रसगुल्ला भीषण मिष्ठी

 'किन ने मारो री रसगुल्ला फिराय के' इस लोक गीत की मुझे एक ही पंक्ति याद है, हालाँकि बचपन में मैंने इसे लगभग हर विवाह समारोह में औरतों के गाए जाने वाले गीतों में सुना है! ये वो समय था जब मेरा सोचना था कि किसी लड़की को रसगुल्ला मारना तो रसगुल्ला बर्बाद करना ही है! मुझे उस वक्त उस गुदगुदी का अहसास न था जो किसी खूबसूरत बाला को रसगुल्ला मारने से हो सकती है! मैं जब भी ये गीत सुनता तो सोचता आखिर क्यूँ किसी को कोई रसगुल्ला मारे! रसगुल्ला सदा मेरी प्रिय मिठाई बना रहा और रसगुल्ले की इस बर्बादी पर मेरे मन में सदा रोष ही रहा! वैसे रसगुल्ले के असली स्वाद का पता मुझे कलकत्ता (कोलकाता न कहने पर ममता बनर्जी व सभी बांग्ला बंधुओं से क्षमा चाहूँगा) पहुँचने पर ही लगा! हालाँकि रसगुल्ले का जन्म स्थान उड़ीसा को माना जाता है परन्तु इस के वर्तमान स्वरुप का श्रेय बंगाल को जाता है! बंगाली रसगुल्ले ने मेरे अब तक प्रिय रहे रसगुल्लों का स्वाद भुला दिया और मेरे लिए आश्चर्य की बात ये थी कि रसगुल्ला गर्म भी खाया जाता है! मैं शर्त लगा कर कह सकता हूँ कि इस ब्लॉग के बहुत से पाठकों को इस बात कि जानकारी नहीं थी! खैर मजे की बात ये है कि गर्म रसगुल्ला खाने का मजा ठन्डे रसगुल्ले से एक दम अलग है और अब तो मेरी हर बंगाल यात्रा में दोपहर को गर्म और रात को ठन्डे रसगुल्ले खाने का नियम ही बन गया है! अभी दो दिन पहले एक मित्र से पता लगा कि बर्धमान का सीता भोग और मीही दाना (धन्यवाद् पौलोमी) बड़े  मशहूर हैं! मुझे उम्मीद है कि अपनी अगली बंगाल यात्रा में इन का आनंद उठा सकूँगा!

Sand Sculpture

A sand artist has sculptured a beautiful and eye-catching sand sculpture, of FIFA World Cup 2010, in Bhubaneshwar. The magic of soccer world cup is ready to grip the whole world from today and every sports lover will be hooked to this for a month from now. Condition of football, like all other sports barring cricket, is not good in India. In fact, I too, like so many sportspersons and sportsmen, feel that cricket has infested into other sports in India. My childhood friend, Jata Shankar, who is an Olympian and has dominated the sprint scene of Indian athletics for more than ten yrs and remained in Indian team for all these yrs, never found the status of even an IPL player, like so many other Olympians. Only England and his former slaves play cricket and soccer remains the most popular game in the world. Incidently, Dhanraj Pillai got more fans, in 1998 Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, than Sachin Tendulkar. Although things are changing and some attention is being given to other sports too and a few sportsmen have proved in some sports like shooting, boxing and tennis. I hope football fever in India doesn’t perish like a sand sculpture and we do some thing notable in the coming years.

Life of Poor

      The life of poor has no value, it’s once again proved! More than 15000 deaths, 6 lac people affected, 26 yrs wait and a sentence of 2 yrs! That apart, I don’t know what people were expecting in a case where court had to deliver a judgment under a section, in which, maximum punishment is two yrs. There were other sections, where punishment could ve been more, but they were dropped by the Supreme Court. Why review petition was not filed is a separate matter but after that decision what miracle the govt and other agencies, including CBI, were expecting! And, shamelessly, every one, including law minister, is astonished abt less punishment. Bhopal gas tragedy has not raised any new question. They are all old and we face them daily. It is evident, from beginning; all possible and nearly impossible efforts were done to save the culprits of the tragedy. This is always done. Those who have money and power, influence the justice. And in case of criminal cases its done right from collecting evidence. Justice delayed is justice denied. But in this country justice is denied and delayed.

Gandhi, untouchablity and Ambedkar

    Recently I landed in to Sabarmati Ashram once more. ‘Landed’ as the visit was unplanned and incidental. This ashram is as sacred to me as The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to Christians, Kotel/Western Wall to Jews, Mecca to Muslims, Golden temple to Sikhs and Kashi to Hindus. I am not a strict follower of his principles but some times I practice them in my life. And I believe, firmly, in his teachings and his ahimsa. In India we don’t mind criticizing a thing without having proper knowledge about it. And it’s done with Mahatma Gandhi, often. Time and again I pick debate with those ill-equipped with the knowledge of freedom struggle, Gandhian principles and his philosophy.

    It is often said about Geeta that one finds some thing new, each time one reads it. This happens to me with Sabarmati Ashram, I discover some untouched parts of Mahatma’s life, each time I visit there. This time it was about his words and action on untouchablity. I ve never thought so deeply about his philosophy, before, in this regard.

    When it comes to untouchablity there is another big name, Baba Saheb Ambedkar, he himself being a dalit bore the brunt of untouchablity; obviously he was aware of the problems faced by them. As he had undergone the humiliation since his childhood, when upper cast students refused to study with him in the same classroom and when he was a minister, in the government of Baroda state, the Brahmin peon used to throw the files on his hands so as to avoid an untouchable’s touch. Whereas Mahatma Gandhi was a Baniya, an upper cast Hindu.

    I took many days in writing this blog. I wanted not to be prejudiced or say didn’t want to jump to a conclusion in haste. The subject of my thinking was depth of gandhi’s stand on untouchablity vis-à-vis Ambedkar. The later being an untouchable fought for the rights of the untouchables. Though the plight of untouchables in British India can not be disputed but again and again I came to the point of my thinking. Whereas the method of Ambedkar was to secure rights of his community, untouchables, the Gandhi wanted the upper class Hindus to accept them as equal. Here lies the difference, while the path adopted by Ambedkar was of conflict rather a struggle with in the society. He advocated the communal awards and he almost got separate electorate for dalits. It was due to Mahatma’s fast unto death a historical error was averted. Otherwise there would have been three warring communal groups in India namely Hindu, Muslims and Dalits. But Gandhi ji emphesised on the acceptance of dalits by other sections of society as their brothers. Again his ahimsa! He was liked even by his adversaries for his ways. He always believed in changing the hearts and not in conflict. In case of untouchablity too, he wanted to change the heart of upper cast people. And for this, he was nearly ostrasized. He even in a way boycotted Kasturba who was told to leave the ashram if she could not stay with dalits staying in Sabarmati Ashram! But finally ahimsa won!
    If seen in its nackedness, Ambedkar struggled for the community he belonged to. He would have fought for Brahmins had he been a Brahmin. But Mahtma thought about a society equal for all, without prejudices and discrimination, which was a thing, in those times, only he could dream about, but he did, that’s why he was Mahatma!

kya saas kabhi bahu nahi thee

         There was none whose saas was good and there was none who herself lacked any thing. There were others who just listened the misdeeds of mothers-in-law of former but never dared to express any opinion about their own saas, of course they smiled some times in the corners of their lips. There was another group, of middle aged women, funny thing, there was none whose bahu was good and every one’s daughter had a cunning mother-in-law. The question, indeed, was to be researched as to how opposite things happened at same place. But in-fact it was no big puzzle but was mathematics of relations. Those with ill tempered daughters-in-law and those with same kind of mothers-in-law had the relation of mother and daughter. The quite ones either didn’t have the fundamental right to expression or didn’t have guts to say truth. Their only vent was their smile which they used sparingly as there was a fear if it boomranged as they were the same daughters-in-law, in question. This was the scene of a house where they all gathered for a marriage function.

  Then slowly, the needle moved and stopped to those butterflies that were not party to discussion but took intermittent short flights from one group to another and some times they lured young guys who were desperate for a glimpse. They were criticized for their gestures, dress and their careless attitude. Some soft targets were summoned and advices thrown upon. A few of butterflies shrugged their shoulders and a few just burnt their heart others didn’t care a damn.

      Women are impossible, they say and true, I think, especially, when it comes to relations. Strange! A thing which is wrong at one end is right at other! This is a men’s world but women do not see eye to eye.

Chhanno

            Chhanno’s house is locked. Where has she gone! I wonder! It was said that she was a prostitute and was running a brothel. Her house was in the main street. Her other  neighbors were decent and 'Khandani' people. We, as teenagers, were very curious abt her house. We heard so many stories about her and seen some bad famed women visiting her house. It was a mixture of curiosity, fear and excitement when ever we passed through her street. Some times police raided her house but after spending some hours at police station she was back to her business. I never heard her being in jail on account of prostitution. While passing through her street we used to have a glimpse at her house in the quest of something exciting. But never found a thing which could please our eyes. Of course whenever we found the door open we heard an unusual conversation and Chhanano’s laughter was always louder than others. There was an obsequious pinch in her laughter, which was, I think, always required, keeping her forty plus clients and paramours have their wallets open. And whenever we found the door closed we ran the horses of our imagination as far as they could go. I don know if it was her misfortune or adventure that she was into a profession which is not seen with patience, though, she was fortunate enough to have one of India’s least disturbing communities, partition migrants, as neighbors. Chhanno had a full-fledged family, a husband whom I some times saw drunk and being thrashed by his wife out of house, a daughter, I don’t know if she was also being served to Chhanno’s clients but she was an active partner in those unusual conversations, she was around 18 yrs, beautiful, fair and slender waisted. Chhano was around fifty, had many extra pounds on her body, beetle nut stained teeth. I could never dare to notice any thing more. Her house was on main street and today, after many years when I passed through the street I was curious to see it locked, more than the times when was open. But I’ll b a fool if enquiring abt a ‘bai’. And I’ll b one if I continue to write abt a prostitute as I never had a relation with that house other than lot of imaginations. And I can’t risk my character for the sake of the imaginations.

Happy Journey

      Two days back I was on railway platform to board the train to my home town. While I was approaching my coach I saw a long ‘Q’. I wondered, why the queue was, but it din’t take me long to recognize poor general compartment passengers. The recent tragedy at New Delhi railway station struck to my mind. Those who died and injured all were poor people who travel in general compartment. I am not sure how many of the readers of this blog ever traveled in general compartment and how many even travel by train. I was satisfied to see the arrangement by the railway police, who kept strict vigil on the activities of those willing to board the train; they maintained the Q and video graphed the whole arrangements. Other day a woman lost her leg in the chaos on the same Ahmedabad station. It was a mistake of the driver who stopped the train at the wrong place and the train started backing up to reach to its original place of halt. This resulted in to breaking of the Qs. Ppl ran behind the train and all arrangements were waste. Question is this, why general class passengers! Mahatma Gandhi always traveled by third class. It was his way to know and express the misery of a common man. Railways then did ehsaan to Mahtma, banished third class coaches from passenger trains. But the misery of common men was no third class coach. Those who make polices in air-conditioned rooms with Bisleri bottles on their tables do not seem to be worried about the doomed living of the poor! And those luckier ones traveling in the reserved coaches are not aware how the ppl in the general coaches of same train are hanging, climbing, squeezing, fighting, quarrelling and arguing.

         Lot of hue and cry is made over security checks on airports, abroad but who cares about Haryanvi speaking Blue Line bus conductors, in Delhi,  who ill treat thousands of Bihari labourers daily.