Tabula rasa !!!

Amazed !
I offered only Blank Slate :)

To be Contd.

Kala Ghoda Festival Part-I

Man Vs machine

“That I'm a machine. I like the smell of burnt gasoline. It makes me high...”

“What they don't understand is that Jagaddal is also human.”

Kala Ghoda festival is enthralling mumbaikairs with its potpourri collection of films plays, performances et all. Ajantric was one of the films I saw as Festival began on 3rd Feb 2007.

Ajanric is Bengali word for The unmechanical. The movie portrays a taxi “Jaggaddal” – personified as human by its owner. It presents a strong emotional bond between man and machine, a strong display of human concern and passion for a mere machine by its owner-Bimal.
Jaggadal is a taxi grown old after serving its master for almost 15 years. It is in tattered state but still loved and admired by owner. It becomes a mock, an element of ridicule for its owner. Nevertheless it is most treasured possession of Bimal.

The movie progresses showing how Jaggaddal has ferried motley crowd from place to place. It has always fulfilled its promise of destination even in most adverse conditions of weather and otherwise. It has taken in its fold a misery man with his son who had to reach their village for his son’s marriage, an eloping girl with local Romeo, a man who had to scurry to catch Calcutta mail,

To Bimal , Jaggaddal torn roof is a window to star spangled sky. It’s hissing engine- a tantrum to feed water and get a caressing hand. Its jarring body- an emotion of ecstasy as its passes through milieu of terrain.

All affairs have their dark patches too. Jaggadal off late starts breaking down too often. Bimal is treated like madman for being the lover of its strange and obsolete vehicle. New models making there way into city of joy makes life tough for Jaggadal.

Bimal spends his life’s saving in trying to renovate the taxi. The renovated jagaddal roars back to life only to breakdown again. All good things come to an end so does the fate of Jaggaddal, it is sold to scrap dealer after its final breakdown.

Did Jaggaddal felt the same emotion as Bimal felt for it? Can a dead piece of machine speak? To utmost amazement of Bimal - Jaggaddal gave out a soft sigh as it bade adieu as a scrap to its owner. Bimal , the mechanic loved Jaggaddal as his son, and could hear sobs of departure even from the ashes of the son.

Subhan Allah!!

हजारों ख्वाहिशें ऐसी कि हर ख्वाहिश पे दम निकले
बहुत निकले मेरे अरमाँ, लेकिन फिर भी कम निकले

डरे क्यों मेरा कातिल क्या रहेगा उसकी गर्दन पर
वो खून जो चश्म-ऐ-तर से उम्र भर यूं दम-ब-दम निकले
निकलना खुल्द से आदम का सुनते आये हैं लेकिन
बहुत बे-आबरू होकर तेरे कूचे से हम निकले
भ्रम खुल जाये जालीम तेरे कामत कि दराजी का
अगर इस तुर्रा-ए-पुरपेच-ओ-खम का पेच-ओ-खम निकले
मगर लिखवाये कोई उसको खत तो हमसे लिखवाये
हुई सुबह और घर से कान पर रखकर कलम निकले
हुई इस दौर में मनसूब मुझसे बादा-आशामी
फिर आया वो जमाना जो जहाँ से जाम-ए-जम निकले
हुई जिनसे तव्वको खस्तगी की दाद पाने की
वो हमसे भी ज्यादा खस्ता-ए-तेग-ए-सितम निकले

मुहब्बत में नहीं है फ़र्क जीने और मरने का
उसी को देख कर जीते हैं जिस काफिर पे दम निकले
जरा कर जोर सिने पर कि तीर-ऐ-पुरसितम निकले
जो वो निकले तो दिल निकले, जो दिल निकले तो दम निकले

खुदा के बासते पर्दा ना काबे से उठा जालिम
कहीं ऐसा न हो याँ भी वही काफिर सनम निकले
कहाँ मयखाने का दरवाजा 'गालिब' और कहाँ वाइज़
पर इतना जानते हैं, कल वो जाता था के हम निकले

- मिर्जा गालिब (Mirza Ghalib)

Turn the Tide

A great piece by great poet..... Shiv Mangal Singh Suman

तूफानों की ओर घुमा दो नाविक निज पतवार
आज सिन्धु ने विष उगला है लहरों का यौवन मचला है
आज ह्रदय में और सिन्धु में साथ उठा है ज्वार
तूफानों की ओर घुमा दो नाविक निज पतवार
लहरों के स्वर में कुछ बोलो इस अंधड में साहस
तोलो कभी-कभी मिलता जीवन में तूफानों का प्यार
तूफानों की ओर घुमा दो नाविक निज पतवार
यह असीम, निज सीमा जाने सागर भी तो यह पहचाने
मिट्टी के पुतले मानव ने कभी ना मानी हार
तूफानों की ओर घुमा दो नाविक निज पतवार
सागर की अपनी क्षमता है पर माँझी भी कब थकता है
जब तक साँसों में स्पन्दन है उसका हाथ नहीं रुकता है
इसके ही बल पर कर डाले सातों सागर पार
तूफानों की ओर घुमा दो नाविक निज पतवार ।।

Who Me???

"There used to be me,
Now renamed by people.
People decide who real I
Am and plant it back to me."

Life isn't one damn thing after another. It's the same damn thing again and again. It brings you back to same decisive or indecisive moments, successes and failures, truths and fallacies, haves and haves nots. The perpetual dance of life is eternally manifested in Self caught up in circular arena, coming back to same point again and again. One may go out of centre to periphery in sheer moments of enlightenment and self discovery but the rigmarole of life forces and keeps one in these precincts only.

If

Someday I ll have the nerve to really act out the poem. I just wait for that some day to come soon....


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or,
being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings And
never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty
seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

-Rudyard Kipling

Keep Trying!!!

This is a poem I go back to again and again..It works

लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।
नन्हीं चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है,
चढ़ती दीवारों पर, सौ बार फिसलती है।
मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है,
चढ़कर गिरना, गिरकर चढ़ना न अखरता है।
आख़िर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती,

कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।
डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है,
जा जा कर खाली हाथ लौटकर आता है।
मिलते नहीं सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में,
बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में।
मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

असफलता एक चुनौती है, इसे स्वीकार करो,
क्या कमी रह गई, देखो और सुधार करो।
जब तक न सफल हो, नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम,
संघर्ष का मैदान छोड़ कर मत भागो तुम।
कुछ किये बिना ही जय जय कार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

हरिवंशराय बच्चन (Harivansh Rai Bachchan)

An uncalled change

When you are born, u depend on others for food,
trying your best to utter some words,
trying your best to cry ur lungs out,
never stopping till you make yourself heard.

When you are toddler, trying your best to walk,
falling many times before progressing a single step,
Never stopping till you force your
Sinew to make you run.

When you are past kindergarten,
trying your best to create mischief,
trying your best till you get your first bike,
trying your best to trouble your buddies,
Never stopping till you break the neighbor’s pane.

When you are adolescent, trying your best to impress others,
Trying your best to sing sweet nothings befitting your mistress brow,
Never stopping till you get pocket money enough to satisfy
your dandy imaginations.

When you are grown up butterfly, which had left safety of cocoon,
to enter the adulthood. Trying your best to take on the world,
But...Now Doubting your potential,
Trying your best to look back on your failures,
Trying your best to ignore your success,
Trying your best to snub your talent,
Trying your best to kill a bright baby in you,
Trying your best to kill a beaming child,
Trying your best to kill a magnanimous adolescent.
Why a change of attitude,
Why a doubt cast over your potentials,
Why a impulse of pulling yourself back.

Let the baby, the toddler, the child, the adolescent,
again rise from inside you,
The forms which never gave up,
The forms which never stopped,
The forms which were always
Trying to shape you,
The forms which will restore the
Lost triumphant tune of
Never stopping till…..
Never stopping till you reprofile urself
Never stopping till you obtain your best.

-VASU

Rebels! BreakFree

Just luv this Ad campaign by Apple. A bit modified by me:

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels. The trouble makers.
The round pegs in square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,disbeleive them,
glorify or vilify them.About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent.
They imagine.
They heal.
They explore.
They create.
They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

While some see them as the crazy ones, Isee genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

How is that days crawl by, yet years fly

sum lines that came to my mind while i ws doing my assignmnt


An iota of time so small it may not be felt at all
I wonder how years fly yet days can crawl.
I waited for the spring, I missed the fall,
I shrugged todays, dreamt of morrows,
I made living, met success, filled in gaps narrow,

Watching time slip by, life sashaying away,
I look back to bask in glory of yester day,
Dreams dissolved, smiles vanished, moments gone,
I blinked away dusks of life, to heed and welcome dawns,

Time is ephemeral bounty; it will sneak away soon,
Life speaks to you; hear whisper of its tune,
Love the moments, Live the moments, adore
Savor the seconds, get from years more.

-VASU (Thanks to Akash Khurana, his assigment made me write this)