मौसम

मौसम! प्यारा मौसम!
कभी गर्मी , कभी बरसात, तो कभी सर्दी
अलग अलग लोगों के लिए अलग अलग मतलब लिए हुए

याद आती है एक कहानी
दो बहनों की
एक किसान के घर बियाही -
एक कुम्हार के.

बूढ़ा पिता चला
कुशल क्षेम पूछने
पहले एक बेटी के पास -
फिर दूसरी के पास.

बाकी सब कुछ ठीक था
परन्तु -
किसान की बीवी को चाहिए थी वर्षा
कुम्हार की बीवी को चाहिए थी धूप
अपना अपना स्वार्थ था

बूढ़ा पिता असमंजस में कि

- किस के लिए दुआ मांगे !

A Blessing or………..!

The English love or prejudice for the colour white is too well known to need any emphasis here. We in India take pride in our wheat complexion , perhaps rightly so , and liken ourselves to the most perfectly made specimen of roti , heated to the right degree - neither left raw or under heated ( fair skinned races ) nor over heated (dark skinned races) . The anglicized Indians have often been referred to as the brown sahibs. For good or for bad I was ‘blessed' with a fair skin and may have been good looking and during childhood was an object of envy for friends and classmates ‘less endowed ’ in this respect. Nevertheless, they had nicknamed me “Angrez”.

I must have been just about four or five year old, when on a bright sunny Sunday, my father took me along to the Mall, Shimla to have a stroll. Walking towards the Mall, near the CTO Building , an English couple, coming from the opposite direction stopped to have a look at me, smilingly exchanged a few words with my father. The lady took out a blue colored water-ball with a rubber string attached (yo-yo) from her bag and touching me on the cheeks,gave it to me. Sounds flattering, doesn’t it!

The same white skin with passage of time has started giving trouble now. I am allergic to sun rays,cannot face the direct sun and mine is a furrowed face which makes me look older than actually I am . Even the hair-color which my wife is at pains to apply is of little help. It is now my turn to envy my ‘less endowed’ friends with wrinkle-free smooth skin with virtually no signs of ageing who can still pass for a “bhai sahib” instead of an “uncle” that I am called and made to feel even by the fairly old ones !

happy lohri

आज लोहड़ी के पावन पर्व के अवसर पर बचपन की याद ताज़ा हो आई .
बच्चों की टोली सड़क व मोहल्लों में निकल कर लोहड़ी
मांगते हुए ये पंक्तियाँ गाया करती थी :

सुंदर मुंदरिये हो !
तेरा कौन बिचारा हो !
दुल्ला भठ्ठी वाला हो !
जिन्ने धी बियाही हो !
सेर शक्कर पाई हो !
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सच में, बचपन के दिन भी क्या दिन थे !