Aanand's Blog

About art, poetry and black and white colors

[oddmarathikavita]

[oddmarathikavita]

गर्दीचा हट्ट

अजून संपले नाही प्रेमगीत ते प्यारे

जुळून येतील ओळी संपतील दुरावे सारे

अनोळखी मी होतो स्वतःस विसरून गेलो

जेव्हा फिरलो मागे तेव्हा दिसली पुढ्यातील दारे

जड कितीशे होते वाऱ्यावर तडफडणारे

येतात पहा ही मागे भूतकाळाची वजने का रे?

श्वास जरासा घे तू हात स्वतःचा धर तू

गर्दीचा हट्ट सोडून तू स्वतःस स्वीकार ना रे  

[oddmarathikavita]

ह्याला कौशल्य म्हणायचं की वेडेपण

जे नाहीये

ते दिसतं तेव्हा भीती वाटते

ह्याला कौशल्य म्हणायचं की वेडेपण, 

असं किती वाटते

आयुष्याच्या पडद्याला फाडून

पलीकडच्या निर्बंधांना सुरुंग लावत

उजाडलेल्या भूभागावर थैमान घालत

मर्त्य आयुष्याला अनंत बनवण्याचा अट्टाहास 

आणि शब्दाला शब्द जोडत

रिकाम्या डोक्याना गदागदा हलवण्याचा ध्यास

छाताडात दडी मारून बसलाय

आयुष्यातले इतर डोकं आपटत राहतात

हा कोण? कुठला? ह्याचं काय करायचं?

त्यांच्या आखून ठेवलेल्या चौकटीत बसलो नाही

की त्यांना भीती वाटते

ह्याला कौशल्य म्हणायचं की वेडेपण, असं किती वाटते

-प्रज्ञानंद

Photo by Mr TT on Unsplash

[oddmarathikavita]

डोह रिकामा

[oddmarathikavita]

जुळवलेल्या नात्यांना सावरुया आता

भावनांच्या भरतीला आवरूया आता

जुळवलेल्या नात्यांना सावरुया आता

अश्रूंनी जड झाली हवा पहा आहे

रागाने रागाचा हात धरला आहे

खेळ भावनांचा हा आपण समजूया आता

जुळवलेल्या नात्यांना सावरुया आता

बोललेल्या शब्दांचे खिळे मग होतील

केलेल्या कर्मांचे हात ढिले होतील

तक्रारींना प्रेमाने सोडवुया आता

जुळवलेल्या नात्याना सावरुया आता

ऊतू गेल्यावर तळ नुसता उरतो

भरतीच्या भावनांचा भाव ही घसरतो

झाली असेल चूक तर जाऊ दे ना आता

जुळवलेल्या नात्यांना सावरुया आता

-प्रज्ञानंद

[oddmarathikavita]

What is Freedom?

Yet again, our Independence day has arrived. Yes! Rejoice! Enjoy!

And yeah, I understand not having an extra holiday on weekdays. Independence day should not fall on Sunday. I agree with you, but let’s submit to Steve Maraboli’s wisdom ‘You must learn to let go. Release the Stress. You were never in control anyway.’

So let’s dump our disappointment about a holiday on the weekend and let’s focus on the context. Freedom and Independence day. I spent last several years studying and understanding our National Struggle for Independence. Bipan Chandra has his way of painting the picture. Wink! Wink! LOL!

I have a lot of free time these days, and so I keep revisiting main storyline of our national freedom struggle. It is interesting to find the single thread to lead the story. Along with it, my mind repeatedly remembers old social gatherings and school lectures which introduced me to the movement.

Discovery that a story has multiple angles was the brightest day of my life. And since then my life has not been the same. Whenever I revisit National Movement, I see through these multiple angles to connect the dots. It is like the rediscovering everything once again. It is fun and empowering.

Gandhi is great, good, or bad based on how you see it.

Gandhi vs Ambedkar, Gandhi vs Subhash Chandra Bose, Gandhi vs Jinnah, Gandhi vs Bhagat Singh these are a few of the angles.

I had a friend in my study group. He was Hindu, and he was obsessed with Jinnah. He spent some serious time understanding Jinnah’s role in Indian National Movement and how his political route diverged from the Congress.

Whenever we talked, I used to bark at him with a preconceived notion that character Jinnah is an enemy. I never read about Jinnah before him. But slowly and slowly, things changed. My arrogance that came out of my ignorance settled down against his understanding of the Jinnah’s character.

I discovered a human being beyond legend. Same thing happened about Savarkar, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Tilak and some more characters in the story.

This rediscovery achieves its pinnacle while revisiting constituent assembly.

Come from any background, hold your beliefs, love Gandhi, hate Gandhi, love congress, hate congress, but when you see the picture of constituent assembly and stand in the spirit of the makers of the constitution, you suddenly understand the meaning of the freedom and Independence.

Everything that has happened before and everything that is ever going to happen in the future goes through that sacred time. Greatest minds in the country sat together, keeping aside their differences and with commitment that we can build a nation. They all committed to build tools and mechanism and ways for the future generations to follow.

And here we are. A leaf fell in the river and started flowing with it.

So what do you think freedom is?

Is freedom like natural resource we can consume?

Or an event or festival that we celebrate?

Or ocean of positive emotions that we bathe in once a year?

Or is it a blog post?

Or a selfie?

Or a projection of a caricature?

Or identity politics?

Or patriotism and respect?

Or trolling online?

What is it?

Years back, on this same date, we got our freedom.

We are still discovering it.

Freedom beyond freedom!