NavDharmyug

गोवध- निज पुत्र का भाग तज कर मनुज पुत्र का पोषण किया। सम संतुलन सबको दिया मस्तक पर धरा धारण किया। रहट खींचा, खेत सींचे,  धर्म का संबल दिया। अन्न, प्रेम, सात्विक मित्रता, सब कुछ तुम्हें निश्छल दिया। पुत्रवत स्नेह से तुमने पुकारा पास जब मातृवत आई मैं दौड़ी मन में लिये विश्वास तब। जिह्वा के मिथ्या लोभ में हा, वध मेरा तुमने किया, इक मूक पशु को मारकर मानवता को बस लज्जित किया। मैं तो तुम्हारे स्वाद पर, मिथ्या दंभ पर अर्पित हुई इस पाशविक बलिवेदि पर मनुजता ही तो बस लज्जित हुई। माता रही मैं शिव-पुत्र मानव तुझसे मेरा क्या द्वेष था, शत्रु बनाया मुझको अपना यह देखना बस शेष था। जिस देश पर बनता था सदियों पहला ग्रास मेरे नाम पर। मेरे ही भक्षण को है आतुर वह राष्ट्र है संग्राम पर। कौड़ियाँ फेंकी हैं किसने जीत की और हार की। युद्ध है यह धर्म का या प्रेरणा संहार की। कहता है जो पशुवध राष्ट्र का अधिकार है, स्वातंत्र्य है अभिशाप उसका, उस मनुष्य पर धिक्कार है।       - साकेत

My idea of religion is borderline-atheism. In today’s India, it is very down-market to be talking about religion. Customs and traditions unnerve me. There seems to be no logic in continuing to do things the way they have been done for centuries, simply because that is how we have been doing them, for centuries. Still, there are places I would not want to go and touch. Modernism today has two problems, one, it tries to change benign symbols which identify a people merely for the sake of change. Just as “This is how we have been always doing it” is not an argument to continue with a thing. On the flip side, that can also not be an argument to oppose it. Secondly, there is such a surge of fake righteousness that the real meat of any movement is lost in the noise. Those who control the narrative, claim to be the weakest and are the first to cry victim-hood. It is a common trend. So you pelt stone, hold the state to ransom, out of your free-will (you can very well chose not...

A man walks into metro station, shoot himself. The story is a footnote on some inside pages of the newspaper. Even if someone reads it, it is security lapse which stands out. The dead doesn’t evoke attention, let alone sympathy. Without personalization, it is a lame news. I am not a journalist. I am not even a student of journalism in proper sense. If I go by the wise words by Anne Lamott , and analyze the reports, the intent and interest of the journalist stands open for scrutiny. A murder in Dadri, sad as it is, outcome of rumor or fact, is reported way differently from the way, the gory murder of a reporter in same state or killing of a soldier in same state is reported. Annie Lamott tells us that we need to be presented with the actors in a story with human perspective, that what they were as human beings, beyond a statistics or a name. We know the man murdered in Dadri was doing errands for the village, a soft-spoken man, who, with hard work did well to place his kids in...