जब तुमने कहा था वो बेटी है , वो क्या करेगी !!!

हाँ मैं रोया था उस दिन ,
जब तुमने कहा था वो बेटी है , वो क्या करेगी ।

उसके सपनो को अपने आंसूओं से धोया था उस दिन ,
जब तुमने कहा था , वो बेटी है पढ़ कर क्या करेगी ।

बहुत बेबस सा महसूस किया था उस दिन ,
जब उसके हिस्से के सपनो को रौंदकर अपना पल्ला झाड़ा था ,
जब वो डॉक्टर बनना चाहती थी, और हमने उसे दुल्हन बनाया था,
हर पल , हर छण , उसकी इच्छाओं को दबाकर अपने घर की इज़्ज़त बढ़ाया था |
तो , हाँ मैं रोया था उस दिन ।
जब तुमने कहा था वो बेटी है , वो क्या करेगी ।

मैं रोता हूँ आज भी ।

क्योंकि वो आज भी कहीं सिसक रही है ,
किसी का घर बनाने की खातिर खुद किसी कोने में सिमट रही है ,
किसी दरिंदे की हवस से लेकर घर वालों की इज़्ज़त का
बोझ ढोती खुद सबके इशारों पर थिड़क रही है |

तो हाँ मैं रोता हूँ आज भी ,
क्योंकि अपने इंसान होने की कीमत, वो आज भी एक लड़की होकर चुका रही है |

Dedicated to all the lovely souls of my life !!!

मज़ा आता अगर गुज़री हुई बातों का अफसाना ,
कहीं से तुम बयां करते , कहीं से हम बयां करते ।

उन्ही बातों , उन्ही सपनो ,उन्ही चुलबुल तरानों पर ,
कहीं से तुम कसक भरते , कहीं से हम सिसक भरते ।

हँसते हम उन आंसुओं पर और रोते तुम भी उन ठहाकों पर ,
उन यादों को पकड़ के बंद मुठ्ठी में छुपाने की कोशिश में ,
कभी आँखें बयान करती , कभी ये लब सुना देते |


PS:First para by वहशत रज़ा अली (Ref: Rekhta)

It's your life ... Live it as your "Own"

You will be judged anyway . Believe me when I say that. They will always judge you.Why? First of all, it has nothing to do with you. And secondly ,It's beyond your control.

So just free yourself from "their" cage.
But how? Do you even know , what freedom is?

Well its actually to shed the temptation to look at yourself form other's glasses .Their glasses are theirs and you will never be able to see your true self from their glasses.you have to find your own glass and that's the only way to achieve the freedom.The moment you free yourself from the lust of achieving their version of success ,you are free.It's the moment when you realize that you were sent in this world to be you , as everyone else .
If you are happy doing something and you know that what you are doing is right and your version of right is not going to suppress ,hurt or cheat anyone then just do it.Its the only thing that can bring you closer to yourself. Nothing else can. Well but one caveat here. Don't do something you believe in and then start judging yourself from their parameters.Their version of happiness is their construction for you, not yours.If it's your journey , it has to be your decision , your success ,your failure , your achievements ,your tears ,your sweat and your blood.And that's the purest thing in the world.When Krishna talks about "Nishkam Karma" in Bhagvat Gita , he means it's your efforts that are in your control ,everything else is beyond you and so they should not bother you .All you can do is do your work and leave everything else.

But rest assured they will not judge you from the work you did. They are interested in the result .The result that will benefit them in a certain way.So the "Karma" that you do will be of no value to them because they are not attached to your karma, they are attached to your result.Your karma is the result of your blood and sweat and hence never let anyone abuse or demean your "Karma" , because that's yours.The timeless hours that you put in doing it with all love and dedication .Its your love . And if you can't love your "love" then that's being disrespectful to that innate emotion.Never do that .

Move on , if you are no longer interested or if you don't feel love for that Karma. Life is just a one time event. Don't waste it cursing ,crying ,blaming or lamenting .It's not worth it .The only thing that matters is what you did , not what you achieved. Achievements are just secondary .Sometimes they will come and most of the times they won't .But that will bother those who are just eyeing the achievement .If you loved doing something without hurting anyone then I guess that's an achievement in itself.Live with it and love it .

Nobody is going to share the death bed with you.Nobody is going to take your pains and certainly nobody is going to be your savior when all chips are down .Its you only who has to go along .As Tagore beautifully put "Ekla chalo re". People will join in this journey, as you will join someone in their own but they will be there just for a brief moment.Love them ,for they are a part of the journey but move on because you have to find new frontiers .

Eventually it's you only who is going to be with you till the end .Just make sure that all through your journey you do something good for people selflessly and try to make their journey beautiful.Well that's enough for this small life . As science has proved that energy can never be created nor be destroyed , only transformed from one form to another . Well, make all your efforts in transforming all energy into positive energy .Long after you are gone ,this energy will still be here , keeping someone else happy somewhere. And that should be the ultimate achievement of your journey.Believe me,nothing is worth more.

Hard times...

These are hard times. Everywhere around us there is chaos and fear. Thousands of people are everyday being killed in the name of religion ,caste , class ,ethnicity ,nationalism etc. Millions are being forced to leave their homes for an uncertain and dangerous future. People are being pitted against each other for the vested interest of few. There is a grave inequality between haves and have nots and a selected few control the whole world.These are indeed hard times. But is it something unusual? Certainly not.
Everything mentioned above has always been there in the world.There is a bloody history of people killing each other for the vested interests of few and there has always been this threatening inequality among people. "Humanity" has a long history of slave trade ,caste oppression ,untouchability ,gender biasness,genocide etc. So there is nothing new happening now that has not happened before.And probably there is nothing new happening now that will not happen in future as well
There have been great personalities in the world like Buddha , Jesus, Mohammed, Marx, Gandhi . They have all propagated the same message of love , humanity and mutual brotherhood in their own way. They have all tried to build a just and equal society and inculcate in human beings the highest values.We still revere these great people but somehow we don't tend to follow their lessons. These lessons seem outlandish to us and despite all of their teachings we find ourselves mired in the petty selfish interests . What makes us do so? What is it that makes us revere these great people but forces us to follow the ideas contrary to theirs? Why is it that in a country where women are worshiped as "Devi" , they are also the worst sufferer of exploitation? Is there a contradiction in our words and actions?And this has happened everywhere throughout the history ?So the question that arises "is it something inherent in human nature as Hobbes and Machiavelli suggested?"Or is it the social construction of few in their vested interest, that over the time has got embedded in our psyche?
According to Marx and Hegel history moves through the dialectics .There is always a tussle between good and bad , evil and divine , right and wrong , and humanity moves forward having arrived at a synthesis of these contradictory ideas. But even if this is true , why is it that throughout the history evil seems to have possessed all the power and good people seem to be just reacting to the evil designs of some? Why is it that millions of people had to die in concentration camp just because a German fanatic had a sudden attack of hatred towards a particular community?How come a society gradually built on the ideas of love ,respect and toleration suddenly gets so polarized that the same people start killing each other.
The irony is that we remember and revere Gandhi but in our lives follow Godse? The question that bothers me is: "is it something inherent in our nature that attracts us towards the evil ?". We remain on the right path as long as there is a great personality guiding us through the righteousness and slip into the darkness as soon as they leave us. Is it really super human to be "good" ? Are we treading in darkness in the search of light or is there a permanent darkness inside us only ? I don't have the answer . May be someday someone will .

"Detached - Attachment "

In the course of life we generally get attached to certain people and things in such a way that we never want to lose them. We want to provide them with the ultimate happiness and love , even at the cost of our own sufferings.It is through their happiness that we derive our own and it gives us immense satisfaction to see them happy.
This part is called "attachement".
However , we must realize that despite our best wishes and efforts , life will charter its own course. There will be times when everything will go against our wishes. We will feel helpless on losing few loved ones or finding them in pain.There will be a whole lot of issues going against us and we will be able to do very little about it. We will feel completely devastated.
In those moments the only thing that can help us picking up those broken pieces is "acceptance". We must accept the fact that life is not going to be fair.It is never completely black or white.It has its own shade of grey that makes it intriguing. It is neither good or bad .It is simply as it is.
So while attaching ourselves to our loved ones and things , we must be detached to the outcomes so that we could continue this journey, realizing the impermanence of everything. Nothing is going to be here forever.Everything is transient and it will all vanish one day, sooner or later.This realization has power to give us the reason to live and continue in our own pursuit.
That's called being "detached" to the attachments.