Month: February 2005

मै कविता लिखता हूँ, जुगनू की चाह,
रोकर गाता हूँ , कंप्युटर पर वाह वाह,
बुलाकर सुनाता हूँ, जब तुम भागते हो,
यही अच्छा लगता है, हा..हा..हो..हो..।

लिखी एक बार बङी दुःख की कहानी,
याद नहीं की, थी वह बिलकुल जुबानी,
माँ कहती, दुखती दुनिया को दुखाते हो,
हँसना पङेगा अब मुझे, हा..हा..हो..हो..।

उन कवियों की तरह अंतरात्मा से,
मिट्टी बालु के किसी परमात्मा से,
धत् तेरे की, थोङे ही बात करता हूँ,
सब भ्रम है मेरे भाई , हा..हा..हो..हो..।

तुकबन्दी की कोशिश में, बेतुका गाता हूँ,
राग परिचय पढे बिना काम चलाता हूँ,
दिन दोपहर दफ्तर में भैरव सुनाता हूँ,
व्यस्त जीवन का सही राग, हा..हा..हो..हो..।

कौन भुसगोल है, कौन निरा मुर्ख,
किसकी छोटी आखें, किसकी है सुर्ख,
शहर के अंदेशे से दुबलाते क्यों हो,
संतुष्टि से जी लो, हा..हा..हो..हो..।

बङे दुःख के दबङे मे हो तुम दबे,
निराशा ने तेरे सारे द्वार बंद करे,
आ मुझसे मिल, सुनेगा मेरे दुखों को,
वजन हल्का लगेगा तुझे,हा..हा..हो..हो..।

बङी मुश्किल से मैं कविता बनाता हूँ,
थोङा लिखकर फिर ज्यादा मिटाता हूँ,
अरे, अभी तक होंठ चिपकाए बैठे हो,
गुदगुदी प्रुफ हो क्या, हा..हा..हो..हो..।

किसी गंभीर चिंता फिक्र में रमे हो तुम,
दाल रोटी जुगार में अगर हँसी हुई गुम,
हाथ दोनों उठा, अंगुलियाँ गालों पर रखो,
पीछे खींचों,अब सही हुआ, हा..हा..हो..हो..।

আমি তো তোমার সমান এক়জন মানূশ,

তোমার মতোই আমার মনে সেই আশা,

আর ভালোবাসার প্রত্যাশা কি ণেই,

হাঁ আমি জানি, আশাই দুঃখের কারন,

দুঃখের ভয় সত্যৈও আশা ছারতে এখণ পারিনি

About my Bengali writing: Been born and brought up in Bihar and educated in Hindi schools, I feel comfortable in Hindi to write. At home, our conversation medium is Bengali. But mine is with “Bihari” accent, Bengalis from W.B. tell so. Even though, I will try to express in Bengali, towards improvement. I am writing Bengali after 20 years that too using keyboard! My Bengali knowing readers please grasp the essence only.

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Bon Voyage.

जय राम जी की । जय राम जी की ।
सब मंगल तो है ना। हाँ, उनकी कृपा है।

कैसी हो बहना । अच्छी हूँ भैया ।
कब आई घर से । कल ही आई हूँ ।

ओए… जोनी । अरे….यार… दीपक ।
किधर गया था बे। अबे वहीं गया था।

हाय…… स्वीटी। हैल्लो……मनीष ।
हाउ आर यू । कूल……. यार ।

अपने हुए पराए । बेगाने कितने न्यारे ।
बातें मतलबी हुई । खोई हँसी स्माइली में ।

कयॉ खो गया । ढूँढता पागलों सा मैं।
कम से कम तू ही, लौटा दे मेरे दिन ।

सरस्वती नमस्तुभ्यं
वरदे कामरुपिणीं ।
विद्यारांभ्य करिष्यामि
सिद्धिरभवतु मे सदा ।।

(Salutations to you, Goddess saraswati,
Who fulfils all our desires;
I am commencing my pursuit of knowledge,
Let me always be successful in this endeavour)

Saraswati Puja will finish today evening as per our vedic customs. Everything went nicely as usual.

In childhood to me this puja used to be the waiting day for eating ber (a plum) apart from puja celebrations. For small girls it’s the day of moving around puja pandals wearing saaris or new dresses. I can’t write more about them but I can represent the guys better. From childhood we have been made understand that one should not eat ber (a plum) until Saraswati puja finishes. I am lucky to read in govt. schools, where I got enough chance for pranks. So before puja, when we used to see the plum trees beside the road, we waited them grow from flowers to small berries to plums and wait for the saraswati puja day. If some guy among us eats the forbidden fruit; we used to tell him their knowledge will be lost because he eat it before puja. Now I look into the matter; this forbidding reason was correct, taking unripe sour fruits are prime cause of cold and cough during the cold season. Once puja is finished we used to throw pebbles on ber trees to get the bers. After saraswati puja, the matter of ripening of fruits was not important. After the pebbles are thrown, there are chances that many a time the ripe, yellow, big bers will fall near to nalla (drain) or inside the boundary walls of the tree owner. The difficult situation really! Either you have to take some bold step there or pity on yourself. Even when I was in Navodaya, I used to roam around Maranga fields for the well known ber trees after puja and bring back pocketful of bers. Inside hostel, I was in good demand among guys until my pocket is empty. But in my hostel our demand for celebrating saraswati puja in form of idol was denied. Now I think this was a good decision by our principal that time. Later on in new building location, when idol worship was allowed in my school, not lucky enough, one of my junior faced an accident. I know not much about it but feel that the worship must not be made a gala event with fanfare in school campuses.

Now the same bers when brought in good quantity in my home, hardly I have that urge to take them. The day apart from home worshipping with small idol, I will read more on the day. I have personal collection of few saraswati bhajans and mantras to chant on evening. But I miss this one, if you know, please tell me, I am writing the partly known lines from my memory may be with mistakes:

श्वेत वसन तन देवी तव सेवि पद
होयछि सुफल मन —————-
स्फटिका के माला पोथी वीणा —-कर धारी
होयछि सुफल मन —————-

I will try to write others known bhajans, mantras in my later posts. Maa saraswati, the consort of Brahma is the goddess of learning, music and art and craft. But unfortunately you will find quiet less number of popular bhajans and songs in the market devoted to her. When I was searching for the songs related to her prayer in Music World, Bangalore I got only one of such kind. It’s “Saraswati Upasana by Veena Sahasrabuddhe” released by Sony Music vol I . I have no idea about other volumes but it’s a good album worth collecting especially if you have interest in classical music as well as devotional songs; it works as a tranquilizer.

कभी किसी ने देखा है ?

उन चट्टानों के टीलों में
अप्रत्याशित ढलानों के बीच,
ढलता है रक्तिम सुरज जब
फिर वहाँ निझॅर बहते हैं।

कभी किसी ने देखा है ?

उस निझॅर के प्रवाह में
कभी विनम्र होती जो बुंदें,
इक झुरमुट के तलहटी में
जाकर अटकती रहती है।

कभी किसी ने देखा है ?

अटकती बुंदो के संगम में
जलमय राशि के ठीक मध्य,
शनैः शनैः एक अद्भुत जलज
फिर विराजमान होता है।

कभी किसी ने देखा है ?

1. “As a woman, you just aren’t listened to – or trusted – as much as a man would be” quoted Christine Comaford Lynch, a venture capitalist who was a CEO too.
2. Carlyn Fiorina, the chairman and Chief Executive of Hewlett Packard Co. was fired yesterday.

Some years ago, I had read a survey in a magazine, which showed the choice of employees for as their boss. And the outcome was that most of the employees want their boss as a man. Surprisingly the majority of woman respondent too want man as boss rather than woman. Something like glass ceiling is also quoted for the positions held by woman managers on the top.

Here Lynch seems to be dissatisfied with the social/corporate structure, which is male dominated and her efforts for the better business structure might have seen a lot of setbacks.

On the other instance Fiorina’s ability as a businesswoman has been exemplary. She is a school dropout, worked as receptionist, teacher and a saleswoman. Due to her marketing ability she rose to the position of the powerful businesswoman of US. She joined HP in 1999 and later on masterminded merger of HP and Compaq. But her decision was widely criticized including the founders of HP. It has been said that the merger have showed detrimental effect in the brand value of HP along with it’s printer business. The merger to the other top executive might have been seen as foresighted business strategy or her failure to uplift the HP brand value.

Although we can’t generalize the statement but women are found to be good managers at the root level, i.e. family level most of the time. Be it the human resource management or financial management. The logic is not to collect sympathy for them but to find out the natural/unnatural tendencies which prevent them to the top. I would like to quote one thing more here. Indira Gandhi, the former PM of India was said as she was the only man in her cabinet. Although, she was also visualized as a dictator during the period of emergency. This kind of remarks or attitude towards women top most executive does suggest that the day is far away towards gender equality when it comes to administration or executive matter.

Why Indira Gandhi was called that she was the only man in her cabinet? Does that mean that only man has the right to rule the world and the executive ability is attached to a masculine personality?

At the basic form of group or organization, the family when formed let’s see what are the outcomes. The woman’s thought maturity is improved if compared to the male counterpart of the same age. The woman when gets married she seeks a man with higher/equal level of thought/position/standard than her. And as a cause/effect the man seeks the lower/equal level of thought/status/standard than him. Leave the issue of exceptional love among them but this is the trend followed around the world.

Now look at the job profiles which are mostly gender specific. The secretaries are mostly women; the nurses/air hostess can’t not replaced by male counter part. In crude politics they take part in less number (Mrs. Clinton’s future seems an exception). In country like India the woman reservation bill never got passed, I don’t think it need be passed and reservation due to mercy will be again harmful and there is possibility that the less qualified woman politicians will jump into passive politics after anchoring some male counterpart. The advocacy of giving them a chance is again the same thing. Of course leg pulling must not be done.

To each individual there are different levels of administrative abilities. Simply judging them on the basis of sex will be unjust. The are example of Shobhana Bhartiya, Kiran Majumdar Shaw, Parmeshwar Godrej and many more in India and across globe as good managers. There are chances as well as opportunities that the women will raise to the great height with her capacities. But on reaching the top most height her each breath seems to be under scrutiny without any productivity but to make her tense as well as the business. The share prices jumped instantly after firing off Fiorina. But the stereotyped society (which comprises male and female both) will take long time to accept the glass ceiling and to solve the imbroglio over the top which is a result of all the stuff sucked at root level.

• After all Pitu got married to a software engineer .(Read the previous post)
• When I reached there my friends and teachers failed to recognize me at all because of my sparse hairline and changed physique. To Vineet, I needed introduction, he is my Navodaya’s close friend.
• A naughty kid asked me about the price of a coffee cup at the coffee stall kept at the reception. When I told him as a joke, the cost of each cup is 25 paisa he started running to his mom for bringing 25 paisa. But when I told it will be given free of cost once all baratis have taken it, he sat calm on the chair to wait.
• Kanyadan was done by the most respected lady of the house, the grandma of Pitu, She repeated each and every mantra correctly despite cold, her age and monotonous sitting.
• There is ritual better to say a play when the bride and her sister sit near to each other with fully covered head and groom have to find out the real bride out of them. There groom failed to do so and choose out Miki, Pitu’s own sister. And the anger of Miki and laugh of relatives was worth seeing.
• Vineet changed his dinner table carrying his thali-glass because there some girl sat near to his thali. He is a corporate working guy.
• Macher mura (The full head of Fish) is not only given in Bengali community to the guests but it was also given to VVIPs in baratis there.
• The coffee machine, which the coffee vendor was using had live current of 220 volts every where on the machine surface because of accidental short circuit in the machine but he successfully kept making coffee cups without unveiling the fact 🙂 .
• Baratis carried double barrel guns proudly, which is common in their community.
• Want more picturesque view, wait till colour images arrives me.

On 6th February evening, I met two of my teachers after nearly 11 years, at the marriage ceremony of my friend Prashant’s sister, who used to be his student. Both teachers were never our subject teachers in the schools. They are my respected Batulda and Sinha sir. Both of them are living their simple life and both of them are quite young at heart. Whatever they do ultimately, are meant for the betterment of the students.

Batulda is the most respected guide of the students preparing for competitive exams in Purnea. The reason, why students call him Batulda, rather than Batul sir, may be credited to his personality. His fatherly guidance, brotherly understanding and friendly talk nullify any unnecessary distance between a teacher and a student.

In the glare of lights and vibrant music, I found in him the same gentle human with high spirits as I had seen him 11 years ago. After very short introduction, he was happy to find his old boys around him. Earlier I had met him only a couple of times for our problems. Our chain of talks ranged from one of his students working as JTO in my town to students abroad and his website and so on. During the prolonged talk, I was being charged by some kind of touch therapy. My fingers of right hand were being caressed between his palms. I was feeling pretty good, as if some magic tricks of life were being passed to me through my fingers. I was healed.

Sitting on the vacant chairs, we and Vineet, my JNVP batch mate, were discussing about the workplace time constraint and stress. Batulda actively discussed the issue and suggested to read few books on the topic. One of them was “The monk who sold his Ferrari” and told about the lucid way the chapters were written.

As our medium of communication had been Bengali always, the envy of Prashant was sure. He objected about it and we laughed a lot. By the time baratis were to arrive and I was given the responsibility of taking care of their reception. Batulda being with me or better to say, I along with Batulda was taking care of the arrangements. Batulda himself counted the number of chairs himself to check whether there might be any shortage of chairs for the guests. Yes, he found that few more chairs were required. On seeing the shortage, as I started off to the upper floor to bring down chairs, where those were stored. He stopped me and suggested that there were more students around and they could do it too. Actually I could not recognize the new students around him. Once he told so many legs marched upstairs. A management ability of Batulda to use the human resources in right direction!

Once the baratis reception was done and I presented the rose buds to all the baratis along with the groom (Of course, I received a lot of thanks from them).Then I decorated rest buds on the home member’s coat. Batulda was standing away from the crowd. I saw him and I took one rose bud stick for his black coat. He received it. And when I requested him to place it in the space of collar for the purpose, he smiled back, saying that it was okay. Instead he wanted to put it on the sweater of another senior student standing beside him. Of course he never felt any requirement of personal decorations.

Like a responsible guardian, behind the spectacles, expert eyes were watching every arrangement. Dinners were going on, I found out time to offer him espresso when he accepted my request for it saying ‘Olpo’( A little). It was past midnight. Leaving us mesmerized with his greatness, he went home to sleep because might the next morning some young batches were to come at Batulda’s Siksha Sadan amidst green trees of Purnea.

Batulda, a man dissolved among us, and evolved to a height, which his beloved ones can feel easily.

सहस्र नामों के शब्दकोष से,

इतनी चिंतन-मनन के पश्चात्,

स्वंय को आश्वस्त करने हेतु ही सही

कहो, क्यों रखा मेरा ये नाम ।

तुम्हारी आशा, किस प्रत्याशा में,

तुम्हारा निस्वार्थ, किस स्वार्थ में,

वर्णमाला से ढाई मोती चुनकर ही

कहो, क्यों रखा मेरा ये नाम ।

मानव सुलभ द्वैष का अधिकार,

पौरुष प्रतीक क्रोधी स्वभाव छिनकर,

अंतराग्नि को अश्रुघारा से शमन हेतु

कहो, क्यों रखा मेरा ये नाम ।

क्या उनके निर्मल प्रेम का प्रतीक,

या तुम्हारे प्रेम की आवश्यकता,

क्या जरुरत आन पङी थी तुझे

कहो, क्यों रखा मेरा ये नाम ।

अविश्वास के अदृश्य जटिल तंतुजाल,

में विस्तारित विचित्र दावानल के मघ्य,

असह्य तपित जीवन मे, दहन से पुर्व

कहो, क्यों रखा मेरा ये नाम ।

क्या स्वप्न देख रखे थे तुमनें,

क्या संकीर्ण स्वार्थ की घाटी से उपर,

किसी अप्राप्त उद्देश्य की कामिनी

कहो, क्यों रखा मेरा ये नाम ।