Born At A Wrong Time.

When I came here

I thought

I am of the same species

as the others are

but am I ?
I see -

the creeping sophisticated
specimen elongate their hands,

the lovers betray every moment

the kings and rulers

who put their conscience

in the boxes and treasury-

I am  not of that species,

I am a human being with

a mind, soul and a heart

Yes- I know-

Pure gold.

Is this the place destined for me-
the human jungle,
where nature is beastly
What will I do here?
I came here with love-
love here is synthetic,
truth runs away
with a question mark,
but I will fulfill my destiny
create and worship everything
with truth and love.
They will beat me? - Let them
They will kill me ? - Let them
My death will be a sacrifice
to reestablish the species
for posterity to adore.

Sabita Sahu

Success

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Given a choice between peace and success, the hand of any sane man will rise in favour of success. Man would like to win, conquer, advance in life, get rich and richer, be powerful, gain accolades and wear the star studded crown. The self of a person must satisfy his ambitions, aspirations, wishes and realize all his dreams. Everyman is Utopian in his chosen or available field of operation. May be God has no wishes unfulfilled and therefore he can only grant and give. In any case the human believers have kept God in that absolutist position. The self of man chases that Absolute in his field of action. A clerk dreams of being the boss, a poet wishes to be greater than Shakespeare, a beggar desires to be Bill Gates and so on. There is nothing wrong with desires or dreams. And the world has so many rags to riches stories that doubts are at a premium. If a two bit corporal who loses his eyes in the First War could become the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler and a Chaibala could be Prime Minister Modi Why can't an ant ride the Pegasus? No quarrels. Man on earth has come to become somebody for the earth is a theatre of manifestations. Man must leave his print on the earth. He strives, perseveres, studies, researches, trains, thinks with single minded devotion. Arjun practised hitting targets in the dark nights. Great speakers practise before mirrors (so even do demagogues), singers practise all lifelong and soldiers train as do cricketers and footballers at all odd times. But the question is why don't they all succeed in equal measures?

All students of a great teacher do not succeed equally in their respective persuasions in life. Those who failed blame that unseen power- fate- and resign to themselves. Some of them take failure as a challenge and work hard with redoubled vigour. Yet success does not uniformly crown them. The saints and knowalls may say, something was amiss in their perseverance. What? Perhaps we do not know yet. Success however is not a guaranteed noun. But when we see a rapist, a murderer presiding over our destiny sitting in  a chair of power, we do wonder: how could this happen? How could a builder, a political novice become Donald Trump, the most powerful man in the 2020 world? How could Dhirubhai Ambani create his business empire rising up and up  from  very humble beginnings? Well, here is the trick of fate which defies logic. All seeds of the same species do not grow up to massive trees. Is something skewed with our logic of morality?

We have all been taught by teachers and great men that honesty, hard work and devoted pursuit of your goal someday or other will give you the taste  of success. Does it mean that those failed lacked in honesty of purpose and pursuit? Can we say that all rich corporates are honest ? All those who are successful in their fields are not men of infallible integrity. Many people like Bijoy Mallya and Nirav Modi cheat and pull fast ones to get rich and 'successful'. Shall we call these people successful and Leo Tolstoi a 'failure' for he was not awarded the Nobel Prize? My honest readers will judge.

In the same vein when I think of the lauded man who have carved their image on the hearts of people like Mahatma Gandhi, Lincoln and Churchill  are truly successful? Freedom at the cost of division of India definitely caused great  pain to Gandhi. And what has happened to successful Gandhi's India in his afterlife we know and experience. Philosophically there is nothing called success; it is at best valid for a period in history. Later Years make that success foggy by many analyses which are mind boggling. Moreover success is not unidirectional. A man like T.S . Eliot had no family life, no social life. Gandhi, Buddha and all those great men who had spectacular contributions towards mankind had to sacrifice many a comfort of daily life.       

For this reason people categorize success as material, social and spiritual. Material and social success can be measured although the yardstick may have different dimensions at different times in history. We remember Alexander, Napoleon for their  military success. If we do we must also remember their personal agony, of lovelessness and later ignominy. But can we say Timur and Gajani were also very successful as marauders and looters? Or the East India Company for that matter? No, for the values associated with their success are not prohuman. If humanity is pained or ashamed by one's success it is not worth a boot. If that is not true a man who succeeds  in killing a common enemy is also a great hero. The action of man or the fruits of action enjoyed   by a man are not the measure of one's success. On one level success is the pursued goal reached after a struggle of a lifetime: this success satisfies a self. On the other a man's work saves life and improves the quality of life  for all time. No man can claim to have achieved the success of the later kind. But success after a soulful effort is pleasing to the human being. If it is the realization of his personal ambition it is the fulfillment of his being. But if a man works for mankind's general peace and salvation he is the Son of God. But normal mortals measure success by their  bank balance or  power to do good things for others. At least this much success makes a life full and glorious.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Today

Waiting for tomorrow

why waste your today.

Today you are born

today you will die,

fight and run love and lose

all your glories and shames

all your crowns and crumbs

flowers, thorns, swords and kisses

will rush ahead only today.

Those dreams of tomorrow

lazy reveries air castles

caresses amorous and grand

tiffs and worries bland

are today's routine,

don't slave today for the whip

cross the mountains never sleep

for you will slip today.

Write your letters  sing songs

dance and play sad and gay

someone else will record your dreams

when your tomorrow comes.

Sabita Sahu

Lying

Prafulla KumarMohanty

If I say I dreamt of a lion hosting my New Year Party you may just smile. But if I say  a lion served me tea in the jungle you may ignore it as a deliberate lie to pull a fast one. But a lie has its  place in the life of  human beings for it adds sauce to living. Often we worship lies to beguile the tedium of real life. We culturally  nourish certain lies and make them grand with fanciful celebrations. Our gods, idea of heaven afterlife etc  are compellingly beautiful. We celebrate the birthday of Rama, Krishna, Hanuman with devout faith as if they are more divine than they are imagined to be.  But faith is blind and it does not care for truth or  fact. The scientific temper or logic plays no role in faith. Lies too are independent of logic. The poet, the lunatic and the lover, as Shakespeare said are of imagination  all compact. Lies are imaginative bordering on the imaginary. All creative people create a world of make-belief. The truth serum test is irrelevant in their cases. But one may ask sincerely, what is  a lie? The ready answer is that which is not true. Well what is truth then? Truth is God  said Gandhi and practised truth with love which naturally is far away  from violence. But truth is never objectively presented. It is always subjective  except in the case of objects which have verifiable existence and have been named and identified. But truth of an aesthetic kind or of imaginative perception is not verifiable. The absolute truth is beyond human apprehension. Similarly a lie is never absolute or exclusionary.

Hitler's foreign minister Goebbels had said, "A lie repeated ten times is a truth". People have no scope of verifying a statement  repeated with convincing passion. We saw  evidence of it in the post- CAA protests all over the country. But how could a lie get acceptance as truth? The reason is fear, fear which could  be termed as existential. If a large group of people believing in a different faith are constantly told that the present political dispensation is most likely to destabilize your existence, you are likely to fall for it. For a prediction of likely disaster immediately enters deep into our minds as we are not fully confident of our being. Any prediction of the world's end will be believed sooner than the world will become a paradise in 2030. It is because death is a certainty. Any statement threatening our existence has the power to instill fear in us. And for this reason we accept lies quicker than truth.

Often people resort to lies to escape punishment. The lie may explode on your face later but the immediate danger is to be avoided by resorting to lies. This happens because truth is not easily accepted by people. A liar is more imaginative when he weaves a yarn which is complex. A man speaking the truth is factual. Truth is naked, lie is fully dressed up with frills and curls and attracts the listener to a different world. History records how lies of all kinds have  enamoured people to gloss over the hard realities. Hunger, sickness and war are driven out of the minds of people by a magical lie of otherworldly salvation. People forget the nagging painful problems of existence and pursue a relieving doctrine of faith. Ghost stories, Supernatural lore attract us more as those are like opium, numbing our real fears.

We are all fond of lies. If I praise a dark man saying you have the complexion of Krishna he does not protest. He gives a shy smile and wishes to hear more. If I praise my love comparing her eyes with sun and moon she will be happy. If I praise a country as peaceloving for it never fought external aggression the people will swell with pride. Lies distract the mind off the pain of truth. Life is so full of sorrow and misery that we find an escape route in lies . It compensates the present moment of pain. When a child cries of hunger a poor mother sings a lullaby promising the moon. A dying man gets a few more breaths when the doctor says he is improving. Lies, however, are not always comforting. Lies ruins a life, a family or even a society. But the magnetism of lies is strong, they lull us to an opium sleep.

Lies exist and are practised in a big way because man is afraid of truth. To face truth one needs greater courage. Hence lies come handy for cowards and the weak to hoodwink their fancies however transitory it may be. That's why lying is admired as an art.

Hero No Zero

Why Third, why freak

when I am my own nature

compact in all dimensions

the same legs, hands and a face

the sun and moon kiss everyday.

I read and write as the Ganga flows

swift and slow as the mood goes.

Today I am everywhere

Universities, Court benches and all

Yes I fly Mirage and Fire Bazooka

come debate with me in the bed room

I have the same urge to beat passion

Yes I am a Hero but always Third.

To your pity I have contempt

to your charity I spit fire

take me or leave as I am

I am no Third, no freak

I am my tune,

sing me if you can.

Sabita Sahu

Pay Back Time For Vandals

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Vandalism in India is very often a heroic feat. In the past marauders and vandal  - invaders   came from Afghanistan, Iran and other places to loot India to their heart's content, destroy places of worship, desiccate religious places, rape as many women as possible and carry thousands for their harems and return emperor style to their kingdoms and places to recount their vandalism and barbarism in heroic epics ghost written by gold - licking slaves. The East -India company, perhaps the first big corporation did the same things as the invaders did with some polish as they were answerable to the masterminds sitting in London. But in independent India  too whenever communal tensions flared up shops were looted and burnt, temples and masjids were decimated and trains, buses govt buildings were given as offerings to the bonfire of hate. But no one was found guilty of those crimes. Governments repaired the damaged assets with taxpayers' money. The vandal was a vote catcher and a prospective candidate for the ruling party.

But for the first time perhaps , the Uttar Pradesh government has taken a bold decision to make the vandals pay for the damages to state and private property after the CAA protest which ended up in violence in many cities of the largest state in India. The Citizenship Amendment Act was passed  in the Parliament  by both Houses to, as the Home Minister says, give citizenship to the refugees and it has nothing to do with the Citizens of India. The protest against the CAA was somewhat inexplicable as the cause did not have either a legal or a moral sting. Some political parties floated rumours that this law is anti- muslim and the idea of India was demolished by the law. The print and electronic media along with the new Lethal toy of social media fuelled the rumours with inflammable chemicals . In U.P, Delhi and Karnataka lumpen elements made the protest pitched battles leading to death of Indians both innocents and conspirators. The Delhi - Karnataka governments however, have not decided to collect fines from the vandals to repair the damages. The UP government has already confiscated the shops and the properties of the vandals and have noticed them to  pay the fines otherwise their properties  would be sold by auction to collect  the fines.

To a sane modern the whole thing appears to be somewhat odd. The identified vandals will certainly go to a court and the political parties and men like MIM chief will leave no stone unturned to prove their innocence in a court of law. The police being the scapegoat may come under fire from both sides of the political divide. I doubt whether the UP govt's stand would be vindicated by the legal temples. But the Kerala High Court in a different case and the Supreme Court of India in cases of a similar nature have given judgments which will support the  UP government's averment.

But a man who believes in Newton's  Third Law may agree to the UP government's intent. If public property could be destroyed to protest against a law made by the Parliament in a democratic country, Why should the tax payer's money be used to make good the losses? Why shouldn't justified moral revenge be accepted as instant law? If a group destroys public property the same group should be responsible for repair and restoration. What is wrong with it? If England and America could take war reparations from Germany after the World Wars why can't the UP govt. take the fines from the vandals? One may argue that England and America and other allied powers had the logic of the Victor: So does the UP govt. Once this happens, maybe in future the violent elements may stay away from burning busses and damaging public property.

The Indian political scene today is so dismal that no party in the Opposition thinks that about the greater good of the country. The parties have their ideologies, which mostly are ineffectual. The world has moved away from the Imperialism of the intellectual or the foxy machinations of a dictatorial state. The events of  Honk Kong are in no way a repetition of the Tiananmen Square. Things are fast moving. No group can armtwist a government to submission nor can blackmail the power group to concede points detrimental to the future of the country. The Rule of Law must prevail in a democracy which does not cater to majority or minority. If you have a pathological hatred for the ruling powers, never try to use that hate to win the love of the rulers. Democracy is a number game, defeat them with numbers not with knives and illegal weapons. The illegal migrants are used as weapons against the system today but the same illegals can drive out all legal frames when their numbers increase. Hence respect the Parliament and respect the Country if you think it is your own.

Draupadi's Revenge

Draupadi  the royal consort

of the  Pandavas, daughter of Fire

vowed never to tie up her hair

until she washed it with

Dushasan's blood.

It was an oath of a woman

scorned, a queen dishonoured

in the open court, vile, brute

strength was challenged

by nobility defiled.

It was a vow for her royal

dignity and feminine pride.

She was true to her words.

Oath was never shaken

in forest or in disguise.

Was her vow to see the

dance of death,

to cause the end of mankind

by her stubborn resolve?

Could she not have

pardoned her offender?

Revenge is unheroic for a woman

rash value snatching away

the natural grace and honour.

History may justify

poets may argue

but humanity should not be

paused by infectious revenge.

You may agree or disagree

your choice, but to rise

above everything like an angel

in bliss, is the moral of history.

Sabita Sahu