Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Naa-ummid si ek Ummid

Ummid thi ke shaaed uss bheed mein
Naqaabon ke parey koi apna hoga

Koi aisa jis ki ek jhalak ke liye maano sadiyon se
Dil yun tadpa hai ke jaise koi na kabhi tadpa hoga

Beqaraar si nazrein talaash karti rahiin baarha uss ko
Na jaane kahan hoga wo, kis haal mein hoga, kaisa hoga

Yaad karta bhi hai mujh ko kabhi ya ke phir bhool gaya
Wo tha aisa hi, magar main ne ye samjha tha ke mera hoga

Saal dar saal karvaan e ziist chal to raha hai bin uss ke
Phir bhi ek aas lagi hai ke agar mil jaaye kisi roz to kaisa hoga......

(By Shazia)


Friday, April 6, 2012

Life moves on

With technology entering every space of our life in the past few years the world has become a really small place. The way we eat, work, study, shop, socialise, entertain, all of it and more has changed, and changed really fast.
The advent of an infinite number of social networking sites and cell phones has revolutionised the way we meet and interact with people and make friends. It also means that relationships are not the same now. Is it any wonder then that in the new scenario love and relationship have also been redefined.

But as we become more literate and theoratically more knowledgeable about what love really is and what an ideal relationship should be like, emotions and feelings seem to have lost their depth,  becoming hilariously pathetic and superficial. So much so that at times their true meaning (if there ever was any) has been totally distorted.

Everyday one receives SMSes defining love and relationship and everyday users on public networking sites try to outdo one another with similar messages and posts.

"Relationship is like Taj Mahal. Everyone sees how beautiful it is, but no one realises how difficult it was to build"

"We love because it is the only true adventure"

"Love is friendship set on fire"

"May be love is like luck. You have to go all the way to find it"

"Relationship is like a violin. The music may stop now and then, but the strings remain attached."

"Love is the master key that opens the gates to happiness"

"All relations in the world are like insurance policy....We have to pay the premium of love and care to keep it going"

And this one I got yesterday in Hindi asks a question...an important one...
"Jeevan ka sab se bada nuqsaan tab hota hai jab hum jeevit hotey hain, lekin hamare rishtey marr jaatey hain...parr ye rishtey martey kyon hain....?"

Sometime back a friend had sent me an SMS which said "A relationship never dies naturally. It is always murdered"
And if this is true, then the question is who is the murderer?

Losses are always emotionally disturbing. Good-byes can be killing. But like time, relationships also see changes as they grow (or stagnate) with the passage of days, months and years. Time is never the same. Circumstances are never the same. But a rock-solid relationship built on mutual trust and patience usually sails through rough waters as diligently as it does when the weather is good and the sailing is smooth.

However such relationships are few and built reciprocally over a period of time. And it is immaterial if such a relationship is virtual or real. What matters is understanding and nurturing, in the absence of which even an apparently healthy-looking relationship may become weak and sick. And then it will not be surprising if it succumbs to neglect and suffer a humiliating death.

I think it would save a lot of misery if one can recognise the decay when it sets in and try to reverse the process. But if that does not work, then a whole lot of parting pain can be avoided if people move on with dignity, because if someone makes you miserable more than they make you happy, it does not matter how much you love them, you need to let them go.
One must realise that going to get a new start is by no means easy, but it is the right thing to do when a story has ended.
And of course it does give a lot of comfort to know that  even if a relationship is "murdered" (as mentioned above),  the murderer has to still live with it  because relation itself never dies.....it rises from the ashes like the legendary Phoenix, and manifests itself in another , may be even better form.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Where is the Finishing Line

"Paan Singh Tomar" Said my son when I asked him to recommend a good film.
He had to repeat the name at least thrice before I got it right !!!
"What a name-and-a-half...!!!" I blurted out
"Google it" He suggested.
I didn't. Was not very impressed. As it is, these days films have been mostly  atrocious cultural shocks that my traditional taste buds find too harsh on the digestive system.

But my son insisted I see it, and living upto my  Oh-So-Obedient Mother image, I obeyed.
And what a wonderful experience it was!
An absolutely brilliant film, "Paan Singh Tomar" is a sheer delight for anyone seeking good cinema.

Irrfan is all over the screen. Bursting with talent, he is a masterpiece in himself. But my respectful salutation to Tigmanshu Dhulia for choosing a subject as off-beat as "Paan Singh Tomar" and making such an honest film that brings to life a legend the Nation chose to not just forget but ruthlessly dump into unsung darkness and untold helplessness.

Paan Singh has an amazing range....easily any actor's dream role. But indeed at present I cannot think of anyone but Irrfan doing justice to it.
Paan Singh Tomar was a man of tremendous courage and explicit honesty. He believed in the law of the land and trusted with full conviction that whatever the odds truth would always win. But when that trust was shattered, he grabbed the law by its neck and twisted it in his very own characteristic style, and achieved the goal for which he crossed the line from being an extremely disciplined soldier/athlete to becoming a rather egoistic fugitive/dacoit.

Paan Singh Tomar would have been perfect had he not been a human being. But unfortunately he was a human being so he had his very humane (read self-destructive) imperfections. He ran the extremely demanding 3000 meter marathons.
For him a  race was a race. It did not matter where he was running it. However he never realised that every race has a finishing point. One must leave the ground after a race is over and move on....

Paan Singh Tomar won many races in National and International events. But when it came to life, he inadvertently got caught in a race where even after reaching the finishing line he kept running....ahead, ahead, ahead........going nowhere........