आवारा सजदे

अपनी लाश आप उठाना कोई आसान नहीं
दस्त-ओ-बाजू मेरे नाकारा हुए जाते हैं
जिन से हर दौर में चमकी है तुम्हारी दहलीज़
आज सजदे वोही आवारा हुये जाते हैं

दूर मंज़िल थी मगर ऐसी भी कुछ दूर ना थी
लेके फिरती रही वहशत मुझको
एक ज़ख्म ऐसा ना खाया कि बहार आ जाती
दत तक लेके गया शौक़-ए-शहादत मुझको

राह में टूट गय पाँव तो मालूम हुआ
जुज़ मेरे और मेरा रहनुमा कोई नहीं
एक के बाद एक खुदा चला आता था
कह दिया अक्ल ने तंग आके, "खुदा कोई नहीं"

आदर्श प्रेम - हरिवंश राय बच्चन

प्यार किसी को करना लेकिन
कहकर उसे बताना क्या
अपने को अर्पण करना पर
और को अपनाना क्या

गुण का ग्राहक बनना लेकिन
गाकर उसे सुनाना क्या
मन के कल्पित भावो से
औरो को भ्रम में लाना क्या

ले लेना सुगंध सुमनों कि
पर तोड़ उन्हें मुरझाना क्या
प्रेम हार पहनाना लेकिन
प्रेम पाश फैलाना कया

त्याग अंक में पले प्रेम शिशु
उनमें स्वार्थ बताना क्या
देकर ह्रदय ह्रदय पाने कि
आशा व्यर्थ लगाना क्या

Shailja Patel....

is a wonderful poet! I went to a lit. reading event today, where she was supposed to recite a few verses from her (first?) collection migritude.. first class poetry, I must say. Go read her!
It made me revisit my thoughts on gender issues, the condition of women in traditional Indian families, and what I can do to improve the situation. I am trying, in my own way.

Update : Alright, it turns out that Migritude is not a publication, but a theatrical performance of sorts, an art project, if you can call it that. In Shailja's own words, taken from her website, "Migritude is a spoken word theater production..".

Over here, we drink the water; in Soviet Russia, the water drinks us.

Over here, we play the game; in Soviet Russia, the game plays us.

I started writing this to respond to someone, but it became too big for a comment, so I am sticking it here ...

Eating is an animalistic act, and so is sex. We took these animalistic acts, and attempted to humanize them. We succeeded pretty well with eating, we put our minds to good use and came up with novel cooking techniques, new concoctions and recipes, and what not. But we failed miserably when it came to sex. We can think, and we have an ego. This makes us possessive,jealous and insecure by nature. We thought and thought and constructed elaborate social structures and rituals around sex. Societies made rules and instituions to preclude all possibilities of no-strings-attached, purely-for-pleasure sex. We made the act as mysterious as we possibly could. This has landed us in a big unhappy mess. I am not exaggerating when I say that it has been the cause of numerous wars and crimes, and a lot of misery as a result. That is why I said we would be much better without it. Once again, I am not against the act of sex or the pleasure that individuals derive from it, but sex in its present convoluted form, as it exists in human societies today. Unfortunately, we can't go back to being simple. We cannot selectively backtrack. No, you can't enjoy the boons of the civilization and human thinking but say "I want out" when faced with the banes.

Now, let me put my speculative hat on. Perhaps, this is what the nature had ordained for us. Perhaps, sex was supposed to play a limited role in aiding the evolution by letting humans reach a critical mass in terms of population and creativity, and after that critical mass is reached, the act of sex would have had to go. Because population management by natural procreation is exponential and uncontrolled, and we needed that uncontrolled growth to reach the critical mass. Perhaps, we are very near that critical mass, and the next step in evolution is when humans don't feel the urge to have sex, so that humans don't procreate naturally, because the nature wants technologically controlled growth after reaching the critical mass .... not a very comforting thought, but possible. If you've read Ray Kurzweil (in The Singularity Is Near : When Humans Transcend Biology), you will understand what I am talking about.

Ho ho ho, ha ha ha.. why am I so evil ?


That was seriously not my intention...