating that something is being said.
He taps the panes of every car
And is in a hurry
His eyes are on the traffic signal.

I have some change
But in this heat who wants to open the window
At the next signal then...
God be pleased, something must be donated every day!

Happy New Year 2024!

As the first Sun of 2024 went back home, I was busy preparing my new diary and journal, packing off the old ones to their crammed space insi...