Sunday 27 August 2017

New Dawn













Of late, I have learnt to rise
From the bed of languid hopes
Early to sniff at the crimson dawn
That has just begun to lavish
On me the indefatigable joys of being.

Just now I have started putting on
New shoes that bites me delicately
But I don’t bother, I am not scared,
My new rendezvous with life has
Taught me to forget the poison
Fruits of familiar trees, the vile
Canker now cannot touch my feet
Nor the slush of affluent weeds
Can transfix me on unpaved roads,

I’ll wipe off memories of horrible lure
And create my own memories in the
New space making my short life’s
Long span my identity.

I'll make my moments long
Eternities of dreaming truth
Which my years have snatched away
In empty beats of hollow melodies,
Played by hands that rooted me
To a worldly sense of security.

I greet my new dawns with new songs
The late opened litanies of joy. 

Sabita Sahu

Mobile Fixation




Prafulla Kumar Mohanty




Whichever corner of the world you go, you will see someone walk on the road, his ear glued to a tiny instrument which 'connects' people. The world today is abuzz with human gossip. In a picnic scene you will notice men and women busy with their phones. In the legislature or even class rooms people watch forbidden things. The internet makes the world a superstring of valuable connectivity. In the malls, corridors, pavements, cars and buses and even on bikes and bicycles one hand and one ear are in the close conspiracy of personal whispers. In the parks or lonely places lovers laugh, cry and sulk over the mobile phone. Businessmen, rickshaw pullers, even housewives and five year olds play with the phone to keep the game of life alive. No student of T.S.Eliot will ever nod with the line- My people, humble people, I can connect nothing with nothing. No, the poet was wrong. Today the mobile phone can save lives, avoid wars, feed old immobile people and grow your business. Now that India is moving fast towards the digital mode, the Prime Minister advises the poor villagers to do e-banking, money transfers and almost everything that a person needs with the mobile phone.

The internet has now the entire knowledge sphere at its command. If you are a researcher, the cut and paste job has been made easier. If you are a genuine lover of knowledge, this tiny universe of a phone can give you all the knowledge you need without the physical toil of sitting for hours in a library. The modern world does not care for depth or width- information is all. You need headlines, a few snatches of a masterpiece, see a painting of  a Van Gogh and you become an authority. The lecture you deliver to a learned audience is on the wall, you need not practise standing before a large mirror like Bill Clinton, you need not take notes or mug up things. You just look at your mobile and dole out all the wisdom your audience needs. You can ask for all goods and services by touching the screen as if you are holding Alladdin’s lamp which grants all your wishes, legitimate, illegitimate even banal. You can send messages which you alone can decipher, you can buy and sell Gods’ creation without moving from your chair. You can live alone away from your loved ones. You will never be bored or hungry, the changing seasons, time's mutation will never disturb you. With the mobile in your hand your personal universe is in your grip.

But is it really so? Don’t you feel that the world is more than a few data, equations, pictures and information? Your reality becomes virtual, your imagination is an offshoot of biochemical algorithms. Your view of the world is data- centric. And you too are a datum for others.

Yes, the mobile phone is a dear friend in an emergency. When you need transport, service, help, especially that of a doctor or to inform a friend of impending disaster the mobile comes as a god-send. But beyond that it is a obsessive toy which makes you a child who constantly lives in  wonder not like Alice but like a lost child who finds solace from a non – welcoming reality.

I know people who after charging the phone pray let not anything go wrong with the phone; let not the networks fail. The mobile phone is a boon to the modern man. No argument. But it is not the be all and end all of life. The children today, particularly the school kids, have stopped reading books. The museum or art gallery does not hold any attraction for them. The teacher is also expendable-Google sir will give us lessons. It has made the young persons self immersed; they have no time for anything. Social media absorbs their intelligence; their creativity is confined to a few wisecracks.

Make the mobile your friend, not your lover, not your soulmate.Listen to your own authentic voice instead of listening to or reading the voices of others. Be yourself, not a mirrored image.



Sunday 20 August 2017

Mission Of My Life


I know I can never reach up to you
Nor can I ever touch you, for
You have built your castle so high
That shames the towering clouds
In the blue expanse of the sky.

I don’t know how long will it take
To break your meditation, no Menaka I
But pray step out from under
The canopy of silence to spread
Your message of Truth, Love and God.

After my appeal the stars have
Given up their comfort zones
To embellish the blanket of grass
To listen to the meditating Hermit
In bright silence the Om of love.

I know  the road is tough and long
With weeds and canker, hateful rancour
Of centuries of hate and banter
But I’m sure you will lure
With your magic of soft and pure
Thoughts and  practice of silent love
To show the path ahead to me and all.

I know you will hang on the Cross
Face bullets and arrows only for me
To see that I live in peace and glory
Achieving goals of our love.
Come forward  my soldier
Fight the hate, fight the arrows
Of man’s violent heart and mind;

If you get shot I will be there
To hold you in my loving arms
To fight the battle divine and bold.
Even if you fall never worry,
My lap will unfold and carry you
To your final rest,
If rest you must.
This is the Mission of my love,
My goal and My Salvation 


sabita sahu





Freedom Of Speech




Prafulla Kumar Mohanty


The Indian Constitution guarantees freedom of expression. In all democracies of the world this freedom is respected except in the communist countries. You are free to express an opinion or take a call on any situation. But is this absolute? Ezra Pound’s free expression landed him in the jail. Another great American mind, Noam Chomsky gained national acknowledgement of his genius for his rational intensity and uninhibited expression on the ideological process of indoctrination of America in Vietnam and the Middle East. But in India freedom of expression is like a river in spate, it hurts, inundates and dries up on its own. The law or the constitution has no control over any form of expression. When M.F Hussain's paintings were vandalized no one dared to speak. Ultimately the man left India, took citizenship elsewhere and died unlamented and unsung. China today claims all territories contiguous to their land as theirs. If anyone opposes on principles and facts China challenges to the battlefield, as if military power is the ultimate arbitrator of all issues.

What disturbs the rational mind is the impunity with which opinions are expressed about persons, religions and political rivals. Last  month in Rameswaram the memorial of APJ Abdul Kalam was inaugurated. The next day some’ great visionaries’ found fault with the presence of the Bhagbat Gita near the statue of Kalam. The charge was BJP is communalising an icon who is above all religions. The Bhagbat Gita is a great poem, not necessarily a Hindu Scripture. Germans, Americans and many nations read the Gita and research on it. It is a view of life and reality and definitely one of the best literary works of the world. Why should doubts be expressed in polarising terms on such an innocuous issue?

Intolerance has crossed all constitutional limits in India. Jawaharlal Nehru University can celebrate the ‘martyrdom ‘ of Burhan Wani, a Hijbul terrorist and also of Afzal Guru a terrorist who masterminded an attack on India’s most sacred temple- The Parliament, slogans like – Afzal we are ashamed that your killers are still alive- can be shouted in a choric fashion and no eyebrows will be raised. But when the Kargil Victory Day is celebrated in Hyderabad Central University the temporary memorial could be demolished post midnight in a clandestine manner. The Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir can shout if Article 35-A is abrogated there will not be anyone in Jammu and Kashmir to lend a shoulder to the tricolour. Politically loaded statements can be made  without  disturbing the rational balance of the Indian mind.

Yes lynching is condemnable in the name of the holy cow or in the name of ideology  but how many people condemn the lynching of RSS workers in Kerala? Rational judgement and constitutional propriety should not be taken recourse to selectively. But this is what happens in India. The free thinkers like Dhabolkar are killed. No one is prepared for a public debate. If Kamal Hassan finds fault with the Mahabharata defeat him with logic and a sound reading of the text. But no, people will threaten him. Similarly Madhur Bhandarkar has made a film on the 1975 emergency in India. He was hounded by congress workers- why? Watch the film and criticize on his wrong reading of History- if any- and comment on the flaws in other artistic or technical areas. Madhur Bhandarkar also has the same right of self –expression as any other creative person.

We notice two trends in India today. A cultural aggression and a defeatist attitudinal dynamics attacking with nervousness all citadels of life.These come to clashes and create only noise pollution. The rationalist intellectuals now should interfere and call a spade a spade. People must be made to understand that there is a limit to freedom of expression. If that Rubicon is crossed the constitutional values will be in jeopardy.




Corruption


SABITA SAHU         : Indian civilization always prided in moral purity. But in Independent India we experience the opposite of it. People are corrupt, morally bankrupt and spiritually empty. Can there be any  explanation for this change?

PRAFULLA MOHANTY : I think you are too simplistic in your observation. Ofcourse you are right, there is corruption in all spheres of life. But do you think in the hoary past Indians were angelic?

S.S      :  No, not angelic but they were god fearing and law abiding. They never ran after power and pelf.

P.K.M   : Turn the pages of history.  In every page you will see a king or a strong man aspiring for things which are not legitimately his. The epics- Ramayana and Mahabharata are full of such illustrations. Greed leads to corruption-

S.S        :  But the epics demonstrate how evil is trounced by good. Corruption has no place in society. Ofcourse corruption is there but the epics teach us how  to eradicate it and how to have a just society.

P.K.M    :  Then why the Indians, the proud inheritors of the Vedic and Epic culture of our great past are today at number 89 in the corruption ranking of the world?

S.S         :  That’s why I asked. Why do you think corruption exists?

P.K.M   :  Because we wish it to exist. Man is not naturally self-sufficient in everything but he is full of desires. He would greed for power which naturally corrupts. He would desire for money which often leads to moral perversion. Lust is perhaps the worst form of corruption. It destroys Troys and Lankas-

S.S        : Let us confine ourselves to economic crimes like bribe-taking and giving-

P.K.M   : Yes, bribe giving is the beginning of corruption. I give a bribe to someone to get what I don’t deserve. Thereby I also deny the rightful person his due.

S.S       : Yes the third rate students bribe teachers to get the highest marks. But I blame the teachers who accept the bribe to do injustice to the meritorious students.

P.K.M    :  Yes you are right, But some people think money and power can buy prestige and social standing. They use that power on those who are greedy.

S.S      : But when I see the MP’s and MLA’s being bought my blood boils. They are people’s representatives. Why do they greed for money and power when they already have them?

P.K.M    : Because they have no soul force. They value these mundane things more than integrity, character and personality. Inside they are all paupers and sell themselves for false social pride.

S.S          :  But false social pride can never satisfy the soul-

P.K.M     :  Provided they have souls. The seat of the soul is at the centre of a multisensory person’s activities.

S.S         :  Yes Gary Zukav tells us that, But a normal person should accept his lot and be satisfied with what he has-

P.K.M    :  Why should he? When he sees people could be duped, fooled and cheated like Yudhistira, he plays Shakuni.

S.S         :  Yudhistira should not have played the dice game in the first place.

P.K.M     :  But the desire to gamble and get things which may come easily is difficult to resist. Desire asThe Buddha said is the root cause of man’s sorrow, everyone knows it but goes to put his finger in fire.

S.S        :  If you don’t put your finger in fire how will you know that fire burns? (laughing) Evil I think is more attractive than good.

P.K.M   :  Yes. Gurucharan Das’s treatment of the Mahabharata is called- The difficulty of being good- good compels hard work, discipline and basically renunciation which is difficult to practice.

S.S       :  But we have so many laws and law enforcing agencies yet corruption is, like a birth mark never leaves the body. In India the politicians are mostly corrupt-

P.K.M    :  Not only in India, all over the world. Politicians, bureaucrats and even the smallest man in society. Moral chastity,  one may say, is lack of opportunity.

S.S        :  O’ This is an extremist statement.

P.K.M    :  Nevertheless true.

S.S        :  Is there no cure? Can we not eradicate corruption from the society.

P.K.M    : We can, If we do not desire for ease, comfort,  luxury or power,but we have to settle for less. Are you prepared  to settle for less?

S.S         :  Maybe not but we can live within our means.

P.K.M    :  Look here Sabita, If there is a Seven Star Hotel you would like to go at least once.

S.S        :  So there should not be a Seven Star Hotel?

P.K.M    :  Yes, create them but make it accessible to everyone. If there is heaven we would like to go there. We create dreams, We imagine and create luxury and we want to have a share of that luxury.

S.S        :  So don’t dream, just live. Don’t you think that will be absolutely boring?

P.K.M    :  You have to choose between boredom and Seven Star Dreams.

S.S         :  (smilingly)  Yes I get the point. Thank You.



   

Sunday 13 August 2017

Memory And Dream




I wish I could relive my childhood
Sprightly pure and innocent
Ready to defy the dictates
Of kings and lords, my own master
As I was: but how fast, before
I realised the days were gone
Leaving me memory stuck.

Now as I sit alone in my
Lonely room, like slides they come
In quick succession those glorious days
Inviting my lazy bones to go for
A swing ride to the open sky,
Rising to the tree tops and touching stars
And falling with a fearsome thrill
To land again on the soft grass
Playing hide and seek with
Heaven and earth!

It felt like yesterday sitting
In the corner of my room, mending
The racket broken by my brother
In a mock fight over the new cock-
Shouting – never to talk to me again
But when he hugged me from behind
My anger was gone the next moment.

I wish I was a kid again
Playing Kabbadi, Kho-Kho and
Badminton with all those who are
Now slow, busy and lonely
Recycling time to spring again
Singing tuneless songs to mock at
The fights of the high and mighty
And long for the mother’s lap
The celestial bed on earth
And sleep away the divide and rule
The games played by the fools
And wake up to a new world!

Vanishing Love Letters

                                                                 
                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                     


Prafulla Kumar Mohanty


Letters and particularly love letters are now a vanishing form of personal expression. I am not thinking of the official and corporate letters which have nothing to do with the self and soul of an individual. People today have no time to write love letters because the other forms of communication with your lady love are now available. But at the same time, love is no more a soulful commitment between man and woman. In truth, love is more a verb than a noun for the modern generations. A video call, a mail or a dinner date in a hotel with soft music playing to match the flowing champagne is all that love means to people who are always busy. Love is a life time ‘occupation’ where reality and dream are so interwoven to form a scenic tapestry  around your personal Eden that you perceive the truth, beauty and divinity of a person- man or woman- through whom you experience the whole of creation like the Vishwarupa in the Gita. Love is the most poetic experience a person can ever have and it has a beginning without an end.

People who are separated from their beloved they normally write letters. Imagine a woman receiving a letter on lotus leaf written with a stylus or just with nails, which comes hidden in a lotus floating in an aquaduct! The very romance of such experiences elevates love to superhuman heights. Kalidas’s hero, the Yaksa could not write to his beloved so he sends his intense message through the clouds. Such messengers are noticed in classical poetry. In English poetry we have poets like John Donne writing two love letters every day. How many can say: “For God’s sake, hold your tongue and let me love”? If you read the love letters of Shelley and Keats you will experience the joy and pain of love in lyrical measures. Love letter is an extra poetic expression of the lovesick soul longing for a dream union in a celestial atmosphere. It lifts up the lovers to heights and depths immeasurable by the instruments available to man. It purifies and ennobles the soul. It is not ‘time’s fool’ as Shakespeare would have it. Love transcends time and space and deifies the lovers. The most profane becomes the most divine by the power of love. This is not a mere passion or a release of libidinous energy; It is a sacrificial reaching out of a person who identifies his/ her lover with God’s many splenderoured truth. Love’s real measure is the intensity of separation.

The twenty first century lover, however, does not believe in the mirrored levels of love’s truth. Even the foreplay, the caressing words are gradually vanishing. The fate of love letters is no different. Who has the time to look at midnight moon for hours and write woeful ballads to his mistress’ eyebrow? they will ask. Love is an amorous affair, the short-lived it is the better, for, man must do the million things that call for our attention in the present world of opportunities. I think Hindi films have shown the way, rather the transition from long languorous biraha to short cuts to bedrooms. One song in Saraswatichandra admonished the lover not to waste a life for love: There are other manly things to do.

Writing love letters now is a dying art. The poetic heart that poured honeyed or agonized words for the beloved are now non flowing. All over the world it is now the pounding of fingers on keyboards that keeps all communications alive. Three letters now speak volumes which the beloved wants to hear or read: I.L.U. And that comes in ample measure.

No tears over this dying art. No attempt to revive it will succeed. I.L.U. is enough to spur a dreamy walk to the nearest rendezvous. But there are still lovers who burn the LED nights copying out letters and poetic lines from old masters to create impression: Cheers!

Forever New