लोहड़ी

यों तो लोहड़ी रात को अलाव जला कर , उसके चारों ओर बैठ कर और गीत गा कर मनायी जाती है , पर हमारे समय में बच्चों की लोहड़ी सुबह से ही शुरू हो जाती थी , जब पूरे मुहल्ले के बच्चों की टोली लोहड़ी घर घर मांगने निकलती थी । किसी ने 10-20 पैसे दे दिये तो बहुत , यदि कोई कुछ न दे तो ‘हुक्का भई हुक्का ए घर भूक्खा ‘ कह कर भड़ास निकाली जाती थी । रेवड़ी , मूँगफली के लिए थोड़े पैसे इकट्ठे हो जाते थे. मेरे जैसे उम्र रसीदा लोगों के लिए अब सिर्फ यादें ही बाकी हैं, वक़्त के साथ साथ त्योहार मनाने के तौर तरीके भी बदल गए हैं .यों सरकारी कॉलोनी में रहते हुए कई वर्षों तक लोहड़ी का आनंद खूब मनाया है।

Narcissus

This week, i.e. today, in his column ‘Vignettes ‘ in ‘The Tribune’ , Shriniwas Joshi has discussed two flowers – Narcissus and Chrysenthamum- as being impervious to the onslaught of Winter, as also the myrhological story behind Narcissus. Not surprisingly, a person ‘sick of self love’ -to use Shakespearean phrase –is called Narcissistic, and the phenomenon itself is called Narcissism .In Hindi it is called आत्म-मुग्धता. I am reminded of the days in sixties , when some enterprising farmers from the adjoining villages of Shimla used to carry Kilta loads of Narcissus or Nargis flower on bus top to Delhi to earn that extra penny as Delhi was a potential market for flowers, when floriculture had not taken off in a big way like now. I did not understand the economics of this venture, taking into account the expenses involved in 3-4 days’ stay at Delhi and to & fro bus fare. In any case, the flower smells nice and with long stem and white petals with a yellow cup in the middle is a visual treat. I am baffled by the Urdu couplet :
“हज़ारों साल नर्गिस अपनी बेनूरी पे रोती है,
बड़ी मुश्किल से होता है चमन में दीदावर पैदा “
-meaning there are few takers for Nargis, which fact the flower itself laments.

Adieu Dr G R Sud !

One of the many things  I look forward  to  is  “Vignettes”, the weekly column  by Shriniwas Joshi, which now  appears in ‘The Tribune’ every  Monday. Today , it carries the sad news of  the demise of Dr. G.R Sud, to whom  Mr. Joshi has  paid glowing tributes  as a theatre personality. I had the privilege  of being  his student in H.P. University campus  from  !973  to 1975 .I fondly remember the very first day he came to teach us. As we introduced ourselves in the class, when a fellow student also carrying the initials GR , spelt out his full name, it drew giggles  from  the girl students  with an urban background. The fellow was  a bit embarrassed   but Dr. Sud  made light of the moment saying  that he too had a funny name. We never  tried to find out his full name as   for us he remained  GR  or Dr.GR  , or Dr. Faustus – the name endearingly   sticking to him as he taught us  Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus in the first semester. A noble man indeed,  very  down to earth  and no high flying  intellectual  !  

The fact of his being a theater  personality  was never revealed  for the  two year  period  I stayed at the university , as Dr.Sud , simple as he was,never  wore  his  achievements on his sleeves.For us he was a teacher who taught and taught well Many years later I read  about this aspect of his personality, in the Hindi magazine ‘Vipasha’. Mr. Joshi  has written at length  about him in the column as well .In hind sight, I remember, his peculiar way of  uttering dialogues and reciting poetry lines  while teaching , which had something to do with his drama direction .He had a  blissfully long  life .

Adieu Dr. Sud  !     

यशपाल

तीन दिसंबर को क्रांतिकारी , यशस्वी उपन्यासकर- कथाकार स्व. यशपाल की जयंती थी . स्कूल के ज़माने में यशपाल का उपन्यास ‘दिव्या’ मेरी बहिन को पुरस्कार में मिला था । यों किताबों को उलटने पलटने और खँगालने की आदत बचपन से रही है, पर इस उपन्यास की आरंभ की पंक्ति “कला की अधिष्ठात्री राजनर्तकी देवी मल्लिका की पुत्री रुचिरा.....काल-कवलित हो गयी थी” से ही कुछ ऐसा लगा कि इसे पढ़ना टेढ़ी खीर है, परंतु कालांतर में कुछ बड़ा होने पर इसे पढ़ा भी और गुना भी.बुद्धकालीन समाज का ऐसा सजीव चित्रण मैंने अन्यत्र नहीं पढ़ा और जिस भाषा को ले कर शुरू में हतोत्साहित रहा, उसी भाषा शैली नें बाद में मंत्रमुग्ध भी किया । कहानियाँ ज़्यादा तो नहीं पढ़ पाया पर ‘मक्रील’ और ‘फूलों का कुर्ता’ ने बहुत प्रभावित किया. समय रहते यशपाल को और पढ़ने का मन है

डा. हरिवंशराय बच्चन

आज कवि लेखक, साहित्यकार डा. हरिवंशराय बच्चन की जयंती है .उत्तर छायावाद के प्रमुख कवि और हालावाद के एक प्रणेता होने के साथ साथ हिन्दी गद्य साहित्य में भी उनका एक अलग स्थान है.मधुशाला, मधुबाला और मधुकलश की त्रयी से रचना कर्म आरंभ करने के उपरांत उन्होंने अनेकों कविताएं लिखीं. चार भागों में लिखी उनकी आत्मकथा ने हिन्दी गद्य साहित्य में नए प्रतिमान स्थापित किए .कैंब्रिज विश्वविद्यालय से अङ्ग्रेज़ी साहित्य में पी.एचडी हासिल करने वाले दूसरे भारतीय होने का गौरव भी उन्हें प्राप्त है 1935 से ले कर 1985 तक पाँच दशकों की सृजन यात्रा में, कविता, गद्य , आलोचना, निबंध , अनुवाद आदि का बृहद साहित्य संसार रचने वाले इस महान लेखक कवि को साहित्य अकादमी पुरस्कार, सोवियत लैंड पुरस्कार, लोटस अवार्ड, सरस्वती सम्मान यहाँ तक कि पद्मभूषण से भी सम्मानित किया गया.दो बार राज्यसभा के सदस्य भी रहे . परंतु फिर भी लगता है कि हिन्दी साहित्य जगत में अभी उनका मूल्यांकन उस तरह से नहीं हो पाया जैसा कि अपेक्षित था .

The Last Leaf

‘The Last Leaf’ can easily be called O Henry’s masterpiece. Two girls–Sue  and Johnsy, both painters share a studio. Johnsy gets afflicted with illness and despite the doctor’s best efforts, does not show any improvement in her condition. The doctor has almost given up on her saying that she herself does not want to get well and recover , and rightly so. Bed ridden as she is, she keeps looking at an ivy creeper visible through the window and keeps counting the number of leaves left on it , it being the Autumn season. Mysteriously , she thinks that with the dropping of each leaf, her life is nearing its end. Sue wants to drive her away from this foolish thought , but it is of no use . Behrman, an old painter, past sixty, and a failed artist, who still harbours dreams of painting a masterpiece one day, also has a studio in the same building and manages to earn a little by modelling for the young artists. Sue approaches him for a similar assignment and incidentally shares her concern regarding Johnsy ‘s deteriorating condition. For once dismissing Johnsy’s foolish idea of associating her life with the Ivy leaves, he also gets serious and during a stormy night when the last leaf has also fallen, paints a leaf on the wall at the same place where the last leaf hung. Unmindful of this, seeing that the ‘ last leaf ‘ has not fallen and is still there, Johnsy regains her desire to live and shows visible signs of improvement . Only later , when told that Behrman has died of Pneumonia , do they come to know that ‘the last leaf’ which had survived the winds and the storm was actually a painting done by him during that stormy night , so that Johnsy won’t give in and somehow get over her illness and recover. ‘The last leaf ‘ painted by Berhman was certainly his masterpiece that had saved Johnsy’s life .

‘The Vendetta’ ,a story & ‘Yousuf’,a poem – a study in contrast.

Lately  I  have read a story ‘The  Vendetta’ by  Guy de Maupassant  in  which  the main character  is an old lady, the widow  of  Paulo Saverini . It so happens that   her son, Antoine  gets killed  by one  Nicholas Ravolati  after a dispute  and the widow left alone   full of sorrow and sadness , spends  sleepness nights  thinking of ways to avenge the   murder of her son. She has a  shepherd dog called Semillante . An idea strikes her and  she experiments  by starving   the dog  and making him attack  a dummy. The result is encouraging as the hungry  dog  pounces upon the dummy  and  mauls it completely. After a few days she again starves  the dog and  disguised as an old man,  takes it to the  village  of   Nicholas Ravolati, the murderer of her son. She calls out  to him by name and when he comes out , she lets the dog loose and  motions it to attack  Nicholas, who  in a short while makes a short work of  the murderer . Having  completed her mission , she returns to her  house  and  sleeps well .

In contrast, I am reminded of  a poem  ‘ Yousuf ‘ which I read in school. Since this was  more than four decades ago, I have forgotten the name of the poet , and  unfortunatelu even the Google has been of no help in tracing  the poem and the poet. Yousouf, a man of God,  welcomes a stranger  to his home  for the night and the stranger, overwhelmed  by  the  hospitality  and  burdened  with guilt  discloses the  fact that he is the murderer of  Yousuf’s son . To his utter surprise, Yousuf  instead of  abusing him or  cursing him,  gives him  money  and  asks  him to  get away at once  before the  feeling of revenge gets the better of him . In the latter case,  the virtue of forgiveness  comes to the fore .

In both the cases, a son has been murdered , but the reaction  of the survivors of the victims  is  exactly the opposite. This shows the complexity  of human nature and psyche.