BEING AND BECOMING

पंख की चाहत और खुला आसमाँ एक परिंदा नशे में उड़ा जा रहा है बस नया सा जो है ये हवा से दिलग्गी बेसुधी के शज़र पे सिमटा जा रहा है एक ख़्वाब है दरख़्त-ए-ज़न्नत की बादलों के शहर में खोया जा रहा है चाहे नाज़ुक हो कितनी भी चाहत की उड़ान कुछ पल मिले हैं इसी में जिये जा रहा है बेशक़ ऊँचा है गहरा है सपनों का महल पर हक़ीक़त के रंगों से बिल्कुल नया लताओं के सिरहाने में खेला था कभी नुका-छिपी आज उन्मुक्त गगन में उमड़ता जा रहा है फ़लक़ निःसंदेह लुभाते हैं, बुलाते हैं पर धरा ही उसका जीवन और जननी जो है लौट के गर वो घर अपने आया नहीं किस बसर में निगाहें भरे जा रहा है

पिछले कुछ दिनों से झम झम करती हुई मूसलाधार बारिश हो रही है, कुछ पंखों में हौसला बढ़ा है, भींग रहे हैं, फिर ठहर के थोड़ा, बारिश की बूंदों ने उन्हें बाँध रखा है। पत्तों की सरसराहट हो या फिर उनसे गिरते मोती से झिलमिल बारिश की बूंदे, जीवन सा कुछ हो गया है। सूरज की तपन से झुलसी हुई मुरझायी सी धरती ने अपनी बाहें फैला रखी है, और ये बादल भी मंडराते हुए, गगन से अपने आशियाने कि तलाश में धरा को आलिंगित करता है मानो इश्क़ सा हो गया है। ऐसा लगता है कि ये बारिश भी समर्पण को जीता है, सच में, समर्पण ही जीवन है, ख़ुद कि सीमाओं में क्या रखा है, मोह और मृत्यु का भय! जीवन तो अपनी पहचान मिटाने में है, ख़ुद को ख़ुदा संग भुलाने में है!

One of my friends is fond of "absurdity" as a philosophical concept, originited, as per my knowledge and belief, through the works of great novelist Albert Camus. His famous book, The Myth of Sisiphus, is no ordinary work. That kind of work requires the great concentration and observation of life at its subtle best. Thinkers, like Buddha, Camus, Sartre, J. Krishnamurti, Osho, and even movie like Lucy move into the direction of absurdity of life, though each one has own way of looking knowledge and belief system in our life. But I do believe the story never ends simply by prophecising about the death of knowledge, what Prof. Baxi exclaims, "epystemocide". Knowing is still relevant though knowledge is not necessarily all about informations. In the era of global village no fact has enough space to breathe independently, sometimes manufacturer and cultivators of informations do find social media as a medium to spread hatred and contempt against humanities. Lucy...

Every election, either for the Centre or for the states, brings obnoxious and polluted environment of hatred, and unimaginable violence. Those days were never real to us what Gandhi or Mandela ever conceived about justice and righteousness and brought their pious believes into actions. They were far away from the ordinary pursuit what we're condiocondi in today's clock. In fact, the nature of the man is prone to power than reason. Though, both could not be considered as sworn enemies to each-others, however, a combination of duo is seldom visible in one entity. Power has a soothing attraction what reason has not for the mankind, though Gandhi, Buddha, and Mandela were rare exceptions to this 'state of nature', or to be specific, 'state of excluded inclusion' what we ordinary people are, not by birth, but of course, we are integrally attached to the historical discourse (Men's knowledge is shaped by language, tradition, and culture of a society in which one...

Change is a universal as well as subtle phenomenon. And a person who loves inertia is levelled as a 'reactionary'. I have heard many a times that one should be progressive enough, like changing colours, adapting in a way Darwin imagines in his phenomenal work, "The Origin of Species". What I find about Edvard Said and Ashish Nandi is totally opposite to the idea of 'progressivism', if I may say so. Both thinkers represent a school of thought which does not like the "hegemony of western thought". They disapprove a particular way of thinking mostly found in western schools of thought, like the rationalization and humanization of various structures, be it Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Modernism, or Post-Modernism. They don't like looking Asian, African, or Arab world in perspective of 'European progressivism'. Their project is simple; Edward tried to establish 'Orientalism' while re-reading and re-inventing the "historica...

Who is intellctual? I'm amazed the way this term is often used by the people around me, accross the country and globe. Intellectual, to me, is someone who has got capacity to use intellect as a source to know what seems to be unknowable in instinctive sense. Knowledge is not something which could be monopolized by intellectuals. I mean, it is everywhere. You think about a farmer, gardener, or a labourer. They have knowledge and skills for farming, or gardening. Aren't they qualify to be called as an intellectual? Professors are good at theorising what appears to be true as per their intellect and sometimes their intuition. They are the cultivators of ideas, sometimes investigators of something which is not apparent. Here comes the role of an intellectual; to investigate what is hidden, or what is effaced. Noam Chmomsky has invested his life to prove this hypothesis again and again that every common being is creative to the extent that one creates some unique ideas everyday w...