These God Forsaken Poets

अपने युग में सबको अनुपम ज्ञात हुई अपनी हाला,
अपने युग में सबको अदभुत, ज्ञात हुआ अपना प्याला,

फिर भी वृद्धों से जब पूछा एक यही उत्तर पाया -
अब न रहे वे पीनेवाले, अब न रही वह मधुशाला!

Harivansh Rai Bacchan In Madhushala Section 7 Verse 5

Sometime back I did post telling you about my younger brother's wedding .So my brother Vikrant got married to Tanya . It was a nice experience . we went to Calcutta. got to know Bong culture . it was all very warm cozy and Fun.I was playing multiple roles at the ceremony .Ofcourse some of it was natural As i am Grooms Brother .but there were some more reason for all the attention showred on me by "Assorted Crew of relatives " .

To begin with I was De-Facto photographer of event .I was being pulled by everyone for a Picture with Bride-&-Groom" on stage. I took 1200 photo covering all possible combinations of my "Never-seen -before -Now -Only-To- Be- Seen -In -Album " relatives.

In addition to that I was attracting attention due to my hair style ."Garmi nahin lagtee ?? " asked a portly gentelman with receding hair line. " Sheenu !! Dekh , aur kuch Sharam kar . Beta ! Abb tu hee isse samjha " said a worried mother of a teen age girl .The girl had a "Boy Cut" hair style . I just smiled . like this :) .

Other reason for this attraction was the fact that I was ELDER borther of Groom ,and I am STILL Single . some of my freind had suggested that this should have been a good enough reason for me to consider skipping the ceremony as I would be riducled like hell . To tell you the truth I was a bit worried about any possible confrontation but ironically I enjoyed all the comments i recived on my singledom . Funniest moment was when One "genuienly" concerned octagenerian old man pulled me in to the corner and "suggestively " asked "Beta !! Sehat tou theek hai na " . It was hard for me to control laughter . i said " Jee , Mujhe tou theek hee lagtee hai " . someday I will make a detailed post about how I handeleed all that pseudo hostility .

However there was one group whose reaction surprised me most . My teen age, college going cousins . I meet them after a gap of 6-7 years so there was a natural curiosity . In addition to that curiosity it was a case of "My reputation Preceding Me ". Somehow I have cultivated an image of a rebel or a irreverent smart kid among my relatives . I guess it was this reputation which resonated with the college kids . So I end up spending a lot of time with them . listening their stories of frustration with parent's outdated worldview, their boyfriend(s) , girl friend (no "S" here ) , pocket money ,bike, jeans and perils of wearing tank tops and bare backs in small city .

It was kinda funny to see them excited at shopping mall in Calcutta and at the same time it was humbling to see them telling me point blank that spending 60 Rs for Cup of Coffee in BARISTA is sheer stupidity .[They did improvised an exception clause :"unless you are with your girlfriend "].

One of them knew my affinity toward poetry and my futile attempts to write something which rhymes . So one day he asked me to recite a poem . I recited some random poem i had written long back . He got all poetic and said "It must be a great feeling , To be in Love with someone " I said "Yes , it is but its even better other way round i.e. to be loved , unrequited love is very painful ". He smiled to him self and said "Uska bhee Apna hee mazza hai ! Kyun ?? {wink !}"

While his answer might be funny but it was not beyond my understanding . I had done my share of stupidities . so I said nothing and just smilled . At that very moment someone called him from the dinning hall. He promised to be back in 10-15 minutes and excused himself .

sitting there on terrace i was thinking , How much this guy is looking forward to the day when he will "fell in love " . How his sense of inadequacy is delightfully and poetically glorified . Is it just hormones ? or there is ACTUALLY someone somewhere destined to meet each one of us . if thats the case than why it is supposed to happen bitween the age 15 -to-30 (31 ??)

No ! something in me replied "Its just teenage thing ..You Know better " . But Do I?? I had no answer . At least nothing in Black and white .

My age inflicted maturity has taught me one thing that mistake made by teenagers is not "Falling in Love " its Natural . mistake is to associate insanely high expectation to this whole thing . Most of the time relationship crumbles under those expectation . sometime guy don' t show up in white horse , sometime girl fail to act like she is delecate dew soaked rose bud and sometime both of them don't know what to talk beyond first 10 minute of "Miss u so much " opening nodes.

This sort of stupidity can not be attributed to "Age" alone . there are enviornmetal factors which "Fuels" it . Ironically one of the factor which came to my mind was Poetry and popular music . All the songs in bollywood flicks , all the popular poetry . everyone singing only one aspect of life . namely "Love" and they don't stop at this . there is whole Ala -Carte menu of of its derivatives emotions for you to choose . "waiting for love" "Finding love" "Falling In love " "Praise of My Love" "passion of Love" "depth of love " height of love" "waiting for love" (Type B) , "Lost Love" "Love Stolen " , "Love held hostage by terrorist " You name it .

Situation is so weird that sometime in our movies when we see some hero who is a leading industrialist with a big mansion , a caring mother , loving sister and a cute tail wagging Pomeranian puppy .when He sings some thing like "tere bina jindagi adhoorie thee .." for his soulmate we don't find anything odd in that claim . I mean think of it man ! this is a guy with a happy family claiming that his life was a lonesome journey untill this chick came along . I mean you serious ?? how will his puppy feel about it ? but we are so conditioned to it that we don't find anything odd in that assertion.


Need for Balance

अति का भला न बोलना , अति के भली न चुप ,
अति का भला न बरसना , अति की भली न धूप
Kabir

There are 9 fundamental human emotions (Nav Rassa) . Namely Shringar (Erotic ,love), Hasya ( Laughter,comic) Karun ( Pathos,sad),Veer (Valour,heroism),Bhayanak (Terrible),Veebhatsa (Detestable,horrid),Adbhoot (Queer) and shaanto (Calm,Tranquil) .

How many time you heard a poem /song around rest of the 8 emotions . I can count them on my finger tips . that is when I am something of a poet my self and I have probably read more literature than most you guys . This unequal expouser to other emotions leads to a lack of stimulus to bring those emotions out to develop them . so we end up working on only a nineth of our emotional reservoir and we seek a full filling life . I guess this leads to imbalance and bitterness.

I am guilty of it as much as anyone else . its all hindsight wisdom . Am i immune to it now ? Noway. Now I know .. Now I can think in a lttle more balanced way. But as they say knowledge is not a synonym of decondtioning . So i am not sure how much of it will be useful to make any diffrence .

Epilouge :

Part of the joy of getting older is becoming cynical and world-weary, and less tolerant of people who are uncomplicatedly sweet

Jai Arjun In You Have Got Mush

Standing on the terrace that night I kinda felt a certain sort of anger toward the poets which was followed by a feeling of being protective of my cousin . As I saw him coming back from market and entering the villa . I felt that I should try to explain all this to him . But something stopped me from doing that . He was so uncomplicatedly sweet and I didn't want to be the one to rob him of his innocence .

"Sorry , I am late. so where were we ?? hey you seems to be in deep thoughts .what are you thinking?" He said breaking my chain of thought.
"These God Forsaken Poets! " I murmured .
What ? He said,
"Never mind ! I feel like taking a walk .can you make sure we have Tea ready for guest by the time I am back ? "
"Sure thing sir , Don't worry " He replied .

On that note I walked away . thinking whethere I did was right or wrong . i am not sure of it till this day . what do you think ?