ख्वाबों का शहर

नम आँखों से जब अपने ख्वाबों को पूरा करने मैं अपने घर से दूर चलने लगा, वो सड़क बड़ी छोटी लगने लगी, ऐसा लगा काश वो सड़क खत्म ही ना हो. अपने साथ यादों का कारवाँ ले के चला था मैं. यूँ लगा उन सब यादों कि जुदाई सही ना जायेगी और घर के सामने कि वो सड़क लंबी हो जायेगी.

मेरे घर के हर कोने से मेरी अनेकों यादें जुड़ी थीं. चलते वक्त मन को बहलाने के लिए माँ कि बात याद आ गयी. उनने चिढ़ाते हुए कहा था की जहां मै जा रहा हूँ वहा इससे भी बड़ा घर होगा. अगले ही पल मन ने कहा – घर दीवारों से नहीं उसमें रह रहे लोगो से बनता है.

मन में भारीपन लिए पहुँच गया अपने ख्वाबों के शहर, उस सुंदर आलीशान घर के आगे मेरा अपना घर छोटा दीख पड़ता था,  फिर सोचा माँ जान कर बड़ी खुश होंगी!

उस अनजान नगरी में हर किसी के साथ कोई ना कोई था, आपस में हँसते-बोलते रहते और मै अकेला उन्हें तांकता रहता.

उस भीड़ में मेरी नजर दो दोस्तों पर पड़ी. उनका वो मासूम-सा तकरार और अगले ही लम्हें में ढेर सारा दुलार, मानो एक दुसरे के साथ है तो दुनिया से कोई सरोकार ही नहीं. एक तरफ़ उन्हें देख कर खुशी हुई और फिर मेरे सबसे ख़ास दोस्त का ख्याल कर के दुःख.

कभी लगता था यहाँ से भाग निकलूँ, किंतु मेरे ख्वाब मुझे पीछे खींच लेते थे. उस तन्हाई के आलम में ख़ुद ही को समझा लिया करता था. दिन गुजरते गए. एक दिन माँ का ख़त आया, उनके जन्मदिन पर एक दिन के लिए घर बुलाया था. फिर क्या था, एक पंछी कि तरह उड़ चला अपने आशियने में. मेरे शहर कि गलियों कि वो महक, घर में घुसते ही माँ कि प्यारी-सी मुस्कान, पिताजी का दुलार और बहन का शरारत भरा झगड़ा – ‘भैया, तुम खाली हाथ तो नहीं आ गए ना’! ऐसा लगा ख़ुद को फिर से पा लिया. जन्मदिन मनाने के बाद अपने ख़ास दोस्त से मिलने गया. खूब बातेंं कर अपना मन हलका किया.

हर्षित मन के साथ लौट आया अपने ख्वाबों के शहर, इस बार दुगने उत्साह के साथ!

मोह पाश से इंसान कभी नहीं छूट सकता, मगर चलते रहने का नाम ही ज़िंदगी है ना!

Offline – A Day Without Internet

6:00 AM

The alarm rang and while I still was half asleep one morning, as a ritual the first thing I did was to connect my cell phone to WiFi. To my surprise, I spotted that I had received no “updates” since last night!

That summer morning, a few minutes later whilst the environment was serene and filled with chirping of cuckoo bird, I stepped out to check if the hawker has dropped newspapers in our veranda (baramda). While grabbing the newspaper, I saw the headline which read – “No Internet today”. My eyes went wide open and all sleep flew away. Unlike everyday, I sat reading the news article. It reported that during the midnight, the world’s internet crashed! For a moment I was dumbstruck pondering whether it is really practicable. But it surely was not supposed to be fictitious, since I had no updates on my phone that morning.

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8:30 AM

Every news channel had confirmed the unbelievable by now. The channels reported that the internet should be stable in the next 12-15 hours.

With my face drooped, I sat imagining how would I spend the rest of my day being disconnected with rest of the world… The first learning of my day was to understand the value of time. This because it was the due date for paying my phone bill online, which would otherwise have to paid with surcharge later.

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9:00 AM

Though, as a habit, I kept checking my phone, for emails, Whatsapp and other social updates. Sooner, I engaged myself in some other activities like helping my Mom in household chores, visited the nearby temple, assisted my father in gardening, which otherwise was my time for all sorts of unproductive or partially-productive activities on my cell phone and laptop over the internet. It was a contrasting experience to me that left me with inner satisfaction.

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6:30 PM.

I was back home early from office.

As a part of my routine, during and after the dinner I had to be stuck to my cell phone. After all, I am supposed to be updated about all that is happening around, from social networking to the news app on my phone to my favorite whatsapp to gmail and my office emails to the melodious songs on saavn. I would barely raise my head to talk to my family everyday.

But this fateful day was entirely different. I had to, rather, I got to spend time with my parents. We talked about all sort of stuff that day while having dinner. After dinner we went for a long walk. I shared my experiences of the day with them. Also, I turned into a keen listener to my mother and father about what they did the whole day, varying from my mother’s complaints against the maid and my father’s comments on the country’s changing political scenario.

I shared with them my experiences of the day at office.

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11:00 AM

In the absence of connectivity to the web, amusingly, office’ work came to a standstill. Software Engineers can do zero work in the such a situation. We went on a team lunch, and played some team building games out in the open. This rejuvenated the child in all of us. We also got to see the sunset after a long time. We enjoyed and laughed and almost forgot that the virtual world of internet and social networking. No email popped up and no chats with fake smileys came in that day.  This should originally have been termed as “staying connected”.

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10:00 PM

Sitting idle, I pondered over how long the day was a fun filled day. And then I realized that it has been months since I spoke to some of my distant close friends. Thanks to Internet that kept us updated to such an extent that we didn’t get a chance to hear each other’s voices. It was the day when I made phone calls to all of them. All our college time memories were refreshed by then.

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11:00 PM

Ideally this is the time for me to stick on the bed with mobile and typing on Whatsapp. But this time, carrying no regrets of the absence of it, I went towards my bookshelf, smelling the fragrance of what we call as unused books- my novels and journals. I chose one of my long pending novels, read it for sometime and went to bed with a smile on the face cherishing the lovely thoughts of the day.

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6:00 AM

I was in the lap of a stress-free, quiescent sleep and a few minutes after that the alarm on my cell phone rang and I learnt that all this was a dream. Yes, this was a dream and the world’s Internet is intact! 🙂

Thinking about life without Internet may seem like a nightmare for almost all, but this dream woke me up with a feeling that there’s a lot in life than technology and that Internet is a black, frivolous hole that sucks away time in huge, horrible chunks.

Night walk with your close ones on the streets is more pacifying than travelling across the planet on Google Earth.

The euphoria of watching the radiant sunset with a loved one on an evening is better than blindly liking pictures of those who are merely “online friends”.

Every untweeted observation of daily life is more sacred than retweeting the tweets that in no way correspond to your reality.

Find sometime to recharge yourself, not just your gadgets.

 

THE END

(Short story – a  work of fiction)

You opened your eyes and discovered something – A peaceful place, white clouds all around; a glorious white light ubiquitously spread; all hazy; someone clad in white appeared from nowhere.

“You were on your way home and you died. And that’s when you met me.”

“What! Where am I? I don’t understand…..”

“You met a fatal accident, on your way home, a truck skid and then the car accident happened. They tried to save you, all in vain.”

You exclaimed, “I….I died! Where is my wife? My children, are they fine? Who will take care of them? I want to see them.”

“They all shall be fine soon. Your kids will remember you always. Your wife will cry, but secretly relieved. Nevertheless, your marriage wasn’t working well.”

“Oh. So what happens now, I will go to hell, heaven or something?”

“Neither. You will reincarnate.”

“Reincarnate.! So, the Hindus were right.”

“All religions are right my son.”

“What’s the point, then? I will start again as a baby, a blank slate. So all my experiences of this life shall vanish.”

“Yes, you are nothing but a magnificent soul. You will be born as a Chinese girl to a farmer in 592 A.D.”

“592 A.D., but that has already passed. You will send me to the past! What if I meet my future self then.”

“Its only you who is born and dies again. You have reincarnated numerous times. In this universe there are just you and me. You are my child, and I, your father.”

“Wait.. You  mean I everyone, and everyone else is me. I am Abraham Lincoln… I am Hitler… I am Akbar.. I am Mother Teresa.. the street side beggar, and I am…. I am Jesus.. Ram……and…..”

“Now you get it, my child.”

“Every time you victimized someone, you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”

“You mean I am god.”

“No, not now. You are a fetus, still growing, getting mature.”

“I am sending you on your way now.”

 

 

 

Somewhere in the Mist

(This a short story, a work fiction by me)

She lived in Oakland; Anna, the chubby girl in her mid 20’s was gifted with dimpled cheeks, curly hair and cat eyes. She was known for carrying a lovely smile and a pretty face. Deep inside, she hid profound grief; she was an orphan who lost her parents at the age of 11 and was brought up by her grandfather who also passed away about a year ago.

After a tiring day at work, now at her plush apartment, Anna had her dinner alone, and went to bed. It was half past 10. Lying on her bed, she was feeling short of sleep due to numerous thoughts that crept her mind. She was hugging her favorite doll and her long term companion, whom she called Dolly. Turning on and off the table lamp beside her bed she was looking at the photo frame hanged on the front wall. The photograph was taken on her 11^th birthday when she and her parents were out for a holiday, where her mother – a thin lady with her brown unkempt locks of hair, dressed in a pretty white gown was standing beside her father. Her father, a tall and fair man, had dimpled cheeks; she inherited hers from him!  In the photograph, she was standing in the middle of her loving parents with Dolly in her hand. She recalled that her grandpa often told her the story of the true love of her parents.

This comely thought was soon overridden by the flashes of the life changing incident that occurred to the family that night while returning home. She always wondered whether it was her fortune or ill fate that she was the only one spared alive out of that fierce accident.

With a tear rolling down her eye, her cheeks turned pink and soon she fell asleep.

The next morning she got ready for her office in a lovely pink dress with polka dots. She took the 9:20 AM bus to her workplace.

As always, she reached the office by 9:45. Her closest friend for the last 3 years, Isabella called her to say she was waiting for her at the café`.

Bella, as Anna called her, was a thin and tall young girl, not as pretty as Anna, had a dusky complexion and thin hair extending up to her waist. She and Anna shared a lot of similarities on one hand and evident differences on the other. Unlike Anna, Isabella had limited friends. Isabella lived in the town with her parents, grandparents and a younger brother. She belonged to a middle class family who had limited resources for their living.

She said, with an alternate appearance of irritation and smile on her face, “Bella, I bet, you’ll never change. You have such a weak memory!”
And Isabella replied, hiding her laughter, “Did I make some mistake again? “

Anna’s face drooped and she said, “No you didn’t. Let’s go back, I have a lot of work to finish today.” Regaining her senses, she continued with cheer, “What are you doing this evening? How about going to go for the new movie at the mall?”

“Sorry Anna, I have to take my grandmother to the Doctor today. She isn’t recovering well. We can plan for the movie some other day. Let us get back to work. Anyway, there is nothing so special about today!”

In a low tone, Anna replied, “You are right. We can go out some other day.”

It was 5 in the evening. Anna had already left for home, at her usual time. She took the 5:10 bus, reached home at 5:35, and changed her clothes. She played some soft music and sat in front of her parents’ photograph. She was unhappy today.

It was the day when she lost her parents years ago, and also her birthday.

Soon after, her phone ringed. It was an SMS from Bella. It read – “Need your help, come home soon.” Anna was worried on reading this. She tried calling back but couldn’t reach her. Without giving a second thought, she left for Isabella’s house in the town. It was 6:30 in the evening. She reached there by around 7 PM. She tried making calls to Bella throughout her transit, but couldn’t speak to her. This increased her anxiety.

As Anna reached in front of Isabella’s house, a ramshackle cottage, the darkness of the dusk caused her difficulty in seeing the entrance. While she was rushing in, she accidentally bumped into Isabella’s pet dog. She recalled that Isabella told her the name of her pet was Rusty. Rusty began barking at her. This added to the procrastination. Within moments, she saw Isabella’s grandfather, a stooping old man with barely countable hair on his head, stepping out of the house, called Rusty towards him and directed Anna to the entrance. The door was already open, she peeped in. The lights of the hall of that small dwelling were off. A startled Anna turned back to see the old man and Jade, but couldn’t find them there.

She panicked and worried about her dear friend. Soon after she heard several people singing the birthday rhyme, “Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Anna…” and the lights turned on. It was Isabella’s family in the room – her mother, father, brother, grandma, grandpa and Rusty in a corner! She couldn’t find Bella anywhere. She was gratified by this surprise but resentful that she was made to wait for the whole day. A scrumptious birthday cake was kept on a simple wooden table. She was glad to see the whole family the candid welcome. She had been missing this for years. The absence of her parents and her loneliness was filled by affection she received from the lovely family of her friend.

A thought abruptly struck her, Bella could be seen nowhere. She asked Isabella’s mother about her. Her mother took Anna to the nearby room where Bella was lying, enervated. Anna was shocked to see her Bella in this condition, her eyes filled with tears. Isabella’s mother narrated to Anna, that her daughter had an asthmatic attack in the evening in spite of which she was desperate to celebrate the special day for her close friend, and willing to bear this ailment for her sake.

Anna hugged her and broke into tears. She had no family, but Bella had. She was rich, Bella was poor. She was beautiful, Bella wasn’t. She made everyone smile, but was unhappy deep inside. Bella was in poor health but had the urge to bring back smile to her friend. Anna hugged her and realized that it was their differences which made their bond special and that there is nothing called misfortune, but the way you interpret what occurs to you.