Politics over Park

पार्क की राजनीती

अगर इलाके में कोई पार्क हो तो आस पास रहने वालों की सेहत अच्छी हो ही जाती है । कुछ लोग पार्क में टहलने और व्यायाम करने जाते हैं | कुछ लोग लोगो को ये सब करते देखने जाते हैं । तो कुछ लोग कभी जल्दी उठ जाते हैं और कुछ करने के लिए नहीं होता है तो पार्क चले जाते हैं । मैं इन में से किसी ढंग के लोगो में नहीं हूँ  । मैं हफ्ते में ३ - ४ दिन पार्क चला जाता हूँ  और इसलिए की मेरे ३ दोस्त वहां आते हैं । उन से सुबह सुबह हंसी मजाक हो जाता तो पूरा दिन ख़ुशी ख़ुशी निकल जाता है । हाँ , इसके साथ अगर नाक में ताज़ी हवा चली जाये और स्वास्थ्य उत्तम रहे तो इसमें कोई नुकसान भी नहीं है ।

२ हफ्ते पहले की बात है । मैं पार्क में अपने मित्रों के साथ बाते कर रहा था । तभी ६-७ लोग नेता वाली टोपी पहने हमारे पास आ गए । नमस्कार का आदान प्रदान हुआ । एक युवक ने लगभग ४ ५ - ५ ० साल के उम्र वाले एक सज्जन की तरफ इशारा करके बताया की ये चुनाव में खड़े हो रहे हैं । हमे भी पता चल गया की चुनाव आने वाले हैं । ए

क नयी पार्टी इस बार चुनाव में खड़ी हो रही थी और उसके प्रत्याशी ये सज्जन थे । उन्होंने अपने ईमानदारी और पार्टी की नीतियों के पर्चे हमे दिए । वो लोग आगे बढ़ गए । पर्चे में बहुत ही लोक लुभावन वायदे किये गए थे जैसा की हरेक पार्टी को करने का जन्मसिद्ध अधिकार प्राप्त है । पर्चे को हाथ में तोड़ते मोड़ते हम अपने बातों में व्यस्त हो गएँ । उसके तीन दिन बाद  हमने देखा की पार्क में सीमेंट , बालू , लोहे के सरिये और कुछ पत्थर गिरा दिए गएँ हैं । ये बात थोड़ी सी अटपटी लगी क्यूंकि पिछले ७ सालों में पार्क में कोई निर्माण कार्य नहीं हुआ था । फिर भी ये देख कर अच्छा ही लगा ।  लगा की पार्क में बने रास्तों की कुछ मरम्त हो जाएगी । २ दिन बाद हमने देखा की पार्क के अंदर एक शामियाना लगा हुआ है । लोगो की आबाजाही कुछ जाएदा दिख रही थी । पुलिसवाले भी दिख गए । अब तो हमे यकीन हो गया की कोई बड़ा नेता आने वाला है पार्क में । सुबह सुबह खाने पीने का भी इंतज़ाम किया गया था । कचोरी , सब्जी , कोल्ड ड्रिंक और चाय । लोग व्यायाम , खेल कूद छोड़ नास्ते पर टूट पड़े थे । नेता के छोटे मोटे चेले महौल बनाने में लगे हुए थे । इसलिए तो बड़े लोग देर से सभा में आते हैं चाहे वो नेता हो , बाबा हो या हीरो । छेत्र के सांसद और पर्यावरण मंत्री अपने भाड़ी लाव लश्कर को लेकर सभा में उपस्तिथ हुए । थोड़े देर ओपचारिकता की गयी। फिर भारत माता की जय और  वन्दे मातरम् का नारा । नाश्ता और नारों के बाद  जनता अब सही में सभा में रूचि ले रही थी । जनता की नब्ज़ जानने वाले और छेत्र से लगातार ३ बार चुनाव जीतने वाले मंत्री जी खड़ा हुए भाषण देने ।  उन्होंने घोषणा की इस पार्क को करोरो की लागत से एक मॉडल पार्क बनाया जायेगा । एक ऐसा पार्क जो आसपास के छेत्र में एक मिशाल बन जाये । फ़ूड कोर्ट , स्विमिंग पूल , रंगीन फव्वारें , बच्चो के लिए अलग से पार्क , बुजुर्गो के लिए अलग से बैठकी बनाई जाएगी । आधुनिक ढंग से कार पार्किंग , फूलों के गलीचे और अनचाहे पेड़ो को काटकर ढंग से पेड़ लगायें जाएंगे । मंत्री जी ने सभा में तालियों की झड़ी लगवा दी । उन्होंने सभा में बैठे लोगों को स्वर्ग लोक की सैर करवा दी । लोगो को विश्वाश नहीं हो रहा था की जिस पार्क में वो बैठे हैं उसका ऐसा उद्धार होने जा रहा है । मंत्री जी ने ये भी घोषणा की चुकी ये पार्क शहीद भगत सिंह के नाम पर है , इसलिए उनका एक भव्य स्मारक जो पहले से लगे हुए स्मारक से बड़ा होगा , भी बनाया जाएगा । जनता को  नास्ते , नारों और वादों से पूरी तरह से मन्त्रमुग्ध करके वो सभा से विदा हो गए । शायद कहीं और भी उन्हें किसी पार्क का उद्धार करने जाना था ।

हमलोग असमंजस में थे की हमे क्यूँ नहीं लगा की इस पार्क का उद्धार भी हो सकता है । मेरे दोस्त कपूर ने बोला , " यार तभी तो वो मंत्री हैं । इतनी दूरदर्शिता साधारण लोगो में कहाँ होती है ? " " फिर भी मंत्री जी को ७ साल बाद पार्क की सुध लेने की जरुररत क्यूँ पड़ी  ? हो न हो , मंत्री जी पर नयी पार्टी का कुछ प्रभाव जरुर पड़ा है । " मैंने जोर देकर कहा । मेरे दोस्तों को भी बात सही लग रही थी ।

२ दिन बाद हम फिर मिलें पार्क में । कुछ लोग पार्क के गेट पर पर्चे बाँट रहे थे । हमने भी पर्चे ले लिए उनसे । वो लोग चुनावी दंगल की तीसरी पार्टी से थे और मुख्य विपक्षी पार्टी भी । वो पार्क में होने वाले इस निर्माण कार्य का घोर विरोध कर रहे थे । उनका कहना था की कुछ भी हो जाये , पेड़ो को कटने नहीं देंगे । करोरों रुपए इस तरह बेकार नहीं होने देंगे । पार्क की स्थिति ठीक है । हमे कुछ नहीं चहिये । रुपए का सदुपयोग करें । गरीबों के जीवन का उद्धार करने में रुपए लगायें । बातें तो इनकी भी सही लग रही थी । पार्क एक दिलचस्प चुनावी अखारा बन चुका था । पार्क का उद्धार होगा की नहीं ये भारत पाकिस्तान के क्रिकेट मैच की तरह रोमांचक हो चूका था । पार्क में घुमने फिरने वाले लोग सेहत छोड़ इन्ही बातों पर बहस करते नज़र आ रहे थे । ३ दिन बाद हमने देखा मुख्य विपक्षी पार्टी के वृद्ध नेता पार्क के बाहर अनसन पर बैठ गए हैं । उनके चेले और कार्यकर्ता नारे लगा रहे थे । शाम तक काफ़ी लोग जमा हो गए। मीडिया भी पहुच गयी । आसपास रहने वाले लोग भी पहुच गए समर्थन देने । १ - २ दिनों में काफी भीड़ जमा हो गयी । सत्तापक्ष सकते में आ गयी और पुलिस की तैनाती कर दी गयी । विपक्षी पार्टी जनता के समर्थन से गदगद थी । भीड़ में कुछ आसामाजिक तत्व घुस गए । खबर आई की शाम के अँधेरे में आसामजिक तत्वों ने पुलिस पर पथराव कर दिया । पुलिस ने जवाबी करवाई में लाठी चलायी । भीड़ में भगदर मच गयी । २ वृद्ध मारे गए और १ ० लोग बुरी तरह घायल हो गए । आज सुबह पता चला की पार्क को सील कर दिया गया है और पुलिस की तैनाती कर दी गयी है । इस बीच  विपक्षी पार्टी ने मृतकों के लिए १ ० लाख रुपए मुवाबजे की माँग की है । साथ में ये भी माँग की है की मारे गए लोगो के स्मारक भगत सिंह के साथ लगायें  जाये ।

Treasure Hunt Gopal Wedding Last Part

Treasure Hunt  Gopal Wedding Last Part

The first part of treasure hunt is already published in this blog. This is second and the last part.

I forgot to tell that my relatives were also busy in performing their duty as my kindred during that period. After many layers of their filtration based on bride’ qualification, her age, her family social status and of course their own larger personal interests, they managed to push a bride party, as it is called in marriage circle, to my house. It was a late Saturday afternoon when evening was getting ready to spread. I had just cleared my huge stock of laundry which had piled up for last three weeks. I was about to start my lunch. An unwanted knock on the door and I found four people of different ages, weights, attires and different hair colors on my door. It did not take long for me to understand that they were on ‘Treasure Hunt’ and my house could be their ‘Treasure Hunt’ spot that day.

After initial round of introduction over tea and snacks, came rigorous section of interview. Each question was chiseled well with their astute maturity. And some of the questions were like “How long have you been in this company??”; “5 years in the same company??”;”Have you bought any car or house??”;”Can we see your company’s ID card?”;Why did you study in such an average engineering college, why not in IIT?”;”What are your short term and long term aspirations??”;”Why are you not doing MBA when all good engineers are doing this??”. After that interview section, they had realized that I was a medicore candidate and they were at wrong ‘treasure hunt’ spot. But during all that period I found one of them completely silent. He was in his mid-forties wearing “Tide” white dhoti, a deep cream colored kurta and a thick round Tilak of sandal powder. He was chewing betel leaves and his tongue and lips had turned red. A red rivulet was oozing out from the side joint of his lips to his chin. He was staring continuously from behind, his high powered specs with thick black rims, at my face. I did not understand why he was doing that. Was he looking for any unique signs of potential bridegroom on my face similar to the way Tibetan Karmapa were selected through some signs by their peers?? Was he an expert analyst of facial expressions of bridegrooms?? Or whether he was assigned that job to keep a vigil eye on me to detect if I spoke a lie??

They changed the mode of interaction from question-answer session to feedback session but in a unique satirical way. With each piece of feedback, they were trying to dig one foot of grave for me. And their volley started as “My brother in law distant uncle sister in law’s son changed five companies in three years”; “My nephew became manager within four years of his career”; “My brother in law’s nephew got call from India’s four premiere MBA colleges “;” We have four houses within a city”. Neither I had asked for any of these gold plated sentences nor was I interested in any of them. But these nail biting social facts were revealed before me in order to give me social enlightenment but without any demand from my side. They left my house after two hours of rigorous interrogation and they made it sure to spoil my afternoon, evening and even my lunch.

But that disaster did not deter my relatives from putting their network on high alert. They had taken that incident on a very serious note and why not, their prestige was also on stake. So after meticulous filtration based on their well-known parameters mentioned above, few more bride parties came to grace my house with the same hope of winning the ‘Treasure Hunt’ contest. They had more or less the same set of questions but they had their own way of putting it and that was really interesting to me. None of them ever asked about my interests, my hobbies, and my views towards life and society. They were more interested in my degree and my salary slip.

Days passed and months followed, I remained clueless about this whole cycle of events. Marriage looked mysterious to me and the chance of getting a bride elusive. But few question remained there to haunt me. Why should I change five companies in three years to get a bride? Were IITians the only eligible bachelors?? Was bride an engineering concept or a business puzzle as they were so desperate for IITians and IIM guys or an average bachelor like me could not even dare to solve that??

19^th Mar, 2011.”Happy Birthday Dear, Gopal” my sister was again the first person to wish me on my birthday. I thanked her. This time I did not pass any resolution. And I had no regrets of fulfilling my first ever resolution in life which I had passed on the same day last year. But The “Treasure Hunt” was ON.

Gopal’s Wedding -- Treasure Hunt Part 1

Treasure Hunt – Gopal’s Wedding

“Happy birthday dear Gopal” my sister was the first person to call me on the morning of 19^th March 2010.I was happily relishing my birthday moments, then a thought crossed my mind and my smiling face turned a little gloomy. It’s my 29^th birthday and I was still ‘single’. Few days back I had read the news that a 14 year old (less than half of my age) boy in Britain had become a father. I felt ashamed on my backwardness and passe

d a stern resolution, first time in my life. I would be a married person on my next birthday.

I identified tools like newspaper, matrimonial sites and relative’s network, which could help me successfully meeting my resolution. I marked my office, neighbouring library, sports complex as possible ‘treasure’ hunt spots. Now I was firm to get married; let it be arranged, love, forced love or compromised love. But I found internet the most convenient and handy tool to enter into the arena of ‘Treasure Hunting’. I took out my best photo for making my profile on the matrimonial site. It was the best because it did not show my receding hair line, it was pimple free, my weight was under the obese category and most importantly I was smiling in that photo. These days smiling face is in high demand. It sells like a hot cake. It’s affordable to have one or two tooth less or have a dark complexion but without a smiling face getting a girl is next to impossible. My best friend had once confided in me this ‘top secret’. I wrote all the adjectives which I had learnt so far in my life but didn’t possess, in ‘About Me’ section of the profile. Some of the golden decorative adjectives were charming, loyal, down to earth, cultured, friendly etc. My preference for the bride was “her age should be between 21-24 years”, “she should be fair( the most important) “,”preferably working” and all other well-known attributes expected from an Indian bride like homely, religious, good in cooking, good in singing and a lot more.

Checking profile daily became part of my job, even more than that. No contacts, no interests were shown by anyone for a month. Then I thought to revisit my preference list as currently it was very near to ‘Six Sigma’. So I decided to make few adjustments in that. I pushed preferable upper age limit to 25 and left working status of bride blank. I also deleted some of the typical bride attributes I had earlier mentioned, like religious and expert cook. After these changes, I was quite sure of success. I kept on checking my profile religiously everyday but success was still elusive to me. Another month passed. But in these months, matrimonial site kept on sending me their promotional offers for paid membership.  These offers looked bizarre to me like 100 contact numbers in just Rs 1500 as if they have exclusive hold  on’ yellow pages’. I kept on turning blind eye to these offers as I was confident on my profile. Seeing no success, I thought to overhaul my profile. I took out my most stylish and modern photos with specs and luxury sedan of my neighbour in the background. I altered my salary slab and added new hobbies like photography, adventures, fishing and swimming which I had never tried in my life. Two more months passed and with each passing day my curiosity and my resolve to get married faded away. Then one day I checked my profile and jumped with joy like a magic ball. Someone had shown interest in me. I didn’t know what fetched that long awaited ‘glory’. Was that altered salary slab or my photo with black spec s or swimming?? I opened her profile. Her face raised my thick black eyebrows two centimeters high and my teeth responded with grin. I consoled my heart with these words “what lies in face, go to details”. Few lines of her profile were, “I am an innocent girl” as if she had been summoned in court. “I want life time relationship”; I was also not for part time relationship. ” I get emotional on small things”; I thought what would happen on big things. I thought to continue with my wait with the hope of getting a better option. Within a week, I got one more jackpot. A new interest arrived in my profile. I opened her profile. It had no photo. It’s big turnoff to start. I started reading ‘About Me’ section of her. ”I am an independent girl”; I wondered either she born on 15^th august 1947 or I were slave to someone. “I am a big Sharukh Khan fan”. That was enough for me to close the browser and put my hands over my head. I thought could being someone’s fan a description of someone?? Is being a Sharukh’s fan, a special quality for a girl or they become some different kind of female species??

The treasure is still elusive to me but the hunt is on.

Mahakumbh 2013

Human Sea at the bank of a River

It was 13^th Feb 2013. I was just about to leave my office. My colleagues were coming to my seat and were saying “Take Care” and “Safe Journey” as I was going for “Shahi Snan” (Royal Bath) at Kumbh mela next morning. Their worried eyes scared me little but I was not perturbed enough to change my plan. Their concern was genuine as around 40 pilgrims died at Allahabad railway station just two days back in one of the major Royal Bath. I reached my home after an exhausting day but the upbeat mood of my parents who had come to Delhi from Bihar for the trip, boosted my morale by many folds.

We discussed our plan for the trip and went to bed as we had to catch the train early morning.  After 9 hours of journey, we reached Allahabad junction. Allahabad junction is unique in its capacity. All platforms are separately linked. You have to change many cross sections of stairs to reach one platform from another. It might have been designed keeping in mind the massive crowd that converges at the time of Kumbh. We thought it would be difficult to get a room in hotel but our fear was baseless. There was no dearth of hotels though the charges of rooms were increased without showing any mercy to pilgrims. We managed to get a room in a hotel at reasonable price.  After having relaxed in hotel for few hours, we went for a stroll to see the cacophony of Allahabad. Due to kumbh mela, market was buzzing with activities related to the mela. Crowd was everywhere from small tea shop to restaurants, from horse driven cart to auto rickshaws. We went to a small samosa shop as there was a queue to get samosas. We thought it must be selling good quality samosa, looking at the size of crowd. And fortunately it did not disappoint us. The price was half as compared to samosa selling in Delhi and the quality was superb.

After tea and samosa, my father had his favourite ‘ maghi’ ( type of betel leaves)  paan. Then we roamed there for few more hours, enquired about routes and medium of transportation to Kumbh Mela. After having dinner in our hotel room, discussion started as who would be the first person to wake up in the morning. Father and I were on one side and ma was chosen to be the first one. After initial hesitation, she agreed finally as waking early was her daily routine. Ma woke up around 4 a.m. She tried her best to wake us but finally we woke up around 5 am. After we got ready for the’ D’ day we were waiting for, we came out of hotel. What we saw was hordes and hordes of people going in one direction even so early in the morning.  “We are late” said my father. We joined the crowd. We took a cycle rickshaw and reached to the spot where vehicles of ‘common man’ were not allowed to go further.  Different streams of crowd comprising different sections of people were converging into a single stream.  Fathers were carrying their young broods. Elderly women had tied up their shawls so that they did not get away from each other. Young people were holding hands of their mothers, grandmothers. But there was high level of energy everywhere. Everyone was moving fast to be the first to reach there and wanted to be the first to take a dip in the river. We were also moving with fervor and were trying to match the crowd in its pace. Then we reached a long bridge. What we saw below the bridge was a layer of fog and thousands of colored tent houses encircled with layers of mist. Bhajans and sermons of spiritual gurus were emanating from loud speakers mounted over long bamboos.  After walking for almost 7 km, we entered into the mela premise. We took break in a small makeshift tea shop. Till papa and I were having tea, ma was bargaining with a shopkeeper over the price of white plastic container used to fill water. Finally she won the battle and handed over the container to me to fill water of Ganga. It is a tradition in sanatan dharma to take back water of Ganga to one’s house to purify anything in universe you can imagine. The water of Ganga is also used in Pujas performed in houses. We moved around 500 meters further to see a naga akhara, a camp of Naga Sadhus. Lives of Sadhus, saints always ignite curiosity in my heart. I moved inside the akhara but was little scared as nagas are known for their mercurial behavior. But what I saw was ultimate divine experience. There was a saint sitting on the ground holding his hands towards a person whose body had turned blue, hair locks were let loose and was wearing not a single string of cloth. Yes, he was the naga sadhu, the cynosure of Kumbh Mela. He had just come after having the earliest dip in sangam. My hands folded and head bowed automatically to see the replica of lord Shiva. I greeted him and said ‘pranam baba’. His eyes almost crimson red, opened and I shuddered. But then he raised his hand and gave his blessing. Blessed I was. I narrated this incident to my ma who reached later to that akhara. She said,” Why did you not take his photo?” “I could not dare”, I said. That was nothing but the truth.

We moved ahead. There were some people who were returning after the bath and some were coming for the bath but the rush of human flow was continuous.  There were some male devotees who were getting their head shaved; some women too were also getting their hair locks trimmed. It is also a tradition to donate your hair to river Ganga. The government had tried its best to provide basic amenities to pilgrims coming for the holy dip. Electricity and water supply was provided to every nook and corner. Makeshift bridges and roads were made. Policemen on horses were guarding the area. But there was still area of improvement especially in the field of sanitation. When we reached the bank of river, it was full. There was no space even to keep our feet. Then we hired a boat to reach the Sangam, confluence of river Ganga and Yamuna. Boatman was charging more than five times what he normally charges. Pilgrims had no choice but to give up to their demand in the absence of any regularized fares. We reached Sangam.  Boatman tied his boat to the permanent wooden pillars bored into the water. To our utter surprises, level of water was too low. It was hardly touching my knees. The water of Ganga and Yamuna could be easily demarcated by the color of dark Yamuna. Unfazed by level and color of water, we took as many dips as we could have at Sangam as such event occurred once in 12 years. After the shahi snan, we came back to the bank.

We were relieved after the bath. We felt as if all our sins were washed away from our heads.  On the bank, it is tradition to hold the tail of colt and donate some rice, money. It is believed that after death this colt would take across the mythical flooded river ‘Vaitarni’.  After the bath, we had some snacks at street vendor’s stall. My parents were tired and wanted to take rest. We entered into a sadhu camp. We were greeted with warm smile and taken into a tent made of sacks and bundles of hay were laid on ground in the tent. We made ourselves comfortable. Tea and fried peas were offered to us. We had a nap for an hour. Then we went for bhandara (lunch) made in camp only. I saw sadhus rolling dough, frying puri, cooking curry and also serving food to each and every one who had come to camp. I also got opportunity to server food and I was ecstatic to do that. After the sumptuous lunch, we got opportunity to meet mahant (main sadhu) of the camp. Glow on his face adorned by an innocent smile, he asked us about our experience in kumbh. As always, I was ready with my questions related to life of sadhu and social life. He answered them with utmost maturity. Or better say he sprinkled droplets of knowledge from his vast reservoir.  As the mahant ji had to attend other devotees also, we paid obeisance and retired from the camp. With all these new experiences, we came out of mela premise. Suddenly it started raining. With much difficulty, we got a horse cart. It was for the first time, I was sitting on a horse cart. It was a very stable mode of transportation. I really loved to sit on that. Finally we reached our hotel. We were happy to visit Kumbh and relieved too as we were safe. I pray to go there again after 12 years.