Thursday, March 1, 2012

जाने कौन डगर ठहरेंगे


कुछ छोटे सपनो के बदले , बड़ी नींद का सौदा करने ,
निकल पडे हैं पांव अभागे ,जाने कौन डगर ठहरेंगे !

वही प्यास के अनगढ़ मोती ,वही धूप की सुर्ख कहानी ,
वही आंख में घुटकर मरती ,आंसू की खुद्दार जवानी ,
हर मोहरे की मूक विवशता ,चौसर के खाने क्या जाने
हार जीत तय करती है वे , आज कौन से घर ठहरेंगे....!
निकल पडे हैं पांव अभागे ,जाने कौन डगर ठहरेंगे !

कुछ पलकों में बंद चांदनी ,कुछ होठों में कैद तराने ,
मंजिल के गुमनाम भरोसे ,सपनो के लाचार बहाने ,
जिनकी जिद के आगे सूरज, मोरपंख से छाया मांगे ,
उन के भी दुर्दम्य इरादे , वीणा के स्वर पर ठहरेंगे .
निकल पडे हैं पांव अभागे ,जाने कौन डगर ठहरेंगे .......

Drops of Joy


It was the Parents Teacher meeting of my class 12th, and as always my Dad was accompanying me. With me always being one amongst the top three rankers of my class since the late childhood, my Dad had got used to praises from the teacher during such meetings, which was quite gratifying experience for me as well as my Dad. But that time, the case had been pretty different. I had performed dismally in almost all the subjects except Physics, and my class rank had crawled down to stand amongst the bottom fews.

Those days, the mighty preparation for JEE and other enigineering entrances with numerous everyday assignments and test-papers left me completely enervated to concentrate on the school studies and thus, the result was more or less expected. But, I feared that my father would feel bad about it and might scold me, since he didn't know how much pressure the studies for JEE an other competitions had on me. As we entered the class-room, my class-teacher immediately stood up from her chair and with a worried look on her face, approached my father.

'Mr.Jha, your son is going nowhere. See the decline,' she said, pointing at the dismal marks in different subjects, 'the highest is 99 out of 100 in Chemistry and Abhinav has got just 67. His rank has slid down to 24th, from 3rd in 11th class. This is not what we expect from him. He's certainly not studying. He's lost his spark.'

My Dad looked at me with a serious face. I was expecting a reprimand, a reproach echoing my teacher's words, to hit my ears.

'Madam, don't you worry about Abhinav. He's working hard, I can assure you. He will do better the next time. And mind it, he has not lost his spark. It's right there.' My father said with a reassuring smile as his palm caressed my head softly.

The teacher was dumbstruck. She had nothing more to say. Handing over the report card, she moved back to her chair and greeted other parents. My father put his arms around my shoulder and asked, as he always used to do when I secured a rank, in a delighted tone, 'So, which ice-cream do you want to have - chocolate chips or vanilla?'

I looked into his eyes, smiled and blinked. I had chocolate chips, with two drops of tears, thereafter.

One year later, I became one of the subject toppers in the boards in my state as well as cleared the JEE and got selected in all the entrance exams I appeared for. That time, he had chocolate chips, with two drops of tears...

Saturday, December 24, 2011

The mesmerizing experience of an engineer

Life seems to take a different way each time. But we hardly notice it. And sometimes it makes a huge difference too. That’s what happened 

in my life too. And yes, I’m too a normal guy with some dreams and few aspirations to be accomplished and an immense desire of being in a 

beautiful relationship, just as two third of the guys in my vicinity do posses. But this seemed to be a high hill climb in my case.
Priya, the very telephonic-conversation girl who made my life steer into a different but a very exciting direction. The day I talked with her for 

the first time (actually it was by an accidental internet chat) infused a different feeling within me. Something like when you get to admire the 

most liked person for your whole life. And the very soft voice filled with anxiety which triggered a vibration across my highly acoustic 

eardrums, generated a gentle smile on my face (That’s obvious for a boy who had never heard such kind of voice ever before!).  “Hey, 

friend how are you? And thanks a lot for your important info… By the way I’m Priya Sharma, from Kota and you?” were the very first 

statements that came across the other line. For the first few seconds, I was left speechless (an after effect, on hearing such sweet voice) and 

then hurriedly responded “Nice talking to you Priya! I’m Harsh from Jabalpur and I’m doing well”. The next thing which surprised me after 

talking to her for the first time was my one-third phone balance than that before I made the call. Anyways, doesn’t matter whenever it comes 

to talking to new friends (especially sweet voiced girls!  ). The next few days went in quick SMS competitions between two of us. You 

might be wondering why I’m saying so, But actually we were engaged in sending so many texts to each other that it looked like an SMS 

competition more!
Days passed on and we were getting friendlier, sharing good times and funny moments, sad feelings and each other’s hopes which made us a 

good debater too. Priya used to surprise me with her humorous replies to whatever I asked her, and I used to give her mind-boggling and 

funny answers to each of her silly but interesting queries. All we discussed were mostly related to our day to day nuisances and witty acts 

and that of our friends. But slowly it did set an adrenaline within each other which kept us going on the phone for longer and still longer time.  

I don’t know why, but somewhere in my heart, in my mind, all these were making a change, a change which cannot be described as such 

and after you feel it, you remain vexed at yourself! My month’s holiday went so quickly, I never imagined about that. And then I had to get 

back to my alma mater, my college.
New Year and this new and interesting friendship grew much faster and stronger. Now you might be guessing that my story is taking the 

same monotonous love story track, but sorry folks, here we have a twist! As the moments spent with her o’er the line grew much longer and 

interesting, I felt something very special and caring for a girl ever in my life. Not that I am a kind of all such guys who believe in quick 

commitment, But I was dragged towards her by some unknown but certain force. For the first time, I believed on the working of Newton’s 

laws in real life scenarios too. And you are smarter enough to guess about which law I’m talking about!
“Yaar, tell her everything about your feelings for her, otherwise it may be too late!” said my obnoxious but yet intellectual roommate, on 

seeing my condition from the day zero when I returned back to college.  “No dude! I cannot say everything to her in this way. I mean, not 

o’er the phone at least! When I’ll meet her sometime later, I’ll tell her everything and I’m sure she’ll understand me”, were the very 

sentimental words that automatically came out from my tongue.  With this firm belief, I tried to control myself from being sentimental and 

speak any non-sense while talking to Priya. Day ninth of the first month of the New Year, I called her as usual, and had the same talks with 

her as we did every time we chatted. But sooner, something again worked inside my”complicated-state” attained mind, and it forced me to 

speak all those that I wished to speak to her. But this time, I failed to resist myself and spoke very cautiously and highly nervously to her. 

She had by the time, already realized about my feelings and she suddenly became quite serious. “Priya, this is what I all wanted to say to 

you, because you know I cannot hide it my heart for long time, Priya, I love you”, and again, Shit! What the heck I have done! , I thought 

and became much feared but relaxed, somewhere in my mind on saying all of it. “Harsh, I really don’t know what to say, but you are my 

good friend.” said she after a long pause.  That was enough for me to understand about her feelings for me. But still, Priya Sharma said 

something very good and promising statements, which raised a ray of hope within me. I was completely changed, and then I surprisingly 

started in believing in the magical and very entrusting four alphabet word “L-O-V-E”