Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
एक
एक बार समुद्र लिखा था
दस मिनट तक
फिर रेत भर थकान
बस्तर, लोकतंत्र वगैरा
इस बार
असंख्य कपड़ों की दूकानों के बीच
राह बनाती
महानगर की नंगी सड़क
कपास के बियाबान में
बूँद भर बारिश की लिखत
कौड़ियों से ज़िन्दगी बुनती
अपने मटमैलेपन में अदृश्य
पांच साल की बच्ची 'देऊ'
इस बार
मेरा सफ़र बनती
बाबुल - गाँव से हैदराबाद तक
दो
जैसे रेंगना सीख रही हो
जैसे तैरना
सड़क के बिलकुल बायें
जैसे साइकिल चलाना
रेलगाड़ी के दरवाज़े टिकी
आँचल भर लकड़ी समेटे
वह अस्सी बरस तक कुछ नहीं देखती
जैसे विदर्भ भर फैला
गोबर का काला निर्वात
सफ़ेद कपास के अबूझ विस्तार में
जैसे नदियों का खो जाना
और लापता बारिश
अपनी तय सृष्टियों में मशगूल
मैं लगातार भूलता हूँ
तेलंगाना की बसाहट का स्वर
तीन
आत्रम कुसुम राव
चौपन-गुड़ा का किसान है
वह अपनी एकड़ भर ज़मीन में
कपास के बीज बोता है
जून से दिसंबर तक
वह देना चाहता है
और नहीं दे पाता
बादलों को एक निश्चित आकार
ज़मीन से आकाश
आकाश से बाज़ार
बाज़ार से देह
मैं उतारता हूँ कमीज़
पीली दीवार में
बेरंग थकान की तरह
खूंटे पर टंगी है
कुसुम राव की ढेढ़ किलो ज़िन्दगी
चार
यहाँ उसने खोले
अपनी किलक के सारे भेद
बताया हरे को हरा, नीला, पीला
बनाये अक्षरों के सैकड़ो जोड़े
और टांग दिया उन्हें
अंतरिक्ष की गलियों में
पहाड़ की सबसे ऊंची चोटी पर
उसने बनाई बारिश
तलहटी में जमा दिए सागौन के पेड़
जिससे थोड़ी दूर बसा था उसका घर
घर से आगे
माँ, बाप, भाई, बहन
जब खेत की मेंढ़ पर खड़े
अपनी फसल निहारते
वह बनती ज़मीन
और खेलती
धान के साथ
हवा का आदिम खेल
इन दिनों
एक
घर के ऐन बाहर पान की दुकान थी
वहाँ भी
यहाँ भी
वहाँ
बिना मात्राओं का नाम
पलटन
यहाँ
ऑफिस जाते - आते
मिलती नज़रें
पलटन के पान ठेले से
हैदराबाद के खोमचे तक
फैलती स्मृति
इन दिनों
पता चला
दोनों लौट गए
मृत्यु में
दो
इन दिनों
दस्तखत किये
सुना
कहा
देखा
पहले भोपाल से गाडरवारा
फिर भोपाल से शाजापुर
कैमरे में कैद की
गोपी की फसल
तीरथ की कुम्हारी
खैरी और रयलावत की गलियां
इस वक़्त शायद
europe की बाज़ारों में
बीत रही होंगी
ये तमाम जिंदगियां
किसी विदेशी चैनल पर
इश्तहार की तरह
छप गया होगा मेरा सफ़र
तीन
इतना मैं पहले भी जानता था
कि पैसे बहुत कम हैं
गरीब की संज्ञा नहीं दी थी
हिम्मत नहीं थी
इन दिनों मैंने देखा
इनकी मदद को खुलती अजीब दिशायें
विदेश से देश तक
पगडंडियों को सड़क बनाने के कारनामे
किसानो को खेती सिखाने की हैरत में
मैंने गुज़ारे पिछले तीन साल
इस बीच, शायद नहीं देख पाया
रंगीन तकियों की ढेर से
चादर तान कर
अपने घर में
कहानियों को सुलाती
अपनी बच्ची का बड़ा होना
Monday, April 27, 2009
Biceps, Nirala and etc

I met this farmer in January. He touched my feet, as did many others, believing us to be people who help them.
We (I implicitly include myself with my organization) recently claim to have helped them by establishing an 'Ecocenter' at their village.
A demonstrative project, so to say, which emphasizes on optimum utilization of cow dung & urine for sustainable agriculture.
Thats another say whether I believed in this.
But as I looked into his eyes
I could see
are not helped
He knew it, as his breaths
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Two
As it melted from the sun
And a few brush-sticks
She announced a dawn
To my still sleeping street
For thousand years now
I can imagine
Her sounds
Smudging me
In yellow streaks
Of wakefulness
Old women
With brush sticks
Never cross my street anymore
I resign
To nauseous machinery
Of rainless sleeps
I am not in a run
When she asked for more
I looked out
And there they were
Thousand nights
With a single star
The writing was clear
On the wall
Black ants overtook the red
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Drunk
Comrade,
when do we learn from the river
which flows
all the time
Less than a month
I see the sounds we smear ourselves with over those unbridled nights. Days are more like walking as shadows through a world which immediately seems so intimate and distant. Afternoons happen, evenings lean on it, I remember I wrote years back on such a day.
Its just not the imagery I indulge myself in that called me to write. In fact, I can escape myself for now by saying that this writing happened as a part of my approach. But apart from the euphoria, there's also something cathartic I create for myself around Holi.
I keep telling myself - its almost a re-incarnation. I believe that most of my problems reach solutions around this time. Even if I have a bad stomach ache which reminds me of malignant tumors or an imminent economic crisis, I deify Holi to erase any forebodings.
Not that all along the approach, I never get depressed. I do. But somewhere behind, I sense an unquestionable security. Its just a month away, I would say to keep myself happy.
And does this work? Are my fears allayed?
That would be the last thing I would bother about.
Comrade as we said then and now, they happen and I see them happening.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Mac Pro
Meanwhile I also need to have some registered NLEs for Mac.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Reading
I enjoyed reading it for the first time. But then I have this habit of immediately re-reading a thing I like. This book didnt allow me so.
The language with Amitabh Ghosh becomes too English. And though this book has a contextual relation to Britons, still I would have relished a different flavor. When I say - English - I do not intend to mean that the language is something like how writers from England would script - but rather as something of an Indian writer who overtly owes his allegiance to all that the word ENGLISH encompasses. Ghosh's affinity to the traditional English lingo (may be academic jargon terms it more Oxfordian) is apparent throughout the book despite using a much researched vocabulary on Indian colloquials on nautical terms.
Having said that - I recommend it a 'should read' for all. Especially for the story telling and for some fortunates like me who have quite recently come out of opium addiction.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
UNTITLED
I will have more money
A new big house perhaps
Lots of things to stuff in in that house
May be I will be a better human being than what I am now.
Till then I remain insensitive, self-centric, and perhaps criminal
me: the other day nantu was telling that his co. might just take abhijeet
Monday, January 12, 2009
There are various definitions of democracy I learned over my years as a student. I never paid much attention to any of them. Conversely they remained rather boring and ignored texts in my school books. On some occasions, I heard my friends debate over it and managed to discern some definitive features to the word. At another time, another day, I became helplessly forgetful. With worlds of beautiful things happening to my age then, it would have been foolish to attach more time to the understanding and defining of democracy. I wasted luxuriously in the company of women, music and dreams.
Fifteen years hence, at this age today, I learn of Barack Obama winning the US presidential elections. ‘Change has come to America’ one of the headlines flashes on a browser before me. My office buzzes with the breaking news as does the world, or so it seems. We start exchanging views, engage in speculations, get back to work. I think of ‘change’ and remember the word democracy.
Although a universally acceptable definition for the word is still contentious (and rightly so to be in the democratic spirit), there are a couple of principles inclusive to all its allied concepts. First that all members of the society have equal access to opportunities and second that all members enjoy universally accepted freedom and liberties. Fair enough, one must say because what’s more valid than a free society. That is to speak of a society where Mangal a sweeper sips his tea in the same hotel as Raghav a brahmin. Or Kaneez a girl studies in the same ranks as Omar a boy. Or in the same sense, Barrack Obama, a black becomes the president of America.
The change has certainly come in, I think before I write. My thoughts take me home, to that serpentine alley in Ganja Chowk, Raigarh. In the room facing the street, my daughter plays with her friends. Aged between 3-5 most of them belong to the same neighborhood. A heap of toys gathers at the center with children weaving their lives around it. At a distance, near the threshold stands Ria, our maidservant’s granddaughter. She reluctantly makes it to the swarm of children and manages to touch a plastic locomotive from the heap. A little later when all the kids are made to sit in a row to share the Puja Prasad, she involuntarily takes an obscure corner.
Born to a lower caste and relatively poorer family, Ria explains a different childhood to me. Once again I think of democratic rights.
This time the image is that of my student days. Back then in college, we generally noticed the scheduled tribe and scheduled caste students, making groups among themselves. It was noticeably rare that one of them shared time or space with us. Though theoretically we did possess the equality, but it usually felt as if we belonged to different worlds. I clearly remember the dementia of those times when during the anti-Mandal commission uproar, faces from the other world bore an expression of utter fear. Once when my girlfriend asked me about the Mandal commission and the entailing disturbance, I jokingly said – ‘it’s preventing that lovely black girl from snatching me from you’.
My girlfriend might just have supported the anti-reservation antics but coming back to my joke, I find it all the more serious. It remains a fact that for centuries the dominant class has fringed its binary, being both grossly exploitative in its intent and shrewdly manipulative in its approach. The past few decades of laissez faire have served well to widen the divide. Today in India we have fourth highest number of dollar billionaires in the planet and simultaneously we rank 126th in the Human Development Indicators which means its better to be a poor person in Bolivia (the poorest nation in South America). CEO salaries recorded an all time high last year while we have 836 million people living on less than Rs 20 a day. A new restaurant opens everyday in some city of the country, while in the last five years we added more newly hungry millions than the rest of the world. Our economic growth rate is said to attain envious proportions and yet farmer indebtedness has doubled in the last decade, from 26.2% in 1991 to 46.3% in 2001. Inequalities are bound to rise with unbridled capitalism and lack of a firm political will.
It’s as a result of this long-term uni-polarity of power that my maidservant’s granddaughter understands life from a window my daughter perhaps would never choose to peep through. Or in that case black girls would never ever snatch me from my girlfriends.
With Obama’s historic victory, the promise for a change has been agreed upon by many to arrive. My limited resources of intellectual capital prevent me to analyze the magnitude and nature of this deemed change. Secure within the laziness of a careless writer, I barely get to understand that he stops the misadventures like restoring democracy in Iraq and Afganistan and attends to rather urgent calls like re-structuring the American farm bill, where a reduction in subsidies to the cotton farmers alone could feed a million children more in Africa. Off late, sledging America on various grounds has been an order of the day in the developing world. May be the president takes account of such voices, and explores why in the first place did they arise? In short, he could re-visit the word democracy, and apply it with honesty.
As far as India is concerned, we have so many Americas within us; need to sort those out first. We need to ascertain that across the country in our homes, children like Ria have a stake, we need to gather that eyes of black women have dreams too.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Khamosh Adaalat Jaari Hai
me: comrade free?
Amalendu: no
me: k
Sent at 16:52 on Tuesday
Amalendu: hai...
had a meeting with students...
now free...
me: how much income tax do i pay when i get a consultancy of 38000 per month
approx fig
Amalendu: aprox. income is 4.5Lakhs per annum right?
me: 4.2
Amalendu: do you have any saving in LIC, PF, PPF, ELSS
me: no chance narang saheb
Amalendu: or NSC or five yer fixed deposit in bank?
me: no darling
Amalendu: ok
Sent at 17:44 on Tuesday
Amalendu: 5k+20k+35k= about 60k
but...
me: saath hazaar
ok
Amalendu: consultancy income has lot of loopholes...
me: ya
Amalendu: you can show quite a bit as expenditure....
me: like
house rent can i shownt be
Amalendu: all telephone expenses, travel expenses...
me: ok
Amalendu: food and lodging...
me: ok
but how did u calculate?
Amalendu: buying computer or internet or laptop...(depriciation about 50% of the cost of comp or laptop)
upto 1.1 lakh no tax
me: k
Amalendu: 1.1 to 1.5 (10%)
me: ok
Amalendu: 1.5 to 2.5(20%)
2.5 and above 30%
me: ok
so out of my 4.2
only 3.2 is getting taxed
Amalendu: yes
even you can deduct your house rent...
me: and if i invest 50000 then?
Amalendu: how much rent do you pay?
me: 4500pm
Amalendu: do all the calculation for the financial year...
don't give me monthly picture..
when did you join this job?
me: June
Amalendu: ok..
that means you have 9 months income this year..
right..
me: ya
and in my consultancy fee its written that its against 18 days every month
Amalendu: thats ok..
you dont have anyother income right?
me: no
thats not accounted i mean
Amalendu: so your this financial years income is 3.4lakhs
me: ya
Amalendu: deduct house rent from that
me: ok
Amalendu: 40K
me: just tell me if i invest 50k somewhere what happens is it deducted
Amalendu: for 9 months
remaining is 3 lakhs
me: ok
Amalendu: deduct some expenses in travel say 20K
me: ya
2.8
Amalendu: remaining 2.8 Lakhs
deduct telephne expenses say 10K
me: ok
Amalendu: 2.7 lakhs
do you have a comp or laptop?
me: office laptop
but i can show a computer
and cameras
Amalendu: yes
what is the aprox. price of both?
me: 2k
Amalendu: what?
me: 2lakh
Amalendu: take only one thing this time may be comp not camera...
me: ok
Amalendu: use camera for next year IT calculation...
me: thats only 40000
Amalendu: so 20K is depriciation of Comp
me: ok
2.5 bacha
Amalendu: so remaining 2.5K
2.5 L
me: ya
Amalendu: yes
do you have distance travel like air travel train expenses?
and lodging...
me: that was borne by office
Amalendu: did you spend anything from your pocket...like your wife and child travelling?
me: ya
not much
Amalendu: how much aprox?
in the financial year...
me: very little two trips to raigarh and back
2000
Amalendu: you dont have to produce bills./////
me: ok
thats so human
Amalendu: take 3A fair and make it about 5 or 10K
me: ok
Amalendu: remaining 2.4L
me: ya
Amalendu: now from this upto 1.1 L
no tax
me: ok
Amalendu: 1.1 to 1.5 10% i.e. 4K tax
1.5 to 2.4 20% i.e. 18K tax
total 22K tax
me: ok
and now if i do a LIC of 50000 then
Amalendu: now if you invest in section 80 ie. pf, ppf etc
say 50K
me: k
Amalendu: your tax liability will be 4k+8k = 12k
me: ok
Amalendu: I would suggest invest in tax saving mutual funds
me: ok
will do that
Amalendu: DSP ML tax saver or SBI Magnum tax gain
me: will do with SBI
Amalendu: lock in period is 3 years and growth is better...
me: ok
Amalendu: you should also buy mediclaim policy for your family
me: how much does that cost
Amalendu: being in
me: because my cash is so sporadic in nature
Amalendu: spend 2k you will get for about 1 lakh for the family
this is for the year
me: 2k means 2 lakhs
Amalendu: no
2000
me: 2000
ok
Amalendu: buy from Natiaonal Insurance
me: so initially how much money does this mediclaim needs to be put in
Amalendu: govt. one
no just 2000 aprox for 1L
me: ok
fine
Amalendu: you can put 4k for 2L
this is nonrefundabale
me: and does it mean recurring at some intervals
Amalendu: every year you have to renew it...
me: ok
good
Amalendu: if there is no claim in previous year you get some bonous
it is like car insurance
me: and SBI mutual funds whom or where do they sell that
Amalendu: but necessary when you are away from your home in a big city and with a small child
me: ya
Amalendu: any agent will do that
me: ok
Amalendu: just ask your office a/c he will help you
me: ya just did that and she is calling a person
Amalendu: am I sounding like a proper finacial advisor?
me: yes very enlightening
be one u will earn more
Amalendu: still I dont file my own return...
me: OK
Amalendu: I take help of an agent...
me: FINAL QUESTION
WHAT IF I DONT FILE RETURN THIS YEAR
Amalendu: agent takes about 300 rupees and does everything for you
me: HOW MUCH AM I FINED LATER
Amalendu: how much TDS your organisation deducts from you?
me: 10%
I TAKE HOME 34K
Amalendu: which means you have already paid more than 30K tax right?
me: YA
Amalendu: you have to file the return to claim the refund...
thats first thing...
me: YA THATS WHAT MY BOSS TOLD
Amalendu: second and most important thing is if your are travelling abroad...
3 years IT return works very positivly for your visa
me: OK
Amalendu: do you have PAN?
me: YES
Amalendu: good
me: got it in June
Amalendu: will this be your first IT return?
me: yes boss
Amalendu: great welcome to Govt. of India
me: thanks I am honoured
so now i am buying this sbi mutual fund
how much does this cost
Amalendu: are you planning to invest 50K?
me: if get a salary this month or else 25
Amalendu: whatever is the amount divide it between two
me: ok
Amalendu: I would suggest some good part in DSP ML Tax saver
me: ok
Amalendu: the NAV of it is about 15
per unit
me: ok
Amalendu: and SBI Magnum Tax gain NAV is about 60 per unit
me: ok
what is DSP
Amalendu: go for 60% in DSP and and 40% in SBI
me: ok
Amalendu: DSP Maryll Lynch
me: ok
Amalendu: a company
me: ya
fir wo bazaar me mera paisa laga denge
Amalendu: yes
you can check daily NAV in business news paper
me: ok
so i will do this coz my ac says we are getting salaries
Amalendu: long time back I bought Reliance Diversified power sector growth at 23 rupees
me: ok
Amalendu: now it is 75
yes
me: i pumped in 50000 last month when the market crashed
Amalendu: after or before crash?
me: at the time of crash
Amalendu: good
me: now its gaining
Amalendu: nice...which companies?
me: dont know ---its a desi mutual fund concept where u have a friend whom u trust
Amalendu: he invests
me: ya
he had been my asst in
Amalendu: is he a Gujarati?
me: yes
Jatin Popat
Amalendu: good....
dont worry...they are trust worthy in money matter...
me: ya he is a raigarhiya
Amalendu: and no one can better time this market than those...
me: thats all the more untrustworthy though
In 2001 I lost 1 lac in this shares business just due to trust
Amalendu: for me also a guy advises...from Ahmedabad...
me: ok
my shares are from reliance
Amalendu: for long term banking sector seems to be good...
me: no idea
Amalendu: particularly in 2009 and 10 you can get the return if you invest today...
me: ok
Amalendu: thats my analysis
me: i just spend so much that nothing is left to invest
propensity to save is conspicuously absent
Amalendu: and I have not invested a single rupee directly in stock market...
me: GOI should subsidize liquour
and people who admire women should get tax waivers
Amalendu: match called off
me: bad
do I post this chat on my blog
Amalendu: yes
me: yes
there are so many confused souls
the other day i was reading abt taimur lane - the mongol
Amalendu: haan...
me: he was a strange character - somebody with that much violence is extraordinary
Amalendu: true...
me: gyanesh was online yesterday
and he sent me a film
Amalendu: which one?
me: soft core pornography
Amalendu: ok
me: I ate his head with hardcore messages
Amalendu: ha...ha...
me: my wife is coming on the 8th
we will plan a visit feb end
Amalendu: yes.. that would be nice...
me: bcoz tini's kid will be one year old on march 1
so that can also be attended to
Amalendu: april 11 or 13 we are planning Aadi's mundan...
me: good
Amalendu: in Subramanya temple...
me: children look beautiful with tonsured heads
Amalendu: yes...
me: that temple in puttur
Amalendu: as such he has very less hair...
like me
me: haha
Amalendu: no...
me: blore
Amalendu: it is near deepika's village a famous Kartikeya temple...
me: ok
Amalendu: even Sachin Tendulkar visited that...
me: then its good
Amalendu: its 40 km from Puttur
me: ok
i remember that temple with a fish pond
and ashwini
Amalendu: i.e. Mahalingeswara in Puttur...
me: ya
Amalendu: ashwini is in TISS Mumbai...
me: ya she scrapped around august
Amalendu: thats long time...
me: really
people should be more sensitive
Amalendu: yes..
me: all social sciences are based on that
Amalendu: what?
me: sensitivity
Amalendu: sensitivity?
ok
me: and did u learn driving
Amalendu: which part of your body is most sensitive?
NO
me: thighs
because they are weak
Amalendu: all social sciences are based on thighs....
me: In fact
Amalendu: this seems to be logic...
me: good
Amalendu: foundation of philosophy...
ha..ha..
me: ya
bunny had written a wonderful paper on right to philosophy
will send you that
Amalendu: send...
me: went
next month onwards i start studying fo r my MA
Amalendu: yes
me: they have a week long gap between each paper
so thats enough to read five questions
Amalendu: yes...
but will you travel every week?
me: Did you read anything by this years Eco nobel laureate couple
one of them never had formal training in economics
Amalendu: no
so also many past laureate
me: thats good
did u see sashi on saturday
Amalendu: yes
me: and beers
Amalendu: he was asking about you a
no
here in our Academy
me: ok
Amalendu: we had a Research Advisory Committe meeting
me: ok
Amalendu: he is one of the members
me: one of my optional papers is Research methodology
Amalendu: he asked whats your plan about that documentary...
me: I am finishing the website of my org and then i take a plunge
Amalendu: I told him about your sending a mail to Sainath...
he is interested in short films...
me: thinking of getting it funded by stakeholders and approaching somebody like raghubir yadav for the role
Amalendu: he was telling that that there lenses available where you can get the depth of film in video camera...
me: yes
Amalendu: he wants to buy those and make short films
me: In the camera format he has only one camera comes with that film look
Amalendu: he has started appreciating film from the depth of photography angel....
me: This technology is called progressive scan
Amalendu: ok
me: He has to shoot with artificial lights once to get the real film effect
Sent at 18:46 on Tuesday
Amalendu is busy. You may be interrupting.
