Obama and Mahatma Gandhi

I was awed by the hope and the emotional involvement Obama managed to generate during his election campaign. Never before had I seen Americans so much involved in presidential elections. It went on increasing, quantitatively and qualitatively, as the elections neared. It reached the peak for Obama's oath taking ceremony. Some say two million people had gathered! 2 million people at one place! In America! Their face all lit up with hope and expectations. People of all races, all age, all religion, both sexes! Everybody had gathered togetherr in shared hope for the future. They had been party to a dream and they wanted to witness the dream start getting into reality. They wanted to wish their leader all the luck and wanted to extend their heartfelt support to him. Obama did not let them down. His speech touched everybody present and everybody watching in absence. Even I could not stop my dry eyes from getting wet with emotions.

In my life I had the fortune of witnessing another such happening in India. Way back in 1977 when emergency was invoked and elections were announced. The free voice suppressed during emergency expressed itself in full fervor. People were determined to reinforce their freedom.

I have heard of another movement in India. It was the independece movement by Mahatma Gandhi. He had achieved results on a much much larger scale. he was a semi god in the eyes of people. He was their hope! But he did not stop there. he did not stop at garnering hope and stirring emotions. He did not say that "I will get you independence, I will bring change, Follow me". He not only said "WE" but actually got all into commitment, into action. Millions of people sacrificed their family lives, quit their jobs and careers, went to prisons, took on police brutalities. He enabled all citizens to cross beyond the steps of emotional involvement into arena of action. He realized and communicated that nothing can happen, definitely not lost, unless people participated, contributed both by emotions and actions. He did not need paid agencies to pitch for support, paid employees to to work. He lead by example. He gave off his possible wealth, his legal career, his lifestyle and saw beyond his personal and material and short term gains. Millions and billions of ordinary people were his assets, their actions and sacrifices were the contributions he received. It wan't 'his' movement but 'their' movement. That is why more than 60 years after independence, nearly 60 years after Mahatma Gandhi passed away, his name, his deeds, his ideas are talked with respect, are looked at for reference and guidance. For many people like, who were born much after Mahatma Gandhi passed away, his movement is like a lighthouse.

Will Obama be able to emulate his idol, will he able to move away from the culture of paid compaign, will he able to reinstall 'values' other than money, will he be able to instigate participation, commitment, sacrifice from individual Americans. Can he do that with personal example..? I hope he does... and wish him success .... and wish all of us success.

Barter System

I met a poor rural guy living in the backwaters of Mulshi lake near Pune. He was saying that he was not getting kerosene from the government shop till he builds a WC of his own and stop clearing in the open. But he did not have money to build one. But he desperately needed to get kerosene. He needs kerosene to to light his home lamps (there is no electricity to his house though he lives near the lake which is built for generating electricity!) and as fuel for his cooking. These days there is hardly any forest left around and firewood is not easy to gather. He does not have money to buy material required to build a WC, neither he had money to employ a meson to actually build it. He somehow got a old WC pot from a urban relative and could uste little money buy little cement etc. Then he brokered a deal with a local meson. The meson does not get a lot of work to fully employ him as a meson. When he does not have work as meson he is employed for some petty work. So our man made a barter arrangement with the meson. When the meson is building our man's WC. our man goes to work for the meson on his petty jobs.

I find this interesting. I had heard of barter system only in terms of exchange of goods. But here manual labour and skills are being exchanged, or you can even say, traded, one skill for another, one's time for something with other's time for some other thing etc.

This could be one of the ways to reduce our over dependence of money valuation. Of course, there is nothing new in this. Such exchanges are going on all over India. There are many places where villagers share their agriculture labour by collectively working at one farm and then the next till everybody farms are worked upon. There may not be anything new in it, but whats hit me most was the direct one-to-one nature of transaction, which could possibly be collaborative undertones. e.g. our man might have helped the meson sometime earlier and so the meson was willing for the exchange for any additional returns and no apparant advantages to himself.

गम

इतना ना हसाओ हमे
के सारा गम बह जाये
इतना ना रुलाओ हमे
के पूरा होश खो जाये

इस अन्जानी जिंदगी में
गम का ही तो सहारा है
बहती हुई लाश को
समिंदर का इशारा है

आधुनिक रामायण

कवी: संगीता परांजपे
(परवानगीने पुनर्पोस्ट)>>>>>>>>>>>

कैकेईने वर मागितला, जानकिरामाला वनवासी धाडा
दशरथाचा नाइलाज झाला, जा बाबा वेगळी चूल मांडा

रानि वनि काटे कुटे, खाच, खळगे
जंगलात वेगळे काही असते का कुठे?

जानकी म्हणे वनवास हा संपणार कसा आणि कधी?
असेल का नशिबी मऊ उशी आन् पराची गादी?

तिला हवी होती मृगाची मखामली चोळी
राक्षसी वृत्तीला बळी पडली भोळी

पण जानकी जवळ होता श्रीराम
इकडे मात्र खोटा दाम

खोटा दाम चालेना
लंकेतून सुटका होईना

जटायु नाही, पवनपुत्र ही नाही
एकीकडे आड आणि दुसरीकडे खाई

आधुनिक जानकी सज्ज झाली
शक्ति युक्तिची अस्त्रे परजलि

दोनच हात, पण दशाननाशी लढली
शूर्पणखेला अद्द्ल घडवली

लंकेतून सुटली, आयोध्येला आली
संशय कल्लोळाने जखमी झाली

धोब्याचे धुपाटणे घातले त्याच्याच पाठीत
लोकांची बोलणी टाकली वाळीत

जिद्द पेटली, मनात सल
आग्निला ही बसली झळ

तडक फिरली माघारी
रामाचा अंकुर वाढे उदरि

ऋषि तुल्य पित्याने दिली साथ
जुळी बाळे जन्मजात

लव आणि कुश बारसे केले
पित्रुछत्राला पारखे झाले

लवांकुशाचे धरले हात
कर्तव्याला चुकले ते कसले हो तात?

एकले पणचे व्रत घेतले
लवांकुशाला सुसंस्कृत केले

अर्थार्जन केले, ज्ञान दिले
संगणकाचे बोधामृत पाजले

व्यवहाराचे भान दिले
जग जिंकायला तयार केले

निश्चयाने साधना केली
लवांकुश बाळे मोठी झाली

लवांकुशा नि मग घेतला वेध
जेव्हा सुटला अश्वमेध

जानकीची तपश्चर्या फळाला आली
अश्वमेधाची सांगता झाली

लवांकुशानी कार्यालय थाटले.
श्रीराम कॉंप्यटर्स नाव दिले

जानकीच्या मनी मामतेचा धागा
पण तिच्या नावाला सुद्धा नव्हती जागा

नाव वाचून पडली चाट
मनात बांधली खुणागाठ

ती म्हणे आम्ही जातो आमुच्या गावा
आमुचा राम राम घ्यावा

धरणी मातेला जोडले हात
घे म्हणाली मला पोटात

काळ्या आईने घातली समजूत
तुझे कार्य संपले नाही अजुन

बोध घ्या म्हणाव सारे जन
यालाच म्हणतात 'रामायण'.


By Sangeeta Paranjape

Mother Moon

taking in the
red angry yellow
of the raving sun,
giving us a
calm blue white
of loving warmth.

a white light
not too bright
not enough
to make it light
just enough
to remove darkness

a tiny torch
to suggest possibilities
and not to show the path,
just to remove fear
and entice adventure.
a smiling mother.

सल

कितीही केला यत्न तरी
सल काही निघत नाही
रंग गेला उडून तरी
पीळ काही सुटत नाही

सूर सगळे लागले तरी
बेसूरी आतली जात नाही
माझ्या असूरी भावांची
सुरसूरी जात नाही

निवांत शांत जंगलात
वणवा कुणी पेटवल्यावर
जंगल बेचिराख झालं तरी
जमिनीची धुमस जात नाही

आलं मळभ निघून गेलं
आकाश मोकळं स्वच्छ झालं
एक इवला मेघ मात्र
पाठ नभाची सोडत नाही

एकदा आलेला राग
पूर्ण कधी शमत नाही
कितीही केला यत्न तरी

सल काही निघत नाही

my love and pink

In the cold outside
And the warm inside
Under thick blankets
I opened my eyes.

In the bright darkness
I could clearly see
A dent on my lion
Blood in my eyes

Red blood rose
Furious and wild
That brought darkness
even under pink light

fortunately for me
and for that darkness
there was a fakir
smiling in darkness

sitting under a blue tree
eyes closed in wisdom glee
he took in my red
into his warm pink halo

as my eyes cleared
the lion melted
my fears vanished
and love flourished

the cold outside
has become warm,
the roaring inside
is smiling with warmth

I can't live without you

A lover deeply in love said to beloved, "Oh, my dear, I can't live without you".
The beloved deeply in love too, replied, "Oh, my dear, I don't want to live without you"

"I can't live without you" and "I don't want to live without you". Two sentences so similar yet so different. Two actions having same result but originating from opposite states of mind. Two expressions flowering from so opposite the emotions.

"I don't want to" owns up responsibility for your emotions. It comes from a state of well-being, state of control, state of ease, state of confidence, state of acceptance of own emotions, state of acceptance of this world. It does not say that I want to be without you but if it so happens that I have to be without you, then I don’t want to live. It does not say that I may not have to be without you. It accepts the enormous possibilities of this world and chooses a own response to one of those possibilities. There is acceptance but there is no helplessness, there is no ego, there is no blame game, there are no conditions put.

The more of our emotions flower from such a state of mind, the better it will be; for ourselves and for the whole world.

फ़ुटेलंच कधीतरी, एक कोवळी पालवी

स्वच्छ निळ्या आकाशावर
लख्ख तळपत्या सूर्यावर
त्यात बागडणाऱ्या मनावर
दूर क्षितीजावरच्या
काळ्या मळभाची सावली

नीट निरखून पहा
इवला पांढरा ठिपका
मनमोकळा विहरतोय
गर्द काळ्या पार्श्वभूमीला
आनंदाची झालर देतोय

नाही गं नाही दिसत
कोणीच दिसत नाही तिथे
नको तो प्रकाश नि ती सावली
नको ते आकाश नि ते मळभ
बसतो मी असाच

पंखांत तोंड खुपसून
किंवा शहामृग होऊन
निष्पर्ण झाड होऊन
फ़ुटेलच कधीतरी
एक कोवळी पालवी