दर्द - कवि का श्रृंगार

मेरी जीत दर्द है 

मेरा इलाज दर्द है 

मेरी हार दर्द है 

मेरा मिज़ाज दर्द है 

दर्द क्यों ज़रूरी है 

मेरी कलम ये जानती 

मेरा फ़साना और है 

मेरा बहाना और है 

मेरे यहाँ है दर्द भी 

इन पन्नो में बिक रहे 

मेरे ख़ुशी से जीने की 

काफी है वजह यही

ये दर्द भी है मोल का 

उसे मै क्या जुदा करू 

जो दर्द ने सिखाया है 

शुक्राना क्या अदा करू 

ये दर्द ही है दीन भी 

मेरी वही है जात भी 

मैं दर्द से ही खुश रहा 

कुछ ऐसी भी है बात जी 

मैं कविताएं कहता हूँ 

कविताओं की बात है 

हर मिज़ाज हर किसी में नहीं 

पर दर्द सबके पास है 

ये दर्द का बाजार है 

यहाँ दर्द ही औज़ार है 

तो दर्द क्यों है बिक रहा 

क्यों पूछने की बात है 

क्या वजह है दर्द को 

मैं सीने में दबा रखू

जो दर्द मेरे साथ है 

तुम्हे पता मेरा वजूद  

मेरी जीत दर्द है 

मेरा इलाज दर्द है 

मेरी हार दर्द है 

मेरा मिज़ाज दर्द है 

~

भावना दुबे

Be The Love Of Your Own Life

Love yourself like the lover, and the loved. The lover in you teaches you how to look at the other person and believe in their capabilities. The loved in you teaches you how to always be grateful for everything. We need to be a part lover and a part loved. That's the way we truly become able to love and receive love from the other person. Once we've dealt with what loving ourselves comprises of, loving someone else is much easier. The self knows how it wants to be treated, the self knows how it wants to rest. The self even knows how to lift self up at times, the self knows when the self is down. When we know how to respond to everything that love has to offer, we also know what and how to embrace it. Loving own self is the first step we take towards loving other beings. It's not selfish. It's being concerned about the first ever companion we would ever have. And, self is absolutely the best companion.
💕

Identity

You can take away

My name

My gender

Mute my voice

Or deafen me

To the truths and lies

But you can not

Steal away my 

Courage

Because that's what I have

In abundance.

That's what is my

Identity

[P.S. : Because one of my closest friends asked me to write the situations which make me put this piece together, I'll be starting here. It's not just a few words describing courage and identity for me. Lately, I've been working with some differently abled and transgender friends, and have got to know about the humane qualities they possess, and the meaning of identity for them. Some are mute and deaf, others are transgenders and so on, but they don't always let themselves be defined by their external features, and they don't need to do too much to make us believe that these things are just a cover, but the real gift is the person that resides inside the cover. It doesn't affect them now, how they're perceived by others. Their courage speaks volumes when their throat doesn't make them speak, or when their bodily features confuse them of their gender. I was posting a picture with all of them on Instagram, and I put this as my caption. Later when I went through the post again, I realized that it made much more sense. Now it might make more sense to you too after reading this description.]

The star

You

are

the 

star

you

have 

been chasing

all

your life

The infinite sky!

 

Who would want

to become a star

when we could become

the infinite sky

Un-broken

How does it even feel, when someone compels you to smile, at the very moment when your soul is withered; so much so that, you could almost break out into tears even while you’re trying the hardest to show off that you’re alright? How do others get to know even when you try to hide it all the time? Well, your eyes can, at every point in life, communicate better than your words; and their language is deep enough to be understood even when words feel to bridge it out but fail. But sometimes, we really need to walk with the world, silencing your words and the eyes too. They really ‘CAN’T’ disclose it all about you. It’s only you who is to be trusted by you. So you have to keep your promises to self. When you are at your worst emotional phase, you have a serious heartache that simply nobody could just mend, not even can you ask anyone to comfort you; that’s when you need yourself the most! You are your own superhero. We say that our parents or teachers or sometimes our best-friends keep up with us when everyone else gives up. But, we all have noticed, that at some or the other points in life, they too fail to keep faith in us. Sometimes we fall so hard, and so often, that even our closest ones feel giving up on us, like we were meant to stay this way for the rest of our lives. They may catch up with us later on in their lives, but the fact is, everyone else except you, can give up on you at any point in life. If you don’t embrace yourself for being who you are, you can’t expect anyone else to. Accept the way you are, but don’t settle for the same. There is a lot that has to be learnt, a lot to be achieved and all what you wanted ever can only be obtained if you are by your side, before anyone else is expected to be. All this mess, and you know when you are broken, hard like there’s simply no cure, then also, you have to remember that nobody else is goanna comfort you for long. You see people asking about how you’ve been doing, and all you have to say is that you’re fine. Is it the truth that you speak, or it’s the mask you wear when you don’t have the right person in front of you, to comfort you in your bad times? You know well, about who is goanna listen to what you have to say, and who has to be told about how you’ve been suffering. This suffering hollows you from within and every time you’re alone, you worry yourself more and more to the extent that you get lost in this. Days, weeks and months pass. All you have to do is suffer. How does this suffering not stop?

And how long should it take to recover? Well, that varies on the intensity of pain. Also, it depends highly on the cause of the pain. Sometimes it feels like a knife has been stabbed into your chest, the second you breathe is the time you suffocate. Does it end? It seems to ‘not’ exist, when you are purely busy, either flooded with some work, or trying hard to make some space though it isn’t possible. So, it vanished? Certainly not! When you’re tackling with some stuff, pain might not come in between, and that simply does not convey that your pain just left you in the first place. But it showed how possible it is to suppress these emotions, and finally take control of your being. Now, however miserable we may feel, it isn’t always a great idea to overpower our inner self, which is actually not alright, and is fooled to believe nothing’s gone wrong. Solution is not a pill, or a vacation, or partying or meditation. These will only ensure that the process of healing, of repair is not only a desert long enough to walk over, and these oasis’ come to our rescue. The best way to reverse is to once do up with all what is left, shout loudly and more often and get mad, if you just reminded yourself to avoid and suppress, don’t do it anymore. All one needs to do is to listen to the heart for a while, let go off tears, let go off going out, let go off listening to the bullshit advice people give you, let lose the emotions, and bear open the wounds for a while. These wounds are to you your own, as much as is the sunshine of your life. You need to first realize, and then time is always by your side, watching it all, how you shrug it off, and watch the pain fade away into the dusky sky. Only the traces of wounds will remain, and one day, when acceptance is learnt, only the scars will be found, no wound certainly. Some wounds are permanent though, but time has its way of making you feel used to it. And once you go out, and try to peep into other people’s lives, you realize that your pain has never been that huge. It is only infinitesimal as compared to other being’s grieves, who came to earth, and left even before marking their existence on earth. It is to time, that we leave the brokenness to be repaired, and we move ahead in a certain hope that one day, everything is going to fall to the right place. Since, nature has its own way of mending things, without a knock, and without a call, we leave it to its unique ways and hope to feel ‘unbroken’ and supreme within ourselves.

Love will be found!

Glorious paths that we walk through, are paving ways for another such

Miseries that we went through are nothing but the thorny buds

Buds do open up to bloom; we too bloom by the morning hours

Should we fear the stormy weather? That seldom stays, we always pass

Transcending the clouds I see, hope in days of misery

Is that your mere presence though, that makes the winds of peace blow?

Or is it that you’re enough, enough to heal when times are rough?

Bruised was this heart I know, how did you make that season go?

Are you from a wonderland?

No, I’m mistaken, I now understand.

You’re my poem, I’m your melody

When both are together, soul is set free

Longing for a season together,

That season I fancy, will last forever

And if that scares and bones do tremble

I bow to eternity, to be that humble

Bestow us, what we adore

We got the season to spread it more

How roses and petals will be all around

When our rhyme is sung, love will be found

Only pictures!! (From my latest Orissa tour)

All the streets and shops have these few things in common... @Puri

Love being hit by these small waves! :p

#Jellyfish @seashore  

Konark Temple(Sun temple)

And these monkeys are so friendly, you can even sit beside them and they won't mind... :)

Feeling the waves...

Evenings at the beach

A word with today’s parents about inter-caste marriages

“You need power only when you want to do something harmful, otherwise love is enough to get everything done”, so aptly remarked by Charlie Chaplin. But hey, can somebody tell me, if this stands right in our nation? I’m asking, because I am the youth of India. I’m asking because, I need to. I need to clear all my doubts about this. Is love not enough? 

I’m talking about the love marriages in India, and the reaction of all the orthodox communities here. If a Brahmin or a Jain or a Muslim guy or girl, loves someone from any other caste, what’s the big deal? I mean, can’t they? Are they not humans, but robots programmed to choose one among their own species. We are humans. We live in India, and our country is known for its unity in diversity. We all belong to some or the other caste or creed. We all have a religion. But must that define a human? Or one’s deeds should? If I am the CEO of a company, or a film-maker, or a Politian, or some renounced writer, I would prefer myself being known for what I do. It really doesn’t make any sense, calling you a Jain or a Brahmin or a catholic or protestant. Does it define us anywhere?

 Yes I know where these nouns define us. When we are at the verge of so called “right age” to marry, we play the game “Quest for the best”. Parents arrange the best guy or girl for us, from our caste, and whose family enjoys the similar status in society. Things like this might matter for beginning a life-long relationship with someone. But the most essential pillar gets missing, and that is love. Yes it’s true, that in these kinds of arranged marriages, love is developed with the passage of time, and it works too. But does it mean, that only arranged marriages are a way out. What if someone falls in love? Since it is quiet natural and an inevitable truth that love has always existed, in some form or the other, from the ancient times to this day. And not that love marriages are a taboo. I may seem prolonging a topic that has nothing new to it, but what I expect is that we broaden our mentalities and give space to new and refreshing possibilities. There is nothing wrong I can see, if a mature youth just demand about their right to select who they want to spend the rest of their lives with. I mean, it is a decision that affects us the most, and it is never true that we want to defy our parents. They mean the world to us, and we know that their place should be before anyone else in our life as they gave us a place before anyone else in theirs. They have done all sacrifices just for the sake of one smile to their child’s face. We know all this and can never deny. And we also know this, that for them, their child’s happiness is the top priority, as long as it is not degrading their lives. We know, they have provided us the maximum freedom they could, maybe more than all other cousins in our family, and our society. But, world is growing fast. And there is really not a boundary to which we could just confine our thoughts and freedom. We don’t want freedom just for the sake of enjoying our lives, partying and ruining ourselves. We need the freedom so that we could breathe the air of possibilities. It’s not just about love here, but yes, love is also a major part.

 When we meet someone, should we always direct all our senses to judge the person according to their caste or the religion they belong to, and then start a conversation? Because, who knows after that, at any point of time we could fall in love. Must we be sure first about them, about their race and religion, their complexion, height and weight and all other features they look for the sake of arranging a marriage? And finally, when the scanning is done, choosing the apt one, and then falling in love according to the plan, should this be a strategy? Is this how it works, if we want to maintain the purity in our race by not choosing the love of our life out of our community? Well, love knows no rules, and love can’t be so prejudiced, or judgmental. Love is the purest bond of all. It never divides, rather unites. It is never lack of opportunities, but an ocean of new possibilities. Love is not planned, but for those who share this divine bond, it becomes essential to keep it alive. When we separate two people in love, we commit a sin. It is not they who fail, but it is God in the form of love who does. We tend to obey our God, and serve the almighty through the means of our religion. Are we making the almighty really glad this way? There are many ways we’ve seen how orthodox communities tackle the ‘problem’. Some are honor-killing, or even forcing the one, and sometimes their families to leave the community so that its reputation and sanctity could be maintained. Oh holy lord, do you really approve these ruthless measures? I know, and somewhere inside your heart, you too know that it’s just not so right. Then what makes us so narrow-minded people? If this is not something that must be done, what makes us do the same? Why can’t we, for once have a look at our own son’s or daughter’s choice? We could not be foolish enough to leave them unhappy for the rest of their lives. Who are we pleasing after all? This crooked society which has nothing to do when you fall short of money; no one gets concerned about you when you are struggling to make both ends meet to raise your kids. They have nothing to do when you are being bullied by your own boss, or when you are standing in a long queue to pay the electricity bill, and the next minute you need to pick up your kids from school. Did they care when you needed someone the most? If they didn’t, why are they so much concerned when your boy or girl wants to marry someone of their choice? Why are they anxious for your happiness, when they couldn’t stand for your struggles? Does it make sense to care about those people’s happiness and consent, who have never bothered about yours?

 Who are we afraid of, our own parents? No. We tell them the truth and expect them to understand us, since we know nobody else could ever understand us better. But, parents are just blindfolded by the society and are concerned about them. It may not stand right for all of us, today, since a lot has changed. But since I’m talking about it again, it means that not everything has changed, and not everything must, but something still needs to. I’m not blaming parents; we all love our parents, at the end of the day. I’m blaming the system.  It has made them feel helpless, in a situation where demand is not to be helpless, but stand as a support-system to help the children decide about their future. After all, it is better to blame ourselves than our parents and family for taking the decision of our future. We never want to say, if in some critical situation later on in our married lives, that we made a mistake listening to our parents. We could ourselves take the responsibility, and that would not develop any discontent from our parents. I know it could take time, but the idea of inter-caste love marriages is something that needs to be accepted. Youth doesn’t ask you to permit them to allow them marry any random person they fall in love with. But at least give them a chance to speak their heart out about their choice. Maybe they are right about certain choices. Maybe they know better who could be more compatible for them, since they’ve known the one for years. It is better to marry someone you know and approve of, than to tie a knot with a complete stranger. And when the one has all what is needed to spend life together, how does the caste, creed and religion matter? We live in a country where Hindus also feel glad keeping Roza, and even Muslims are seen happily celebrating Ganesha Chaturthi. We can even see, that a Sonar by caste is an IAS by profession and not a real goldsmith, a Brahmin is an Engineer and not a priest or a teacher, and Marvaris are not businessmen all the time. Roles in society according to the caste system have seen a resurgence. Now we need to accept that the same blood flows through our veins, all of us. We all have the right and the capability to become everything that we want to. Then why is this caste system so able to divide us? Does it not weaken us when we allow them to invade us? Why does it hijack us, and why do we let it do? Well I’m mainly concerned about the inter-caste marriages here, but all this is an inevitable part surrounding it. Would it really make a difference if the purity in race is not maintained? It would rather be quiet a beautiful amalgamation, and a refreshing journey for the people. If conflicts have to arise, they would, even when you maintain the “purity of race”.  We all have seen couples leading an unhappy life, and there is no understanding between them even after so many years of marriage. And sometimes, the marriage of couples who were good friends previously, tends to last longer, as they understand and accept each other the way they are. This keeps the river of love flowing.

 We could talk about western countries and learn from them. Then I accept, ours is an entirely different system, and we need to solve it our own way. If we learn to accept and understand our coming and present generation, we would be contributing surely to happiness and prosperity. We would be contributing to the change in thoughts for good. This idea is nowhere harmful but all we need is to really understand it and stop being concerned about the society, and support our own kids. If their choice is really not a mature one, try to first understand the situation and then take a decision. They don’t want to elope really, but situations and lack of understanding makes them do so. I don’t at all appreciate this idea of eloping with someone you love, and not bothering about your parents’ decision. But, yes, if that seems to be the last option to them, then only they do it. If the youth get what they need, an understanding and open-minded parental support, they will never go astray. Problem comes when both the parties refuse to listen to each other. Because once you do, and build up a trust on your own morals, that you imparted in them, you will see the clearer picture. A happy life will follow, and there would be no need for you or your child, to feel ashamed of the society. They mock at you when you are left alone, either they elope or marry without your consent, or you throw them out of your family for committing this ‘mistake’. But when you both are united, their mouth will be sewed. You will be a proud family, who followed what was right, rather than following what they persuaded you to believe was right for your family and happiness.

Did she surrender, did she not?

Did she surrender? Did she not?

Did she fight, for what she ought?

It had been her miss, is what they thought

Kins needed to hide faces, bad name's what she brought

A girl fond of yellows and pinks,

now seems tangled in greys

And the girl who sang all the recent hits,

seems numb, after screaming for days

Been seven months,

couldn't time help her heal?

Upsetting were their gaping faces,

couldn't they get what she would feel?

And when time seemed to pass, in vain

Begetters thought to act wise...

They shifted her to another city,

thought it would take her by surprise

Lonely, she still was,

all that shuffle pointed null,

begetters planned to get her married,

and bring back colors to life dim and dull

And proposals were sent,

no proposal was to come;

Rejection was that one word,

that would always keep her mum

Nothing felt like before, why life got so hard?

Was it her miss, as they say? She's now counted as a star...

People show their pity faces, faces do deceive

Is there any worth of candle marches, or condolences, would she receive ?