Finding Nemo

जाग उठा हूँ मैं, उस बेदर्द नींद से, जो हमेशा साथ में, कितने सारे सपने ले आती है। उन्हीं टूटे सपनों की टीस, अब भी महसूस होती है। उन्हीं अनकहे सपनों में न जाने, किस किस से बात होती है। इन्हीं सपनों में, सारी ज़िन्दगी उतर आती है। कभी शिखर पे ले जाती है, कभी खाई में पटक जाती है। हर सपना मुझे घाव नया दे जाता है। जमीन के नीचे और नीचे, दफ़न कर जाता है। सपने सच नहीं होते, यह मैंने सीखा है। पर सपने ना देखूं, यह भी कहाँ हो पता है? सपने मन का आईना हैं, तभी तो मैं सपने देखता हूँ। और हर बार चोट खा कर, अपने घाव पर आंसुओं का मलहम रखता हूँ। जाग तो चुका हूँ मैं, उस बेदर्द नींद से, पर फिर से अपने आगोश में लेने को, चले आ रहे हैं, यह काँच के सपने।

Today we were celebrating July 4 th – the US Independence day. While waiting for the fireworks show to begin, the kids asked me to tell them a story. Even before I could start, the younger one interrupted me with a question – "Why do we tell stories? And how do you know all the stories?" the question left me thinking for a long time. Today's blog is my attempt to answer the same question with inspirations from many great storytellers. Recently, I had come across another alumni of my college. He has taken up a full time profession of being a story teller. At the same time, a lot of other colleagues have been stressing the importance of storytelling. What is storytelling and why is it so important? Let's first understand what is a story? A story is an expression of an idea along with the situation that helps explain the idea in a better manner. The entire scenario is laid out in such a manner that the central idea is easily understood by listener or the reader. The per...

हरी कोंपलों में जन्मे थे, मजबूत शाखा से लग सपने भी तो देखे थे? फिर, आज इन पीले पत्तों से मुंह क्यों मोड़ लिया? इन्हें भी तो, समय ने यहाँ ला कर छोड़ा। इन्हीं के तो तुम रूप हो, इन्हीं की हो छवि। यह तुम्हारे जनक हैं, और यही तुम्हारी जननी। 

कल कल, कल कल करती, मस्त चाल से चलती नदी, चली जा रही सागर से मिलने। पर्वतों की गोद में खेलती, धरती के ह्रदय में अठखेलियाँ करती, देखो तो सागर से मिलने चल दी। कितने युग बदले, कितनी सभ्यताएँ बदलीं, नहीं बदली तो यह नदी। सब देखा है इसने, सब सहा है इसने, फिर भी देखो चञ्चलता आज भी उतनी ही है। कभी गाँव लीलती है, तो कभी सिंचाई करती है, कभी पत्थर काटती है, तो कभी खुद को बंधवा लेती है, फिर भी सबकी प्यास मिटाती जाती है। जो छूट गया, ना उसका दुःख, जो आगे आएगा, ना उसका भय, इसे तो बस चलते जाना है। पर्वतों का सन्देश सागर तक पहुंचाना है, अपना रास्ता स्वयं ही बनाना है, जन्म से वृद्धावस्था तक बस चलते ही जाना है। 

When Parikshit was bitten by Takshak, his son Janamejaya started a yagna to burn all the snakes in the fire. All the snakes rose in horror and cried foul over this mindless massacre. At this time, Astika – newphew of the serpent king Vasuki, told the story of Indraprastha to Janamejaya. Many years ago, the Pandavas approached the king of Hastinapur, Dhritarashtra for their share of the kingdom. The kauravas very shrewdly gave a forest – Khandavprastha to the Pandavas to build their own city. Under Krishna's suggestion, the Pandavas burned the forest in order to clear ground for Indraprastha. Arjuna build a barge of arrows all around the forest and all pandavas killed any living creature – Yaksha, human, demon, bird or animal that tried to escape the burning forest. The forest incidentally was home to the families of serpents. Living under the earth, they escaped the burns but were forced to flee to save themselves from the heat and the manhunt. On this cleared ground, the Pandavas ...

At a time when there is no dearth of historical or mythological serials on the television, Star Plus went on to produce yet another version of Mahabharata. And they made it big – making it India's most expensive TV series – spent close to 100 crore as per statistics disclosed in September 2013. The producer of the show commented that it took him nearly 20 days to shoot the most iconic scene – "Draupadi's cheerharan" due to the grandeur that needed to be created. Since both, my wife and I grew up watching BR Chopra's – then state-of-the-art, now lackluster – retelling of Mahabharata, often find the current TV series appalling for various reasons. The topmost being the time spent in bringing out the emotions during the 'most iconinc scene rather event'. Definitely this is the turning point in the history which started the avalanche brining the entire India to a halt. This event is also a reminder of shame. While we kept discussing the efficacy of the epic an...

Time and again I have questioned the purpose of the happenings around us or even my own actions. Many a times, I have been able to find a suitable answer and sometimes I have suited myself to the answer that came to me and moved on. My teachers in college and school always complained that I lost my focus quite easily ad went too deep looking for meanings when others kept moving higher. Probably, I never grew as fast as them because of my questioning why. But ask yourself the importance of the question "Why?" The importance of the purpose in everything we do is critical. The purpose is what defines the path taken in the journey. A very famous quote of all times is that life is but a journey and we all need to travel it tirelessly till the last breath. Sure we do. But how? What path do we take, what companions we shall have, what company we shall keep, what shall we see and what we will choose to avoid – all of this depends upon what we want to experience during the journey....