सारथी

मेरे घर के पास हाईवे पर एक बहुत ही व्यस्त चौराहा है जहां हरीबत्ती के लिये अकसर 3 मिनिट रुकना पडता है. वहां एक स्थाई भिखारिन है जिसको मैं पिछले दस साल से पैसा देता आया हूँ. मुझे देखते ही उसकी बांछें ऎसी खिल जाती हैं जैसे कि मुझ से भीख पाना उसका जन्मसिद्ध हक है. चूंकि मेरे दादाजी हमेशा कहते थे कि महीने भर मिलने वाले हर भिखारी को भीख दो बेटा, तो भी वह किसी अच्छे हाटल में एक खाने के पैसे से कम ही बैठेगा अत्: मैं भिखारियों को निराश नहीं करता.

आज किसी कारण से चौराहे पर यातायात एकदम ठप्प था और मामला साफ था कि 3 मिनिट का आज 10 मिनिट हो जायगा. मैं ने डेशबोर्ड पर से 2 रुपये का सिक्का हाथ लिया ही था की वह भिखारिन आ गई. उसे भी मालूम था कि आज मेरी गाडी 3 मिनिट से अधिक रुकेगी. अत: भीख छोड कर वह गाडी के बगल में आ खडी हुई और मेरे परिवार के बारे में पूछने लगी. वह होगी यही 40 से 50 के आसपास की. जब मैं ने अपने विवाहित बेटेबेटी और पत्नी आदि के बारें में कहा तो वह बोली कि दस साल से वह मेरी गाडी में उनको देखती आई है और ईश्वर से प्रार्थना करती आई है कि इस “अच्छे साहब” को ईश्वर का अनुग्रह मिले. वह जानना चाहती थी कि एक साल से वे मेरे साथ क्यों नहीं दिखते.  आज उसने पैसा नहीं लिया बल्कि अपनी बात कह कर झुक कर प्रणाम किया और अगली गाडी की ओर हाथ बढा कर चली गई.

क्या भिखारी भी मानव हैं? क्या हमारी एक मुस्कान उन में से किसी एक को जीने की आशा दे सकती है?

There is very busy intersection at the highway close to my house. Often it takes 3 minutes to get green light. There is almost always beggar there whom I had been giving money for the last 10 years. My grandpa used to say that even if we give alms to every beggar whom we come across, the amount thus given away would be much less than what a single meal costs me in a good hotel. Thus I always give some money to beggars. This particular lady would always approach me at this intersection with an expression as though it were her birthright to get a rupee or two from me.

Today there was a traffic block at that junction and it was clear that the usual 3 minutes would turn into 10 minutes today. As usual I picked up a two-rupees coin from the dashboard, and lot she was there. She knew that I would be there for some time, so positioning her besides the window she with a smile asked me about my wife and children. She said she had always seen them with me, but the children have been missing for the last year or so. I told her that they got married and are now settled in other states. That lady who might be between 40 to 50, was pleased to hear this. She said she had always been praying that God may bless this “gentleman”. She did not accept the coin today. Instead, she bowed humbly to me and moved on to the next car with her stretched hand.

Are beggars also human? Can a smile on our face give one of them a better hope in this life?

इन दिनों स्लट-वॉक की बडी चर्चा हो रही है. दर असल स्लट-वॉक पश्चिमी सभ्यता का एक नंगा नाच है जिसे हिन्दुस्तान में आयातित किया जा रहा है. यह 3 अप्रेल 2011 को कनाडा से चालू हुआ था जहां प्रथम स्लट-वॉक में  काफी सारी जवान स्त्रियों ने एक दम अर्धनग्न वस्त्रों में स्त्रियों के यौनिक शोषण का विरोध किया था.

धन की जरूरत पडने पर कई पश्चिमी देशों में स्त्रियां अपन कौमार्य नीलाम करके बेचती हैं. ऎसे समाज में यदि वे अर्धनग्न भीड के रूप में सडक पर उतर आयें तो इसमें कोई ताज्जुब नहीं है. लेकिन हिन्दुस्तान जैसे धार्मिक एवं मर्यादा-नियंत्रित देश में इस तरह के प्रदर्शन एकदम गलत है. स्त्री-स्वंतंत्रता का मतलब लैंगिक अराजकता नहीं है.

स्लट का चालू अनुवाद है छिनाल या रांड किस्म की औरत. अत: स्लट-वॉक का अनुवाद होगा छिनाल प्रदर्शन या रांड-परेड.  सवाल है कि हिन्दुस्तान में इस प्रकार के अनैतिक परेड की जरूरत है क्या. मेरे हिसाब से अश्लील प्रदर्शन के कानून का प्रयोग कर इस तरह की लैंगिक अराजकता को रोकना जरूरी है.

What Is This Slut-walk Thing??

There is a lot of discussion these days about a certain “Slut-walk”. Actually this so-called slut-walk is the import of the morally more degenerate elements of the present-day western civilization. It started on 2 April 2011 where, inter alia, numerous young women paraded in public in semi-nude and highly provocative poses.

We keep seeing instances of women who auction their virginity in these western nations to raise funds. Therefore if a group of women from these countries parade in streets in provocative clothing, one should not be surprised. However, such parades would be totally wrong in India where the majority of people hold on to higher moral and social values. Women’s liberation does not mean liberation to uncover in public. Nor does it mean sexual anarchy.

The common meaning of the word “slut” is “a woman of totally loose character”. Thus Slut-walk means a parade of women of totally loose character. Why do we need this kind of a parade in India? I strongly feel that the government should invoke laws related to immoral display in public places to totally stop this kind of sexual anarchy.

The White Tiger is a 320+ page English novel by Arvind Adiga which was given the 2008 Man Booker prize. He was given an award close to Rs. 4,000,000 for this novel. Going by the amount he pocketed, and the praises that I saw (a masterpiece, Compelling, Delightfully mordant wit, blazingly savage and brilliant), I remained under the impression that here is another one of those classic novels that are timeless.

I had been reading some dissenting voices here and there, but felt that these people might not have read the novel. Unfortunately, my illusion was shattered when my son presented me with a copy of this book. With great expectation I started reading it two days ago, and was able to complete it an hour ago. I must say that those whose dissenting voices I ignored are probably the only people who read this novel – other than the judges.

One of the allegations that keep surfacing about Man Booker and other non Indian literary awards (that many Indians have won) is that these awards are given for novels that present India as a shit hole, as a nation of illiterate people who have nothing except hunger, poverty and corruption in India. I feel that at least for this novel that allegation is totally true. I am now on the trail of the other “award winners” and would present my reflection upon them very soon.

White Tiger mentions many of the evils and corruption that one sees in India. However, the books fails to see anything that is good, and there lies the catch. Nor are these evils described to motivate the reader to change them. On the contrary, the reader is bound to think, oh that is the way India is and it is not going to change. It seems that is exactly what the European judges wish to read.

The prize was originally known as the Booker-McConnell Prize, after the company Booker-McConnell began sponsoring the event in 1968. It has undergone many changes since then, but one thing has remained unchanged: the price is given only to writers from the former British Empire, including those countries like India that were a Colony of the Empire.

Coming back to the novel: it is less of a novel in the traditional sense of the novel where you have a suspense that remains there till the climax. On the contrary, it is written more like an essay in a narrative format. Thus the only binding factor that I could think of, to retain readers till the end, is that this is a “Booker-prize” novel. I hope and wish that very soon such prizes would become a disqualification in our view, if they are written to cater to the taste of those European readers who would like to keep seeing India as a nation of slaves, now rendered a shit-hole because it is no longer a British Colony.

The book presents India in a very bad light, has no moral in the end, and almost all the reviews that you read praising it are false-talk. I suspect that all this review-publicity is either a business promotion strategy or  a you-scratch-my-back, I-scratch-your-back type of review. Not only that, young Indian readers who read this book are left with a very bad impression of their motherland. Evil is not projected as something that ought to be removed, but rather as something that is inherent in India, or even as the unchangeable spirit of India.

Such novels should not be encouraged. You should look with suspicion those people who endorse this kind of novels. They either do not understand what they read, or are so much given to despising India that they do not get the underlying message of the book.

कई दशाब्दियों से रेलगाडी यात्रा मेरे लिये जीवन का एक अभिन्न अंग बन चुका है. इन यात्राओं के दौरान कई खट्टेमीठे अनुभव हुए हैं, जिनमें मीठे अनुभव बहुत अधिक हैं. इसके साथ साथ कई विचित्र बाते देखने मिलती हैं जिनको देखकर अफसोस होता है कि लोग किस तरह से विरोधाभासों को पहचान नहीं पाते हैं.

उदाहरण के लिये निम्न प्रस्ताव को ले लीजिये: बी इंडियन, बाई इंडियन. यह प्रस्ताव अंग्रेजी में या हिन्दी में अकसर दिख जाता है. अब सवाल यह है कि इसे सीधे सीधे भारतीय अनुवाद में क्यों नहीं दे दिया जाता है. “हिन्दुस्तानी हो, हिन्दुस्तानी बनो” (जो इस अंग्रेजी वाक्य का भावार्थ  है)  हिन्दी में कहने में हमें तकलीफ क्यों होती है. हिन्दुस्तानियों को हिन्दुस्तानी बनाने के लिये एक विलायती भाषा की जरूरत क्यों पडती हैं?

दूसरी ओर, जब “बी इंडियन, बाई इंडियन” लिखा दिखता है तो कोफ्त होती है कि यह किसके लिये लिखा गया है? अंग्रेजीदां लोग तो इसे पढने से रहे क्योंकि उनकी नजर में तो हिन्दी केवल नौकरोंगुलामों की भाषा है. आम हिन्दीभाषी जब इसे पढता है तो उसके लिये इसका भावार्थ समझना आसान नहीं है. उसे लगता है कि यहां खरीदफरोख्त की बात (बाई Buy) हो रही है.

जरा अपने आसापास नजर डालें. कितने विरोधाभास हैं इस तरह के. कम से कम दोचार को सही करने की कोशिश करें!