प्रेम: चार कवितायेँ

1
परिभाषा
बाँधती है, निश्चित करती है
सीमाएं
अपरिभाषित प्रेम के बंधन में
हम और तुम


2
आवश्यकता क्या है
शब्दों की
चलो अवयक्त को बांचते हैं
मौन की भाषा में
नियंता के साथ


3
धूप की परछाइयों में
बैठें हैं हम और तुम
एक दूजे के अकेलेपन में गुम
साथ में
उत्सव का अहसास




4
परिणाम
परिणिति या नियति
सोचकर
क्या किसी ने
वास्तव में प्रेम किया है

याद

यादों की
बरफी बनाई

चख के देखी
.... मीठी थी

बेच ली

.... कितना अच्छा होता

ज़िन्दगी
कितना अच्छा होता
मुझे मिल जाती यदि
कोई ख़ुशी तो
बांट लेते
तुम और हम
क़तरा क़तरा
कुछ थोड़ा, कुछ ज़ादा

होता यदि
तुम्हें कोई ग़म
बांट लेते उसको भी हम
क़तरा क़तरा
कुछ थोड़ा, कुछ ज़ादा

कितना अच्छा होता
की देख पाते तुम मुझे
जान पाते तुम मुझे
मैं पास आ जाता तुम्हारे
तो छू लेते
हम तुम एक दूसरे को
और पा जाते
एक अहसास प्यार का
कुछ थोड़ा, कुछ ज़ादा

Being Asocial

For past few days I have been thinking about the way I have been expressing myself on the internet. I have also been thinking about what I have been reading - expressions/opinions from others around me in a virtual environment of the internet. And I have come to realize that, while exchanging ideas, we do not look for knowledge - we dish out "facts" (mostly from GOOGLE) after facts. You gain a celebrity kind of status if you could find a link containing some "facts". The quest for knowledge becomes a facts-hunting where we get possessed by links (after links, after links).

We are so busy putting our facts-laced opinions on the web, we tend to forget that it is totally banal to say something without really understanding the same (e.g. me talking about God!!). Looks like we no longer think before using QWERTY.... they are there below our fingers.... say something before somebody else says... otherwise I am going to be irrelevant. That's it... the fear of being irrelevant that drives us to express ourselves.

Consider websites like Facebook, which are popular as social networking sites. However, the question here is - are we being sociable when we are online and writing on each others "wall"? Precisely, we have created walls around us and we are painting graffitis and we call it social interaction! In my opinion, every time we are doing something on the Facebook, we cut ourselves from the reality around us and we become as asocial as one can be.

Take the case of a Korean couple - they starved their kid to death while they were busy feeding their virtual child online. No, it is not metaphorical (read the story on CNN), it is as true as what we are doing to ourselves. In an attempt to being sociable on the internet, we are slowly forgetting how it is to feel the warmth of human relations. We are forgetting that bonding is more than what we say and read on the sites like Facebbok.

भारतीय प्रबंधन ज्ञान

अमंत्रं अक्षरं नास्ति , नास्ति मूलं अनौषधं ।
अयोग्यः पुरुषः नास्ति, योजकः तत्र दुर्लभ: ॥
                                                               — शुक्राचार्य

हिंदी अनुवाद -                                                    
कोई अक्षर ऐसा नही है जिससे (कोई) मंत्र न शुरु होता हो, कोई ऐसी जड़ नही है, जिससे कोई औषधि न बनती हो

कोई भी पुरुष अयोग्य नही होता, उससे काम लेने वाले (आज के सन्दर्भ में - मैनेजर) ही दुर्लभ हैं।

(कहीं इन्टरनेट पर पढ़ा था, अभी याद नहीं कहां)

Fuel Prices & Bharat Bandh: is BJP really serious???

A bandh's been called by the BJP on July 5th and the party will do everything in its capacity to make it a success especially in states like Karnataka.

But if BJP is really serious about the fuel prices in Karnataka, they could reduce the prices as it is in their control.

Karnataka Government collects total of 30% tax on fuel (Petrol, Diesel & LPG) of which 25% is as sales tax and remaining 5% is as entry tax. This is the highest in the country.

Incredible India (...somebody forwarded this to me!)

• 
  
  
  We live in a nation where Rice is Rs.40/- per kg and Sim Card is free.
• 
  
  
  Pizza reaches home faster than Ambulance and Police.
• 
  
  
  Car loan @ 5% but education loan @ 12%.
• 
  
  
  Students with 45% get in elite institutions through quota system and those with 90% get out because of merit.
• 
  
  
  2 IPL teams are auctioned at 3300 crores and we are still a poor country where people starve for 2 square meal per day.
• 
  
  
  Assembly complex buildings are getting ready within one year while public transport bridges alone takes several years to be completed.

THINK ABOUT IT.

INCREDIBLE INDIA!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!

Our Country Name Has to Change Officially From India to India Private Limited (Another IPL... Could be Successful ! )

As here are our Politicians running all the Business through their Relatives & friends which Increases the Gap between Poor & Rich

Gentlemen vs Gentlemen

Soccer: Gentlemen's game played by Hooligans.

Rugby: Hooligans' game played by Gentlemen.

 

And after the IPL muck-

Cricket: Gentlemen's game organized by Punters.

Papa gibt Gas - Eine Familie ist nicht zu stoppen

.... is the German title of Ta Ra Rum Pum (when I heard the German title of the film, I thought this is a film about a family with flatulence problem - I agree that I still have to do lot of work on my German!!).

It was nice to see Saif and Rani speak fluent German on RTL-2 during this weekend.

One observation - I could have made only in Germany - during the final race, the driver against Ravi (Saif) competes, is of German origin and wears German flag on his chest. Incidently Ravi wears Indian flag - for what reasons(?) - for all practical puropses he is an American!!

मेरी रचनाएं

मैं
प्रतिनिधि हूँ
- अपने विचारों का
और
मेरे विचार हैं
- मेरी अंतर्दृष्टि

दुविधा

ज़िंदगी की चहल-कदमी में
तुम्हारा गुनगुनाना......

सोयें या जागें
- ये कैसी दुविधा है?

Money is Flat

Having a roof of our own is considered a lifetime achievement and has got a great emotional value.

From the time I started working, everybody from my parents to colleagues have started asking when am I going to buy a house or a flat, at least. They do not stop just after giving me a valuable piece of advice, they embark on a journey of never-ending discourse on - how this could be a good investment... how much of tax could I save etc. etc. Whenever, no matter what the space-time is, the whole discourse is repeated again and again and again and again and again. And do not forget that it was a time before anybody'd heard of sub-prime crisis in US and real-estate, from Banana Republic to Pakistan, was a sound investment.

Finally I got so frustrated that I decided to buy one. As with everybody else, I realized that there were only two options for me. One, buy from a reputed builder - nice flat, nice club house, nice landscapes etc. etc. EXCEPT for the price tag or two, buy from a small time builder - quite cheap but then you are not sure what will happen to the flat during the next rain.

In the process of looking for a flat, once I was in an area that was, not in a very distant past, a beautiful lake and a popular hangout for migratory birds from Siberia. And now, it seemed there grows nothing but concrete structures. From then on, more than the price, location and builder's name what weighed on my mind was the stark difference between the glossy advertisement and the ground realities. However, after going through all the projects in and around Bangalore, I realized that the beautiful structure in the glossy brochure either cannot co-exist along with civic problems or it is out of my reach. Real estate in India has become a commodity market where investors pool their black money (.... probably this one is the sole reason, why the market is still booming in India). The current real estate scenario in India does not work for an individual like me who is looking for a flat to live, it works for an investor, who has already got n number of flats.

One more important lesson I learnt - no matter whether you buy a flat from a reputed builder or from a small timer - the flats are too near to one another when you try to sleep (or wish to have some private moments) and too far apart when you try to overhear. As a matter of fact I can hear my neighbour farting as I am writing this piece for the blog.

Perfect Ideas

I don't know how, but I drifted, and started thinking about doing things in life and related insecurities.........

We should talk about our imperfect ideas every now and then and get corrected. It is totally pointless to wait for a perfect idea and find out that we have no time left to act upon. We could be dead, you know!! Getting old is not the only outcome of the aging process.

And, secondly, what is the guarantee that perfect idea would really be the perfect idea?

(... If I remember correctly, something similar I read (long time back) in "Faith In Fakes: Travels In Hyperreality" by Italian semiotician Umberto Eco. I do not remember the name of the essay.)

Worth of a Life

How does someone evaluate the worth of a life?

Prof. Dworkin has got two models to evaluate the worth of a life -

1. Model of Impact - where an indiviadual life form brings a change to the objective values of the world and
2. Model of Challenge - where a life is appreciated as if it is an art form and living the life (not just life) takes the centerstage.

I guess in a real world, as and when needed, we apply both the models. On the other hand, in a geo-political sense, worth of a life depends on the value a nation/society places on its citizen. Otherwise how do you explain some countries declaring zero tolerance on terrorism and countries like India still not sure on how to treat the terrorism.

Adapt or Die

Madhu Koda incident is not about politics-mafia nexus but it is a sordid tale of a culture of lawless and injustice rooted deeply in India’s 60 years of post-independence history and political culture. A more important issue that emerges from this whole episode is that why have politicians in India grown rich and powerful and not the NATION as a whole?

What motivates somebody to accumulate wealth worth thousands of crores using illegal means? The hope that they could getaway with the cache. I guess in Indian politics, becoming Koda (or Mayawati or Mulayam or Lalu or anybody else) is all about survival.... adapt or die.... be corrupt and share the booty.... with other fellow politicians (irrespective of their party), Naxal leaders, beurocrates etc... or get ready to be sidelined and die as an unknown individual somewhere in the rural India where eighty percent of Indians are still living.