हम भी आज हिन्दू हो गए...

 रोली लगाकर टोपी पहनाकर हवन कराया गया , 

 और  हम भी आज हिन्दू  हो गए ।

अब शायद  हमारे बेटे सभ्य  बनेंगे 

पर वो टैक्सी ड्राइवर भी  हिन्दू ही था न ,

अब शायद हमारी बेटियां सलामत रहेंगी 

पर वो दिल्ली की डॉक्टर भी हिन्दू ही थी न 

कोई सुरक्षित हो न हो पर हम भी आज हिन्दू  हो गए । 

नेता अभिनेता नहीं इस बार  हमसे ही बिस्मिल्लाह हुआ ,

क्युंकि शायद उन्हें राशन कार्ड की दरकार नहीं 

हम तो हमेशा परिवर्तित हुए आज ये पहली बार नहीं

कब  तक चलेगा ये सिलसिला-ए-परिवर्तन 

और कितने कहेंगे हम भी आज हिन्दू  हो गए ।

बहुत हुआ एक दिन का ये स्वाँग 

चलते हैं अब लेबर चौक, शायद कोई ग्राहक आए 

न आया तो धोएंगे पाखाने 

क्युंकि पेट की सिकुड़न धर्म पूछकर नहीं आती 

इस बात का इल्म है हमें तभी 

हम भी आज हिन्दू  हो गए  ।

Bhaiya Mere...

Everyone, who is blessed with the sweet gift by Almighty in the garb of sister, is busy posting words of appreciation, love and what not for her.  Even I am lucky enough to have a cute sister who never fails to open the door with a glass of water, amalgamated with loads of love and care, within a few seconds of me beeping every evening after office.

But today I will harness this occasion to pour my anxiety about a recent incident, that put me on my mettle.

It was after quite a long time that my bike was not there to accompany me and I was left with no other option than to take the refuge of the lifeline of Lucknow i.e.  auto-rickshaw from Charbag last Tuesday. Just to ensure the ease of the ‘picturesque’ view of cluttered roads, I made myself (un)comfortable next to the driver. Not even five minute have passed that he started showing himself up. He did not fail to address every single girl he could break a lance with, be it the ones on their scooty, other rickshaw or the ones walking on the road. With every comment, it would be really unreasonable to say more than the girls but, I got restless. But soon all this came to a head. It was about 5 km before my destination when a girl was giving the money to that "bhaiya" and  he deliberately touched her hand. I was restless to the extent of shivering and when I looked at him, he smiled with a grin. His joke fell flat and I could not hold my nerves from taking him to task and said anything and everything to him for the next 10 minutes. And you won’t believe he had no answer to any of my comment or question, even I don’t remember what all I had said at that time. But one thing that happened was that no repeat telecast of any such horrendous episode was there for those who got down thereafter.

I do not consider it an act of chivalry but there was a sense of regret, hatred, loather and what not because my sister used to commute on the same route till last year. It stands to reason that had all of us reacted the same way right from day one, this would have not become all the rage. By long odds it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness, can we be diligent enough to resolve to condemn any such act, without giving it a second thought!! Can there be a better gift for our sweet sisters, who are embodiment of care, love and affection.

Happy Rakshabandhan.. J

Betrayal in lieu of Bravery

Exactly fifteen years ago, this day was registered with golden letters in Indian history, when our defence forces accomplished 'Operation Vijay' doing utmost justice to the feeling with which it was christened. My heartiest gratitude & congratulations to the electronic media who could find some space for this achievement in the heap of some cinestar slapping his bodyguard or the myriad times repeat telecast of a primetime comedy show with highest TRP these days.

This triumph gives us an opportunity to proclaim about the valour of our brave soldiers whenever we break a lance with inhabitant of any other nation. And this victorious script was not written with a golden feather but by the dint of the divine blood of our great sons like Captain Vikram Batra, Lt. Anuj Nayyar etc. But this feeling of glory did not last for long, as just then I looked at the breaking news strip at the bottom of the channel saying "3 people killed and 24 injured in Saharanpur".I could not help empathizing with these souldiers' feeling whenever they would learn about such a mishappening in the nation for the safety of which they do not forgo to go to any extent.

Can this be called selfishness,intolerence,ignorance or just an act of being  lackadaisical? But christening this something other than 'betrayal' would be  betrayal of my thoughts (Yes! I may not be a dextrous at vocabulary but I am crystal clear with this term). Betrayal of their concern with our safety , betrayal of their families who are more than happy that their sons sacrificed his life for our motherland . The courageous wife of Dilip Singh Thapar , a martyr in Kargil war , says "I feel proud to walk on the streets for my husband got a death which only few are worthy of".


How would a father , who applied his tooth to nail effort do sponge away every possibility of danger for his family, feel when he comes home and finds his children dying to kill each other? Aren't we betraying the chilvalrous guards of our borders ?

Lt. Manoj Kumar Pandey before his martyrdom while conquering Tiger Hills , in one of his letters to his friend Pawan writes " I got multitudes of letters from all across the nation saying 'Just do it' . It feels so nice to know that our country is united in this time of distress ". Will the negative of same not hold good ? Just imagine the plight of souldiers who did not eat a bite for 18 days just for the sake of our sovereignty, gets to know the appalling reality that his countrymen are shedding blood for..... I dont know what.

Unlike any other imbroglio of the country I would not blame our 'well learned' and 'visionary' politicians for this. If they could go to the filthy extent of exploiting even this sacrifice for some votes , they don not even deserve a mention in my writing. It was also brought to the surface that for the first time in history the previous government asked for the statistics of Hindus and Muslims in Indian army , which was straight away disobliged. This is more than enough to establish the fact that the colour of blood is not so dull that it could be vitiated by some wanton desires.

Now the onus is on us to realise that these guys are the ones who played with us , whose mothers are equally worried about what her son ate , whose wife also desires to go for shopping every weekend , whose children aspire for an icecream with their father after the dinner on a summer night . So if we cannot mitigate their agony, we do not have any right to make it more poignant by killing our brothers. On behalf of entire nation I would like to apologise from the core of my heart for hurting these angels in human garb and their endeavours by our negligence .

Do we feel ashamed of our acts now ? If yes, please give it a thought because no one can beguile us if we don not allow them to . If no, then just hit a like on this, share some pictures of Operation Vijay and carry on with your own lives.