Pointing to overcast sky

Chahta to Bach Sakta Tha
Magar Kaise Bach Sakta Tha?
Jo Bachega
Kaise Rachega?
Isiliye
Main Dhundhuaya
Chitkane Laga
Karah Sakta Tha
Magar Kailse Karah Sakta Tha?
Jo Karahega
Kaise Nibahega?
(Shrikant Verma)
If I dare translate the above lines in English, the translation could be roughly like this –
I could escape if so wished
But how could I?
Who escapes, can’t create
So,
I smoldered
Crackled
Could moan
But how could I moan
Who moans can’t manage
This poetry is from ‘Magadh’. Melancholy dominates Srikant Verma’s ‘Magadh’, his last of four anthologies. He penned most of poems in ‘Magadh’ following disillusionment with politics. He was an AICC general secretary during Rajiv Gandhi’s time but was gradually marginalized. Or, perhaps withdrew himself. He died a thoroughly disillusioned man in 1988.
I am recalling this poetry to reply to some of the comments on my previous blogs.
Some well-meaning commentators have advised me against writing “ too personal things” or “settling personal scores”. They cited rules of blogging to caution me.
I thank them all from the core of my heart, not the least because they thought it fit to comment on my blogs.
But, dear friends, what is the good of blogging if you don’t express your innermost feelings? Admittedly, I am novice in blogging. But I am thrilled by its potential. It has given me the kind of freedom of expression I always yearn for. The blog has turned me what writer Arundhati Roy says, a “one-man mobile republic”.
Me and my senior friend for 25 years Rajesh Pandey often used to lament we don’t have an effective device to reach out to people.
Launching a paper or magazine by individuals like Rajesh or me in this age is simply out of question. Even the ‘high class’ papers are gasping for want of capital. The age of ‘small magazines” is passé.
To me, the blog has come as a divine intervention to raise your voice and be heard across the globe. I recently read the Thomas Friedman’s book “ The World is flat” and came to realise invaluable potential of the blog.
Since then, the idea of starting blogging agitated my mind. And now I am into it.
Dear friends, let me recall another poet Dushyant Kumar’s line
Mat Kaho Aakash Mein Kohra Ghana Hai
Yah Kisi Ki Vyaktigat Aalochana Hai
(Don’t say the sky is thickly overcast
This is someone’s personal criticism)
Should I desist from pointing to the overcast sky for the fear that this might ruffle some individuals’ feathers?
I would welcome criticism and assure you none of the comments on my posts would be deleted unless their language is completely obscene.
Let the thousands flowers bloom. This is the beauty of democracy. This is beauty of secular republic we have inherited.
Blogging is a cultural tool for personal protest and must be used to its optimum potential.
Let me finish this blog with one example.
About a couple of years ago, the RSS-sponsored mega play ‘ Janata Raja” was staged in Bhopal. The play is about Shivaji’s life. Its sets were spectacular, consumes dazzling but acting mediocre. Nonetheless I was delighted to see the play.
Why? Because it was a cultured way of propagating RSS ideology, a far cry from hooliganism the Bajrang Dal hoodlums often indulge in, in the name of saving ‘ Bhartiya Sanksriti”.
Many of my secular friends sneered at staging of the play. They pointed to the state patronage to the play by the Shivraj Singh Government.
Well, the objection to selective state patronage to the play might be justified but we must welcome such cultural and cultured enterprise to propagate any ideology. It is shorn of violence. If theatre becomes a true language of protest, nothing like that.