नींद आंखों से बस ज़रा सा परे

ख़्वाब की राह रोके बैठी है!!!

दिन के लंबे सफर से लौटा हूँ…
धूप की गिन्नियों को चुन चुन कर…
रात के जिस्म को सजाऊंगा…
शाम ठहरी है दरमियां कबसे…!!!

आँख में डूब कर कभी देखो...
लफ़्ज़ की मोतियाँ चमकती हैं...!!!

रिम झिम सी एक सोच...

कब तक रखूं ख़ुद को बंद
AC की ठंडी घुटन में
बाहर निकलूँ, देखूँ तो
पत्ते फिर से हरे हुए हैं
बारिश की बूंदों को फिर...
चुप्पी साध के सुनूँ ज़रा...
इनमें भी कुछ गीत छुपे हैं...
भीग के पूरा बारिश में...
बदन नया लेकर ही लौटूं...!!!!

बेआर्ज़ू ही बीत गया कल का सारा दिन
बेख्वाब ही गुज़र गई कल की रात भी..!

जिस्म कच्चा घड़ा है, जाँ पानी
और खमोशी से रिस रहा हूँ मैं!

MICHAEL JACKSON: MOONWALK UNDER THE SUN

The Love: Growing through the old alleys of Dam Zane Lane, Tiretta Bazaar, Phears Lane, and Zakaria Street, near Central Avenue in Kolkata [then it was my Calcutta], in early 80’s Michael Jackson was an unheard name for me. Living in a Muslim populated area where my neighborhood consisted of only Muslims and few Chinese my world was very limited…Those were the days when my father and uncles used to listen to vividh bharti on AIR…The programs like Binaca Geetmala, Hawa Mahal and Jai Jawan were famous… I remember the radio at my place always playing hindi songs which people around used to enjoy. And the singers who were famous were Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Mohd. Rafi, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar. They used to be the undisputed kings and queens among the music lovers. And I had lived through the nostalgic conversations on Talat Mehmood and Surayya and Noor Jahan among my uncles… English songs were an alien concept for my neighborhood. Then came Mithunda’s famous movie DISCO DANCER…and everything changed…Disco fever was catching up…Aap Jaisa Koi meri Zindagi mein Aaye sung by Nazia Hasan was a hit…A series of Mithunda’s movies saw the emergence of Bappi Lahiri… Films like HIMMATWALA, TOHFA, JUSTICE CHAUDHRY were hits…Tennis was emerging and Gabriela Sabatini and Steffi Graff were talked about…Vivian Richards was holding the sinking boat of West Indies and Imran Khan was emerging…Azharuddin had hit three consecutive centuries on his debut…! Mexico Football World Cup had seen the famous “hand” goal by Maradona…!!

Coming back to music, Bappi Lahiri’s fast numbers had started making its impact. Youths were catching up his songs with open arms. Even I had started liking those songs too.
But all this changed during a random visit to the only AC market [at that time]. One day, while I was walking past a music store in that AC market I heard an English song…It struck me…Something was great about the song…I was totally mesmerized to hear its fast beats and music. And soon I found myself inside the store. I casually enquired about the song and came to know the name of the singer - “Michael Jackson”. That was a very memorable day of my life and eye opening too. I felt cheated by Bappida. He was taking inspiration from English songs and creating average music…while on the other hand, this man MJ was creating masterpieces. [Anyone can compare the song of Kasam Paida Karne Waale Ki with MJ’s Thriller]… Well, I wanted to buy a copy of the song but couldn’t afford. Also we didn’t have the required cassette player at home. But this didn’t affect my adoration for MJ.

From then onwards I started going to the AC market just to listen to those songs. I just used to walk around the music store and wait somebody ask for the cassette and the shopkeeper play the song before selling it…

At home, I pulled my radio knob on all the bandwidth, but MJ’s song was not there. My only source of listening MJ’s song was that music store. The music stores nearby my house didn’t have those songs…The people around weren’t fond of English Music…So every time I visited AC market from then onwards was to hear MJ…I used to wait outside the store just in hope that may someone will come and change the track for next song. Some time it happened, the other time not…but my adoration for MJ continued…Here I must mention that at the same time I discovered Madonna along with MJ and the two became my favorites…And when at some place I saw the video of MJ’s moonwalk I was completely in awe of him…MJ danced like GOD…He redefined the art of dance…He exhibited the complete control over body as he danced with so much zeal and energy…Thousand times I dreamt of moonwalk like MJ…!!!

The Separation: After doing Intermediate I left Calcutta and came to Aligarh Muslim University to complete my graduation and post graduation…. Those were the rising days of George Michael but my loyalty was still intact for MJ and Madonna. But all this changed when I came to know about MJ’s skin change. He was desperately trying to become white… This jolted me. I saw MJ as a patient suffering from inferiority complex…How can you disown your identity just for imitating some else? And that also of guy of MJ stature who had fanatic fan following of white skins. His songs were chartbusters throughout Europe and US and even in Asian region.

Some where I lost respect for MJ. And when you lose respect for the creator, you lose respect for his creation too. There was a kind of detachment…Now I could have afforded his cassettes but didn’t buy. In the meantime, things changed…MAINE PYAAR KIYA came and the entire youth brigade was overwhelmed to see Salman Khan…Madonna remained there but George Michael’s FAITH took over the youth by storm…Steffi Graff was the ultimate queen of Tennis though Monica Seles keep grunting here and there…and then India had Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi controversy to handle rather than admiring a moonwalk or anything artistic…In short, MJ, was fading out slowly though…

The End: May be I had lost respect for MJ but I always kept myself update about the MJ. The child abuse case, his falling career, the controversies around always troubled me. I had seen his rise. Seeing him fall was really disturbing… What an irony of a man who made an empire and then ruined himself. Every controversy against him was pushing me to think for him.
MJ was a case of “power-corrupts-you”…His desperation to look good to better to the best led him play against nature…and Nature is quiet but not Kind always…Nature doesn’t like people challenge her…In the end, Micheal Jackson had to fall…fall at the feet of Nature…

A perfect Art makes an artiste the “Real God”…The way your creation is adored, they way the creator is worshipped one fails to understand why an artiste had to do all this…MJ as black emerged…escalated to the glorious height…from where he could have easily seen the whites looking up to him with great admiration and immense respect…then why did he have to become one of them…MJ’s triumph was the triumph of the Blacks…MJ represented an ostracized section of society and he would have remained so on the top but his inferiority complex pulled him down…!!!

The moonwalker was under the sun!!!

When the news of his death came to me, I didn’t know how to react. May be I was happy that the master has been relieved from all the pains and ordeals he was up to… Finally his pains are over…

God give our “Moonwalker” peace and happiness… Goodbye MJ… The creator has gone but not his creations… BAD, THRILLER, HISTORY…are alive!!!

CONVICTION

CONVICTION…!

What is it…?

What convinces is conviction. If you don’t believe in the argument you're advancing you're as good as dead. Conviction gives you energy and power to sell…your ideas, your words…Conviction defines the power of your belief…

There are people who convince you not because of their strong arguments but by their strong positions they hold…And when you make them believe that you are convinced they feel their conviction worked but actually it was their POWER that made them win…

Leading by instincts is better than by Conviction…At least in the former case the others won’t question your instincts…Instincts are instincts…No logical explanation is required but if you lead by your conviction you have to have reason…some logic…

Well when we work as a team conviction is always a word that hovers around like a witch…My Conviction or your Conviction…The argument goes on…And whosoever is powerful wins…The witch that is Conviction smiles over us… Once FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE had said, “Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.” So ultimately it is the lie that wins…!!!

Nevertheless, Conviction is not that bad either…One has to go by his or her conviction…Conviction brings strength…As I said it gives you energy and power to sell…But then it is you who are accountable…And you have to be alert nothing is going wrong…You have to read and reread your own conviction…Conviction is not your conscience…The conviction of yours may lead you to nowhere sometimes… A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures. Here I must quote, THOMAS CARLYLE who says “Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.”

However, God Bless to those who have conviction!

FROM BIDAAI TO SWARG

It’s over a month now since I left Bidaai that I have been writing story since Episode No. 5…

It was sometime in August 2007 when I got a call from Mr. Rajan Shahi…I didn’t know him personally nor did he know me…An actor friend of mine [Meghna Malik who is playing the Ammaji in Laado on Colors] recommended my name and I got a call from Rajan ji…

At that point of time I didn’t want to write but there was something in Mr. Rajan that made me say yes and when I met him I saw a passionate guy who was turning producer but at the same time creatively he was totally hooked on to the project. Then on the second meeting I was quite surprised to see him having interactive sessions among all the writers and directors on board…Earlier since the time daily soaps had arrived a writer couldn’t get a chance to meet even the director of the show…If one writer is writing story he used to be totally unaware of who is writing the dialogues…Such was the scenario of daily soaps…Rajan ji brought back the times of weekly serials where writers and directors used to have discussions…A writer had the say on casting as well as on the sets and looks…

I was thrilled…there was the working atmosphere I was comfortable with and I really got hooked on to see Mr. Rajan bringing back the old days of creative exercise…

Through the initial hiccups, I went on writing BIDAAI for more than 350 Episodes till the time I quit…

Today I feel nostalgic about the project because writing Bidaai has been truly learning as well as enjoyable experience throughout…Not only I tasted great success along with all the people associated with the project, Bidaai somewhere gave me the space to explore real emotions which was almost fading out from serials…

I and Mr. Rajan share an unspoken liking towards each other…We never go gaga over each other’s work but yes there is mutual respect and a silent admiration…And that is the reason I am doing his new show SWARG for colors…

Coming back to BIDAAI, I have a few things to share…

When I introspect, I strongly feel that it was the great vision of Mr. Vivek Bahl [Creative/Programming Head of Star Plus] that worked for Bidaai…And I am really grateful to Vivek who gave me full freedom to explore the story and at the same time he guided me to mount the story to a point where audience should wait for the crescendo…Where to pump in emotion and where to release it…I simply followed his vision and I took incidences from real life, from the household experiences of my own relatives and put through the characters of BIDAAI…

Then there was great execution…Rajan’s directors’ team has a great sense of capturing emotions, little nuances and they do have a keen eye on packaging as well…
In short, Bidaai has given me immense creative satisfaction and today I can sit and proudly remember the show…!!!

Last but not the least, apart from some great performances by Alokji, Vibhaji, Angad, Sara and Parul I must thank God to have Anamikaji on board as the dialogue writer, Garima Goyal/Virendra Shawney as the screenplay writers and Shefali Lal as the Creative Head on the show…Shefali has put her heart and soul into the show and the entire team is still going great…HAIL BIDAAI…

And from here I have to move on…The next project I am doing with Mr. Rajan Shahi is called “ MAAT PITA KE CHARNO MEIN…SWARG” !

It’s a tribute to our parents…the show deals with the sanskaar what we have learnt from our parents…Values, Roots and Culture…The serial deals with the relationships…Relationships we are born with and the relationships we choose to live with…Every relationship matters in life though it may go through some testing times…

If I have to sum up the serial in one line I will quote Emily Kimbrough - Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand.

चुप की मुट्ठी खोल के देखूं
बात की कौड़ी जमा हो शायद