Neha Kumari: As I knew her. A memoir.

When one comes to know that someone known to him/her has committed suicide, is it a must that he/she should get surprised?

I somehow was not when I got to know of Neha’s.

It was our second conversation within a span of twenty minutes, the first having failed due to weak signal. Having arrived in Patna just a couple of hours back, I was rushing to Sanjiv da’s place and had jumped in the first auto that I had found vacancy in. It was a bright, sunny, early November morning. The morning fog that had delayed my train by two hours had long been digested by the ever-hungry city.   

Rajeev picked up the phone after it rang for about half a minute.

“Are!! Neha Kumari ke bare mein pata chala kya?” – He asked.

“Nahi. Kya hua?”

“Suicide kar li. Mumbai mein.” – He replied.

After we talked about it in some detail, he asked me wasn’t I surprised at it, to which I replied I wasn’t.

Go to her FB page. Scroll past the customary RIP messages and hollow talks of staying together for ever, and there is she; screaming out loud at the top of her voice, giving a signal to the world that something terrible is probably about to happen.

Within a span of 10 days, from October 18^th to October 27^th, there are four posts from her that talk of death and/or suicide. Each one of them has attracted its fair share of likes, comments and lol(s). But none of us could sense the magnitude of the agony she must have had been in.

Call it Friendship! FB style!! Diluted! Distorted!! Dehumanized!!! 

LOL!!

My acquaintance with Neha was not of long past. Although we had been together in the ‘Appreciation of Indian Film Music’ open course at the University, we had never really interacted with each other till the end of the second semester. Or should I say till the beginning of the third? 

My IRCTC records show that I had boarded the 11^th of July Danapur-Howrah Express in Patna for Howrah, from where I was going to take another train to Bangalore. So, if my calculation and/or memory is not failing me, it must have been the morning of 9^th when I received two missed calls from an unknown number. Out of sheer practice, I chose to ignore it, deciding not to call back. After a couple of hours, the mobile beeped again. There was a message that read something like this – “Hi. This is Neha Kumari from APU Education. Call me ASAP.”

The Masters program that I am pursuing at the University has entered its last phase, but there are still people – quite a good number of them – who I still fail to recognize. Either I know their names or I recognize their faces, but certainly even now I am not able to correctly assign a name to each and every single face in the batch. Leave the larger batch aside; some people from even my first year class have of late started behaving strangely with me.  

I dialed the number, still trying to recollect the face whom I was making the call to.

Bihar elections were due in a few months. I am not sure if the dates of the same had yet been announced, but the state’s atmosphere had certainly started to thicken with the flavor of Janatantra ka Kumbha Mela. Nitish Kumar, the incumbent Chief Minister, in an attempt to showcase the achievements of his government (which to a great extent were also BJP’s achievements) had launched a competition for University students called Jigyasa, for which his government was inviting Research Proposals.

Neha wanted to participate in the same and, as it was a group submission and as the last date was closing fast, she needed to build a team quickly. It was in that context that she wanted to talk to me. I told her that I would be more than happy to be a part of her team, but at the same time warned her that I myself was unaware of not only the nitty-gritties of the competition, but the probable research topics themselves. She said she had all the required materials with her and that these were no issues at all.  

Thus I was on Neha’s Jigyasa bandwagon, still wondering how me and why me? After all, I was from Development and she from Education and we had almost never interacted with each other in the college.

We decided to meet in Café Coffee Day in Prakash Jha’s mall in Kurji on 10^th evening in order to sort out the materials that needed to be read and to finalize our probable group members. This plan, however, she cancelled at the last moment saying that since both of us are by chance boarding the same train to Howrah, we can as well do the reading in the train itself.

On the 11^th late evening, as the clock tower struck 9, we met at the Patna station, where it turned out that although both of us were no doubt travelling to Howrah, our trains were different. As she rushed towards the foot over-bridge to get to her train, she said that she had already mailed me the PDFs that needed to be read and that we would be meeting once we are in Bangalore. Not long after, my train crawled slowly onto the platform throwing the whole of it in a state of sudden pandemonium; its shrill, ear-piercing whistle drowning the competing, loudspeaker-empowered bhajans of Hanuman Mandir and azaans of Masjid just outside the junction. 

18^th of July, 2015 was Eid. Surprisingly, even Metropolis – the newly hired, intimidating and prison-like girls’ hostel – with huge, black iron rods as its boundary and a sinister-looking iron-staircase (that seemed to be directly borrowed from some United States prison) just in front – was in a festive mood. The girls had just been transferred from simply-too-good Noor Manzil and Aarusha and not-really-so-bad-either Basapura to this hell-of-a-place which, to add to the excitement, swayed – although (not to defame it too much) in a mild manner – whenever apparently a heavy lorry passed from the nearby expressway. It was as if to uplift the mood of the girls and to give them something to feel good about that the venue of Eid had been shifted entirely to Metropolis. By the time we met in the study hall located in the basement, the preparation for the evening extravaganza was in full swing.

Today was the last day of the submission. Besides me and Neha, there were Sujeet and Bimlesh – both of them from education – and Sameer – a passed-out senior who was conspicuous by his absence. This was for the first time that I was meeting our Jigyasa team, a team consisting entirely of Biharis and put-together single-handedly by Neha. I had no-prior experience of working with any of its members and hence I decided to simply flow with the current.

We started at around 11 in the morning and by 5 in the evening we were ready with our proposal. And through all this, we had taken out time for lunch, I had visited the nearby tea shop with Vasu(ndhara) and Neha had made a professor go through our proposal and recommend changes, if any, which needed to be made therein. By 6.30, our revised and edited proposal was successfully uploaded on the Jigyasa portal. As evening descended on it, and as stars began appearing in the sky one after another struggling against the Bangalore air pollution for their survival, even Metropolis started looking beautiful. Was it just the building that had grown beautiful with the slow, soft onslaught of darkness or was there more to it?

We were quite satisfied by the manner our document had shaped up in such a small duration of time and we cajoled Neha in giving us a small tea/coffee and biscuits treat at the nearby tea-shop. As she smoked a Gold Flake Lights and belched the smoke out of her lungs, she told of her prior work-experiences. Although I am now unable to recollect it distinctly what she had actually worked as earlier, it must have been something related to the media, for I remember her saying that she had either worked with or interviewed Jitan Ram Manjhi, the then Chief Minister of Bihar.

“When we are in a competition, we must try to win it and do everything needed for it, even if it involves pulling some extra-legal strings.” She said she knew someone sufficiently high up in the bureaucracy who can make sure that our paper gets cleared-up for the next stage and that she will ring-up the person today itself.

When the results came, however, we had not made it to the next round.

At the time we had approached her contact in Bihar, we were not aware that some other team from the University was submitting a proposal to Jigyasa as well and hence we had told him that only one team is participating from our University. This, as it turned out later, was not the case. A different team was selected by Jigyasa, it went to Bihar and even got itself clicked with Nitish Kumar. Whether it got selected because our communication with Bihar was not full-proof or on its own merit is something that we will never know for sure. This write-up, in any case, is not to suggest one way or the other.

The way Neha had put that team together, worked dedicatedly on the proposal, contacted the professor and requested him to go through the document at such a short notice; and the way she was determined to clear the first round, who could have thought that not even four months down the line, she would end up freeing herself from everything and everyone material in this universe?

Even after Jigyasa results were out, we had managed to keep in touch in an irregular manner. It was only later that I came to know that she was married and had a son studying in VII^th standard in the famous Doon School. That was the happier part. The sad part was that she was undergoing a painful divorce with her husband and was depressed over the same to the extent that she had to take sleeping pills in order to find her sleep in the night.

I remember she had tattoos at the back of her neck and on her wrists, her face was round and her eyes were black at their periphery. I thought she applied kajal to them as many Indian girls like to do in order to look prettier. However, I have my doubts now. Was that really kajal or had the cups of her eyes simply turned black due to frequent lack of peaceful sleep .. a precursor to the impending disaster that went unheard in the real world, just like its virtual-world counterparts that went unheard on FB .. those four posts in ten days?  

-------

(9^th of November, 2015. I take a look in my laptop. I find that I still have two folders named ‘Neha 1’ and ‘Neha 2’ in the Jigyasa-folder. The PDFs she had sent me to read and our final, submitted write-up are still lying therein.) 

Why Take All This Pain?

One doesn’t really need a place –

Calm, quiet and nice.

To contemplate

(And think over the meaninglessness of everything around.)

Even a metropolis city-bus-stop –

Would – in fact – for that purpose suffice.

In the hustle and bustle of the crowd.

Everybody is running around.

Where to, why and for whom –

Aren’t such questions left better untried? 

For isn’t life ultimately an exercise futile?

A journey that starts from shunya.

And –

Must one day end up in the same!

Why then keep on going in circles all along?

If there is nothing really beyond;

Why after-all take all this pain?

What after-all,

O fool!

You are looking for in this gutter?

Being restless –

By its impermanent, materialistic

And hollow glitter.

Let us suppose –

The day comes when you –

Back into the elements get disintegrate.

As it happen must!

Either go up in smoke.

Or –

Just get swallowed by the soil –

And get reduced to dust.

Let there be no illusion,

O dear!

For even then –

Nothing will really change

Over here. 

As it does today –

The world will still be running along.

May be a few days of ‘invented formalities’,

And then even from the memories –

You will be gone.

Weird indeed are the ways of this place.

For in the memory of the selfish race –

One does not really ultimately matter.

Whether he be you, me –

Or for that case,

Even giants like

Gandhi and Hitler.

क्यों लिखता हूँ हिंदी में?

सीधा सा जवाब है - भई हिंदी भाषी हिन्दुस्तानी हूँ इसीलिए. अगर पाकिस्तानी होता, तो अवश्य हिंदी में ना लिखकर उर्दू में लिख रहा होता. पर ईश्वर की असीम अनुकम्पा से वो तो मैं हूँ नहीं.

पर क्या जवाब वास्तव में इतना सीधा-सरल है? शायद नहीं. सीधा होता तब, जब यही सवाल किसी जापानी, फ्रेंच, जर्मन या चीनी से पूछा जाता कि भई आप अंग्रेजी में ना लिखकर जापानी, फ्रेंच, जर्मन या चीनी भाषा में क्यों लिखते हो?  पर हम हिन्दुस्तानियों के साथ मुझे नहीं लगता कि ऐसा है.

लोग हैं जो अक्सर यह पूछ बैठते हैं - "आप बिहारी हो?"

"हाँ. हूँ." - मैं जवाब देता हूँ. और यदि पूछने वाला राज ठाकरे जैसी मानसिकता का शिकार नहीं है तो अक्सर मुझे यह पता होता है कि अगला प्रश्न क्या होने जा रहा है. 

"फिर तो आप बिहारी जानते होंगे?" - अगला प्रश्न. पता नहीं क्यों काफ़ी लोगों को ऐसा लगता है कि "बिहारी" कोई भाषा भी है.

"जी नहीं, बिहारी तो मुझे नहीं आती. और बिहारी कोई भाषा है भी नहीं. हाँ, बिहार में बोलियाँ अवश्य कई सारी बोली जाती हैं जैसे की भोजपुरी, मैथिलि और बज्जिका. मैं बज्जिका-भाषी प्रदेश का रहने वाला हूँ, पर खेद इस बात का है कि मुझे बज्जिका भी नहीं आती." - मैं अपनी इज्जत को ताक पर रख देता हूँ. 

हाँ! यह शत-प्रतिशत सही है कि मुझे अपनी ही बोली नहीं आती. नानाजी नौकरी-पेशा थे और एक ट्रांसफरेबल जॉब में थे, शायद इसी वजह से माँ को कोई स्थानीय बोली नहीं आती थी. नतीजतन घर में हमेशा हिंदी का ही प्रयोग हुआ. कक्षा ४ से हॉस्टल में था इसलिए महनार आना जाना भी छोटी-छोटी छुट्टियों में ही हो पाता था. इसलिए बज्जिका भाषा से बदकिस्मती से अछूता ही रह गया. (यह बात अलग है कि विद्यालय में बंगाली की पढ़ाई होने के कारण बंगाली सिख गया. पर बंगाली को जानना बज्जिका को नहीं जानने का बहाना तो नहीं हो सकता ना?)

फिर दूसरा प्रहार तब हुआ जब विद्यालय से दशम वर्ग कि परीक्षा उत्तीर्ण की.  इससे पहले की भाँप पाता, हिंदी से भी धीरे-धीरे कब दूरी बढ़ती चली गयी पता ही नहीं चला. पहले तो वह कक्षा ११ और १२ के पाठ्यक्रम से गायब हुई, और फिर आहिस्ता-आहिस्ता अखबार तक अंग्रेजी हो गया. हद तो तब हो गयी जब यह पाया कि भई हिंदी सिनेमा में भी हिंदी की देवनागरी लिपि का नहीं बल्कि अंग्रेजी की रोमन लिपि का प्रयोग हो रहा है. बताइए, हिंदी को सशक्त करने का सबसे सटीक तरीका शायद हिंदी सिनेमा ही होगा, और हिंदी वहाँ से भी निकाल बाहर की गई. यह तो गनीमत है कि ऐसी स्थिति अभी तक अन्य भाषाओं की नहीं हुई है. और शुभ यह है कि आजकल कई हिंदी टी.वी. सिरिअल्स देवनागरी लिपि का प्रयोग करते दिख रहे हैं. 

यह सिर्फ हिंदी की नहीं, बल्कि कमोबेश इस देश की तमाम भाषाओं की वेदना है. देश इतना वृहद् और विभिन्नता भरा है कि इस देश को एकजुट रखने का और परस्पर एक दूसरे को समझने-समझाने का सारा श्रेय अकेली अंग्रेजी के झोले में चला जाता है. ऊपर से समूचे विश्व में शायद हम ही एकमात्र ऐसे देश हैं जहाँ सारी की सारी आर्थिक तरक्की एक मूलतः विदेशी भाषा के कन्धों पर टिकी है. मजाल है किसी की जो अंग्रेजी ना जानते हुए भी इस देश में एक अच्छा कार्पोरेट करिअर बना ले? जापान, फ्रांस, चीन या जर्मनी में तो ऐसा नहीं होता? और ये सारे के सारे राष्ट्र विश्व-भाषा अंग्रेजी को ना जानते हुए भी हमसे कहीं अधिक बड़ी आर्थिक ताकतें हैं. 

ज़िन्दगी जीने की दौड़ में लगे-लगे हिंदी कब व्यक्तिगत रूप से भी बस बोलचाल की भाषा बनकर रह गयी पता ही नहीं चला. स्कूल, कॉलेज की पुस्तकें अंग्रेजी में, हिंदी सिनेमा अंग्रेजी में, दुकानों के बोर्ड्स अंग्रेजी में. यहाँ तक की आजकल छोटे से छोटे होटलों के मेनू कार्ड्स भी अंग्रेजी में ही होते हैं. कभी-कभी तो ऐसा लगता है कि अंग्रेजी सही में हमारी ताकत है या केवल आज-तलक गुलाम-मानसिकता में जकड़े होने का प्रमाण. राजनैतिक नेताओं के तरीकों से मैं इत्तेफाक नहीं रखता, पर हाँ इतना अवश्य मुझे समझ में नहीं आता कि अंग्रेजी के साथ-साथ अपनी ही मातृभाषाओं को होटलों के मेनू कार्ड्स, दुकानों के बोर्ड्स या सिनेमा के पर्दों पर बराबर की जगह क्यों नहीं मिल सकती? 

एक बात है, अंग्रेजी चाहे कितनी भी महत्वपूर्ण क्यों ना हो जाए, रहेगी वह हमेशा व्यापार की भाषा ही. उसका सम्बन्ध हमेशा पेट से पहले होगा और दिल से बाद में. और रोज़मर्रा की ज़िन्दगी से हैरान-परेशान इंसान कितना भी अंग्रेजी में टाएँ-टाएँ क्यों ना कर ले, सुकून के, अपनत्व भरे दो पलों के लिए वह वापस अपनी मातृभाषा की तरफ ही मुखातिब होगा - फिर उसकी मातृभाषा चाहे हिंदी हो, मराठी हो, बंगाली, पंजाबी, कन्नड़, मलयालयम, मणिपुरी हो या उन १,६५२ भाषाओँ में से कोई हो जो इस देश में बोली जाती हैं, कोई फर्क नहीं पड़ता. विश्वास नहीं होता तो अपनी भाषा में लिखी कोई साहित्यिक किताब उठाकर देखिये कि वह किस प्रकार आपको मरुभूमि सरीखे ताप से भरे व्यापार जगत से दूर किसी ठंढे, शांत, सुरम्य प्रदेश में ले जा छोड़ती है. 

जब ब्लोगिंग शुरू की तो अंग्रेजी में की. हिंदी से दूरियाँ इस कदर बढ़ गयीं थी कि यह सोच पाना भी मुश्किल हो गया था कि कभी अपनी ही भाषा में कोई ढ़ंग का आर्टिकल लिख पाऊँगा. पर फिर एक कोशिश की तो पाया कि थोड़े से परिश्रम की आवश्यकता है - हिंदी लेखन को भुला नहीं हूँ, बस वह पीछे कहीं खो भर गया है. बस तभी से कोशिश यही है कि अपने हिंदी लेखन को और सशक्त किया जाए और अपने इस ब्लॉग को एक द्विभाषीय ब्लॉग का जामा पहनाया जाए. 

हिंदी में बस इसलिए नहीं लिखता कि एक हिंदी-भाषी हिन्दुस्तानी हूँ, बल्कि इसलिए कि हिंदी में लेखन पूजा है, प्रायश्चित है, साधना है, भक्ति है, इण्डिया बनने की होर में दूर कही पीछे छूटते भारत को पकड़े रहने की कोशिश है. हिंदी में इसलिए लिखता हूँ क्योंकि हिंदी में लेखन एक ज़रिया है खुद को ढूंढ़ निकालने का.

PS - विकिपीडिया के मुताबिक १९६१ में हुए सेन्सस में यह पाया गया था कि भारत में कुल १,६५२  मातृभाषाएं हैं. सम्बंधित आर्टिकल के लिए यहाँ क्लिक करें. 

The Power of Ideas.

It is still not long back that a MAN rose. Although he was born near the Western coast of the present day India, he found his purpose in life in a land on the opposite end of the Indian Ocean. It so happened that one fine day he was travelling in a first class railway compartment with a valid first class railway ticket. However, since he was a black and the compartment was apparently reserved only for the white masters, he was asked to move to the third class compartment. Strangely enough, he refused and had to be forcefully thrown out of the compartment.

The far-off land was South Africa. And the man was a young barrister by the name of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Now, incidents like this must have had been a daily affair all over the slave-world in the times when colonialism was the order of the day. Hundreds of people must have been thrown out of their compartments in a like-wise fashion. A few were men-enough to rise against the atrocity and claim their rightful place in the order of the humans. One of them was Mohandas.

The resources, if any, that he had to support himself and rely upon during his initial period of struggle were scanty. And the enemy that he was daring to stand up against was an empire so large that the sun never set completely on it. However, Mohandas had an idea that he wanted to implement, and he had so much faith in that idea of his that he was ready to work upon it, gradually evolve it and, if necessary lay down his life in order to prove it. The idea was Non-Violence and Satyagrah.

All that he had to say to his fellow countrymen was - "Speak truth. Be non-violent. Koi agar tumhe ek gaal pe thappar maare to dusara gaal aage kar do. Maar khao, itni adhik aur itni nirlajjata se maar khaao ki ek din maarne waala maarte-maarte thak jaaye aur wapas jahan se aaya tha wahin chala jaaye."

Weird, crazy and a laughable idea indeed. I wonder how he even dared to utter this idea in front of the public in general. Was he not afraid of being branded as a madman and being laughed at?

Whatever! The struggle began. The team started getting built up slowly. Over a period of time, the movement caught fire. The idea worked. And on 15th of August, 1947, a new star arose on the horizon. That star was India. Gandhi had achieved mostly what he had set out to achieve. He had made a land as unique as India all the more unique. While all the other nations were getting independence by violent means, we were the only one to get it mostly by a peaceful and non-violent method. And in the process, he himself had graduated from being just Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to Gandhi and then to Mahatma and Bapu. By the time the nation got independence, Mohandas was no longer important. It was Gandhi all over.

With the support and deadly determination of those who believed in them, it has always been IDEAS that have evolved the world. And the strange-most thing that seems to be with these world-changing ideas is that they always come in packages so simple that they, in most of the cases, if not all, tend to get overlooked. In their early stages, they are so weird and laughable to look at that it needs immense courage and belief on the part of those who believe in them to hold their ground. And this happens to be the case with all the walks of life – be it Science - where a few crazy scientists dared to go against the Church and said that it is the Earth that goes round the Sun and not the other way round and were in fact hanged till death for their courage to go against the institution that claimed to represent the God himself; or be it Business – where Muhammad Yunus comes from Bangladesh, believes earnestly that poor can be bankable, works on the idea and proves it to the world that the big multinational banking giants are in fact highly mistaken when they say that poor are not credit worthy.

Most of us must have had some crazy idea or the other at some stage in our life. And most of us decided to give that crazy idea a cold shoulder and either ignore it completely or leave it to be worked upon at some later stage in life. It is sad - the way the ideas get overlooked because of the lack of courage on the part of the humans. And it is important that they be worked upon. After all those who live in the memory of the human race long after they are gone are those who, against all odds, believed in their ideas and dared to implement it. The rest, once they die, get lost as if they never existed at all.

The history of the world is truly the history of a few men who had faith in their ideas.

 Believe in your IDEAS. In most of the cases, they are worth dying for.

अर्थ-आवर मनायें तो, पर ..

गत २७ मार्च को विश्व भर में अर्थ-आवर मनाया गया. WWF की अगुआई में सम्पन्न हुए इस कार्यक्रम का मुख्य उद्देश्य था तेज़ी से बढ़ती ग्लोबल वार्मिंग से परेशान मानवजाति के प्रति संवेदना व्यक्त करना और इस विकट परिस्थिति की तरफ लोगों का ध्यान आकर्षित करना. कार्यक्रम काफी हद तक सफल रहा. अगर WWF के वेब-पेज पर एक नज़र डालें तो पता चलता है कि विश्व भर के १२६ देशों ने अर्थ-आवर २०१० में बढ़चढ़ कर हिस्सा लिया. भारतीय समयानुसार शाम के साढ़े आठ बजे से लेकर साढ़े नौ बजे तक विश्व भर की कई सुप्रसिद्ध इमारतों ने अपनी-अपनी बत्तियां गुल कर दीं. २००७ में ऑस्ट्रेलिया से प्रारंभ होकर यह ऐसा चौथा लगातार वर्ष था, जब मानवजाति ने अप्राकृतिक कारणों के नतीजतन तेजी से बढ़ते तापमान से परेशान मानवता के प्रति सहानुभूति प्रदर्शित की.

अजीब है; नहीं? मानव निर्मित इस विपदा से परेशान है कौन? मानव. और सहानुभूति प्रदर्शित कर रहा है कौन? स्वयं मानव.

अर्थ-आवर कितना सफल था और कितना नहीं यह एक बहस का मुद्दा है. अगर कुछ अन्य आकड़ों पर ध्यान दें तो ज्ञात हो कि इस पूरे १ घंटे के दौरान जितनी बिजली की बचत हुई, उतनी बिजली चीन अकेले मात्र दो मिनटों की अल्पावधि में खर्च डालता है, और भारत इससे कुछ अधिक मिनटों में.

अगर ईमानदारी से हम अपने-अपने गिरेह्बानों में झाकें तो पायेंगे कि अर्थ-आवर जैसे वैश्विक स्तर के कार्यक्रमों की सफलता इस बात पर तो निर्भर करती ही है कि उसे कितने राष्ट्रों का सहयोग मिला, पर उससे भी कहीं अधिक इसपर निर्भर करती है कि उसमें कितने लोगों ने अपने-अपने निजी स्तरों पे भाग लिया. तो आईये, जरा पूछें अपने-आप से कि हमने इस कार्यक्रम में कितना योगदान किया और कितना नहीं.

जिस घंटे अर्थ-आवर मनाया जा रहा था, उस वक़्त मेरे घर की बत्तियां बुझी हुई थीं और पंखा बंद था. AC मैं इस्तेमाल करता नहीं, तो उसका सवाल ही नहीं उठता. हाँ, फ्रिज शायद चालु ही छुट गया होगा. पर यह सब ऐसा अर्थ-आवर के उपलक्ष्य में नहीं था, अपितु इसलिए था कि मैं उस वक़्त अपने घर के बाहर किसी निजी कार्य से निकला हुआ था. यदि घर पे होता तो शायद अर्थ-आवर में योगदान करने के बजाय टेलीविजन पर उससे सम्बंधित ताज़ातरीन खबरें देख रहा होता.

ये तो थी मेरी दास्ताँ. पर क्या आपने अर्थ-आवर में भाग लिया? शायद नहीं लिया होगा. अगर लिया होगा तो अति-उत्तम; यदि ना लिया हो तो भी कोई बहुत बड़ा नुकसान हुआ हो, ऐसी बात नहीं है. मगर हाँ, यदि आप अपनी रोजमर्रा की ज़िन्दगी में एहतियात नहीं बरतते हैं, तो यह अवश्य एक गहन चिंता का विषय है.

ऐसा आखिरकार क्यों है कि हम अर्थ-आवर और ग्लोबल-वार्मिंग की बातें तो बढ़चढ़ कर करते हैं, अखबारों और अन्य पत्रिकाओं में लेख भी जमकर लिखते हैं, मगर जब दिन-प्रतिदिन के आचरण की बात आती है, तो खुद को अत्यंत ही ढीला-ढाला पाते हैं?

फ़र्ज़ कीजिये कि आप घर से बाहर कुछ खरीददारी करने निकलते हैं. ऐसा कितनी बार हुआ है कि आपने अपना कपड़े का झोला साथ में लिया हो? नहीं लेते हैं. हममें से शायद मुट्ठी भर लोग हीं इस नियम का पालन करते होंगे. या फिर यह कि अगर एक कमरे में बैठें हों तो यह सुनिश्चित कर लें कि अन्य कमरों में विद्युत् से चलने वाला कोई यन्त्र अन्यथा ही ना चल रहा हो?

मुंबई में जिस दिन नो होंकिंग डे मनाया गया और इसकी अवहेलना करने वालों को फाइन की चपत लगाईं गयी, उस दिन पुरे शहर में बेवजह बजने वाले हार्नों की मात्रा में आश्चर्यजनक रूप से गिरावट दर्ज की गयी. मगर अगले दिन से वही ढ़ाक के तीन पात. किसी भी लाल-बत्ती पे खड़े हो जाइए, लोग ना तो - अगणित सरकारी, गैर सरकारी विज्ञापनों के बावजूद - अपनी गाड़ियों का इंजन ही बंद करते हैं, और ना ही बेवजह होर्न बजाने से ही बाज आते हैं. अरे भाई, अगर जगह मिलेगी तो आगे वाला आगे बढ़ेगा हीं. जहाँ का तहाँ खड़ा तो रहेगा नहीं. इतनी सी बात भी हमारी समझ में नहीं आती है शायद. या फिर यदि आती है, तो कहीं ऐसा तो नहीं कि हमारी संवेदनात्मक इन्द्रियाँ हीं निष्काम हो गयी हों? 

ऐसे में हम अर्थ-आवर मनायें या ना मनायें, कोई फर्क नहीं पड़ता. जब संवेदनशीलता ही शिथिल या निष्काम हो, तो आखिर कोई संवेदना व्यक्त करे भी तो कैसे? मगर यदि ना करें तो उसमें भी नुकसान तो भाई हमारा, आपका या हमारी अजन्मी संततियों का ही है, किसी और का तो है नहीं. 

चलिए, मान लिया कि भारत ने अभी-अभी चन्द्रमा पर पानी की उपस्थिति की खोज की है. और इस तथ्य पर विश्व के सर्वाधिक शक्तिशाली देश अमेरिका की अंतरिक्ष अन्वेषण संस्था नासा का ठप्पा भी लग गया है. अनुमान लगाया जा रहा है कि इस सुखद खोज से चाँद पर इंसानों को बसाने का सपना हकीकत के और करीब आ गया है. कहीं ऐसा तो नहीं कि आप निकट भविष्य में चाँद पर निकल भागने का सपना दिल में संजोये बैठे हैं, और इसीलिए धरती की तकलीफों के प्रति सर्वथा उदासीन हैं? 

अगर ऐसा है, तो भई खुदा ही ख़ैर करे. मैं ये नहीं कहता कि भविष्य में इंसान चाँद पर डेरा जमाये नहीं बैठा होगा. अब तो विज्ञान ने इतनी तरक्की कर ली है कि कुछ भी असंभव प्रतीत नहीं होता. मगर गौर फ़रमाने वाली बात ये है कि यदि आदमी चाँद पर बस भी जाए, तो भी हम और आप वहाँ तक कभी पहुँच भी पायेंगे क्या? आपकी सोच इस विषय में क्या है, मुझे नहीं पता; पर जहां तक मेरा सवाल है, मुझे तो ऐसा कतई नहीं लगता. और लगे भी तो कैसे? भई साहब, हम और आप तो एक ऐसे तबके से आते हैं, जो पेट्रोल-डीजल या रेलगाड़ी के टिकट में ५० पैसे, १ या २ रुपये वाली की गई सर्वथा जायज वृद्धि को ही झेलने का गुर्दा नहीं रखते, और देखते-ना-देखते देश भर में चक्का जाम और हड़तालें कर डालते हैं. चाँद पर बसने के लिए अरबों रुपये की धनराशी लायें भी तो कहाँ से लायें? 

तो भई, अगर हम थोड़ा सोचे-विचारें तो पता चले कि इस अनंत ब्रह्माण्ड में अगर हमारा कोई सामूहिक ठिकाना है तो वह हमारी पृथ्वी ही है. धरती है, तो हम हैं. धरती है, तो एक दिन चाँद पर घर बसाने का सपना है. धरती है, तो अनंत अंतरिक्ष के भीतर और इसकी सीमाओं के दूसरी ओर के रहस्यों का एक दिन पर्दाफाश करने का जज्बा है. धरती नहीं, तो कुछ भी नहीं. और भई, इस धरती को तो विश्व की अनेकानेक सभ्यताओं में माता की संज्ञा दी गयी है; माता जो हमें पालती है, पोसती है, जरूरत और ऐशो-आराम की हर वह चीज मुहैय्या कराती है जिसकी ज़िन्दगी को जरुरत होती है. और एक हम हैं, जो उस माता का शोषण करते बाज नहीं आते. क्या हमने अपनी सारी शर्मो-हया की वास्तव में तिलांजलि दे दी है? 

तो निष्कर्ष यह है कि अर्थ-आवर या नो होंकिंग डे इत्यादि मनाने या ना मनाने में कोई बुराई नहीं है. गलत तो तब है जब हम अपनी रोज़मर्रा कि आदतों से लाचार हो अपनी छोटी-छोटी जिम्मेदारियों को ताक पर रख देते हैं और स्वांग ऐसा करते हैं जैसे हमें कुछ ज्ञात ही ना हो. कितना सुखद होगा वह दिन जब मानवता शायद सोते से जागेगी और वसुंधरा के प्रति एक भावपूर्ण रिश्ते की नींव रखेगी! 

आखिरकार अर्थ-आवर मनाने का मुख्य उद्देश्य भी तो यही है.

धरती चाँद से - मनायें अर्थ-आवर. ज़िन्दगी भर.

It should have had been the first post ..

Although highly irregular, this Blog came into existence way back on 21st of June, 2008. It has been 6 long months since then, and I thought an introduction to it and why I chose to call it what I call it was necessary. And hence here is the article which should ideally have been the first article to be posted here. But then, you never heard anyone saying that things need to happen in a fixed order, did you?

***

I am neither (completely) here nor (completely) there.

While I am a Bihari present physically (for the time being at least) in Maharashtra, I am also present back home in Bihar, at least mentally.

While I write this blog on a computer (and am increasing growing uncomfortable at writing with my pen on a piece of paper), I still read newspapers and story books and novels in the paper edition (and am really uncomfortable at reading these on the electronic version). So, while I belong to a great extent to the 21st century, I cannot let go of the things that date a couple of centuries back.

While I am educated in India, given a chance (and a good standard of living) I would love moving back to Bharat and use my Indian education for Her betterment.

So, I do not exist at one single location or in one single time frame at any given time. I am always partly here and partly there. I am omnipresent.

For this situation, we have a saying in Hindi – Dhobi ka kutta na ghar ka na ghat ka – meaning a washer man’s dog belongs neither to the banks (of a river or any other water body, where 21st century India still washes a great majority of Her clothes) nor to the (washer man’s) house. My situation being very much like this, I become a dog, a washer man’s dog. And since, I still get to retain my thinking faculties; I call this blog - ‘Blog: Of a Thinking Dog.’

***

Having said that, I must admit that I am not a writer or anything of that sort. Neither all my views here may be correct (as per you) always, but then this is how I think and what I think. So, I hope that despite all our disagreements, you will read this space and keep coming back. So ..

Welcome. To the Blog: Of a Thinking Dog.

Welcome. To my Blog.

Making Earth a Better Place.

I came to know about Better Place through an article in today’s The Indian Express. When the price of crude had reached an all time high of more than $100 per barrel a few months back, I got interested in alternative technologies that are going to power our transportation in the times to come.

So, when I came across this The Indian Express article titled “We don’t need Detroit” by Thomas L. Friedman, I read it at once. In the article, Friedman argues how the recent attempts of the US Government to bail out the American automobile giants from bankruptcy might be a case of ‘pouring billions of dollars into improving typewriters on the eve of the birth of the PC.’ He points out towards Better Place, an Israeli start up, trying to create a transportation service model based on electric vehicles and robust enough to free the human kind of its dependency on oil.

The world is afraid both of its energy security (due to the fast depleting fossil fuel reserves) and worsening climatic conditions; and the transportation industry being one of the biggest culprits, the most workable solution is to shift to the vehicles powered by electricity (preferably generated from renewable resources like wind and sun, to which Better Place claims to be committed). While the vehicles and high power lithium based batteries already exist, it is the infrastructure required to support such transportation on a large scale that is lacking. So, while a person willing to reduce his carbon footprints may switch over to electric vehicles, he continues to depend on the conventional transportation, as his vehicle has a limited electricity storage capacity that cannot last after a certain distance, thus reducing his mobility.

It is here that Better Place comes into picture. Its business model is simple. In fact it already exists, but in a different sector - in the sector of mobile phones. The mission of Better Place is to modify and apply this business model in the field of transportation. It envisions a system where electric cars replace mobile phones, battery recharge stations replace cell towers and electric recharge grid replaces cellular networks. While in the mobile phone system, the consumer pays for the minute-by-minute access to cell towers connected together in cellular networks, in the Better Place model, he pays for miles.

There are basically two important ingredients in this business model –
i) Charging Spots, and
ii) Battery Exchange Stations.

Charging Spots:

Located all over the places such as parking garages, retail spaces, street curbs and the homes, these will keep the batteries topped off. All the vehicles in the BP network will have the same kinds of plug points. Vehicles that do not belong to the network will be allowed to charge themselves as guests with the help of suitable converters.

Battery Exchange Stations:

These are the replacements of Gas Stations (or Petrol Pumps) in the BP model. An electric vehicle will go to these Stations and exchange its exhausted battery with a fully recharged one and pay for the same, the driver all the while sitting comfortably in his driving seat. The company claims that the time needed for doing all this will be a flat 3 minutes.

The model obviously is not only good for the nations, who eventually free themselves from their dependency on oil (a large chunk of which comes from Middle East) and for the vehicle owners (as electric vehicles cost much less per mile than those run on fossil fuels), but also for the development of the non-renewable energy sector - Better Place envisions that all the vehicles under its fold will run on electricity generated from renewable resources and as the model expands in its reach, it will open up a vast market for the renewable energy, thus persuading the sector to find out more innovative and cheaper methods to produce the same.

International Collaborations:

Israel has fixed the year 2020 to free its economy of its dependency on oil, thus becoming the first country all over the world to set up such a target. While Israel and Denmark have become the first two country partners for Better Place, Australia, California and Hawaii (as Better Place site mentions) are also committed to deploy electric car networks. Moreover, very recently Japan also invited Better Place to build Battery Exchange Stations in the country and to participate in a government pilot project to encourage the use of green cars, thus making it the only foreign company invited to participate in the project in which major Japanese automobile giants are going to participate.

What India should do?:

India can also reach out to Better Place and ask it to start a similar pilot project here. We have a well developed electric vehicle segment that comprises not only four wheelers but also two wheelers. While the home grown Reva is the highest selling electric car all over the world (performing far better in European nations than in India due to the lack of adequate infrastructure and incentives here), even groups such as Ajanta (surprised?), one of India’s leading manufacturers of compact fluorescent lamps and vitrified tiles, besides large players such as Tatas, are also going to enter this segment not very far in the future. Moreover, India does need to get rid of its oil dependency not only because importing crude creates a huge hole in its foreign exchange (most of which comes from highly volatile and unreliable Middle East), but also because some of our cities are some of the most polluted the world over. Besides, why should we not tap aggressively into our highly abundant solar energy resources (Remember, we are a hot country with a great amount of sunshine) and wind power (of which we are one of largest producers the world over)?

Human race, it seems (if one believes the still highly debated scientific reports), has very less time left to battle the ever worsening climatic situations. There is not much time to experiment, but to start putting up all the available resources and working towards making our planet a more livable and Better Place. Initiatives like Better Place can help us tide over a lot of problems that are our own creations, given they get proper support and start operating profitably as soon as possible.

P.S. –

A. Jews and Israelis are no doubt one of the most brilliant races and have contributed a lot towards the development of Sciences and Human Knowledge. What is truly refreshing about this Indian Express article is that it appears at a time when India is still trying to chart out ways to deal with the new age terrors and the newspapers are still covered with news regarding the Mumbai Attack, in which Jews were specifically targeted.

B. The article also points to the fact that Israel is a country in the pursuit of Science and Scientific solutions to the problems of the human race, something which the rest of the Middle East seems to have completely abandoned. It may be one of the main reasons why Israel may succeed despite being in a perpetual state of war with its immediate neighbours.

Suggested Readings:

The Long Tailpipe – Blog of Shai Agassi (Founder and CEO, Better Place)

While Detroit Slept – This is the article published in The Indian Express (and published earlier in The New York Times). Since I could find it on The Indian Express website, I am providing the link of The New York Times.

Some Indian electric vehicle companies:

Reva
Ajanta Manufacturing Limited
Electrotherm

Have FIRE in the BELLY? Go! DARE!!

I came across a very good magazine a few days back. Itself a start up, it deals with the issue of entrepreneurship. The magazine is aptly named DARE, with 'R' in color Red, which interestingly refers to fire, Red in color, which burns in the belly of the entrepreneur.

A visit to their website (which is still dysfunctional, except the home page) proclaims out rather loudly “NOT SUITABLE FOR THOSE WHO LIKE TO PLAY SAFE.” Rightly so, being an entrepreneur is a very risky thing, and although there is very different kind of excitement in creating something new, from the scratch, not many people risk to trade in this rather rarely traveled path.

However, I feel that the magazine is very rightly timed, and if you follow it over a period of few months, you come to know that it has already established its following, which continues to grow with each new issue of it.

With the opening up of the economy the urge to take risks has increased manifold, and there are Indians today who are not content with their nine to five job, and would love to soil their hands and make something new from the scratch. There are many who have brilliant ideas with huge potentials, but are not that well known as of now. And we find them going solo in fields as diverse as pharmaceuticals, auto parts, solar energy (SELCO is a rather new and innovative player in this field), microfinance and automobile services. So while suddenly there was this news a few days back of a rather unknown Maneesh Pharma acquiring 51% stake in US-based Synovics Pharmaceuticals for an undisclosed amount, the facts that close to 97% of the parts used in Nano have been made by Indian firms is not a secret anymore.

However, while there are opportunities all around for anyone who is innovative and original, there are problems aplenty as well. Starting from the unchartered territory of large number of confusing and probably unwanted laws, there are problems of procuring funds in order to grow one’s business and make it profitable as well. Besides, initial years can be very disappointing and lonely, and it is at such times that one would find the need to communicate with people who are either on the same path as themselves or have been through the same already.

DARE, I find, is a magazine handmade for these very circumstances. Not only does it provide highly needed exposure to start-ups, it also comes up every month with report about exiting opportunities in fields as diverse as waste management and urban mass transportation. Moreover, it provides information as to how and where to look for venture capitalists and angel investors who may be interested in investing in one’s business, apart from dedicating two sections “FEEDBACK” and "EXPRESSION" which act as platforms for readers to interact and share their problems and knowledge with each other.

Although employed as of now, I myself cherish ambitions of starting my own business a few years down the line. No doubt, I have become a regular reader of DARE myself, and recommend it sincerely to those who have that hot, red Fire burning in their belly.