क्या सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है?

Despite of over one billion population, despite of millions of problems, depsite of having no hope for solution, despite of mounting frustration, one thing is not going to change - Love for my beloved motherland.

Sharing this wonderful poem written by a crazy man, who loved his motherland to the core, who shared his passion with millions of others who were honest, committed, partiotic and ready to die for the nation - something unheard of nowdays.

Spare few minutes to read this heard touching poem. You may have read / heard first few lines. However this is one amazing piece of creation which every Indian must read to understand what our forefathers went through just to ensure we can breath in free air.

सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है
देखना है ज़ोर कितना बाज़ू-ए-क़ातिल में है

(ऐ वतन,) करता नहीं क्यूँ दूसरी कुछ बातचीत,
देखता हूँ मैं जिसे वो चुप तेरी महफ़िल में है
ऐ शहीद-ए-मुल्क-ओ-मिल्लत, मैं तेरे ऊपर निसार,
अब तेरी हिम्मत का चरचा ग़ैर की महफ़िल में है
सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है

वक़्त आने पर बता देंगे तुझे, ए आसमान,
हम अभी से क्या बताएँ क्या हमारे दिल में है
खेँच कर लाई है सब को क़त्ल होने की उमीद,
आशिकों का आज जमघट कूचा-ए-क़ातिल में है
सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है

है लिए हथियार दुश्मन ताक में बैठा उधर,
और हम तैयार हैं सीना लिए अपना इधर.
ख़ून से खेलेंगे होली अगर वतन मुश्क़िल में है
सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है

हाथ, जिन में है जूनून, कटते नही तलवार से,
सर जो उठ जाते हैं वो झुकते नहीं ललकार से.
और भड़केगा जो शोला सा हमारे दिल में है,
सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है

हम तो घर से ही थे निकले बाँधकर सर पर कफ़न,
जाँ हथेली पर लिए लो बढ चले हैं ये कदम.
ज़िंदगी तो अपनी मॆहमाँ मौत की महफ़िल में है
सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है

यूँ खड़ा मक़्तल में क़ातिल कह रहा है बार-बार,
क्या तमन्ना-ए-शहादत भी किसी के दिल में है?
दिल में तूफ़ानों की टोली और नसों में इन्कलाब,
होश दुश्मन के उड़ा देंगे हमें रोको न आज.
दूर रह पाए जो हमसे दम कहाँ मंज़िल में है,
सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है

वो जिस्म भी क्या जिस्म है जिसमे न हो ख़ून-ए-जुनून
क्या लड़े तूफ़ान से जो कश्ती-ए-साहिल में है
सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है
देखना है ज़ोर कितना बाज़ू-ए-क़ातिल में

-Bismil Azimabadi

Vande Mataram. Long Live Bharatmata.

Commonwealth Shame 2010

Though I never have any liking for the grand old party and its politicians, for once I am supporting Mr. Mani Shankar Iyer on his views and comments on commonwealth games.

Holy Shit! I mean what on this earth is the reason to burn thousands of crores of rupees for a game, which does not have any standing at the world level or relevance for a country like ours? Oh did you say Delhi metro and International Airport? Sorry mate. I just can’t buy this argument that Commonwealth games brought metro rail and international airport and other infrastructure improvement to Delhi. What the hell is that argument? Can’t we develop our cities just because we want to develop them? Only games can bring such development? If so, do we need to have such games hosted in each of our cities to have infrastructure upgrades? My bloody foot. That’s CRAP.

I may sound like a traitor but I won’t be disappointed if Commonwealth games turn out to be a fiasco. Yeah that’s matter of shame for me as an Indian but at the same time; a nation which is always in slumberous mode or prefers to be an ostrich while awake, we need something drastic to wake us up. Though it may not yield anything in long run (as usually our conscience and concerns dies very soon), at least there must be furor for a while. At least some head should roll. At least someone should be held accountable once in our political history. My worry is if games are conducted smoothly, all the wrongdoing will go unnoticed and even worst, there will be demand for hosting more and more of such games in future. We certainly don’t need / deserve such games. Period.

Let’s look at the other aspect. I do agree that such games can bring lot of tourists and revenue; puts you on the world map, gives you great sporting infrastructure for future and whole bunch of other benefits. However, all these stands true for any other nation on this planet except ours. After all, there must be a strong desire; sincere and honest efforts, excellent planning and political accountability to drive home such benefits. However for a nation like ours, such events are nothing but a great source of corruption for a whole bunch of people to take home millions and million paid by poor taxpayers like you and me. Guess what, nah, we aren’t even surprised about this mess. After all, we are a morally bankrupt society and corrupted nation. Nowdays corruption is in our DNA. Corruption is part of our life – just like oxygen.

If you bother to look around, London is going to host 2012 Olympics and guess what; a lot of infrastructure is already in place and being tested. Glasgow is going to host 2014 Commonwealth games and if you guessed that work is already in full swing for early completion, you are spot on. Compare this with our great nation! Its 62 days to go before the game starts and here is harsh reality -

Nehru stadium’s ultra-modern roof reported water leaking; just after being inaugurated! There is water puddle inside the stadium, in corridor, at changing room; player’s longue has to be completed! Ideally, infrastructure should be ready a year ago so that 1) its tested well in advance 2) It gives local athlete enough time to prepare at the actual venues. After all, there is no other reason why it’s called “home advantage” and usually host counties have lot better performance compare to when they are not hosting such events.

Aha and I just saw on a news channel, a road gave up and caved in – half of Honda City was right inside the gigantic pothole! Damn!

Now let’s hear what our politician have to say about these issues except being in denial mode 24x7.

LOL… This has to be one of the funnies comments made by a Minister and truly reflects Indian mentality. Out 74 years old sports minister Mr. M.S. Gill; who had few days ago condemned preparation of the games; all sudden changed his tune and recently said - hosting such events are like arranging marriage of your daughter. There will always be lot of things pending till the last moment and you need to wrap it up for a successful event. Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez! Can somebody on this earth explain to us idiots like me, what is this lame excuse for last minute preparations in 2010 when the marriage venue and dates were finalized way back in 2003!

Take another one and this has to be one of the poorest, sleaziest, hopeless, useless, senseless, bullshit comments of the year. As soon as Nehru stadium was inaugurated and there was water leakage from multiple corners of state of the art ceiling. Now Mr. Jaipal Reddy, who inaugurated this venue, said : “This leakage is at only some places. For rest, it’s not leakage, it’s the system designed to get rid of excesive rainwater!”!!!!!!!!!!”

Now 1) Either we really want to find out architects of this world class facility, who designed this world class water leakage system to get rid of excessive water and to ensure it falls right inside the floor of the stadium OR 2) We suggest our beloved minister has his mental checkup done ASAP to avoid any further verbal Diarrhea.

It looks like WEALTH is the only COMMON thing about India hosting Commonwealth Games 2010.

It’s not a game. It’s NATIONAL SHAME.

©All rights reserved with Mihir Rawal. To re-print or re-use, prior permission is required from the author.

Oh! When I Saw Her..!

Visit to Pench Forest - Part 3

A very simple question but give an honest answer – close your eyes, think and tell me, when was the last time you looked at moon?

Sounds silly? Well, this was the question one of my friends asked me when I went to USA in 2008. I was zapped. I thought for a while and I realized I didn’t even know when I looked at the moon last time! Damn! It’s right above my head, every single night shining in fully glory and I just fail to notice! This is again exactly the same thought I had when during night safari, our jeep stopped on a narrow road at midnight right under the dark sky.

Night safari started almost at midnight (shut up...isn’t that the reason why it’s called a night safari!) and we had only half of our gang loaded in two jeeps along with Dr. Ghosh and his gang. Rest of our gang was already flirting with fairies in their dreams :-) Though I am not sure if fairies were enjoying it :D... Alright! From ferries in dreams, lets come back to walking beasts! Night safari cannot happen in core forest area for very obvious reasons (use your brain and still if you can’t make out, ask me these obvious reasons. After such a statement, I am sure nobody is going to ask me.. LOL). During night safari, jeep moves slowly on narrow roads in reserve forest leading to highway. There is ABSOLUTE DARKNESS all around you except torchlight in Dr. Ghosh’s experience hands. This excited bunch of newbies were curious to spot animals at night and Dr. Ghosh was helping us with all his knowledge. Aha! A fox! Where where where? Phew… By the time you turn your head and spot a fox in torchlight, there are all chances that Mr. Skylark fox would have vanished in the dark! It was a pure game of hide and seek! LOL… while we were enjoying this game, all sudden jeeps stopped. Not sure if it was preplanned but the moment jeep stopped, even headlights and torchlights were switched off. While we were wondering what’s happening, all sudden someone from Dr. Ghosh’s team asked us to look up... we just followed the instruction and looked up…

.........STUNNING! MESMERISING! MIND BLOWING!

I just do not have words to describe what I saw and felt when I looked up!!! Imagine this – an absolutely dark night, a narrow road surrounded by trees on either sides, pin drop silence, you look up into the sky and you witness an unbelievable view of thousands of stars sparking like diamonds! Oh My! In fact it was looking like a beautiful diamond studded sari drapped in the most glorious way! As if god is at his creative best! As if he wants you to realize how much he has given to us which we fail to notice every single day! It was just IMPOSSIBLE to take our eyes off or stop looking at the sky! We just don’t know how much time we spent just like that, silent and speechless! And before we moved, I took a promise from Dr. Ghosh that on the way back to resort, we will stop once again to witness this marvel :-)

There are moments which are impossible to capture through words. Either you need to be present at that moment or you need to be Shakespeare to describe it in words! Though I am not Shakespeare (and even my name says so – after all, there is a lot in a name!), I was fortunate to be present at that particular moment, to witness a marvel which I will cherish and treasure for the rest of my life!

Jungle safari ended after three hours which included driving on narrow roads, spotting sporadic wildlife, having tea and lemon juice at a roadside hotel on a highway and taking some creative photos using slow shutter speed. Wonder how creativity starts flowing at 2am! :-)

WAKE UP!

Now either you want to scream or even better, you don’t even want to respond to someone when he is trying to wake you up at 4.30am! What makes it even worse? You just slept at 3am! But not today :-) I took few moments to gather my senses (what else do you expect after a hectic day and one and half hours of sleep?), looked around and jumped out of my bed to get ready. After all, we were going for early morning safari, which was the best chance to spot the king of the jungle! BANG BANG! Who wants to miss that!

By 6am, we were outside the main gate of the core jungle waiting for our turn to enter inside. By 6.15am, we were inside the jungle. We drove a bit further and found bunch of jeeps were stopped on the road and folks inside these jeeps were standing and looking at somewhere far in the jungle. WOOOO HOOO!! Adrenalin started pumping because someone from the other jeep whispered – “TIGER”! Oh My My!! Hey Mr. driver, take our jeeps little backward to avoid those trees, let us pull out our camera, wide open our eyes and.. ah..we couldn’t spot the tiger :-( LOL.. Never mind.. It’s just that our eyes are not so used to spotting wildlife.. It took few more seconds and then… and then… and then… OH YEAH BABY! We spotted THE KING!! Oh wait, not a king but a QUEEN with two little prince / princess :-)!! Oh! I saw her! The famous Tigress of Pench along with her two cubs!!

You need not visit Buckingham palace or go to Mysore palace to feel what is royalty. All you need to do is just spot a tiger in full glory in wilds! Nothing defines royalty, pride and confidence better than a ROYAL TIGER! What a royal walk! She moved with such elegance and pride with who-cares-for-your-presense attitude written all over her! She started walking in the wild from the right hand side of our jeep, crossed the road right in front of us and slowly vanished in the wild on left hand side of our jeep. We traced her with our eyes till the farthest possible distance and then just couldn’t control our joy! BINGO! Our trip was OVER! After all, that’s all we wanted to see! WOO HOO!

It took some time to sink in this wonderful sight as there was pin drop silence inside the jeep for quite a while :-). However, the god of the jungle (and I don’t know who he is) was very happy and kind on that day as he gave us chance to see some amazing sights like – an eagle sitting on a branch holding his prize possession of a snake that he had just killed! Followed by a very rare sight of a peck of wild dogs! Oh I didn’t even bother counting umpteen deer, monkeys, colorful birds, insects, rabbits and god knows what else! But I must remember this dancing peacock :-) Though not sure if he was successful in attracting a female (oh please let me know Mr. peacock.. I need some lessons from you if you had succeeded.. or else, we are in the same boat!), I am sure he provided an amazing view which we clicked in our camera and captured in our mind though human viewfinder.

Some of my friends in other jeep were even luckier as they got a chance to witness a tiger couple playing watersports in a pond! Though they had to sit in scorching heat for an hour waiting for his royal highness and her queen to arrive, it was worth every single moment of wait.

Evening safari was another attempt at spotting a tiger but I guess we all were content by that time. Nah, we didn’t have enough of the jungle – it’s just that we had satisfied our biggest wish of spotting the BIG CAT!

It was 6pm and time for us to leave Pench to get back to Nagpur to board a bus to Hyderabad. Though the Volvo bus had a speaker right about my seat with loudest possible volume, I was dead tired to even bother about it. I rested in peace till someone woke me up at the border of Hyderabad.

That ended a wonderful, memorable trip to relatively unknown area of “Incredible !ndia”. We are bestowed with such beautiful landscapes and god’s wonders that even a lifetime won’t be enough to cover it. However, I will – as much as I can!

Wanna join :-)?

Disclaimer : The subject line of this post has no relation with any human walking on this earth. I am pretty sure you must have realized that by now :). Also you must have realized why I asked Mr. Dancing Peacock for his help :-)

Note : I visited Pench along with 20 other fellows through a trip organized by Great Hyderabad Adventure Club. If you are interested in such trips, you can join @ http://meetup.ghac.in/

©All rights reserved with Mihir Rawal. To re-print or re-use, prior permission is required from the author.

Wild Forest...Here We Come!!

Visit to Pench Forest - Part 2

With all due respect to my beloved motherland, I must say in India, we are used to mediocrity. We are used to see substandard facilities, shabbily maintained places and chaos all around. We are so so so used to see non performing, careless government and government servants. Being an Indian who is used to see frustrating maintenance of most of the tourist places we have, I was shockingly surprised during my visit to Pench!

Pench forest is extended across two of the biggest Indian states, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Now I must appreciate MP government for the way they have maintained this jungle – very much like a jungle! I heard from locals that just few years ago, this area was totally neglected without any basic tourist facilities or even electricity. Though electricity is still sporadic, I must say the way the government is preserving park is really commendable. Take this – in our three jungle safaris in different parts of this jungle, we didn’t see a single plastic bottle, a piece of paper or any sign of loitering!!! This sound may be a small thing but if you close your eyes and imagine most of the places that you have visited, you will agree that to keep a natural place intact is such a big deal and truly deserves due appreciation! I also heard that Maharashtra side of this forest is shabby and not so tourist friendly. So if you have any plan to visit Pench, I strongly recommend you to visit part of this forest which is inside Madhya Pradesh.

Now let’s get back to the trip…

Saturday evening around 4.30pm. A very hot afternoon at Pench. After finishing formalities (transferring from a cab to a jeep and having a forest guard allocated to our jeep), a bunch of enthusiastic block entered into an unknown, unfamiliar territory which is ruled by wilds!

The moment you enter inside the jungle, what really strikes you is the difference in landscape. Asphalted roads are replaced by dry and dusty trails, tall building and lamp posts are replaces by dry grass and abundance of trees. Nonstop noise of vehicles and humans all sudden disappears. It’s calm, very calm and serene. In fact except occasional talk inside the jeep, you can feel even your breath! Irrespective of how hot and dry the jungle is, what really makes it thrilling is the just the feeling of it! Wide open your eyes, spread your arms and take a deep breath! Feel it.. Smell it.. Hug it! This is the surrounding that our ancestors lived in once upon a time when your modern day Pepe and Lee brands were nothing but a bunch of leaves for them which they tied around – you know where :-)

When jungle safari starts, there are bunch of jeeps that enter the park driving one after another. However in no time, all of them goes on different trails inside the vast forest and very soon you find your jeep is the only vehicle till horizon! This makes it even more exciting, thrilling and exclusive experience. Take a bow, the jungle is yours!

Dr. Ghosh had made wonderful arrangement for us – that is to have an expert driver / guide who knows jungle more than Prabhu Deva knows dancing or a Punjabi knows aaloo paratha! After all, it’s a jungle and you have to search / spot animals as they won’t oblige you just like that! Aha, who likes infiltrators after all :-)

The moment we entered, all we wanted to see was a TIGER! Guess what, we came agonizingly close to spotting a tiger in the very first ten minutes of our trip. We saw a kill (an animal killed by a tiger) lying in a narrow stretch. All sudden, there was a buzz in the air! Sniff sniff! Tiger must be around! We spent almost 15 minutes to spot a tiger but were left disappointed :-( Guess what, while coming out of the jungle in the evening, we did spot a tiger nearby the kill in almost fading daylight and those forest guard told that the tiger must have been there since last few hours as he doesn’t like to move much.. sigh, we just couldn’t spot him in broad daylight :-(

However the moment we entered inside the forest, we were greeted by – guess what – our ancestors :D They were there, everywhere! Oh yeah doesn’t matter how many times you see a monkey, it’s still interesting and amusing to spot a monkey as they are always unpredictable with their reactions :-).

Now this bunch of wildlife enthusiasts and bugged photographers started shooting every single thing that they happened to see! Trees, birds, monkeys, deer and even just dry and dusty trails! However nothing thrills like spotting and shooting an animal. You may have seen them few times at the zoo and may be a hundred times on TV... but the experience of seeing wildlife with your naked eyes in wild is – as they say in MasterCard ad - PRICESLESS!

I was little surprised to spot monkeys and deer together plenty of times. Our forest guide and driver added to our poor knowledge that a monkey and a deer is always a great friend! Monkey helps deer by breaking branch of trees and throwing them on the ground while deer helps monkey by raising an alarm when he senses danger (read – a predator).

Soon we realized that there are more monkeys and deer in this jungle than memory in our camera. We can run out of memory but certainly not of monkeys or deer! As soon as we realized this fact, we became little sensible in using our camera :D

Pench has beautiful landscape. You are traveling on a trail surrounded by trees and all sudden you find yourself crossing a small bridge over a dry river having vast open ground on either side! Drive down little further and you see shrinking water body with animal’s footmarks all around it. Then there are dry patches, rocks, hills, curvy roads (as they say in VW beetle ad - curves are back :D), sharp turns and everything that you can ask for in a jungle!

There is no way you can hold your enthusiasm and sit like a decent civilized man in a cab. After all, you are in the jungle and you have all the rights to be a beast! BWAHAHAH…! Yeah.. Yeah.. Yeah! When our jeep entered in the jungle, we were sitting on our seat (by the way, these are open jeeps) and within no time, we all were standing in a jeep looking at the beautiful jungle while hot and dry air tried to blow us away! Little later, we were standing on the top of our seat! LOL! After all, you want to stand as tall as possible to have uninterrupted view of the jungle and nothing beats standing on top of your seat! Beasts!

We spent two good hours in the jungle exploring as much as possible, clicking as many photos as possible and feeling every moment of it! Jeep moves on trails. Stops whenever driver spots something or whenever we ask him to do. Pat comes out cameras and then click-click-click-click till we are satisfied! Then jeep starts again and here starts our conversation in hush-hush voice till the jeep stops once again.

So what all we saw during this two hours of our first jungle safari? – Glimpse of a tiger, a kill by the same tiger, monkeys, deer, plenty of peacocks, owls and bunch of other colorful birds which I don’t remember by name.

It turned out to be a satisfying evening. Though we didn’t see a tiger in full glory, we were very happy to have our first feel of the jungle! So what was there in the store for the evening and night? – Dinner, endless funny talks while sitting on the lawn under the open sky followed by a night safari!

And by the time night safari will end (3am), we will be very much on our way to an early morning safari (5am)! So we will have just couple of hours to sleep but, who cares! Who wants to sleep!

<--Stay tuned for more to come...-->





©All rights reserved with Mihir Rawal. To re-print or re-use, prior permission is required from the author.