टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक... (31st Jan 2011)

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

चूल्हे पर उबल रहा था दाल...

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

आँगन पर रो रहा था तीन साल का नंग्तु...

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

माँ परेशानी में भी गुंध रही थी आटा...

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

खाना पक रहा था रसोई में...

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

भूख से व्याकुल नंग्तु आंसू बहाए जा रहा था..

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

क्यों नहीं आये अभी तक वो खेत से...

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

समय...

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

दाल में छोंक लगा रही थी माँ...

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

नंग्तु के रुन्दन से परेशान माँ...

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

दौड़ता हुआ गाँव का एक बालक ...

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

हांफता हुआ नंग्तु के घर आया...

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

काकी, ओह काकी पुकारता...

टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक, टिक टॉक...

माँ साड़ी में हाथ पोंछती दरवाज़े पर...

टिक टॉक-टिक टॉक-टिक टॉक...

समय की रफ़्तार इतनी तेज़

टिक टॉक-टिक टॉक-टिक टॉक...

पहले कभी महसूस नहीं की माँ ने...

टिक टॉक-टिक टॉक-टिक टॉक...

बालक हांफता हुआ, काकी-काका...

समय थम सा जाता है...

टिक...टॉक......टिक......टॉक..........टिक........टॉक...

क्या हुआ रे श्यामू काका को...

टिक टॉक-टिक टॉक-टिक टॉक...

काका शेत मदे पडले आहे काकी...

टिक...टॉक......टिक......टॉक..........टिक........टॉक...

--- स्वरचित --- 

MY JOURNEY SO FAR – PART III (25th Jan 2011)

Farmers’ suicide continues to haunt Vidarbha region as usual and during monsoon there are many villagers who die because lightening strikes in the open vast field. I use a bicycle to travel to nearby villages. During my first trip to Khurjadi (Fort), as I was nearing the village (30 kms from Wardha), dense dark clouds surrounded me while I was drenched completely in heavy rain... lightening were striking at will with loud sound of cloud bursting in open fields. I was scared and for a second thought of turning back... the thought was in my mind for less than a second when I said to myself – ‘Johnny you have not come here to go back...’ I prayed to Sai Baba and requested – ‘Baba please don’t kill me in this way... there are things I have to do before you take me...’

Baba listened to my request and kept me safe in HIS grace... the farmer widow requested me to stay because it was already dark and still raining heavily and the village entrance was cut off by deep gushing waters. It was surely the divine intervention for such a loving hospitality I received that night... even though I was wet completely, I was amazed by the love and affection the mother and son gave me. It was my first stay in a village in Vidarbha. Even without electricity in the village, I was full at ease... the sumptuous dinner of garma-garam bhakri, dal, thecha, kanda and kairee served under the kerosene lamp light was an experience that will always remain with me all my life. That night I slept the best sleep of my life and early morning I woke up fresh and totally in bliss. The experience also taught me that I should not risk my life in such an extreme situation, especially during monsoon.

So far, there are four widows who are ready to work and earn but time is the greatest factor for them to spare. After the monsoon season, the festival and harvesting season starts and all the widows work in their respective farms... I am left with no option but to wait for them while I was making repeated trips to get the trust registered... finally in December, all the required papers were submitted. I am told that it will still take couple of months before we will get the registration papers to start our activities. For five long months, it was a trying times for me because of which my plans for 11 Districts Vidarbha Run to cover 200 villages in 45 days (supposed to commence on the 1^st of February 2011) had to be postponed. The run was supposed to generate awareness among farmers in Vidarbha and also raise funds for the movement... as destined it will have to wait for the next available time. Once the trust is registered, the run will be planned accordingly in next couple of months.

Yes, there are many people who expect me to perform a miracle out of nowhere... they wonder how things are going to work... what are the small units that will be established for the widows... but they all seem to be in a hurry to see results rather than wait patiently before things are done in a proper way to benefit the suicide farmers’ families for life. I know they will never understand the ground realities and yes they want to see miracles happening fast. However, through my earlier posts and this post I wish to inform one and all that I am going to live here in Vidarbha for life and do my best to achieve whatever little I can do for the affected families. Results will be seen after couple of years for sure and the trust would need a lot of contributions from everyone, so that we are able to achieve what we have set out for.

The long journey which started with a blog and a single step is being supported by many kind people from all around the world... more than 55 countries are following the movement and there are many eager souls who wish to be part of the movement. To be very frank, I had never imagined one single step would unite the world in such a strong way... after all, food is the necessity that affects one and all... farmers all over the world should get their rightful dues as they have been serving the nation with their selfless hard work and dedication... no one realises what will happen when there will be no farmers and farmlands left in the world... what the future lies for the generation of today is really very-very DANGEROUS even to think of... and every single year is bridging this gap at a much faster pace... the greed of the rich is increasing at the faster pace than ever it has in the history of mankind... the poor... well, till the last drop is sucked... the few beasts will not stop their hunger to accumulate to kill them!

.... to be continued...

MY JOURNEY SO FAR - PART II (23rd Jan 2011)

It was in the month of April that I visited Vidarbha for the very first time. The soaring high temperature touching 49 degrees with hot winds blowing was an experience that didn’t affect me at all. One may call it a miracle or the hands of divinity, I didn’t feel the heat on my body since then and the surprising part was that throughout my stay (15 days) I was calm, cool and composed roaming around villages interacting with farmers’ families. Heartening it is and it certainly wasn’t an easy task to get to know the truth behind each farmer’s death... however, I must say I have been blessed by Sai Baba because I was readily accepted by villagers... discussions at gram panchayat’s offices (village committee) with the members to know problems of the farmers were enlightening.

There were many ground realities and complexities that surprised me about farmers’ suicide in Vidarbha. For one, I was surprised to know that there are more than 7000 listed NGOs in Vidarbha region and many dedicated and devoted individuals who are doing their best to achieve whatever little they can, to provide succour to the farmers’ community of the nation. The biggest surprise of my visit was the irrigation canal near Deoli (on the way to Yavatmal) that has taken more than 23 years to complete... the construction is still incomplete after 23 long years... it shows how callous the State and Central Government are when infrastructure facilities for the agriculture sector are concerned. Even though Vidarbha region is the richest when it comes to rivers, ironically, the fact that all the water that should be used for irrigation purposes, are being diverted for rich corporate industries and generating power. Another ironical factor is that even though Vidarbha generates and has the biggest Thermal Power Station (CSTPS) in the country, there are many villages in the region, where villagers are still living in darkness. I wonder how the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh can talk about growth of the nation! Is living in darkness without proper drinking water THE SIGN of the nation’s GROWTH?

May and June in Mumbai, I prepared self to shift once for all to Vidarbha. There were various personal problems I had to face during this period that delayed things. However, I must thank from the bottom of my heart the ‘Ten Angels’ who were kind enough to support me financially for a year to pursue and continue the movement in Vidarbha. Once the support system was in place, I shifted base in August permanently in Wardha. When I came here, I must confess without realizing the ground realities and monthly schedule of the farmers’ community, I had loads of plan to execute. However, things are not easy as it may seem from the other side of the reality... I had to unlearn all that life had taught me because I had entered a complete new territory and it was back to school again.

Farmers were succumbing to suicide and every day when you open the newspapers, the dreaded column used to give me a sense of helplessness. Emotionally I was fighting a war with the everyday situation that had never bothered to me to such an extent earlier. Things were not easy and many times, I went into deep depression... at times, I used to cry silently lying on my bed with tears rolling down for hours feeling so-so helpless and not able to save another precious life of another farmer... at times, I would just go on a silent bout with my Sai Baba demanding WHY? Why HE cannot stop such a phenomenon where poor are dying for the sake of others... for days and even month-long depression became a way of life for me. I realized things are going to be more difficult with each passing day and every day I prayed to Sai Baba to give me strength and be strong. For many who are reading this post, may feel that how can I be so weak hearted to cry and go in depression... well, these bouts of depression are the outlet for me being all alone in my journey of life... things none of my friends would like to discuss at length because each one of us have their own problems of life... however, Sai Baba has been very generous to send amazing angels from nowhere to encourage me and give me moral support. Such support system came from unknown people who have been following the movement and I was surprised to know that I was not alone any more...

... to be continued...

MY JOURNEY SO FAR – PART I (22nd Jan 2011)

From the streets of Mumbai to the villages of Vidarbha, the journey so far has been full of challenges and traumatic experiences. Amidst farmers’ death all around the 11 districts of Vidarbha each month of the year, the challenge to establish a strong base in a steady manner is perhaps one of the biggest challenges I have faced so far. With all the kind and encouraging support from many kind-hearted souls from all around the world, I have managed to set my base in Wardha in few months’ time.

Support 4 Suicide Farmers Families is a life-long journey that I have undertaken to support at least few farmers’ families to better their lives in coming future. Research, interaction, discussion and investigation to understand the complexities of farmers’ suicide in Vidarbha have been an experience that has opened my eyes wide... towards disbelief and hard ground realities. However, there is still so much to learn, do research and understand about this man-made calamity that has been created rather than a way of life for the poor farmers. Do you really think a human would love to die on his/her own? Please ask yourself this question and the answer would be... we want to live, live a decent dignified life and live in peace...

Last March (18^th) I started this movement as a one-man-crusade after having blogged on the issue for more than two years. The realization that the coming future without farmlands and farmers... what does the future holds for the coming generation... I was struck hard by the force that we all often call as destiny. Yes, it was in my destiny otherwise I really wouldn’t be here shifting with bag and baggage from the dream city Mumbai to settle down in the small town city Wardha in Vidarbha. My first visit in April 2010 was an eye-opener in many ways to interact with some of the farmers’ families in Vaigaon, who have suffered the loss of their near and dear ones. The first ever interaction was the most traumatic experience for me in my life... and each session with the suicide farmers’ families have drained me emotionally time and again... it is not an easy task to understand and make the victim’s family to talk about the horrible incident that has changed their lives forever for worse.

Children have been an inspiration that fills the void and trauma with little joy for a while with their innocence, antics and ever-wanting to know about me and the mission. There are many children, who don’t even remember if their fathers had really pampered them when they were alive... all they know is they are fatherless now or else have lost their grandfathers to suicide. The pain of the widows and the grit and determination of these brave women are indeed an exemplary state of surviving against all odds for the society at large to get inspired in our everyday lives. They are fighting the war every single day after their husbands have left them with almost nothing to survive and responsibilities of multiple children to look after... each story is same yet they are different in many ways and each time in my heart I salute these brave widows for being so brave to look after their fatherless children by slogging hard round-the-clock to see their innocent children smile and eat two-meals-a-day somehow.

.... to be continued...

स्कैम का दौर (16th Jan 2011)

स्कैम का दौर 

है कोई नेता ऐसा इस जहाँ में,

जो अपनी सफ़ेद खादी के पोशाक

की तरह बेदाग़ निश्छल हो

इस स्कैम के दौर में

हकीकत तो ये है कि

नेताओ की दौड़ में

कौन किस से आगे निकल जाये

डर है हर किसी को आज

मैं अगर नहीं खता हूँ

तो साला वो ज़रूर से खायेगा

फिर मेरा क्या होगा

मैं सत्यवादी हरिश्चंद्र तो नहीं

गरीबों का क्या है

थोड़े दिन चिल्लायेंगे और फिर

रोजमर्रा के भोझ तले

शांत हो कर दम तोड़ देंगे

सफ़ेद पोशाक के ये झोंक

ड्राकुला से भी है भयंकर

चाहे ये कभी खा न सके सारा दौलत

गरीबों का खून मगर चूसेंगे ये ज़रूर

   

--- स्वरचित --- 

THE FOOD THE FARMERS GROW (13th Jan 2011)

The first rule of politics is to complicate things beyond the understanding of common man, so that he will always run behind the dangling carrots that the leaders show them with false promises time and again all through his life!

Common Sense has been taken over by greed, more greed and more greed! Who cares as long as long as others are dying and especially the poor! The food, the farmers of the nation grow are in fact self sufficient in many aspects... only if all the food grains reaches to the citizen of the nation in the right ways. The selfless farmers have been feeding the nation since ages with great dedication and devotion... in spite of no proper irrigation facilities and policies of the government, traders mafia, corporate companies’ exploitative methods and not forgetting no proper place of storage for their hard labour which goes in waste due to careless attitude of the government to allow food grains to rot in open storage system and of course with nature turning its back time and again.

Only if the farmers had had a choice to go on strike and boycott growing food grains for a year long period, things definitely would have been different. The Agriculture Sector was once upon a time dominated by 70 per cent Indians and by the next year census, the percentage in all likelihood may fall by another 20 per cent... development and migration is what everyone is talking about but do the farmers of the nation really have any other options?

Their fertile lands are being taken over either by government agencies for government based projects or else by rich corporate companies to establish big industries... and in each case, the false promises of generating employment for the villagers’ card is played. Irrigation projects which should have been given the first and the foremost priority by the nation’s government don’t even complete in two or three decades’ time... instead all the water is diverted to the rich industries... traders selling seeds and fertilizers control the prices by restricting the supply just at the peak season of sowing to extract more money from needy farmers, cost of production is thus increased and the helpless farmers have no other way to turn around.

With more and more people from villages migrating towards cities, less and less villagers are now into farming because farming doesn’t feed their own families... shortage of labour force forces a farmer either to lease out his farms to someone wealthy or needy or else quit farming by selling his land and migrate to the nearby city so that he can struggle all his life doing labour job... at least this way, the farmers don’t have to look after the cattle, worry about increased prices of the seeds and fertilizers or else labour and the uncertainty of the natural calamities or problems of irrigation and still manage to feed his own family to survive in this modern day catastrophe. India is losing a farmer’s family with every next generation because once the son watches his father struggling all his life he opts to leave the age-old profession for better pastures in cities.

Only if the agriculture sector had been taken good care of with proper planning and execution, the sector would have grown in leaps and bounds just like all the other industries... but then, the policy is to create genocide by poisoning the nation’s citizen with poisonous chemical fertilizers and pesticides and GM crops, so that there are more new diseases available for the pharma industries to capitalise by further poisoning us with poisonous pain killers and tablets and injections...

While the agriculture sector has gone from bad to worse in the past six decades, the medical and the pharma industries have grown in leaps and bounds, of course not forgetting the insurance sectors and banking institutions. A simple mechanism is intelligently placed in the villages to trap all the farmers into the debt trap, so that either they will commit suicide or else sell their lands... who cares about food grains production in the nation! Every political leader has his agenda to grab more crores than he or his family can really spend all his life to enjoy life in real sense... but still, they will not hesitate to suck the last drop of blood from the poor farmers...

Farmers of the nation struggle all their life in hot sun, high temperatures and heavy rainfall...  come flood or drought, they selflessly continue farming for the whole nation to live in peace and eat healthy food... some of the farmers in the nation have sold their wives to moneylenders to feed their children during drought in 2009 (Bundelkhand), many farmers have committed suicide all across the nation, food grains are being allowed to rot in open to the tune of 58,000 crores and beyond and the six plus decade young nation never even bothered to build storage godowns to store food grains (only 20 per cent of the total food grains produced in the nation can be stored in FCI godowns)... and all the nation is worried about is industrial growth... more cars, more multiplexes, malls and what not... but what about irrigation system and infrastructure for the most essential sector who feeds the nation???

Dal, onion, vegetables have all been snatched away from a poor man’s plate because of their exorbitant prices... villagers in Tembhali village have to survive their hunger by eating tamarind (imli) leaves and if they get a chance to eat bhakri (roti made of sorghum or rice)... it is the happiest day of their lives... if only the farmers of the nation learn and decide to grow food only for their families and not the nation... only then the government will wake up... the prices of food is directly controlled by the respective leaders and traders lobby while the farmers sweat in hot sun to allow each one of them to suck his blood... till the last drop of blood is sucked from a poor man, the greed of the ever greedy will not satiate!

एक छोटा सा दिल (8th Jan 2010)

एक छोटा सा दिल

ना रातों को नींद
और दिन में चैन
एक छोटा सा दिल

करता है कितना बेचैन...

भटकता है ज़िन्दगी भर ये आवारा दिल 

मिल भी जाये अगर सब कुछ

एक छोटा सा दिल

करता है कितना बेचैन...

पलक झपकते रोता है ये दिल क्यों?

ना जाना अभी तक ऐसा होता है क्यों?
एक छोटा सा दिल
करता है कितना बेचैन...

मिल जाये जो करे प्यार उसको

चाहत हर एक दिल का है बस यही

एक छोटा सा दिल

करता है कितना बेचैन...

दुनिया सिमट जाती है छोटे से दिल में 

फिर भी ये ढूंढता रहता है सारा जहान

एक छोटा सा दिल

करता है कितना बेचैन...

--- स्वरचित ---

अगर ये न होते... (5th Jan 2010)

अगर ये न होते...

तो हमारी ज़िन्दगी कचरों तले होती

कचरा जो हमने चारो ओर बिकेरा है 

बिना सोचे-समझे , पढ़े-लिखे होने के बावजूद 

(This picture was not clicked by me)

अगर ये न होते...

ज़िन्दगी बस गन्दगी से भरी होती 

चारो ओर बिमारियों का जाल बिछा होता

हमारा स्वास्थ बद से बधतर होता 

अगर ये न होते...

लाख वैज्ञानिक व तकनिकी उपलब्दियों के बाद 

हमारा जीवन ख़तम हो गया होता 

और पृथ्वी बहुत पहले नष्ट हो गया होता

(This picture was not clicked by me)

अगर ये न होते...

तो ग्लोबल वार्मिंग का स्वांग रचा कर

भ्रष्ट नेताओ ने करोड़ों का घफ्ला न किया होता 

और स्विस बैंको में काला धन न छुपाया होता

(This picture was not clicked by me)

अगर ये न होते...

हम सब किसी कचरों के तले बैठे होते

और ग्लोबल वार्मिंग शब्दावली का आविष्कार न होता 

और न ही हर सक्श इन शब्दों से वाकिफ होता 

अगर ये न होते...

चारों ओर हाहाकार मचा होता 

पृथ्वी का वातावरण और दूषित हो गया होता

और जीना हम सबों का दूभर हो गया होता

नफरत भरी नज़रों से हमने इन्हें दुत्कारा है

न स्वास्थ चिकित्सा, शिक्षा, ना ही दो वक़्त की रोटी 

हमने मगर इनको अब तक दिया है क्या?

बस हमने तो इनकी जाति को नाकारा है 

पेट की भूख से ये कर्तव्यपरायण 

अपना कर्त्तव्य का पालन बिना अधिकार मांगे 

पृथ्वी से हमारी गन्दगी दूर कर रहे हैं

इन्हें तो ज्ञात भी नहीं है ग्लोबल वार्मिंग की 

अगर ये न होते...

तो क्या हमारा जीवन यूँ स्वस्थ होता?

अगर ये न होते...

तो क्या हमें सामाजिक पशु कोई कहता?

अगर ये न होते...

तो क्या इस विषय पर यूँ विचार प्रकट होता?

--- स्वरचित ---