चलो साथ मैं नहाते हैं

पिछली दिवाली पर घर नहीं धोया,
कहते हैं वो बड़े प्यार से,
और होली अभी बहुत दूर है.
चलो साथ मैं नहाते हैं

मैं तुम से प्यार तो नहीं करती, चाहती ज़रूर हूँ

आज आसमान मैं चाँद नज़र नहीं आता,
नज़र आता है तो सिर्फ तुम्हारा मुस्कुराता हुआ चेहरा,
जिसे पहन कर तुम टेबल के उस तरफ बैठी थी,
और गर्म चाय की चुस्की लगाते हुए याद है तुमने हल्के से कहा था,
जानू,
...मैं तुम से प्यार तो नहीं करती,
चाहती ज़रूर हूँ...

गददे वाला प्यार

कुछ तेरे जैसा और कुछ मेरे जैसा,
उन सर्दी की रातों मैं ज़मीन पे पड़े गददे वाला प्यार.
आसमान से कुछ दूर और ज़मीन से कुछ नज़दीक,
उन सर्दी की रातों मैं ज़मीन पे पड़े गददे वाला प्यार.
याद है तुमको?
या गर्मियों के आने पर सर्दियों को भूल गयी?

बेशर्म सी रातों मैं अक्सर शर्मीली बातें हो जाती हैं

ट्यूबलाइट की रौशनी मैं जब हम दोनों बेशर्म से पड़े थे,
गददे पर,
प्यार करने के बाद,
तब तुमने मेरे कानो मैं हौले से कहा था,
कभी कभी जब मैं तुम्हे देखती हूँ,
तो मुझे शर्म सी आती है,
बेशर्म सी रातों मैं अक्सर शर्मीली बातें हो जाती हैं.

न तुम मुस्कुराते न ये बात होती

न तुम मुस्कुराते न ये बात होती.
न निगाहों मैं उलझन, न दिल मैं प्यास होती.
क्या प्यार था वो?
शायद प्यार ही होगा.
या मेरे तुम्हारे अन्दर की हवस?
यह तुम्हारा ठोस बदन अजब तौर से मेरे अन्दर बस गया है.
क्या तुम्हारे अन्दर भी समां गया हूँ मैं?
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई अक्सर ये बातें करते हैं


कविता की पहली पंक्ति ये साली ज़िन्दगी फिल्म का dialogue है.
"यह तुम्हारा ठोस बदन अजब तौर से मेरे अन्दर बस गया है" पंक्ति शमशेर बहादुर सिंह की कविता प्रेयसी से ली गयी है.
आखरी पंक्ति "ये कहाँ आ गए हम यूँ ही साथ साथ चलते" गाने से ली गयी, जिसे जावेद अख्तर ने लिखा है

Between the assasinations

Good fiction mixed well with history always makes for a great read. Sudeep Chakravarti’s The Avenue of Kings falls into that category of books, which build a story around a major event(s) in the history of a nation.  
The book which seems rather autobiographical, traces the life of Brandy (aka Barun) Ray starting after the assasination of Indira Gandhi (referred to as IG throughout the book) to after the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi (referred to as RG throughout the book). “Between the Assasinations”  would have been a rather interesting title for the book.  But that is a book that Arvind Adiga has already written, though surprisingly the book had got nothing to do with assasinations at all.
But getting back to Chakravarti. The Avenue of Kings traces the life of Brandy (aka Barun) Ray, a character Chakravarti first introduced in his rather engaging Tin Fish, through three novellas, The Avenue of Kings, The Cradle of Innocents and The Well of Three Wishes.
In the first, Brandy has just passed out of St Stephens College, has rebelled against his father, who wants him to take up a job with a foreign bank.  So Brandy is without a job and is supported by a Anusuya (or Suya) a Christian girl and a fellow student, who happens to be his girl friend. Also sleeping with the landlord’s wife ensures that once in a while the rent to his small pad is taken care of. There are also portions which deal with Brandy’s rather chilled out and doped out days in college.  The potrait of Delhi as it was is rather enchanting.
Brandy sees a young Sikh being burnt alive in the aftermath of IG’s assasination. He wonders what RG means when he says “when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little”. Brandy is angry and finds peace in Suya.
The Cradle of Innocents fast forwards the story a few years . Brandy is now a journalist, like Chakravarti himself was before he settled down in Goa to become a  full time writer, and is having more troubles. Troubles with RG and RG’s idea of India, and troubles with Suya who he once loved so much, and had now almost lost.
Brandy’s state of mind is best summarised in a letter Suya writes to him: “We still feel and sometimes hope, but the balance is far more basic now. Idealism is for the very young and, maybe, for the books. Cynicism is something else.”
The Well of Three Wishes, explores the post RG India, the rise of the BJP, and the fall of the Babri Masjid. Of course Suya has left him by then, though Brandy has not left her. As he says “I had Suya in me”.  Brandy is out there trying to do what he calls a “slice of life” piece on how Muslims feel about the entire episode.  This at a time when his editor is running out of ideas to keep pleasing the Congress party (is that Chakravarti’s potshot at a rather famous editor who has recently been in trouble because of the Radia tapes?).
As far as stories go this is as normal a story can be. There are no dramatic plots. No over the top end. The love story is rather straightforward. Boy meets girl in college. Boy loses girl to life.
But there is still something about this book that keeps the reader glued in, and makes it a page turner.  Its Chakravarti’s first class prose. His ability to evoke melancholy and nostalgia at the same time is rather brilliant. The lines just keep coming. Sample this: “We became people our imaginations could not keep up with”.
The book in the end clearly leaves you wanting for more. You wonder what ever happened to Brandy Ray, after the dome in Ayodhya was brought down.  Is there another sequel in the works? 


The Avenue of Kings
Sudeep Chakravarti
Rs 299
Harper Collins
222 pages

Kabhi aana tu meri galli

Life is most interesting when the facade comes off.
When we human beings stop being what life has made out of us, and start being what we really are.
Or we really were, at least till the lack of time responsibilities hit us.
So yesterday I was witness to an event where facades really came off and left a certain section of the audience wondering ke ye kya ho raha hai?
Euphoria was playing at the Bandra festival yesterday and as luck would have it I was there.
It was ten minutes into the concert, and Pallash Sen (the lead singer of the band) was already in the mood, and was going about his trademark jump act.
He suddenly stopped and said “ye anup jalota ji ka bhajan concert nahi hai. Kya aap log sab baith kar isko dekhne waale ho?”
So within next ten minutes everyone was standing and watching concert. And by the time the band started singing Mai Ri, probably there most famous number till date, everyone was up and standing on chairs and grooving with the band.
A large section of the audience included young couples who had come with their two, three and five year old kids.
It was a funny situation. The kids were all sitting on the chairs. And their mothers, who thankfully were not wearing sarees like their mothers would have but jeans, were standing on top of chairs and dancing, singing and grooving away to glory.
Songs like dhoom pichuk dhum, kabhi aana tu merei galli, ab na ja, probably reminded them of the days that were.
When life was about going to school and college, and coming back home and having food with your mother sitting next to you on the table.
It was definitely not about taking the 6.45 Fast from Churchgate to Andheri and getting home to a weeping kid who refuses to do his homework, unwashed dishes because the maid did not turn up and a mother in law who hates the fact that you work.
When life was about the first crush that got crushed and not about the permanent husband now, who really hasn’t turned out as she had imagined him to be.
The songs went on. The mothers were dancing and singing at the top of their voices. The kids, sitting on chairs were quite bewildered and seemed to be wondering ke mummy ko aaj kya ho gaya hai ke wo kursi par chhadh kar naach rahi hai....
That’s what happens when you go back to what was a part of growing up!
Some day the kids will understand why on that random day before that random band performing at the Bandra Kulra Complex, their mothers stopped being mothers, and went back to being girls that they always were.