Deflection (Story)

From dawn to dusk, Raj had not eaten a morsel of food. In the morning, he had stood in front of the hut, he knew as his home, where he lived with his father and mother, Bhajan and Bala. It was a small hut at the end of the village, that his father, a farmhand had made on the piece of land that remained with him after the landlord had confiscated their farms for not repaying his debt on time.
To Raj, the hut was his birthplace, where he had spent his childhood working in the landlord’s crop fields with his parents. When he was five years old, his mother, Bala had taken him to the village school, where the village schoolmaster had made him sit with the rest of the children from the village and made them recite the alphabets and numbers. One day, he caught Raj playing with his desk-mate instead of doing the maths exercise. He severely thrashed Raj and his classmate with a cane and that was Raj’s last day in school. He made it very clear to his parents that he would work with them in the fields, but not go to school to be beaten up by the teacher.

On his fifteenth birthday this year, his father told him to go and work in the merchant’s house, so that he could have enough money to buy medicines for his ailing mother, who was suffering from tuberculosis and could not work in the fields. Raj began working in the shop of the village merchant and very soon, he learned how to run the shop and the merchant only used to attend to the money transactions of his business and the rest, he had Raj to take care of. One day, the merchant gave all the day’s earnings to Raj and asked him to count it and keep it in the safe in the back of the shop. Raj After safely keeping all the money in the safe Raj handed over the safe keys to the merchant and returned home.

In the morning, when he reached the merchant’s shop, after having served his parents the morning breakfast, he found all the villagers crowding in front of the shop and the merchant speaking to a policeman. On seeing Raj, the merchant pointed towards him and yelled, Inspector Sahib, this boy is the thief! Yesterday, I had given him the money to keep in the safe! When I opened the safe this morning, I found the money was gone! Catch him and punish him for he has stolen my money! Raj was dumbfounded and he yelled his innocence only to find the policemen handcuff him and shove him in the police van ordering him to explain himself at the police station. No one, not even his parents believed him that he was innocent and was sent to the Remand Home for two years.

The two years were like hell for Raj. The anger and resentment simmering in him triggered him to indulge in all the vices along with most of the inmates of the Home. The inmates bullied and oppressed him. They would force him to smuggle drugs and liquor into the Home. He began gambling and even participated in group squabbles and fights.

This morning, he was released from the Remand Home and he had headed straight for the hut at the end of the village, he knew as his home. He knocked at the bamboo door. Bhajan, his father opened the door. He looked sick, frail and much older than his age. He coughed incessantly, which shook his frail body and spat blood. Bhajan looked at Raj with his wrinkled face quivering with sorrow and anger. He yelled at Raj, ‘Go away! you have killed your mother! She could not bear the shock and died within a year of your going to jail and I am as good as a living dead! My days are numbered too! There is nothing left here for you! Go away! My son died two years ago! I don’t know who you are! Go away! You don’t belong here anymore! Bhajan slammed the door on Raj’s face.

Raj had nowhere to go he wandered around aimlessly in the village, where the people recognized him and yelled at him, ‘Raj the thief is back! So, be careful!’ Raj recoiled with fear of a backlash from the villagers and hurried towards the ruins of an old temple.

The din from the village that was fast approaching the old temple and woke Raj up, who had dozed off under a tree in front of the temple. He looked up towards the dusky sky. Since dawn to dusk, he had not eaten a morsel of food. He could feel the pangs of hunger that made him dizzy too. The noise had now reached the temple. Raj looked towards the dusty track that led from the village to the temple and found a crowd chasing a frail and bedraggled old man, who was limping as fast as he could to save himself from the crowd’s fury.   As the old man and his pursuers reached the temple, Raj saw the old man’s frail body was quivering with fear. His body was battered and wounded by the stones the crowd was pelting at him. He was trying to save himself from the battery of stones while he was trying his best to limp as fast as he could to save himself from the angry mob. Raj heard the mob scream, ‘Kill this devil! He does black magic! He has killed our cattle and children! He has looted our homes! He should die! Kill him!’

Raj, looked closely at the mob and found the merchant, Raghav, the headman’s son, who used to make money from the farmhands for giving them work on his farm; Tarak, the gambler, who would take money from the village boys and let them gamble in his cowshed; Ghanshu, landlord’s muscleman, who used to beat up the villagers when they failed to repay their debt to the landlord; Jangubhai, who ran a liquor shop and also sold drugs to the village youth on the sly. He was the village money lender’s son too. They were followed by the young men who were not only their bonded laborers but also indebted to them for the unhindered supply of drugs, country liquor and a haven for gambling. All this helped them to escape from the miseries and harsh realities of their life.

 Raj once again looked at the frail figure of the victim of the mob's anger and recognized him. He was Natthu an old farmhand and his father’s friend, who often used to get medicine for his mother from the village medicine man. Natthu reminded him of his father and his father’s angry face appeared in front of his eyes and it merged with Natthu’s terrified face. He suddenly jumped up on his feet and began screaming with the mob and picked up a stone lying on the ground and vengefully hurled it at the old man. Natthu lay motionless on the ground.  Screeching sirens of the police vehicles could be heard from a distance.

Image Source: Google Images

What is Love?

DEDICATED TO THE CHILDREN LIVING IN THE WAR TORN REGIONS OF THE WORLD...

“Ravi, you rascal, look what you have done! You have broken my remote control car! I am going to kill you! You rogue!” Raj picked up the broken car from the floor and yelled at his younger brother Ravi and rushed into their room to beat Ravi up for his wrongdoing. Ravi rushed out of the room with Raj in hot pursuit yelling at Ravi and asking him to stop. Ravi rushed into the kitchen, where their mother Vidya was busy preparing dinner for the family. Ravi rushed to her and hid behind her bringing Raj rushing after him to a sudden halt. Ravi, the nine-year-old younger son of Vidya, now in safe haven hiding behind his mother, yelled back at Raj, his brother and ten-year-old elder son of Vidya; ‘Bhaiya, you never let me play with you and your toys! I was just looking at the car and it fell from my hand broke, I didn’t do it on purpose!” Ravi was seething with anger and retaliated by pointing an accusing finger at Ravi and complaining to their mother Vidya, “Maa, look Ravi did it again. I had kept my birthday gift, the remote control car in my cupboard. He took it out and purposely broke it and left it on the living room’s floor! He is always breaking my toys and messing up with my things!” Vidya shifted her attention from her work to her two squabbling children and replied to Raj, “Raj, Ravi is your kid brother, can’t you take care of him and be more tolerant with him? Why both of you are quarreling with each other all the time?” Raj, in his fit of anger, yelled. “Maa, you always take Ravi’s side and scold me instead of scolding him for his pranks! I am not going to leave him today! I am going to hit him for what he has done today!” and rushed towards Ravi who was cowering behind Vidya. Vidya immediately intervened and dragged both her squabbling sons to the living room and pushed them into the sofa and yelled “Enough! Can’t the two of you stop fighting with each other? I am tired of your fights and complaints. I will not speak to both of you anymore and will ask your father to admit both of you in a residential school first thing tomorrow morning and we will never visit the two of you there, nor will we bring you home for vacations! Do you understand!” after making the hash judgemental announcement she rushed back to the kitchen.

At night, after dinner, when everyone had retired to their rooms, Ravi and Raj lay sleepless in their bed and they heard their parents in the adjacent room discuss their admission in the residential school which was in the neighbouring town. Raghav, their father said that in the morning after breakfast, he would take both the boys to the school for admission. Both Ravi and Raj were shocked to overhear their parents’ conversation and could not sleep the whole night. Raj could hear his younger brother sob in his bed. This made tears well in his eyes as he recalled what their mother had told them. They would be sent to the school never to come back home.

In the morning, Raghav and Vidya went to their children’s’ room to find them wide awake in their bed. On seeing their parents, Raj and Ravi rushed to them crying out, “Maa and Papa please don’t send us to the school. We don’t want to stay there! We want to stay with you! We will do whatever you ask us to do! Please Maa! Please, Papa!” Both the children clung to their parents and sobbed bitterly. Raghav and Vidya looked at each other and sat down on the bed while holding their sons in front of them. They wiped the tears from their face and Raghav said, “Look, children, even your mother and I will not be happy to send you away from home, but we are sad to see both of not love each other and constantly fight with each other. So, the only solution we can think of is to send you to school.” On hearing this Raj clung to his father and said, ‘Papa, I will do whatever you will tell me to do, please don’t send me away from home! Please!”  Vidya drew both her children close to her and said, “Children, all that we want is, you both love and take care of one another. You can stay at home with us on one condition, both of you will love each other. Raj will treat Ravi’s happiness and success as his own and so will Ravi, you will treat Raj’s happiness and success as your own. If we ever find you fighting with one another, your father and I will immediately send you to the residential school. I hope I am clear to both of you?” Vidya looked straight into her children’s eyes as if searching for their answer. Raj and Ravi looked at each other and said, “Maa, we promise, we will do what you have asked us to do. We will never fight with each other again!”

The following day was Thursday when Raj and Ravi used to bring their weekly school report home and constantly fight with each other on their performance. Vidya waited anxiously for her children’s return from school as she wanted to see how they would behave with each other. The doorbell rang and she opened the door for rather silent and somber-looking Raj and equally silent but happy Ravi enter the room. Before she could speak to them, Raj handed his weekly report to Vidya and said, “I have got fewer marks than Ravi, I hope he is happy.” He removed his bag from his shoulders and rushed to his room. Vidya was quite amazed to see her younger son Ravi, rush behind his elder brother screaming, “Bhaiya, how can I be happy when you are sad!” 

पुष्प का भोलापन

पुष्प का भोलापन

नन्ही काली थी मै 

लम्हा लम्हा 

मेरी यह  पंखुड़ियां 

सूर्य की किरणों में 

नारंगी से हुई 

प्रातःकाल के आकाश सी 

लालिमा भरी। 

हवा  के मंद झोकों में  

हिलोरे भर्ती माँ की टहनियों के पालने से 

देखा एक व्यक्ति को अपने पुत्र के साथ 

मेरी माँ के सामने  खड़े हुए. .

मेरी ओर संकेत कर उसने अपने  बेटे से कहा 

इस पुष्प को "हुकर'स लिप्स" कहते हैं बेटा । 

 निहारते हुए बालक ने पूछा -

हुकर क्या होता है बाबा?

व्यक्ति ने मुस्कुराते हुए कहा:

जो व्यक्ति पैसे के एवज में 

औरों की शारीरिक वासन की पूर्ती करे। 

बालक ने मुझे देख मुस्कुराकर कहा :

परन्तु बाबा, मॉ भी अपने होठों को 

इसी तरह रंगकर है मुस्कुराती !

बेटे के उत्तर से खीजकर व्यक्ति ने 

बालक का हाथ पकड़ा 

और द्रुत गति से खेत की ओर बढ़ चला। 

मैंने उन दो आकृतियों को 

शनै शनै सूक्ष्म बिंदु हो 

क्षितिज में लीन  होते देखा। 

मेरे हृदय की टीस  को भांपकर 

माँ की कोमल उँगलियों (पत्तों ) ने मेरा स्पर्श किया 

और प्यार से कहा -

तुम मेरी द्युतिमान संतान हो। 

तुम्हारे   मुस्कुराते आधर  रुपी आकार 

चिंतित माथे पर शान्तिदायिनी चुम्बन के है समान। 

जो भी तुम्हे है निहारता 

उसपर झलकती है तुम्हारी दीप्तिमान मुस्कान।

तुम हो संतान  प्रकृति की ,

 तुम  हो  अधर  माँ प्रकृति की। 

हुकर'स लिप्स पुष्प के विषय में और जानकारी के लिए : 

http://www.odditycentral.com/travel/hookers-lips-the-worlds-most-kissable-plant.html

 यह कविता उन सबको समर्पित है जो दुनिया की सबसे पुरानी और विषम पेशे: वेश्यावृत्ति  में धकेल दिए गए हैं। उनकी सामाजिक अवहेलना होती है।  उनको भी एक सम्मानित नागरिक की तरह जीने  अधिकार है और मिलना चाहिए। हर नागरिक की तरह उन्हें भी सम्मानित जीवन जीने के लिए शिक्षा अपनी प्रतिभा को पहचानकर, अपने हुनर के विकास का अवसर सुलभ होना चाहिए ताकि उन्हें वह अपने आमदनी का जरिया बनाकर आत्म सम्मान साथ जी सकेँ। 

Flower's Innocence

A tiny bud was I

Gradually unfurled

My petals sparkling green,

Basking in the sunshine

That deepened my hue from orange

To vivid red like the sky at sunrise.

While my mother's cradle

Swayed by the gentle breeze

I saw a man stand with his child

By my mother plant in the green field..

He pointed towards me

And told his kid:

'Son, this is the flower called 'Hooker's Lips''

The boy gazed at me-

And asked his father:

'What is a 'Hooker' Daddy?'

The man laughed aloud while pointing at me

And said, Hooker is a man or a woman of easy virtue

Who assuage the physical lust of humans for money

The child continued gazing at me 

And spoke to his father with a smile:

'Daddy, doesn't the flower look like Momma's lips

When she paints them red and smiles with glee?'

The man looked annoyed, tugged at his son's arm

 and walked away in a hurry towards his farm.

I gazed at the two receding figures

Gradually diminish into two dots

And merge into the horizon.

Sensing my displeasure by the human thought

My mother's green fingers (leaves) gently touched me.

In an assuring voice said she:

'You are bright child, my flower

With a smile like a sunshine

Shaped like lips that kiss the

Frown from a worried forehead.

Your bright smile reflects 

On the lips of the beholder.

You are a gift my child,

You are Mother Nature's lips!

For more information on the flower Hooker's Lips refer to: 

http://www.odditycentral.com/travel/hookers-lips-the-worlds-most-kissable-plant.html

This poem is dedicated to those who are forced into the oldest profession of prostitution and a social stigma is attached to them. They have the right to live a life of dignity as respectable citizens. Identify their potential, their talent and with the fundamental right to education and vocational skill development, live a life with dignity, integrity like any other citizen of a country.

INSIGHT

For the last three years, the rain gods had failed the villagers of Kishtipur, who solely relied on rains for their livelihood, farming. Many of them, including Raghav, went to the nearby city in search of job so that they could sustain themselves and their families, who remained in the village.

Raghav reached the city and visited the workshop where Ravi, his neighbor from Kishtipur, had taken up job as a fitter. Ravi greeted Raghav and told him that he had spoken to Viren, the person in-charge of the workshop, about Raghav, and that, Viren had asked Raghav to join work from the following day. Then, Ravi took Raghav to the shack, where he used to live.

In the morning, Raghav woke up very early, eager to go to the new workplace and join work. When he reached the workshop with Ravi, he was greeted by a stern looking middle-aged man, whom Ravi introduced to Raghav as Viren, the work-shop In-charge. Viren gazed intently at Raghav, trying to figure out his efficiency to work in the work-shop and broke the tense silence by asking Raghav, ‘you will have to help me in blacksmith section with the bellows. Hope you will do the job well? Follow me, I will show you the section.’ Raghav felt a little uneasy by the way Viren had tried to gauge him and lead him to the section.  He tried to diffuse his uneasy feeling by mindfully learning the job he had to do.

As the days went by, Raghav tried his level best to efficiently work on the bellows in the blacksmith section, but Viren always used to find fault in his work and yell his dissatisfaction at him. Raghav tried all ways and means to improve on his work, but Viren seemed to derive some sadistic pleasure by being an abusive boss to Raghav. Raghav also observed that Viren was abusive to him after his interaction with the owner of the workshop. Raghav’s colleagues, including Ravi, used to tactfully make up with Viren, after any such abusive altercations with him; but Raghav could not overcome his fear to approach Viren in order to address the complain, instead, Raghav would passively allow Viren to abuse him, especially after, Viren himself would have been abused by the workshop owner. Raghav’s helplessness in resolving his problem with Viren always made him angry with himself.  The fear of losing the job prevented him to do so.

One evening, while Ravi and Raghav were returning to their shack from work, a sick and wretched mongrel followed them home and Ravi offered a portion of his food to him. The following morning, when Ravi and Raghav were leaving their house for work, they found the mongrel had taken shelter under the steps leading to the entrance of the shack. They shared their breakfast with him and left for their work. In the evening, when they returned home from work, they were greeted by the mongrel, anxiously waiting for them in front of the shack. The two friends easily accepted the mongrel as part of their household by sharing their food with him and allowing him to sleep under the steps.

With the passage of time, Viren’s atrocities on Raghav, on the grounds of his being an inefficient worker continued to increase and often, when Raghav used to return home as a victim of Viren’s abusive behaviour at work, and his inability to reason out with Viren the cause of his abuse. Raghav then used to give vent to his anger and frustration on the poor mongrel, by beating him up. The poor creature would cry out in pain and seek refuge under the steps and come out only when he was called for food.

After one such bad day at the workshop, When Viren had abused Raghav after the workshop owner’s visit to the workshop and Raghav’s attempt to overcome fear and reason with Viren the cause of his discontent had made Viren all the more abusive and warn Raghav of dire consequences on the grounds of insubordination, Raghav returned to the shack, the mongrel approached him timidly wagging his tail. The sight of the mongrel was like the last straw that broke the camel’s back and it made Raghav’s pent up rage flare  up, so he picked up the stick lying in front of the house and beat up the poor mongrel. After giving vent to his anger by beating up the poor creature and drained of energy by a hard and long day at work, Raghav sat down on the steps of the shack, held his head in his hands and let tears of frustration and remorse well out. Seeing him sit silently on the steps, the mongrel quietly and gently approached Raghav and quietly crouched in front of him. Raghav, wiped away his tears and looked at the mongrel meekly sit in front of him, looking helplessly at him. Raghav’s gaze met with that of the mongrel and he found it reflect his fear, agony and helplessness. The mongrel broke the gaze by timidly approaching Raghav and gently licking the back of Raghav’s hands. Raghav felt a sudden rush of emotion, which invariably made him place his hand on the mongrel’s head and gently stroke him. While caressing the mongrel’s head and narrated the day’s events to the creature in front of him, who seemed listen intently to Raghav, who otherwise used to abuse him. Raghav too seemed to relax and could feel his anger and resentment give way to a warm and loving feeling towards the poor creature.  Raghav realized, he never felt so, when he used to pour out his anger and resentment by beating up the poor and helpless creature. 

A Story

Satyaki of Avanti was a renowned Ayurvedic doctor, who was known not only for his dedicated medical service to his patients but also as a teacher who made his disciples proficient in the medical science.
Two young friends, Pradyumn and Ashvaku wanted to learn Ayurved from Satyaki and decided to approach him. One day, they both visited Avanti to meet Satyaki and told him that they wanted to learn Ayurved from him. Satyaki thought for a while and then asked Pardyumn to meet him the following day at his residence and asked Ashvaku to wait till he asked him to come and meet him. The two friends thanked him and returned to the inn where they were staying and wondered why Satyaki had not asked them to meet him again together.
The following morning, Pradyumn got ready and visited Satyaki's residence. On reaching Satyaki's home he found the medicine man yell and scream at a frail sick dog and beat him up with a stick. When he saw Pradyumn standing at the entrance of his house he yelled at him and pointing towards the dog said, "You are as sick and detestable as this mongrel, take him away from my sight and be off! if your friend still wants to meet me, then he can come and meet me tomorrow. Begone you sick mongrel! take this creature with you, as you both are a sore to my eyes!" Pradyumn was so shocked by Satyaki's appalling behaviour that he immediately returned to the inn and narrated the whole incidence to his friend Ashvaku. The latter quietly and carefully listened to his friend's experience with Satyaki and said that he would go and meet Satyaki the following day.
When Ashvaku reached Satyaki's residence the following day, he found  him trying to wring the neck of a pigeon while yelling at the bird that was trying to release itself from the clutches of the medicine man, who in fit of rage yelled at Ashvaku, "There you are, a bird-brained man, as miserable as this bird! take this wretched bird away from my sight and begone". Ashavku did not utter a word and silently approached Satyaki and took the frightened bird from his hand and took the creature to the water trough lying in the corner of the verandah and nursed the wounds of the bird, pacified it and placed it on the branch of the tree of the house and quietly observed a flock of pigeons fly to the bird and encourage it to join them. Ashvaku was so engrossed in observing the pigeon fly away along with the flock that he did not realise that Satyaki was now standing next to him intently observing his earnest act of rescuing the battered bird. Satyaki placed his hand on Ashvaku's shoulder and gently said, 'Welcome home, my son,'

Hiring People to Fail?

I was amazed to find that a friend of mine used to hire people to amuse himself on their shortcomings and follies. He would make them feel miserable by pointing out their mistakes in front of others and then recount the mistakes to his friends and have a good laugh at the expense of his office staff.

I was intrigued to find a recruitment firm hiring recruitment executives every month only to fire them within a span of three months on the grounds of poor performance. It is quite inevitable that very soon the firm closed shop.

What was even more exasperating  was an organization that would place new hires in all its questionable projects and then retain only a fourth of them, while asking the rest to quit because of the closure of the projects they were executing.

A company providing home based documentation job work would send test files to the job aspirants for transcription and documentation and would report to the examinees that they had failed the test and encourage them to take the test again on a different test file, thus getting its documentation work done for free from the unsuspecting examinees.

Such unscrupulous means of meeting short term objectives do not help in setting up a credibly successful organization too.

Everyone is aware of the time and resource an organization has to expend to hire new hands for its functions. This makes it all the more important for the organization to ensure longevity of the new hires in the organization so that it can cut down on the hiring and attrition cost. This is only possible when:

• The functional objective aka the job description of the new hire is in tune with the operational vision and mission of the organization.
• The eligibility criteria (Knowledge, skill and experience) is well defined in terms of the job description of the portfolio for which the organization intends to hire a new hand.
• The induction process to help the new hire to align completely with the vision and work culture of the organization along with the functional objective of the portfolio he/she has to manage in the organization.
• Through regular mentor support, enable the new hire to align his/her career objective with the functional objective of the organization.
• Organization should have open door policy at all levels of its functional hierarchy so that a positive work environment can encourage free exchange of views, ideas and feedback that can encourage an individual to improve upon his or her performance to mutual benefit as this well help the organization to remain in tune with the changing trends in the market it is catering to.
• Organization should encourage integrity, honesty, an inquiring mind along with pragmatism in its work ethos in order to encourage its employees to remain in tune with changing market trends, change in technology to maintain the good will the organization has created for itself in the market.

• Organization should also encourage enhancement of knowledge and skill so that an employee can improve his or her performance. Should also encourage one-on-one coaching and mentoring to ensure success of succession planning from its shop floor level up to the summit of its functional hierarchy.

Therefore, it is time for every organization to ponder over its hiring policies and its work ethos to see how it is failing to achieve its functional vision and mission with the failure of each employee it hires to achieve its functional objective.