Sunday, April 12, 2009

Hope on the riverside..


Mind is dead it seems. It doesn’t anymore direct me to pen down my thoughts. For days I’ve tried to place my thoughts on a page of Microsoft word. It has been a hard exercise. Oh yes, it isn’t just the empty mind; there is much more to it. The bustling noise behind is something devastating for a writer. Hey listen, I don’t claim to be a writer. I’m just writing away...


Yet again on the eve of my birthday; here I stand. This is the 20th time. Two long decades. It was a long wait friends. Long back, the age of 20 looked as a milestone I was dying to cross


For days I wanted to share with my friends, a few photographic collections from my visit to a ghat (river side), near Nigambodh Ghat in Delhi. It was the 10th day Kriya (ceremony) of my distant relative; who passed away almost a month back.


It was a cold morning. The Yamuna looked pathetic with clutter of rubbish on its bank. Though I loved its beauty, its vastness and the surrounding green belt. The metro far above on a platform of the river looked a miracle, flying away in jet speed. It took my gaze to and fro between the two sides of the river every few minutes.


A blue colored boat lay lazily still on the riverside. So did I. On the steps I sat, staring away at the far length of the river.


The boatman lived just on the entrance of the lane near the steps. The blue door of his house attracted my attention. I was told it was decades old. Two decades old it was.


...The blue door of his house attracted my attention. I was told it was decades old. Two decades old it was.


I still see some hope for future Hope of returning to my land, my home. The door of my home in Kashmir would be old enough now. I hope it will attract my attention.


The home that I want to return. My home which was burnt to ashes in 1995.


The past nostalgia is still churning itself inside me; the hope for future is burning all around me.



13 comments:

Pooja Shali said...

next birthday party in kashmir... :)

btw nice exression to ur feelings

nerd2world said...

Dude, its your birthday, Stop comparing yourself to a door!
Anyway, PJs apart, Happy Birthday, two decades gone, many more to go...

Unknown said...

As Pooja rightly said..Next time ur Bday wld be celebrated in Kashmir...not in Nehru Place park...but in Nehru Park..in the mid of Dal Lake.

Preeti Bakaya said...

really beautifully written...dont act as if u are 60 or 70...ur just 20 so chill...take a drag ;)

Anonymous said...

Wish u a very happy b'day and a peaceful life ahead. Pray u can return to ur land which is peaceful again.....Ur house was burnt but memories of ur home can never be and will always drag u in a wonderful spacxe each time u think.....

All my wishes,

radz

sandhya mahajan said...

As that boat lies in wait for someone to sail it across and make it reach that far end, so is a whole community,culture,crushed dreams and yearning eyes.....waiting for a day when home will not be a shelter!!

rightly discussed in 3rd world kashmiri pandit conference, KP's should seriously consider increasing their human resources

Unknown said...

A compulsive activist and a future politician.

Best Wishes ARK ......

RANISH said...

Your observation part is really gud....

Nxt time Your B'Day treat @ Kashmir

Radhika said...

i actually think it is one of your best pieces - for me atleast.
i love symbolism and you have made full use of that.
the irony and the connections you have made are great....'instantly amazing' is how i describe it. it struck the cord immediately.

amitmagazine said...

Many more decades will come and they all will be on the bank on vitasta.
Beautiful thought.

Aditya Raj Kaul said...

comment from - ksurinder07@gmail.com

For any creative person any kind of commotion in thought process particularly a melancholic,gloomy state of disturbance renders one helpless;so cannot focus on one's creative ability.It is not applicable to writer only.All men of art do encounter such impediments.The surrounding around them fail to find compatiability with their mental horizon.

The Yamuna river looked pathetic with cluttered of rubbish.But u have not exihibited any such snaps which could spot the places and heaps in the flowing water.Those a few snap would have added some colour to the cause u want to highlight. The piece shows sorrow in some corner of the heart of the writer.It depicts Mathew Arnold's Dover Beach poem in which he hears sounds of sorrows,destruction of Humanity in battles, along with the rythemic sea waves which crawl over sandy beach under moonlight at Dover Beach.

Very good.

Pooja Bhat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

you write well...best of luck
Prithwish