अठखेलियाँ

दूर अभ्र तले 

एक चिराग रख आया 

हमारे नाम का 

तेरी आँखों की चमक चुरा कर 

कि उसकी दीप्ती 

हमारे जीवन को प्रकाशित रखे अनंत तक 

और तुम मस्ती में 

आंखे मटका, चिराग से खेले जा रहे हो। 

वो जो गेसुओं को बिखेर 

तुमने सूरज को धता बताया था 

मैं अपने नक्षर से पार पा 

तुम्हारे दीदार को तरसा था 

तुमने आंचल बिछा सांझ कर डाला था 

उस एक पल में 

और मैं बावरा बना 

तुम्हारे तिलस्म की गवाही दिए जा रहा था। 

तुम्हारी मुस्कान मोतियों सी फैल समुन्दर में 

एक चमक फैलाए थी, 

चमक जो फैल कर 

उलझन बढ़ाए थी 

तुमने अपनी मुस्कान हल्की कर 

ज्वार बढ़ाया था उस एक क्षण में 

और मैं अपने ज्वार समेटे था अंतर्मन में 

साहिल पे बैठ कर। 

तुम परी हो मेरे ख्वाबों की 

बेपंख परवाज़ भराती हो 

मेरी कल्पनाओं को,

कई गगन घूम आता हूँ 

तुम्हारे चेहरे को देख कर 

और तुम खिलखिला कर 

मुझे खींच लाती हो सततता में 

उस स्वप्निली जहाँ से। 

तेरी आँखों की चमक 

वो जुल्फों की खुशबू

वो आँचल जो तारों को सितारों सा समेटे है 

वो देवलोक सी पवित्र मुस्कान 

वो तेरे चेहरे पे फैली नीलाभ सी ख़ुशी 

खुद में भर इन्हे मैं 

ब्रह्मांड का बादशाह बना बैठा हूँ 

तुम अभी भी मंद - मंद मुस्काए जा रही हो ये देख कर। 

-अमितेश 

आओ ना !

आओ ना !

कुछ वक़्त जाया करें एक दूजे संग 

क्या पता कब वक़्त हो जाये बेरंग। 

आओ ना !

हाथों में हाथ डाले कुछ राहें नापे 

एक दूजे की मुस्कान खुद में जमा करें 

वो तेरी बालियों को आँखों में भरें 

तुम मेरी बुराइयों को नज़रअंदाज करो 

हम तुम्हारी अच्छाइयाँ रख लें। 

आओ ना !

खो जाएं एक दूजे संग 

इन पहाड़ी झरनों, चस्मों में 

कि कुछ सदी ढूंढ ना पाए ये जहाँ हमें 

डूब अपनी प्यार की गहराइयों में 

आओ ना, कुछ और ऊँचाइयाँ गढ़ ले। 

आओ ना !

कुछ रीतियों के पार हो जाएं 

कुछ कृतियाँ हम गढ़ लें 

कुछ जमीं हम तलाशें 

कुछ आसमां हम अपनी फैलाएं 

आओ ना !

आओ ना !

कुछ खामोश आखों से बाते बुने 

कुछ अपने नए किस्से बना जाएं

कुछ और भी चर्चा में आ जाएं 

कुछ और हसीं तुम हो जाओ 

कुछ रूमानी से हम हो जाएं। 

आओ ना !

ये वक़्त हमें जो आज मिला 

इसको ना यूं  बरबाद करें 

होंगे कई शिकायतें, शिकवे भी 

उसको हम आज बिसार चले 

जाने क्या नियति में है लिखा 

उसके होने का ना इंतज़ार करे 

आँखों के खुले होने तक 

प्रीत का अपने इज़हार करें। 

आओ ना !

- अमितेश 

 

मनोरथ

जो छूना है आसमान तो 

तू पंख बदल हौसला नहीं 

पाना फतह जब जहां पर 

तू शस्त्र बदल फैसला नहीं। 

आएंगी रुकावटें राहों में  कई

कुछ पहचानी सी कुछ होंगी नई 

पहुंचना हो फिर भी नियत तक जो 

तू राह बदल गंतव्य नहीं। 

कुछ कर गुजरना हो ध्येय जब 

कुछ भी ना लगे आसान पर 

हिम्मत पर फिर भी हार मत 

तू प्रयत्न बदल मनोरथ नहीं। 

तू सशक्त है तू लौह पुरुष 

नीयत भी तुझमे पुरुषार्थ भी 

तू ही अद्वैत तू पार्थ भी 

तू अजेय है तू अपराजिता। 

गांडीव उठा प्रत्यंचा चढ़ा 

टंकार से तू धनता फैला 

तू बाण चढ़ा तू लक्ष्य गढ़ 

और भेद दे तू लक्षित निमित्त। 

- अमितेश 

समझे ना

तुममे वो जज़्बात नहीं अब, समझे ना 

तेरी मुस्कान में वो अहसास नहीं अब, समझे ना। 

जो बातें कुछ भोली लगती थी हर पल को

उन बातों में अब बात नहीं है, समझे ना। 

विहंगों की चहक भी मीठी लगती थी तब मुझको  

उन में अब वो मिठास नहीं है, समझे ना। 

हाथ पकड़ जब रोका करती थी तुम मुझको   

उन मनुहार में वो अनुराग नहीं अब, समझे ना। 

भोर के सूरज में तुमको देखा करते थे 

उन सुबहों में वो प्रकाश नहीं अब, समझे ना। 

तेरा हँसना कभी संगीत हुआ करता मेरा 

उन संगीतों में लय ताल नहीं अब समझे ना। 

जुल्फ़ें जो तेरी बादल बन घिर जाया करती थी 

उन मेघों में वो आद्र नहीं अब समझे ना। 

जब चाहा था तब साथ ना मिल पाया तेरा 

इस जीवन में कोई आस नहीं अब समझे ना। 

मेरे प्रेम प्रणय की सीमा अपरिमित थी उन दिनों 

अब ना कोई ध्येय ना उद्द्येश बची है समझे ना।  

- अमितेश 

दोस्त साले

ये दोस्त जो मेरे हैं साले 

ये जान से मेरे हैं प्यारे 

 कभी टांग खिंचाई करते हैं 

हर बात पे ऊँगली करते हैं 

पर सांसों के चलने से पहले 

जज़्बातों को समझा करते हैं 

ये दोस्त जो मेरे हैं साले।  

बोलूं ना भी तो सुनते हैं 

क्षमता की फिर ले लेते हैं 

अपना नैपुण्य दिखा कर फिर 

भंवर से निकाला करते हैं 

ये दोस्त जो मेरे हैं साले। 

कभी फोन पे ना मिलना उनका 

कभी मिलना अति गर्मजोशी से 

कभी कंधे पे हल्के से हाथ रख 

गूढ़ ज्ञान जीवन का दे जाना 

ये दोस्त जो मेरे हैं साले। 

ना पीना हो पर फिर भी 

Senti कर plan बनाते हैं 

समझ जाते निर्मेय मेरे 

समाधान पी पी कर बताते हैं 

ये दोस्त जो मेरे हैं साले। 

इनकी सर्वत्र उपस्तिथि ने 

मेरा जीवन उत्कृष्ट किया  

इनकी एक एक स्पर्श ने 

मेरी क्षमता निर्दिष्ट किया 

ये दोस्त जो मेरे हैं साले। 

ये सौतन सी मेरी भार्या के 

हर बात पे रोया करते हैं 

कभी हँसते हैं कभी बस यूँ ही 

मेरे life में घुस जाया करते हैं

ये दोस्त जो मेरे हैं साले। 

तेरा होना मेरा होना है 

तेरा निकलना मेरा बर्हिगमन 

तेरा साथ है तो मैं, मैं हूँ 

तेरा ना होना मेरा निर्गमन 

ये दोस्त जो मेरे हैं साले। 

- अमितेश 

 

An Eye For Love

There is a popular saying, “Beauty lies in the eyes of beholders”. I had got a slightly protracted learning that, “Love could be felt with eyes first”. Throughout my career, I had worked with core FMCG organizations and had mechanically worked towards distribution dealing with the channel partners and people.

When I was changing the organization in 2013, was a little apprehensive for the organization as this organization wasn’t a typical FMCG companies. I cleared all the rounds though. It was a last HR round with the HR Manager. It was merely a formality before the offer letters. The HR Manager asked me, “Do you love Dogs?”

“Umm, not really. However, I don’t hate them either.” Was my plain reply. It was so spontaneous answer that I haven’t realized that this could cost me the job. After all I was appearing for an interview for a Pet Food Company.

The HR lady was impassive. She said, “What you do when you see stray dogs going back home in the evening?”

What kind of question is this? I have never observed they exist even. I drive back home mostly in my car or at times in taxi. Ok yes, whenever I am walking nearby stores for some top-up grocery needs, at times they woof, and it scares me a lot.

“When I get petrified, I try scooting them away with whatever is there in my hand. Some of the times I even have picked stone from road and threw on them to make them scare.” I don’t know why I kept doing self-goal responding this way to her.

“Hmm, so what I heard that is you throw stones on them if you get scared. Amitesh, today when you go back home, would recommend buying a packet of biscuits and when they bark over you, throw some biscuits on them. You will see the magic.” With this advice, she got into completing the formality of the employment.

I landed to Kolkata at around 10 in the evening. Took a radio cab and was on the way home. While in taxi, was reviewing the entire day and trying to comprehend if the day was productive to me or not. I don’t know for some reason I asked my cab driver to stop at a shop for a while. I went inside and looked for Pedigree. Haven’t found it. Bought a couple of packs of Parle Biscuit and came back to the taxi. I was just having a laptop bag with me. So, I stopped the cab around half kilometer before my society. Came out of taxi and walked towards my apartment.

There were 4 – 5 strays on the way back home over the street. One dog barked and rest all harmonized their barking with that. I had got a piece of advice today on what to do when stray barks. I took the biscuit packet out of my bag and gave a couple of it to the nearest dog. It suddenly stopped barking and ate it fast. After finishing, that dog upstretched head to look towards me. That was the first day when I actually have had eye contact with any dog. The light over the street was a bit dim coming from that 20-foot-tall streetlight. In that dim light I saw into that dog’s eye. Oh my God. That dog’s eye was filled with love and compassion towards me. Just by having few biscuits, that dog literally forgot and exonerated all my shooing and stones that I would have thrown over them. How much tolerant we could be that just by small gesture of love, can forget all the past transgression. They are. This beautiful dog took a piece of my heart immediately. I literally fell in love with this mighty creature. Would that HR manager not have told me to do so, I never have bought the biscuits for them and would not have got this beautiful experience. Ever since, I had seen nothing but Love for me in their eyes. They keep getting now Pedigree from me but that is just a small token of love from my side for the immense love they are showering over me.

-Amitesh

तुम

मैं सतत नीर की सलिला

तुम सैलाब उस सागर का हो

मैं अपार विस्तृत विस्मृत आकाश

तुम बेलौस उसका बादल हो

मैं उन्मुक्त खग सा उड़ता फिरता

तुम मेरे वाज का परवाज़ हो

मैं सुदृढ़ उस पर्वत सा खड़ा

तुम कलकल झरनों की आवाज हो

मेरा होना भी तुमसे ही

मिट जाना भी तुम ही से है

मेरी पहचान भी तुम से ही

मेरी अज़ान भी तुम से है

मैं सघन वृक्ष सा अटल अचल

तुम मेघशुन्य उसकी प्रतिछाया

मैं शीतल श्वास वायु सा

तुम अविरल सरस समीर हो

मैं तान भैरवी सा सुमधुर

तुम सप्तक उस संगीत के हो

मेरा वजूद भी तुमसे है

मेरी सिद्धि भी है तुमसे

मेरा मैं भी तुमसे ही

तेरा मैं भी है तुमसे

मैं सुघड़ शरीर इस यौवन का

तुम आत्मा इस जीवन का हो

मैं काया इस संसार में हूं

तुम इस काया का कारण हो

- अमितेश 

Have you celebrated your mistake!

Have you celebrated your failures and mistake!

It sounds wearied but fact of the life is, no one teaches us better than our mistakes and failures. We often have heard that the one who is successful is the one who makes lesser mistakes. I think a successful person had made enough mistakes in his early times that (s)he now has got good cases to differentiate and understand what could lead to failure and hence have not to take that.

I strongly believe in the fact that we should allow people to make mistake and taste failure. This actually would help him / her learn faster. The only watch out is to ensure person is taking some erudition out of that and not repeating the same mistake again and again.

But above all, what is important is to celebrate our mistakes. If not much, just treat yourselves with a cup of good coffee every time you make a mistake. And while treating yourselves with a cup of coffee, have it alone since its your own mistake. Utilize that “coffee and me” time to evaluate what went wrong and what could have been sidestepped to make it a success. This would do wonder for you.

So next time when you are making a mistake, celebrate it! It really works.

 

Amitesh

The Churning

 Churning always produces yields, some good some bad. This fact is known millions of years to mankind. The ancient Sanatan Scriptures (mostly in form of Shruti) talk about one such greatest churning of Kshira Sagara (popularly known as Samundra Manthan) by Devas and Asuras. When churning started, it first gave Halahala (Poison) and ended the entire churning with Amrita (The immortal water).

Samundra Manthana was greatest of the event happened in God’s Era (if believed) and it is unequivocally insane to compare this with anything else.

The relevance is not that, neither any Dev nor Asur exists now a days in dispersed identity, it rather exists within every human.

A recent event happened in the middle of an ocean, had churned the entire political environment. And almost every day lots of poison is coming out. While the entire case started with Drugs, moved towards Misuse of Power, then Extortion, Illegal Land Purchase / Acquisition, Criminal / Underworld Connections, Fortified Currency and now Rehabilitating Illegal Immigrants.

Lot many names are coming everyday in these entire series of criminal allegations. And the way these entire things are being communicated, calling the media as if things were happening in the backyards and these politicians are very much aware of this.

Even people are kind of ok to accept these facts. Now the questions arise are, do we really have any right of questioning these politicians every now and then when these facts are coming out in broad day light and we are showing our accord to these.

We very fast evaluate people we meet, friends, relatives, bosses, subordinate. But when it comes to understanding and evaluating person coming to us for our votes, we quickly change the glass and start seeing them through Religion, Cast, Community, Regional Pedigree and all other irrelevant cuts. This entire episode is an eye wash for all of us to understand that whatever wrong is happening is somewhere related to these power brokers, power traders who had been blessed with power by us only. This happening is having more lesson to learn beyond abusing wealthy people involved in durgs consumption.

May our consciousness see the lessons learned rather than making it a drawing room discussion, like many in past.

India : A Melting Pot of Culture or Salad Bowl

 Perhaps India is only country in world where almost all the faith and belief of the world exist. Where for every faith, belief and culture, there is considerably a good number of citizens living in different slices of the geo. All are existence are amalgamated in such a way that it has been believed that India is a melting pot of various cultures and all exists in a way that looks inseparable. Then came a though that we aren’t melting pot of culture but a salad bowl where we could taste good only if a wholistic consideration is there but have a clear distinct identity of all the cultures. These days, it is more visible when the content of this salad bowl at times are trying to show their presence felt. At times is giving a bitter taste to us. Although my take is a bit different over this bad taste. We still are the melting pot of cultures but somewhere few are pushing us to start talking about salad bowl and keep talking about the ingredients one culture don’t like or rather a thought is being instilled continuously in the consciousness of different culture people around what is right and what is not for one’s cultural identity. And in this entire thing, two major culture that are on the target are Hinduism and Islamism.

But why this need to cultural melting or mixing is coming into the context, especially these days?

If we go back to the history, it was all about the strength and land in India. The ancient history of India speaks about the vastness of the boundaries of the country. But eventually that wasn’t called India but was hundreds of small princely states. The one who was spreading their boundaries were naming the piece of the land won. The concept of India started coming in after the first foreign invasion happened in this part of the world in around 518 BC by Iranians. Though this invasion wasn’t to rule this part of the land but was more had commercial aspects. This helped establish the trade relations between two different cultures. Another invasion happened in around 326 BC by Macedonian in the leadership of Alexander. There are many explanations of this invasion where one sect of historians believe that this was being won by Alexander over Porus but since his army was so tired, it refused to rule the won territories and further expand. The other sect believe that it was a clear defeat of Alexander across the Jhelum and Porus won this battle. But out of these two major invasions in Indian subcontinent, there was a need to unite all the princely states against any such invasion since it would not only take away the ownership of the land but also try invading the culture of the states. During that time, Maurya Dynasty was in formative state and Chandragupta Maurya was rising as one big leader in the subcontinent. He took steps towards uniting the entire subcontinent and developed the thought of India among all. He was knowing the fact that the entire subcontinent is sharing the same ethnicity called Sanatan and hence is not difficult to unite them. He started promoting and influencing the architecture, coinage, and astronomy.

For around next 1200 years, the culture was getting strengthened and architecture is being promoted. While the style of the structures was changing across the length and breadth of the subcontinent, the basic soul remained same to promote the sanatan dharma and all the in-scripture were made telling stories about this.

Things started changing when India again started seeing many strong kings or rather many kings with different ways of ruling. This started spreading after the death of Harshavardhan in 647 AD, who was considered as last King who united ancient India. During next few hundred years, around 900 AD when slowly the borders were getting fragmented and rulers started changing the coinages as well according to their territories. However, one thing remained same was following the sanatan processes and no one were trying to deviate from that. Many neo religions were also spreading slowly but these had never tried detaching themselves from the ancient Sanatan culture very prominently.

Around 998 AD when Arab and Mongols invaded the territories, the fragmented geo of India helped them enter into this part and establish and spread their territories. Surprisingly it was so very easy for them to spread that they haven’t much faced the resistance. The only reason was while Rulers those days were strong in India but were more working towards their own territories and weren’t much concerned about the other territories as not much of the business relations and political tie up were there between each other. This gave Mongols a clear pass to pick and choose states and rule them.

These Mongols knew that if they need to rule India, they need to destroy the cultural heritage since this could play a role in uniting all these princely states. Since most of the invasion has happened through the Hindukush hence, they popularly started calling it Hindustan. However, this is another debatable topic where different historians have different viewpoints. Mongols slowly stared establishing their culture and weren’t trying to infuse it, as it is popularly said. They were ensuring all the references of ancient India should be destroyed since they saw this piece of land a potential to rule for longer period of time. It was one rich place that could even help them in spreading across. Few princely states haven’t much agreed with these invaders and refused to be part of their territories hence some of the ancient heritages were still intact in some part of the land.

During these times, there was a risk of holding the intellectual groups of India and it was required to put a stall over them. Hence these unity in diversity things had been spread. They were trying to spread the thoughts of coexistence and respecting each other, while lot many were happening towards destroying the culture. This is when the Melting Pot concept started spreading.

While Christianity had reached India during 1^st AD but they were much restricted towards the Kerala and weren’t much into invasion but was spreading through saints here.

In current times, a discussion is there on redefining the melting pot concept or rather a redefinition of melting pot is happening with completely different processes where one side is stating that the pot belongs to them while other is stating that they are inseparable, and efforts are being made to separate the ingredients of the melting pot.

In think while behaving as melting pot, remember that coexistence could happen only when we all accept the fact that both will have to leave the individuality and behave as a new existence. If we want to be in one pot and still would like our identity to be recognized, a salad bowl could only be a better concept. I think it is impossible to mix two ancient cultures and coexist. This could happen only by invading. The stronger wins in any invasion, history had lots of example.