'Many'cure?

हमारे देश में अंग्रेजी के बलात्कार का एक नमूना आप की नज़र. (नज़दीक से देखने के लिए फोटो पर डबल क्लिक करें).

बाकी सब तो फिर भी चला लेंगे पर child cutting? वीभत्स!

Bigg Boss

When it started, Bigg Boss – the reality TV show – was somewhere at the top of my “most hated TV programs” list – voyeurism at its worst. In its 3^rd season, however, I am surprised, even a little bit ashamed I admit, that I am hooked on to Bigg Boss! I now find it among the most interesting programs on the telly!

I understand an explanation is due.

The initial ice-breaker was the new host Amitabh Bachchan who for me upped the credibility of the show. It seems to me that the general flippancy abounding in the earlier shows has been replaced by a certain gravitas, even though studiously manufactured.

But more than that, it is the format which I have now started seeing in a new light. I earlier considered it no more than putting a few celebrities together and enjoy their shenanigans.

As I watched however, I have been increasingly fascinated of this unique psychological laboratory where human subjects, completely shorn of their celebrity status, act and react to real and imagined pressure cooker situations. Of course, like all reality TV, much of it must be manufactured reality but even then, it is done quite subtly.

Of course, one last and important reason is the participants themselves, all of whom are quite interesting this time. Of course, beneath their different personalities, quirks and idiosyncrasies, they reiterate how similar all human beings are, how we value ourselves more than anything or anyone else and how we love to see others fall.

Any guesses on who would be the winner this time?

Kaise Hota Hai

A young friend of mine recently passed away in a most unfortunate manner. 29 is no age to go, not by a cardiac arrest, not in any manner.

While at his funeral, I could not bear the sight of his father - helpless, desolate and apparently bereft of any emotions. Cheated by life, he seemed to me. I can not even imagine the hell he must be going through. I just wish & pray he and the whole family is able to pull themselves together and come out of this.

Curiously, at this time, I am also reminded about a poem I wrote 4 years ago about how when a child is born, s/he fills up, lights up our entire lives. I reproduce it below, with a strange hope that as times go by, happier memories would soften the cruel blow of destiny:

कैसे होता है?

कैसे होता है,

कि

मासूम हंसी का एक तार

सी देता है ज़िन्दगी के सारे पैबंद

और

एक मुस्कराहट भर के लिए

दम भरती है ज़िन्दगी

करती है - इंतज़ार

कैसे होता है

कि

बंजर दिल की ज़मीं को

तर कर देते हैं

सिर्फ दो नन्हे आंसू,

और उदास एक नज़र से

मानती है खुदाई भी हार

कैसे होता है

कि नन्हे दो हाथों में

उतर आता है

सारा आसमां

और

छोटे छोटे कदम

बन जाते हैं

आहट ज़िन्दगी की

कैसे होता है

कि

एक किलकारी भर से

होती है बसावट

पूरी ज़िन्दगी की!

(19.01.2004)

Good Bye JP.