Shailaza's Blog

Category: author_Shailaza

  • A never-ending love affair (On Amir Khusro part II)


    In most people, a passion such as this lasts for a few months or may be some years. After that, it fizzles out as daily problems and needs take their toll. However, that has not been the case with Pradeep Sharma Khusro. In the past 20 years, his passion and love for Khusro has only increased which he feels is nothing short of a miracle.

    Pradeep Sharma Khusro


    “I feel as if the passion that I have for Amir Khusro is actually a miracle because my life has been full of problems especially the financial ones. Despite this, this passion has been increased. Actually, I was never career oriented. It was as if I was hypnotized for this, as if my entire thought was for this passion. There is a price to be paid for everything. I have lost a lot of things. Today, still I am jobless. Had I not concentrated on Amir Khusro, I would have probably had a flourishing career. I have done my Bachelor’s in Fine Arts and Bachelor’s in Education. I started out as a cartoonist. I taught in schools after B.Ed. I kept taking exams so that I could work as a drawing teacher in government schools. However, since I was from the general category, I had no quota to support me despite a very good percentage in B.Ed. So, people who could use the quota got the job despite a low percentage. This made me realize that there is no value for good marks or talent in this country.


    Collecting treasures
    According to Pradeep, he has the biggest collection of works of Khusro in the world. However, he is still looking for more!
    “When I first started to collect works on Khusro, I could only find a few books. I talked to collectors and many such people. I also contacted antique dealers who deal in books and furniture. Each book that I purchased was of 20,000 INR which will be perhaps a lot more valued in the international market. Many scholars at the end of their days gifted me their collection of books since they knew that those books might be thrown out after their death. I made friends with students from different countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan etc and they helped me to procure books. I may not be the richest man in the world but I have the largest collection on Amir Khusro in the world. I have around 3000 books on 12 languages from 14 countries on Amir Khusro in Persian, English, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Multani, Punjabi, Uzbek and many more. I have about 300 audio cassettes, DVDs, CDs and audio cassettes. He wrote a lot of books in Persian and even Hindi. However, you don’t get many of his books written in Hindi language except for Khalik Bahari. He wrote a book on Krishna titled Halaat-e-Kanhaiya but I haven’t been able to procure that book till now despite all my efforts. I have a book by him titled Chehel Roza which not many people can lay their hands on.”
    “The interesting thing is Amir Khusro is perhaps one of the few Indians who is taught in most universities of the world in many of their departments like music, history, philosophy, Sufism etc.”
    However he feels that the politicians in India are not interested in anything unless it impacts their vote bank.
    “I have met most ministers of all the governments in India. One thing I have understood is that none of them are interested in anything except vote bank. If promoting Amir Khusro could help them to get votes, they would become the long-lost relatives of Khusro otherwise they couldn’t care less. Regardless of their culture or religion, the only god they worship is vote bank. They don’t ask how will something benefit the country; all they ask is how it will benefit them.”

    Why Khusro?
    Pradeep feels that his passion is a part of something bigger. He has no logic why he likes Khusro so much but believes that his passion which is nothing but love has a life of its own.
    “I have been able to sustain this passion because perhaps the universe wanted me to sustain it. Everywhere I go, whatever I do, I am only thinking about Khusro. My name is Pradeep Sharma Khusro because I believe I have some connection with Khusro. I did not consciously develop this passion. The circumstances, the people I met helped me to progress on this path. I didn’t pursue this with any thoughts of gain or loss. It is what Meerabai felt for Krishna. She did not think of anything else but Krishna. I feel it is a form of divine love for God.”
    Why are people like Lord Ram or Subhash Chandra Bose or Ram Krishna Paramhans or such people remembered even decades or years or centuries after they are gone? Why do we study about them in our books? Simply because, they came with a mission and a purpose in life. They lived for their mission and even died for it. My mission is about Khusro. Maybe years after I am gone, people will read my books and say that here is man who explored Khusro in a way that no one could dream of.
    A genius unrecognized
    Pradeep feels that a genius like Khusro should be a part of every syllabus in India.
    “A genius like Amir Khusro never got his due in his own country. He was not only a poet but also a writer, musician, singer, vocalist, astrologer, military commander and astronomer. After his death, for centuries no one really bothered to compile his work. The rulers became commercial and selfish and did not bother about preserving such works. Non-political people especially professors of India and Pakistan helped in consolidating his works. It was only in the 15th century that people started recognizing and consolidating his works in Iraq since the emperor of Iraq, Sultan Hussain Bayqara loved Amir Khusro’s work. He asked his court poet to check the royal treasury and count the books that they had on the poet. The court poet checked and said they don’t have much except 4-5 books. He ordered him to travel the world and consolidate all the books and works of Amir Khusro and bring them back. After 5-6 years, when the court poet returned, the emperor was ecstatic. However, when a Sufi mystic from Afghanistan asked him if had certain ghazals written by the poet, he couldn’t find them! So, he again commissioned an expedition around the world for Khusro’s work. The ensuing collection is the world’s biggest on Amir Khusro and is housed in St. Petersburg library in Moscow. Most of the works are from India but we can never get it back unless our government is interested in procuring it.”


    Spirit Talks
    Pradeep says that his dream conversations have not been just about the works of Khusro but helped him to gain insight about the life beyond death.
    “The people I talk to in my dreams are Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusro. They told me they had died in 1300s. They said that after they died, they had expected to meet their ‘Allah’ but all they found was a bright divine light which they couldn’t face. They said that this universe is actually made by light. In Sufism, there is only one power which runs the world. They said that this power loves play. It likes change and hence it creates everything in the world for its amusement.”
    The Road Ahead
    Pradeep feels he still has a long way to go on this path.
    “I am compiling the Hindi works of Amir Khusro. I am perhaps the only person in the world who has personally commissioned the translation of more than 5000 pages of Amir Khusro’s Persian works. I used the money I earned in the Aga Khan Foundation. I have been talking to my friends in Pakistan almost on a daily basis and they keep sending me Khusro’s works on email or WhatsApp because they share my passion about Khusro.”
    I am also researching on Khusro as a historian, a philosopher, as a Persian poet and Sufi mystic. As a historian, he not only wrote about the prevalent political scenario but also about the cultural aspects too. He extensively wrote about the animals, food, clothes, languages, religion, ethnicities in his era. He talked about the samosas and the masalas that were used in them and the kind of influences that were present in the Indian food. He also wrote about the makeup used by women, the festivals, the rituals followed in both rich and poor societies. As a musician, he contributed a lot to Hindustani music. There are many anecdotes of Amir Khusro which people are not aware of. I am writing about those too. He was a multi-faceted personality who was an astrologer and astronomer too. People say that no other poet has written so extensively. He has books that have 800-1000 pages each. I feel I am similar in that way because when I start writing from the morning, I continue it for 18 hours at a stretch. Infact, now I have started writing lyrics for Bollywood movies in the style of Khusro. I composed my first song in 2018 for a film titled ‘Angrezi Mein Kehte Hain’ which was directed by Harish Vyas and produced by Manav Malhotra, Bunty Khan and NFDC (National Film Development Corporation of India)”

    This article by Shailaza Singh was published in Rashtradoot Newspaper’s Arbit Section on 13 June 2021.

  • Net Time- Virtually Yours

    Most people would like to find their love online these days. They love the sense of adventure, thrill that comes with it. There are millions of options available no doubt. However, the net also has an abundance of scammers who are just waiting to ensnare those besotted with love!

    One goes, others come- Bus, Train and Chats!

    Sunita, 39 was quite upset. Her online friend had not been talking to her for an entire week now. They had been friends for over two months. He did not answer her calls and just sent a cryptic message saying, ‘will talk later’. One day, her friend Mansi came to meet her. ‘Why are you so upset?’ she asked. Sunita told her the issue. Mansi nonchalantly said, ‘he must have found someone more loaded. After all, its an investment of time!’

    Sunita revealed that her online friend had asked her for her photographs which she refused to give. Since then, he had become distant and kept saying that she did not trust him enough. Mansi nodded, ‘yes, he wanted to have a little bit of ‘fun’. When he could not get it from you, he decided to try his luck elsewhere. Remember, in real life or net, when one goes, other comes whether bus or train or even a chat friend.’

    Options Galore

    Dr. Anamika Papriwal, a psychologist says, ‘When one goes on apps like Tinder or TrulyMadly or Aisle, they are given an impression that there are plenty of options to choose from. It is like being in the biggest supermarket of the world where you have millions of options to choose from. So, you will always keep wondering if there is anything better than the one you currently have or if you don’t get the desired features from that product, you will have no qualms about leaving it and trying for the next best option. As a result, the relationships online are hardly long lasting unless you disconnect from the app once you have found the person you were looking for.’

    Need based transactions

    When Arunima 41, decided to come to India for two months, she knew she would be lonely without her husband and daughter. She comes here regularly to take care of her business and stays for months at a time. She says, ‘Every time I come here, I start scoring for people who are looking for a casual, no strings attached fling. After all, why should boys have all the fun? I have a family back home and I am not looking for any kind of melodrama or complications or monetary problems. There are many who are looking for the same thing and we get together. Once the two months are over, we bid adieu and promise to never be in touch again. So far this arrangement has worked for me quite well.’

    Kaveri Banerjee a psychologist based in Delhi says, ‘Online relationships are nothing but simple transactions that are a matter of convenience for most people. They are mostly need based and not based on emotions or long term. When the need is met, the people go their own separate ways.’

    Agrees Govind, 35, ‘I am a single guy who is not looking for long term. When I meet a girl online, I want to meet her immediately so that I can evaluate if we are a good fit. If she delays the meeting or does not want to meet before knowing me and chatting with me, I tell her that I don’t have either the time or the patience for such conversations.’

    Honey! I want your money

    Vihaan was 50-year-old widower, settled in Chandigarh. His sons and daughters were married and were living in different parts of the country and the world. Vihaan stayed alone in his house with his servants. One of his friends advised him to logon to Tinder, an app for single men and women. Vihaan liked the idea because he could look at prospective matches from the comfort of his house. He chanced upon Aparna, a single mother working in a not-for-profit organization (NGO). She was a 45-year-old divorcee who had a college going son. They instantly hit off and Aparna even introduced Vihaan to her son Nikhil.

    They talked for long hours on end on audio and video calls and Aparna told him how she had single-handedly raised Nikhil after her husband walked away with another woman. Vihaan felt he had met a kindred soul in Aparna. He talked to his friends and they advised him to go and meet his dream girl. Aparna readily agreed to the idea. Vihaan had booked his tickets for the following week. Before the day he was to travel to meet her, Vihaan got a call from Aparna at about 1 a.m. She told him that Nikhil had met with a serious accident and was in the ICU. He had lost a lot of blood and the doctors would not operate until she deposited 2 lakh rupees. She said she did not have that kind of cash and asked him to help. Vihaan asked her for her account number and promptly transferred 2 lakh rupees. After about five minutes, he received a ‘thanks’ on WhatsApp from her number. He tried calling but now her number is always switched off.

    Sonakshi was a 44-year-old single lady living with her parents in Hyderabad. She was a very successful entrepreneur who had been too busy for marriage during her youth. Now, she felt the need to share her life with someone. Her friends advised her to download a dating app. Soon, she got connected to Raghu, a businessman who was based in New York, USA. Raghu was an issueless divorcee who was looking for his soulmate. He was a great conversationalist and Sonakshi discovered that they could talk for hours on end about every topic in the world. After about two months, Raghu told Sonakshi that he will be coming to meet her. He wanted to marry her and take her back with him. Sonakshi’s joy knew no bounds. Raghu sent her pictures of all the expensive gifts including Apple iPad, diamond jewellery that he had purchased for her. Sonakshi’s friends warned her to be patient and not get blown away by such gestures. But Sonakshi could not wait. She was ready to meet her Prince Charming. On the day that Raghu was supposed to reach Mumbai, Sonakshi got a call on her phone. The man speaking on the other end said that he was calling from the customs department in Mumbai airport. He told her that Raghu has been arrested since he had items worth more than the permissible limit and unless he paid, they will not let him go. Sonakshi asked them to send the details where she could send the payment and the person sent her a link. She was asked to pay 1 lakh, which she immediately paid without even thinking. Then she got a call from the concierge at the hotel where Raghu’s stay was booked. She was told that though Raghu was supposed to make the payment to book the room, his phone was out of reach. So, they asked her to make the payment of 50,000 INR. They sent her the link and she made the payment. After sometime, she got a call from Raghu who told her that the custom’s issue was solved and he wanted a business class ticket from Mumbai to Hyderabad. He asked her to transfer 50,000 INR and said that he will return it as soon as he meets her. Sonakshi transferred the money. She later tried to call Raghu but since that time his phone has been switched off.

    Dr. Anamika Papriwal, a psychologist says, ‘I have heard of women talking to men for days and they asking them to pay their children’s fee or give them money for their daily expenditure. Many of these people who pull off such scams have an innate understanding of the human behaviour. They first befriend the person, establish trust with them and then spend time talking to them. Once the person starts trusting them, they start with small transactions which they promptly return to again establish trust. Once that is done, they move in for the kill. In a way, it is an addiction where the person gets addicted to the other person. You can get anything done from an addict who needs his daily dose. That is how this works!’

    Truelove.com

    However, not all is gruesome and gory in the world of online dating. There are stories where people have found true love too.
    Thirty-year-old Puja met Nikhil on a dating app. Initially, she thought he was quite arrogant and snobbish. However, when they started chatting, she realized that he and she shared the same dreams and values. Nikhil travelled to Baroda to meet Puja and her family. After a while, Puja too visited Nikhil and his parents in Lucknow. Soon, they were married and are now blessed with a baby boy.
    Arjun, a 35-year-old doctor living in Gurgaon had faced rejection from a lot of girls. Online, he met Shruti, an interior designer who was also living in Gurgaon.  Shruti was beautiful but suffering from self-image issues owing to her weight. They connected and realized that they had a lot in common. They got married after dating for two years and are still going strong.

    This article was published in Rashtradoot Newspaper’s Arbit on 2 June 2021.

  • How I got rid of Oggy and his cockroaches

    A few years ago, like all children, my daughter had fallen in love with cartoons on Cartoon Network. She used to watch all kinds of programs including Tom and Jerry, Shiva, Chota Bheem and the cringe worthy Oggy and the cockroaches. As it is, for me the very word ‘cockroach’ is enough to induce a sleepless night, the three cockroaches made it worse! My daughter sat spell bound as the cockroaches and Oggy kept battling it out in Oggy’s refrigerator and at times literally tore the kitchen apart in pursuit of vengeance! The icing on the cake was that the voice-over artist sometimes mimicked voice of Shahrukh Khan, sometimes Nana Patekar, Sunil Shetty and other such then popular actors. After some months, I was so fed up that I asked my friends to help me. One of my friends downloaded and shared a Japanese Anime ‘Spirited Away’. At that time, there was no Netflix or other OTT, so we had to make ado with the subtitles. I showed the movie to my daughter and she loved it! And that was the reason enough to discontinue the cable service.

    It has been a decade since I and my daughter introduced ourselves to subtitles and movies from different countries and languages. Earlier, we downloaded these from different sites like YouTube and torrents which offer ‘free’ movies. Initially, I was quite scared that some kind of Internet police might come and catch me for going on torrents and other such sites. I had prepared a list of counter arguments and kept it in my bedside cabinet for such emergencies and foreseen circumstances. Some reasons given in the list were:

    1. Downloading movies with subtitles is better than letting the children watch serials produced by Ekta Kapoor or other such people. Though the children are intrigued by the idea of saas-bahu politics (children are born politicians) and repeated plastic surgery (they love the idea that they can hide behind a new face if they do something wrong) and multiple divorces and remarriages (my daughter was simply hooked on to the idea that for each marriage she will get at least three to four new dresses with matching dress and jewellery!)
    2. Watching other movies with subtitles is actually education! One of my friends told me that her son who goes off to sleep in the English class at school actually learnt reading by watching movies with subtitles. He loved Hollywood action movies like Rambo and would actually read the subtitles to understand what actors like Sylvester Stallone were saying (most of them actually mutter under their breath). With time, his English literature teacher was actually impressed with his ability to read in the language!

    However, my list of reasons kept lying in the cabinet because no one ever came! So, we read the subtitles and we watched movies. An old friend was curious about why did I go through so much trouble for movies with subtitles when most English movies either had Hindi subtitles or were dubbed in Hindi. It was then I told her about my experience with the well-known movie Jurassic Park’s dubbed Hindi version. In that movie, there is a scene where the female protagonist says ‘I want to see the dinosaur’s shit.’ This dialogue was translated into ‘mujhe dinosaur ka gobar dekhne hai.’ I am not arguing whether it was the correct translation or not but from that point onwards, I steered clear of dubbed movies!

     I also bought a lot of CDs and DVDs of good movies that I believed would help her to inculcate some good values. Some came with subtitles while others did not. We kept our CDs very carefully lest they get scratch marks because then the CD would not either play certain segments or would simply get jammed . We also did not jump tracks because that again could lead to scratches and bad unplayable sectors. The CDs could only either be played on our computers or television sets which meant sitting in the living room, switching on the television or the laptop, inserting the CD and then waiting for it to play. When my daughter complained that it was a cumbersome process, I told her stories of the VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) in which we had to insert this huge video cassette, rewind it and then play. She rolled her eyes. She said that idea was unimaginably old fashioned and preposterous!

    New entries

    Then Netflix breezed into our lives. I deleted all my downloads and tore the long list of reasons. The CDs were forgotten in an old cupboard.  Even today, I don’t know what to do with my huge collection. I thought of turning them into plates and decorations but then a friend advised me to wait because according to him one day, these CDs and DVDs would be treasured as antiques and I would be able to make a lot of money by selling them! I am still waiting!

    With Netflix and later Amazon Prime and other such OTT platforms, my phone became my new cinema hall. I could walk into it anytime and watch the movie and the scene of my choice again and again- A far cry from the first time that I was introduced to cinema in Jaipur in my summer holidays!

    Back then, my maternal grandfather hated movies with a vengeance! He believed that movies did nothing except corrupt minds of young people. So, on the pretext of going to the vegetable market, my aunt masterminded the great escape and smuggled my grandmother, mother, my brother and me in a matador car and took us to the Rajmandir Theatre to watch the matinee show Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Sharabi’. She even paid a friend to shop for vegetables and fruits. When the movie finished, we went to Niros Restaurant, ate food, picked up the vegetables and fruits and went back home! Till date my grandfather is unaware of these little escapades!

    Today, with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hot Star, and other such platforms, my daughter and me huddle up in any corner of the house and watch these movies and series regardless of their language. Sometimes, we hook it up to the television and even binge watch with a bowl of fresh popcorn. We hardly realize that we are reading the subtitles. The interesting bit is that we keep discovering new things about distant lands. One day, my daughter told me that in Japan, people are not scared of haunted houses because they believe that each house has its own spirit. So, whenever they move in to a new house, they thank the spirit and ask him to take care of them and their family. This fact she got to know from a movie called “My neighbour Totoro”.

    Covid time pass

    The good part about these movies with subtitles is that one has to pay attention to understand what is going on. Hence most of times, in this era of COVID, online movie watching is quite engrossing! Not that we have achieved nirvana but cartoons have been replaced by a lot of meaningful content and thank fully Oggy and the cockroaches have been completely forgotten!

    However, the danger still looms large as I just discovered that Salman Khan has launched another no brainer ‘Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai’ on OTT. While Oggy and the Cockroaches rile me with goofy no brainer conversations, a Salman Khan movie brings up questions like ‘why cannot Salman Khan protect India from COVID?’ or ‘If he is so strong, why cannot Salman Khan help in dealing with the pandemic?’ Wouldn’t it be great if these OTT platforms had questions to these answers in subtitles too?

    This article by Shailaza Singh was published in Rashtradoot Newspaper on 12 May 2021

  • The Woman Who Is Not Shy of Freedom

    Pagglait is a refreshing and pathbreaking story of a widow who discovers the true madness and beauty and hunger in life after the death of her husband.

    The word ‘pagglait’ isn’t a part of our every day speech. In fact, it wasn’t till I watched the trailer of this Sanya Malhotra starrer that I actually realized that a word like this exists in Hindi language. According to the global guru Google, pagglait originates from the Hindi word ‘Pagal’ which means mad, insane, maniac or even raving (the meaning depends on the context and the situation) and is a degree higher than its root word. So, Pagglait is someone who is more than mad!


    The movie is about a recently married and subsequently widowed woman Sandhya played by Sanya Malhotra who is finding it difficult to mourn for a husband she hardly knew, let alone love. As Sandhya confides in her friend Nazia when the latter asks her the reason why she is behaving as if nothing has happened. Sandhya replies that in her childhood, she had a cat called Katrina who died in an accident. At the time, she was devastated and did not eat anything for three days. But, at present she does not feel anything except hunger and a desire to run away from everything.
    The movie is quite a take on the mindless customs and the hypocrisy that surrounds death in our society. Despite their unwillingness, the family members have to eat bland food for all the thirteen days of the wake (tehrvi) , cigarette and alcohol is forbidden, yet we see the younger brother-in-law of Sandhya (who is more worried about his hair being shaved off than the death of his brother) and even uncle-in-law smoke and drink on the sly. Sandhya craves for Pepsi and golgappas too. She goes out with her friend on the pretext of seeing a doctor for stomach ache and eats her fill.
    A girl of today’s times, Sandhya comes across as a person who is quite open about her feelings. She doesn’t believe in acting. She has a grudge against her mother who believes that girls should stay in their husband’s house forever and resents her for not understanding her mind. When her father-in-law proposes that Sandhya can visit her parents for a while, Sandhya’s mother vehemently refuses saying that Sandhya’s real place is with her in-laws. Infact she is so distraught by the lack of Sandhya’s sadness for her husband’s death that she actually thinks that someone has cast an evil eye on her daughter and discretely tries to get rid of it!
    When I watched Pagglait, I found it quite close to my own story. I was widowed a decade ago. Like Sandhya, I had never had a close relationship with my husband. We, Indian women are often brought up believing that our ultimate destiny is being married to the right man. But what if that man turns out to be a different person? What if that person doesn’t really care about you? What if that person has nothing but criticism or silence for you? What if that person dies? When my husband died, though I was saddened by the loss of a life but I really didn’t know how to react to the death of a person who was never really a husband to begin with.
    In the first half of the movie, we find Sandhya struggling to come to terms with the fact that her husband was in love with someone else. She discovers a photograph of a girl in his closet that she opens for the first time in her life to find some papers that her mother-in-law had asked for. She meets the girl in the photograph who was a colleague of her husband. She befriends her and tries to dress up and be like her. She keeps asking her about their relationship but the girl insists that her husband never cheated on her after marriage. Slowly and steadily Sandhya comes to terms with her husband’s lack of love and forgives him for his infidelity. It is then that she really starts weeping as she releases all her grudges against him. She again tells her friend Nazia that now that she has forgiven her dead husband, she feels like crying and is feeling very hungry. I was reminded of another movie ‘lunchbox’ where the protagonist’s mother starts feeling hungry after the death of her long-ailing husband. She freely expresses her desire to have ‘parathas’ while her daughter tries to shush her amidst the staring relatives. Does this hunger have anything to do with food or it is the hunger for life which has been buried under the unrealistic expectations? When I experienced this ‘hunger’ to eat something during the time of mourning, I supressed it because at that time, I felt it was not the right thing to do! Now, I feel differently.
    Everyone in the family is worried about Sandhya and her future. However, what gives one hope is that no one is expecting her to follow any norms of widowhood except her own mother who makes it a point to pack a white saree in her suitcase.
    The real game changer in this story is the point when it is discovered that Sandhya is the sole nominee for the 50 million rupees of her husband’s life insurance. Suddenly, her mother who wasn’t keen to take her home, wants her to come back so that she can help out in marrying off her two younger sisters. A boy from her in-law’s side professes his love for her and wants to marry her. She tests him by lying to him that she is pregnant. Within no time, his love disappears. He was only interested in her money because marrying her was an easier option than taking a loan for his new business. On the other hand, relatives tell Sandhya’s father-in-law, a self-respecting man to approach the insurance company to demand his share in the amount. However, his values don’t let him pursue this line of thought.
    Sandhya rejects the proposal and decides to gift the entire money to her father-in-law who was dependent on his son and was struggling with the home loan after his son’s death. She leaves home to seek a job in a different city and tells her father-in-law not to worry because she will take care of him like his son did. She tells him that every one thinks about the girl but no one actually pauses to think what a girl really thinks.
    She writes a similar letter to her own mother and tells her that she has taken her advice and will now be seeking a job and living a new life. Near the ending, we see her and her friend Nazia getting off an autorickshaw which is driven by a woman.
    Money is indeed quite important in the life of a single woman. After my husband’s death, when I decided to come back to my parents for good, my relatives said that my parents weren’t doing the right thing and I would end up being a burden on them.
    However, when I started earning my own money and supporting my daughter, the same relatives began praising me for my independence and said that I was like a son to my parents.


    There are these subtle but noticeable changes in the society for single women (I refuse to use the word widows because that is not an identity). The white saree is on its way out, a woman can wear the clothes she wants. The ostracization of widows has lessened in many places. The archetype of the helpless widow depicted by leading ladies like Asha Pareekh (Kati Patang, etc) or Nirupa Roy is now passe. Now we have feisty single women like Rani (Kangna Ranaut in Queen) or Sandhya (Sanya Malhotra) who prefer living life on their own terms. Interestingly ‘Pagglait’ is produced by women like Guneet Monga and Ekta Kapoor, women who have redefined singlehood on their own terms!
    On the whole, Pagglait is worth a watch especially for those women who have experienced this aspect of losing someone they loved or were forced to love or could never love.

    This article was published in Rashtradoot’s Arbit section on 31 March 2021

  • No Pandemic Only Play

    The doors have opened. People refuse to be confined to their homes despite the much feared return of the pandemic and its horrors. Amidst the social distancing and face masks, audience at Ravindra Manch were more than ready to watch the new play ‘Rashmirathi’ and get spellbound by theatre once again!

    When I received the invite to Ram Dhari Singh Dinkar’s classic Hindi epic poem Rashmirathi which was being directed by Abhishek Mudgal, I was apprehensive yet excited. Like everyone else, I have been reading about the return of COVID and increasing in the number of cases. However, the chance was too good to miss. After a year of overdose of stay-at-home shows and movies on Netflix and other OTT platforms, I was craving for something different.
    When I reached Ravindra Manch, where the play was being held, I saw no crowds outside. This made me think that perhaps, the people weren’t ready to come out yet. The play had already started when I went in. I looked around expecting to see a nearly empty hall. However, almost all the seats were occupied! Everyone was staring raptly at the stage where the actors were performing. I sat down and looked at the gentleman sitting in the adjacent seat. He was so busy watching the performance that he did not even look up to acknowledge that a new person had sat next to him.
    I turned my attention to the stage where the actors where performing.
    In the current scene, Vasudev Krishna had come to Hastinapur as the ambassador of peace. After a while, the scene shifted to Karna’s conversation with Krishna who tells him that he is actually Kunti’s son and Pandavas’ eldest brother. Karna breaks down and tells Krishna that he cannot deceive his friend Duryodhana. Interestingly, there were no props on the stage. The male actors were bare chested and wore a simple dhoti while the female actors wore short white kurtas and dhotis.
    As Karna broke down and lamented his misfortune, the crowd was so moved that the hall resounded with the applause. Some even wiped the lone tear too! As I watched the play, I couldn’t help but sympathize with Karna, the man who was blessed by Gods but cursed by destiny. Whether it was sitting patiently despite the large insect gorging on his flesh so that his guru Parshuram could get the much-deserved rest or assuring Kunti, the mother who had abandoned him that he will not harm any of her sons except Arjun, Karna was a man who tried to do the right thing. However, the universe always conspired against him.
    The background music and acting ensured that the two hundred and fifty plus audience did not get up from their seats.
    Simple Impact
    Intrigued by the simple yet appealing presentation of the play, I quizzed Abhishek Mudgal. He said ‘This is a very long play which is divided into seven chapters. When I read it, I realized that if we clubbed it with costumes and sets, it would take the attention away from the very essence of the play which are dialogues and verse. So, we decided to keep the props symbolic and suggestive and I told the actors to concentrate on their dialogue delivery.
    Reception
    Abhishek was quite upbeat about the reception in Jaipur. ‘This was the fifth performance and we’ve had 100 plus people in all our other performances. The play will now be performed in places like Bikaner, Jodhpur and Allahabad.’
    Tryst with Rashmirathi
    Rashmirathi was not as popular and hence became the obvious choice. ‘I have done different kinds of plays, including absurd plays, folk plays etc. During the pandemic we experimented on various genres like folk theatre, absurd theatre and realism. I had not attempted classical theatre. Between Dharmavir Bharti’s Andhayug and Rashmirathi, the latter was a better choice because Andhayug has been performed a number of times.’
    Mahabharat’s Nepotism
    ‘The world today is no less different than what it was in the age of Mahabharat. Even today, if a person is talented and good at what he does but does not have the right level or contacts or caste or values, he does not find acceptance and struggles to make a place for himself. It takes time for any new actor despite his talent to actually find acceptance amongst the colleagues or audience. So, these things have been here since the era of Mahabharat. Karna was talented and according to some even better than Arjun. However, had it not been for Duryodhana, nobody would have recognized Karna for his talent. It was Duryodhana who elevated his status, made him a king and gave him a platform to showcase his talent to the world. Arjun could not kill Karna in an equal duel, so he killed him when he was trying to fix his chariot’s wheel. Karna was the reason why Duryodhana was prepared to fight the war because he depended on Karna’s prowess as a great warrior. We have always been told that the great war in Mahabharat was fought on Arjun’s merit. However, Dinkar’s book suggests that Karna was the reason why Duryodhana chose to fight in the first place.’
    Preparation
    ‘The first rehearsals began on 5 September 2020 and the first show was performed on 8 November. So, it took us two months to prepare for the first show. During the initial twenty days, we spent in learning the Hindi words and their meanings because the play is written in pure Hindi. We spent a lot of time learning the meaning of every word. After that we learnt the dialogues and started rehearsing. The first show lasted three hours. We edited it further and in the fifth show we could limit it to two hours. We still have to edit it further to make it crisper.’
    Discovering Hindi
    For Abhishek, reading Rashmirathi was like discovering a new universe of Hindi language. ‘This book made me realize the true depth of our literature and the kind of words that exist in our language. I wished I had read Rashmirathi earlier. While reading this play, I discovered so many new things about Hindi. I believe the younger generations should be exposed to these kinds of books and plays to truly understand the language. These days, we don’t even read many such masterpieces of Hindi literature that have been written by authors of the yore.’
    Language no bar
    Abhishek believes that the language does not matter when it comes to plays. ‘In my years as a play director, I have realized that language does not hinder anyone from watching theatre. When we were performing some of our Rajasthani, Hindi or Urdu plays in the southern states of India, I was surprised to see a large number of audiences turn up for even ticketed plays that were in Hindi or Urdu. It was that which made me realize that that as long as the audience understands the body language, moves, theme of the play, they enjoy the play even if they don’t understand the language. They don’t need any translation. I remember there was a Manipuri play which was performed in Jaipur. I along with more than 800 people had attended the show. We had not understood the language but could understand everything else that was going on in the play.’
    Pandemic plays
    The reception of Rashmirathi has buoyed his spirits. ‘Before the pandemic, most of my plays were being sold out. Now we have a lesser audience but I am glad that despite the pandemic scare people are still turning up to watch these plays. The truth is that we love live art because interacting with others, sharing thoughts and ideas is our very life blood. We as people cannot stay without it! So, yes we are slowly getting back and theater is coming back in a big way.’
    The play was potent and moving. Yet, more moving was the realization that people will now no longer let COVID govern their lives. Yes, there were masks, there was social distancing and amidst all this, the play happened! After a year of drought and remaining indoors, the hungry spectators feasted on it with their eyes with no holds barred.

    This article was published in Rashtradoot’s Arbit on 28 March 2021.

  • What’s Cooking? Science in the great Indian kitchen!

    What’s Cooking? Science in the great Indian kitchen!

    What happens when a software engineer enters the Great Indian Kitchen which has been the undisputed domain of women for centuries? Nothing much except that the engineer in him starts tinkering with all the ingredients, process and unravels the mystery of the Indian cooking!

    A free wheeling conversation with Krish Ashok, the author of ‘Masala Lab’ a book that says that cooking is really an every day science in action!
    Even today, guys are seldom into cooking. Some of them consider boiling Maggi noodles as their lifetime achievement. Now, it seems many men are getting more interested in cooking. Do you think this is a revolution of sorts? How do people react to the idea of a man cooking at home!
    Things are really changing at least in urban India more than rural India. Infact they are changing more than in South than in other parts of India. It is not as odd in South India to find a couple sharing cooking duties and chores at home. However, in a larger sense this is clearly changing in other parts of India. The pandemic has also forced some of this change, especially for young men living by themselves. Beyond a point, just ordering from Swiggy is not a solution. I think the lockdown and the fact that there were really times where you could not order food home forced people to say ‘I have to learn to cook’. Regardless of whether it was a two-month period or not, it did force people to really think of cooking as a basic skill. However, when it comes to men, there is no dearth of male professional chefs.

    In fact, a vast majority of men are professional chefs. Again, this has to do with gender bias in the sense that women were not allowed to go down the professional route. They were supposed to cook at home, within the four walls of the kitchen.
    So, it is not surprising that I get a lot of attention simply because I am a guy who is writing about home cooking and not restaurant cooking. But I do think things are changing for the better. In fact, as much as men are changing, young women of this generation are also clearly not accepting this kind of a behaviour. Today, they are openly saying that certain rules cannot be gendered and cooking is one of them. Just like taking care of a child beyond a point cannot be gendered. Otherwise, it places an unreasonable number of restrictions and challenges for women aspiring in a professional career since they have to balance everything including their career. Things are changing but these are still very early days since we are a big country. Even in my family, even today, a vast majority of men do not cook. The older ladies in my family really get awed if a guy can boil noodles or make tea but won’t bother to appreciate a woman cooking a fantastic dish because as per them, women are meant to do that. However, I think that after a couple of generations, things will really change.


    Do you think cooking is a life skill?
    Absolutely! In our world, there is climate change happening, there is an increasing awareness about sustainability practices regarding food. So, hence understanding what you eat and where it comes from has become essential. If you go by what’s currently happening with the farmer protests and the other problems of the world, I think the public knowledge of not what just you are eating but also of how it comes is also all the more important. I am not saying everyone needs to learn how to grow their own crops but at least they need to understand where something like bread comes from. They need to understand what is local. The fact of the matter is that there are reasons why certain ingredients are used in certain parts of India. They could be used because they are local, they grow in those climatic conditions and they will not deplete the resources of that area. But these days things are changing just for making money. For example, we have sabudana being grown in Salem in Tamil Nadu, where no body eats sabudana. All of it is exported to places like Gujrat and Maharashtra. You have basmati rice being grown in Punjab, which is not a rice eating part of the world at all. This is tremendous drain on the resources. I think we need to encourage a greater awareness about being more mindful and having an understanding about what you are putting in your body. At the end of the day food is the only foreign object you put in your body; that too willingly and twice or thrice a day! So, it is important that you pay attention to it. Cooking is an essential life skill because at the end of the day, the business of restaurants or the commercial supply chain or processed food industry is not sustainable because it has high carbon footprint and does not use local ingredients. It is salty, sugary and uses tons of preservatives to make food tasty and addictive. Let’s face it that at the end of the day, they have a business to run!


    How would you convince the parents who believe that it is not a man’s job to cook to allow their boys to learn cooking?
    Cooking is the basic of science. In schools, I think we should have a cooking lab next to all those sciences laboratories. In fact, my editor (who was from humanities background) said that if the science is anything harder than class VIII or IX, this book won’t sell. So, she told me to explain all the science behind processes like heating the oil, browning the onions or making curd in simple words. The book is doing so well that I am actually now getting requests from schools. In fact, I am going to be soon doing a demonstration in my son’s school (who is in class 3), along with the physics, chemistry and biology teachers. It is one thing to read about things like structure of a grain or its epidermis and another thing to see it in action in a wheat or a rice grain in a cooking laboratory. You could explain albumin or yolk in an egg, structure of a muscle or anything using the kitchen as a laboratory. So, all I have to say is that beakers and test tubes are all okay but seventy percent of the science practicals in a high school syllabus can happen in a kitchen because that is the place where biology, chemistry and physics intersect. You can explain thermodynamics of heat, you can explain basic chemical reactions, salt, acid, bases. You can explain the defence mechanisms of plants through spices! So, if we help parents of all those boys to understand that kitchen is the basis for their child’s education, then no one will have a problem in letting their boys learn cooking.
    These days many children don’t like to participate in household chores! What can be done?
    One thing that I have learnt from the west is that their relationships are about love but they are also transaction and negotiation based. The parents tell their children that they will give them the money but they need to do the chores first. They can play the videogames but they need to also do the laundry or clean up the kitchen. I think it is important that children should take part and participate in the household chores. Like my son has to put the clothes in washing machine and wash them. It is easy. He simply puts them and presses the right buttons. You need to ensure that your children do their bit in the household chores but these chores should not decide on the basis of gender. These days people send their daughter for helping with the car repair and son to help with the kitchen work.
    But if every one will learn all the secrets of cooking, how will a woman reach a man’s heart? After all, the way is only through the stomach!

    With all the apologies, if the only way to man’s heart is through the stomach then the man might as well learn cooking!

    This article appeared in Rashtradoot’s Arbit section on March 1, 2021.

  • उम्मीद का कुसूर

    उम्मीद उम्र देखती तो सुकून की ज़िन्दगी जी पाते,
    कोई इधर न भटकता और हम भी उस मोड़ पर न जाते.

    न सपने देखते न उस दरवाज़े पर लगाते टकटकी,
    न चलती कोई नज़्म ज़हन में, न आती किसी को मौसिकी,
    अजनबी ख्वाइशों के सैलाबों में हम न डूब पाते.

    उम्मीद उम्र देखती तो सुकून की ज़िन्दगी जी पाते,
    कोई इधर न भटकता और हम भी उस मोड़ पर न जाते.

    आहटों को कह देते की कोई घर में नहीं रहता,
    रोज़ दर पर ना खेलें ,
    बंद करलेते आरज़ू की आखें.
    ताकते नहीं यूँ रंगों के मेले,
    तेरे मिलने की खुद ही खुदा को ऐसी गुहार न लगाते.

    उम्मीद उम्र देखती तो सुकून की ज़िन्दगी जी पाते,
    कोई इधर न भटकता और हम भी उस मोड़ पर न जाते.

    रातों में मेहखानों में न लगती दिलजलों की महफ़िलें,
    न बनते दीवाने, न भूलती मंज़िलें,
    मेह की आगोश में,
    यु बेवजह राही नहीं सो जाते,


    उम्मीद उम्र देखती तो सुकून की ज़िन्दगी जी पाते,
    कोई इधर न भटकता और हम भी उस मोड़ पर न जाते.

  • The Man and His Beliefs : Prasoon Joshi

    ‘Jaipur is a melting pot of art and culture. People here not only revere and love to explore their heritage but also are open to new music, ideas and concepts. The entire ecosystem of Jaipur which includes people and infrastructure along with the attitude of the business people here make it an ideal place for such events.’ –Prasoon Joshi

    It is generally said that business and art seldom mix. People often feel that those who are adept in business cannot be accomplished artists and vice-versa. However, Prasoon Joshi who is not just a marketing guru but also an award-winning lyricist, poet and screenwriter loves to defy conventions and enjoy all that comes his way. We caught up with the man who believes that there is nothing more important than life itself at the Jaipur Literature Festival.
    You are not just a marketing guru but also a lyricist, a poet and a screenwriter. How do you juggle so many hats at once?
    I believe that we should try to do justice to the life that has been given to us. I really admire people like Asha ji (Asha Bhosle) who have been able to balance family, raise children and yet have a successful career. I too strive for the same thing. I have my aged parents who live with me and I love taking care of them. I believe we need to first fulfil our responsibilities towards other people and then towards ourselves. So, if you have a dream, a talent or an ambition, go after it by all means but don’t forget your responsibilities and the people who love you or are dependent on you.
    These days a lot of people talk about battling inertia, stagnation? How does one counter that?
    I don’t understand these words. Where is inertia? Where is stagnation in life? The thing is we are looking at very narrow definition of the word engagement. People think engagement is just about work or projects. No, the truth is engagement is about life. You may not be doing well professionally but you can always find engagement in your personal life, with your family members, with the people you love. When I am not working, I love talking to my daughter, travelling with her, helping her to do her homework. Engagement can be anything. To me, engagement is collecting memories. My grandmother was a village woman who did not start her education till the age of 19. Then she studied and retired as the principal of a school. Look around you, life is thriving. There is no dearth of things to do. All you need to do is to broaden your perspective and listen to your heart.
    What about writer’s block? How do you deal with it?
    You just need to shift your focus to something else. Stop getting stuck in a place. Move on and it will pass with time.
    How do you get your ideas or inspiration?
    Ideas have a life of their own. They will come to you, provided you have the right intent and vibrations. If you are in the creative zone, sooner or later you will get great ideas!

    What do you say to yourself when you look at the mirror first thing in the morning?
    Actually, I don’t really look at the mirror except when I am stepping out of the house. I like to look at the stars, the sky, the flowers and the grass. Nature is the biggest motivator for me because as all know, I have spent my entire childhood in the lap of nature in Uttarakhand. So, whenever I need energy or inspiration, nature rejuvenates me, inspires me and makes me feel truly alive. My music is inspired from nature. I love pahadi music, the feelings and emotions it imbibes in the listener.


    Do you ever talk to yourself?
    I love talking to myself because I believe that is how I am able to sort myself out. In fact, I have quite a pronounced dialogue with myself. I penned down all the conversations that I have with myself in first book that I wrote Main aur Woh (Me and Myself). I think it is important to talk to yourself because that helps in sorting out your feelings and emotions and even get an inner connect. These days we are so busy talking and chatting on social media, mobiles and phones that we have forgotten to talk to ourselves. We are no longer in touch with our own feelings and emotions which is why the youth of today have such issues with relationships. If you do not have a relationship with yourself, how will you have a relationship with others?
    Music has travelled in time from gramophones to cell phones. What do you think is the next phase of music?
    The term music has become quite broad. What do you define as music? You have songs, then remixes, words without music (rap). Right now, the definition of music encompasses almost everything. Somehow, I feel the next phase of music will be utter chaos. I was telling Gulzar saab the other day that he and his generation of poets and song writers had more meaningful and beautiful words to choose from as compared to today’s world. Today, people are resorting to short forms, shrinking and mutilated words. Sometimes, I simply hate the kind of songs that are written today. Even with music too, we will probably not know what is music and what is not music. However, after this chaos, the audience will start rejecting the bad music and they will start searching for melody and rhythm again. Now that our planet is more or less a global village, the interaction of world cultures will also impact music to a large extent. You will get to hear more fusion music and amalgamations that will be in a class of their own. Moreover, festivals like these will increase since people will also crave for authentic and pure music, books and arts.


    What’s your favourite food?
    Food is a memory device. I love what my grandma used to make. It is called Churkani and it is made from black soyabean dal and rice. The taste and smell remind me of my home in Uttarakhand. However, I am not fussy about food. When I was a child, I was not given a choice about what I could eat or not eat. We ate whatever my mother cooked. She cooked seasonal vegetables and food which she felt would be nutritious for us. We were not allowed to waste food. My parents always told me to be grateful for food because there are many people who do not even get two square meals a day! I am not a foodie but I do like to try the local foods of the places I visit to understand the culture of the place.


    What is your favourite colour?
    I like all kinds of colours like green, blue, white and black. I am not very fussy about clothes. If I like something, like a shirt, I buy five. I don’t like thinking much about clothes and prefer if someone just gives me something to wear. I like many colours but when it comes to wearing clothes, I like black and darker colours because it allows me to look always dressed.
    What is your favourite day of the week?
    I love Mondays since I can go to work. I love working.


    What is your favourite destination?
    I love travelling but mountains will always remain my favourite destination.
    Why do you think Jaipur is becoming a focal point of most art and cultural activities whether it is music or literature?
    Jaipur is a place which provides an unbiased and non-judgemental platform which respects every artist. It is also a melting pot of art and culture. People here not only revere and love to explore their heritage but also are open to new music, books, ideas and concepts. The entire ecosystem of Jaipur which includes people and infrastructure along with the attitude of the business people here make it an ideal place for such events.

    This article was published in Rashtradoot’s Arbit on 21 February 2021.

    Shailaza Singh
    Published Author, Poet and Youtuber

  • Virtually Yours- Jaipur Literature Festival 2021

    Will the virtual version of Jaipur Literature Festival be able to enchant its audiences like its real counterpart? In this post pandemic era, will the readers be able to digest this literary reality?

    On my way to the Diggi Palace Hotel, scenes from the last year’s Jaipur Literature Festival flashed across my mind’s eye. People carrying books in their hands, their bags bulging with books. Hundreds of people queueing in front of the kiosks, eager to get their books signed by their favourite author. There were some who had positioned themselves next to their favourite spot for the next session and were patiently waiting for the next session to begin. Elsewhere, many die-hard foodies were sampling the exotic dishes that had been painstakingly prepared by the chefs of Diggi Palace Hotel. Some die-hard fans were deep in conversation with their favourite author over a cup of tea or coffee! The green of the lawns of the sprawling palace were hardly visible amidst the colourful tents that were erected and the audience that occupied those lawns for the author sessions and discussions.

    As I entered the gates of Diggi Palace, my reverie was broken by the cry of a peacock. I looked at the empty lawns and the peacocks who were walking across them as if they owned the place. And then the reality that I had refused to accept struck me! Jaipur Literature Festival would be an online affair in 2021. I walked to a corridor where Sanjoy K Roy, the managing director of Team Work Arts, the company which produces the festival was talking to a handful of people. They were waiting for B.D. Kalla, the art and culture minister, who was to officially inaugurate the Jaipur Literature Festival 2021 which is being held from 19 February 2021 to 28 February 2021. When I asked him for his views on the online change forced by COVID, he was quite upbeat about it, ‘Yes, this time people all over the world have registered for the festival. When the festival was held here, hardly any people from Germany could come. But now, we have so many people registering from different countries like Germany, Saudi Arabia and all across the world. The reach of the festival has become global in the true sense of the word.’

    I remembered the bygone times, where the tourists and the people living in Jaipur would plan to spend their entire day at the Diggi Palace Hotel. Once they entered the venue, the visitors did nothing else except listen to author sessions or explore the various delights the festival had to offer. Some of them would even get their durries to have impromptu picnics in a corner of one of these lawns. Would the online version be able to captivate the audience in the same way? Would this online audience have as much dedication and staying power as the audience in the physical version of the festival?

    ‘We do hope it would,’ said Sanjoy K Roy. ‘To engage our virtual audience, we have curated a great line up of authors and speakers who would talk about a variety of topics ranging from books, nationalism, pandemic and more. This time, instead of having multiple sessions at the same time (in the physical versions, there were different sessions conducted by different authors in four different venues at any one given time), we will only have two sessions at the same time, so that the people don’t have to worry about missing out these sessions.’ Going forward, once the physical version of the festival is restored, will they still continue with the online version too or is it just for this time? ‘Definitely,’ said Sanjoy K Roy, ‘the online version will now be an integral part of JLF since it has definitely helped us to expand our reach and increase our audience across the globe.’

    But would the viewers spend their entire time listening to the sessions as raptly as they did in the physical version? Sanjoy K Roy shrugged his shoulders, ‘May be not the entire time but from our experience during the pandemic time, I can say that the average viewing time was about 18 minutes per viewer which is more than the average of 7 to 8 minutes on OTT platforms. Moreover, while we could only accommodate a maximum of 15,000 people in the front lawn in the physical version of the festival, in the digital version we have received an average of 32,000 views per session, which is way higher.’

    Our conversation was interrupted by the entry B.D. Kalla, minster for Art and Culture, Rajasthan who had come to virtually inaugurate the festival. I watched as Sanjoy K Roy greeted the minister and then took him to light the lamp to signal the commencement of the festival. One could actually see the effect that the pandemic has had on the world as people wondered whether to light the lamp with or without wearing the masks. Ultimately, they decided to film both the versions and take the decision later. Last year, there was a crowd present to witness this inauguration, this year there were only peacocks and a handful of people.

    When he was done with the ceremony, I asked Sanjoy K Roy about the controversy surrounding the venue of the festival- Diggi Palace Hotel. Weren’t there articles and rumours about Diggi Palace Hotel no longer being the venue of JLF? And if that was the case, what was the future of JLF in 2022? ‘As of now, I am glad that thanks to the pandemic, the venue has not changed and I hope that will remain the case in the next year.’ What if the venue is changed? Where would the festival be held? ‘It is too early to comment on this but yes one thing is for sure that JLF will not go out of Jaipur.’

    During the 13 years of its physical presence in Jaipur, JLF was not just an event that people looked forward to. It had become an important source of tourism and income for hotels, tourist guides, autos, busses and many street vendors who waited for the festival to earn their yearly income. The festival may have survived by donning an online avatar, but what would those people do this year? Sanjoy K Roy smiled sadly, ‘What can I say? It has been the case everywhere. The pandemic has impacted every one including us. Just this morning as I was coming here, I met the guy who used to sell his wares outside the palace during the festival. He told me how difficult it was for him and his family to survive this year since there would be no tourists or festival to sell his wares. We are hoping that we are back to business as usual in 2022 so that people are able to compensate for their losses.’

    Ever since the onset of the pandemic, the world has been reeling with the deluge of online conferences, webinars, meetings and all sorts of virtual events. Many employees swear by their power naps and zoning off techniques to cope with the online information overload. It is indeed a challenge to sit glued to one’s chair and listen to the ever-droning colleagues and bosses without switching off.  Students all over the world have been earnestly hoping that they are able to physically attend their schools since online classes no longer hold their interest.  Some studies have suggested that it is difficult for human beings to concentrate on online events for an extended span of time. Moreover, most celebrities, authors and other speakers have their own channels in Instagram, Facebook and YouTube where they keep talking to their followers about their books, achievements and activities frequently.

    In such a scenario, will an event like the Jaipur Literature Festival be able to hold the attention of the netizens? In the real world, the authors sessions were punctuated by coffee breaks, question- answer sessions, a visit to the book store, author signings and interactions and many more such activities which cannot be replicated even in the most technologically advanced version of the online festival. The question is even if the festival has been created using the most curated list of authors and advanced technology, will it be able to satisfy the audience’s need for a face-to-face conversation with their favourite author or smelling the pages of a brand-new book in the book shop or getting it autographed by its author? Will this virtual version be able to replicate those moments and experiences? Will the audience learn to love this version as it loved the physical festival? Maybe or maybe not! Only the people and time will tell.

    This article by Shailaza Singh was published in Rashtradoot Newspaper’s Arbit Section on 17 February 2021.

  • आजकल आदमी भी पिटता है (Men also get beaten these days)


    हमारे देश में औरतों के पास बहुत कानून हैं उनकी रक्षा करने के लिए. पर आजकल आदमियों के पास कुछ नहीं हैं. कई आदमी औरतों क़ानून  के हाथ रोज़ पीटते हैं. इसीपर एक कविता …
    This is a poem about how some men also get beaten everyday by women in the guise of women empowerment. They do not have any laws to support them.

    These days men also get beaten
  • No Free Lunch!

    No Free Lunch!

    Book review by Shailaza Singh (published in Rashtradoot Newspaper on 22 January 2021)

    In their book, The World of Energy, Engine of Life, Raj Sharma and Vishnu Pareek analyse the entire spectrum of energy, from conventional sources to various alternative sources. The book also provides a perspective on energy policy over the years and explains the fundamentals of energy and all related aspects using clear and straightforward language.

    Book Title : The World of Energy, Engine of Life

    Authors : Prof. Raj Sharma is currently an Adjunct Professor at Curtin University’s WA School of Mines: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering. Prof. Vishnu Pareek is currently serving as Head of the WA School of Mines: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering, and as Dean of Engineering at Curtin University.

    Publisher : Springer

    I loved studying science during my school days. During those times, there was a lot of talk about how fossil fuels like coal and petroleum are polluting the world. Chapters about these topics in our school books talked about how these fossil fuels must be replaced by renewable sources of energy like the wind or the sun or electricity. A lot of time has passed since then. However, despite the Gulf war and the excessive hue and cry about issues like pollution or global warming or ozone depletion, alternative sources of energy have really not been able to dominate the world at large. Yes, there are increased instances of people using solar panels or windmills or water or nuclear for generating electricity but they are few and far between as compared to the excessive dependence that the world has on fossil fuels. Despite the various advances in science and technology in the last two decades (internet, smart phones, other gadgets etc.), nothing much has been seen on the horizon for harnessing energy from the much-touted cleaner sources.

    This question has always been there on my mind but I could never get an answer to it. The topic of renewable energy sources, pollution and fossil fuels is a good option if you want to sound very smart and intelligent in social conversations but ultimately all those people just end up shaking their heads and shrugging with resignation when one asks them about the solution to this predicament. However, the question about renewable sources of energy has still remained unanswered despite the media’s hullabaloo about all these issues.

    So, when I picked up the book titled ‘The World of Energy- Engine of Life’ by Professor Raj Sharma and Professor Vishnu Pareek, I did not have any expectations. After all, after decades of discussion on this topic, the endless debate by the media, the protests by people who believe the world is going to end any day, what could this book which has been published by Springer say which had not been said before?

    Energetic Revelations about (US)

    As I was reading the book, a paragraph really caught my attention.

    “President Carter in his address from the Oval Office on July 15, 1979, said among other things:

    …. calling for the creation of this nation’s first solar bank which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20% of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000. Solar energy contribution to the energy pie in the US today (2018) is less than 1.0%- as against the target stated by President Carter of 20% by 2000!”

    The authors go on to say “US with 5% of the world’s population, uses about 20-25% of the world’s energy to lead the lifestyle that it does! One can only try and imagine what would happen if India and China with a third of the world’s population were to provide a similar lifestyle to their people.”

    So much for solar power! This is a fact from a country which is touted as a world leader in technology and lifestyle. Moreover, the book also talks about how most countries in the world believe that replicating the Western (US) model of development would be the ultimate sign of having arrived in the developed world but in reality, the model is quite unsustainable since the wastage of energy by the country is quite high.  The authors also bring out the stark contrasts between the energy consumptions of various nations versus their population. What captivated my attention was that today US and China (which is following the US pattern of development) collectively consume about 40% of the world’s energy despite having only 24% of the world’s population! The authors say that the development of China happened on the back of cheap, abundant and reliable energy which was readily available in the form of fossil fuels which fulfil about 87% of China’s energy need. Though India’s energy consumption is less than 6% of the world, 92 % of its energy needs are being met by fossil fuels!

    Another myth that this book dispels is “‘green energy’ is not really ‘green’ since it requires ‘black (fossil fuel) energy’ to harness, transform into a usable form and control its use to deliver the benefits of modern life.”

    Much ado about Carbon Emissions

    By this time, I was hooked because everything this book said was different to what has been largely propagated in the world. The media has been talking about how the carbon dioxide emissions have exponentially increased due to the rapid industrialisation etc. However, the authors say that carbon, which we all know is the fourth most abundant element in the universe is the essence of life on the earth and in the form of carbon dioxide the only source of oxygen that we breathe. According to them the human population in on earth a hundred years ago was about 1.7 billion with a reported CO2 concentration in the atmosphere of about 100 ppm; today (2020), the human population of earth is about 7 billion with a reported CO2 concentration in the atmosphere of about 400 ppm!

    Out (Laws) of Energy Efficiency

    The three laws of thermodynamics which are considered the gospel truth as far energy is concerned are as popular as the laws of gravitation. However, I have never seen anyone interpret them so interestingly till now.

    “-You cannot win

    – You cannot break-even either, and

    – Everything eventually goes to ‘naught’”

    Whether in science forums or important sounding books and journals, people keep talking about how to maximize energy efficiency. However, the authors of this book are very clear that “one cannot do without energy-but there is no free lunch!”

    Sunning Away!

    Everywhere in this book, the authors have clearly stated some interesting facts!  Every form of energy whether fossil fuels or the much-hyped alternate sources are a result of the sun shining on the earth. Without the sun, nothing is possible!

    “The only ‘green’ energy on Earth in the present day meaning of the term, is that received directly from the Sun in its raw, nascent and pristine form. Period. Full Stop. Everything else is ‘Black’. Nature has provided an automatic clean-up mechanism for the carbon waste in the form of the carbon dioxide cycle. It is the ‘clean, green energy- solar and wind in their raw and natural state-that gave Man his start and it is this energy that Man left behind in his quest for ever more.”

    (Has the) Climate Chang(ed)?

    “It is interesting to note that CO2   in the Earth’s atmosphere has been much higher in the past than it is today; and, there does not seem much correlation between CO2 concentration and Earth’s temperature.”

    The authors believe that labelling climate change as a man-made phenomenon and to pin it on fossil fuel driven carbon dioxide emissions is too simplistic. They believe that earth has been through cycles of warming periods and ice ages over hundreds of millions of years where sea levels have risen and deserts have been formed time and again. The activists have been harping away and campaigning on the ‘burning’ issue of the climate change but the book begs us to think about it from a different perspective!

    (No) Conclusions

    This book offers no conclusions or solutions- the authors have been very clear about this aspect from the beginning to the end. They have simply presented facts based on a lot of different studies that have been done over the years which in a way dispel many myths surrounding the world of energy. Yes, there are some suggestions like revisiting the old cultures like those of India and other countries of the world to understand deeper aspects of energy and its conservation but even those are marked with a ‘perhaps’. The authors make no bones about the fact that fossil fuels do have a competitive edge over the other alternate sources of energy due to a variety of reasons like their ease of use, availability and harnessing power.

    The Last Word

    The debate on energy has been a long standing one. Over time, the lack or abundance of energy has caused wars, created controversies and catapulted many activists to limelight. This book brings a lot of perspective to these burning topics and is interesting even for those who are not from a science back ground and offers an insight into the much debated and very controversial topic of energy. Read it and form your own conclusions! After all, there is no free lunch!

  • नींद से मुलाक़ात

    बहुत दिनों से नींद से मुलाक़ात नहीं हुई थी ,
    सोचा मिल ही आते हैं,
    काफी दिनों से नाराज़ थी…
    की घर आकर भी नहीं आते हैं .
    की और बातों से बात करते हैं.
    मुझसे नहीं करते गुफ्तगू ..
    तो आज इत्मीनान से उसके घर बैठ कर
    पूरी करदी उसकी यह भी आरज़ू

  • The Expectation of Perfection

    The Expectation of Perfection

    Once a sage visited a small village somewhere in India. He was a renowned seer who could heal the most complicated diseases. People said that he was such a pure, gentle soul that his very gaze could elevate a person’s consciousness and change his circumstances. One day, he healed two women who had been afflicted by a rare incurable disease. The women and their families were ecstatic and wanted the sage to visit their homes so that they could honor him the best possible way. However, the sage declined. One of the women decided to visit the sage’s house and convince his wife. When she reached his house, she knocked at the door. An unkempt, filthy woman opened the door and shouted, ‘What do you want?’ The woman was quite taken aback and asked to meet the sage’s wife. The woman said, ‘Can’t you see? I am his wife!’ The woman apologized and beat a hasty retreat. The wife started shouting obscenities att her. The woman went back to the place where the sage was giving a discourse. She sat down and looked at the sage. The sage smiled and said, ‘when we see something very beautiful, we expect it to be perfect in all respects. However, we don’t realize that nothing can be perfect because everything is constantly evolving.’

    I have often experienced this. When I see something or someone who is either very good looking or adept in the work that they do, I expect that their life would be as perfect as their pursuit or beauty. Many a times, a very good looking person has the most squeaky little voice or even vice versa. There are times I have met people who preach about relationships and I discover that their own relationships are about nothing but endless turmoil.

    Gautam Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Osho and many other great men have also been judged on this aspect. There have been women with brilliant careers, faces, following who have struggled with issues in their personal lives. Look at very successful people and you will often find that their personal lives and relationships have always been a ‘work in progress’.

    We as human beings have always seeked perfection. Even in scriptures, while ‘heaven’ is a place of perfect happiness and is meant for perfectly nice beings, ‘hell’ is a place of perfect torture and is meant for perfectly ‘bad’ beings. It took us a long time to understand that there are shades of grey in every person too. Still today, people keep searching for perfect parents, perfect soul mates, perfect solutions, perfect relationships little realising that nothing perfect exists in nature!

    In the end, whatever work we do, we are just tiny fragements of the universe who are here to help the world evolve. The messages that we deliver do not have an origin in us, they are born in the universal desire. Just like the seeds of a fruit are dispersed by the wind, we are only at the right place at the right to disperse the message. Judging or fighting or killing a messenger really serves no purpose.

  • The Truth of Living Alone

    The Truth of Living Alone

    Here is an ode to love and marriage! As I look at people in the world today, I am glad to say that I am happily single! So, I wrote a poem to gloat over my freedom and wonder why people like to fall in life oops love!

    There are times I feel alone,

    Wishing that I had some one of my own.

    I hug myself and watch other people from my window,

    To see how togetherness binds,

    Instead of romantic stories, my observations have gathered some interesting finds.

    Every evening, a live-in couple has to fight,

    To decide who is always wrong and who is always right.

    Their sweet nothings lasted as long as their struggle to stay together,

    When everyone agreed, their faces changed like the weather.

    Scowls and grimances replaced the smiles and laughter,

    Now fights and disagreements make up their happily ever after.

    Another window shows a man washing utensils while his wife shouts at the top of her voice,

    The neighbours have gotten used to the ruckus and the endless noise.

    No matter what the man does, the woman always complains,

    She shouts at him for every thing, even the untimely rains.

    I see a woman with a sad face looking out of the window,

    Perhaps she is searching for the lost romance and love’s glow.

    Her face is lined with care and she keeps turning around to look at the clock,

    She has to be at the door at 6 pm before her husband can knock.

    She pours him his first drink and knows that he will slap her as soon as he gets high,

    She waits for the inevitable as she gazes at the night sky.

    Then there is a man next door, who doesn’t know what to do,

    Because his new wife filed a dowry case against him after saying I love you!

    I look at the faces of men and women who dreamt of being together for ever and aye,

    All the vibrancy, hope and laughter gone; their faces have a ghostly grimness today.

    I wonder if people who wrote these romance novels were single or embittered married men and women,

    Who kept their unrealized fantasies alive by writing them with a pen.

    Or perhaps they were looking for revenge and wanted every one to believe in happily ever after,

    So that they could enjoy the plight of these hopelessly trapped couples and their unhappy lives could be filled with devilish laughter.

    I am happy I did not fall into this romantic trap that has been elaborately laid out for all.

    Now I know why no one rises in love; poor unsuspecting fools always fall!

  • The Past Few Months and The Void

    The Past Few Months and The Void

    I can sincerely confess that in the past few months, I have done little or no work. I have been staring into the space and whiling away time everyday. My head was like the blue sky, thoughts kept floating about like clouds but whenever I tried to make sense of a thought or write it down, it vanished without a trace.

    I remember spending my class X holidays in a similar way. But, I did read a lot in those days. I used to get lost in worlds of fantasy, mystery and magic.

    However, this time, it was different. I was lost but I don’t know where. I thought but I don’t know what I thought. My entire day passed in staring into nothingness and thinking nothing. In this time, nothing existed for me, neither the past or the present or the future. All my life, I have worked for success but now, it seemed as if there was no desire left for success or achievements or accomplishments. Questions like who was I or what was I kept floating around in my mind. Am I the mind or the body? What is my identity? People know me by my name, but am I really a name?

    During this time, I read about Mahavidya Dhumvati. She is pictured as a widow, sitting on a horseless chariot. A crow sits on the top of the chariot. Dhumvati holds a winnow in her hand which she uses to separate the grain from the chaff. Dhumvati or she who has a smoke like appearance is considered the personification of the void which swallows everything and from which everything emerges.

    For most seekers, Dhumvati is the dreamless sleep where nothing exists. She is that which emerges after all forms of identification is wiped out- the dark void which swallows everything. Perhaps, she is the black hole from which the universe emerged and by which it will be eventually swallowed. Interestingly, she is also considered the giver of siddhis or powers in the occult world.

    When we are born, our parents become our world. Slowly, we realize that we are separate from our parents. We work so hard to create our identities, our values, our world. We achieve our goals, aims and targets. Our journeys are full of challenges and we do our best to overcome those challenges.

    Slowly, as a result of these exploits, we accumulate stories of our triumphs and failures. Time and again, we narrate these stories to others and ourselves to assert our identities. We even fight wars to maintain these identities or defend them. We forget that there was a time, these stories did not exist but we existed even then in sheer bliss and joy. As children, we were always in a state of bliss because nothing really mattered and we knew the art of doing nothing.

    But, how will the world function if we do nothing? Is doing nothing not against the very doctrine of karma where we are taught to play our role to the best of our capacity without bothering about the end result?

    Dhumvati is not beyond karma. Dhumvati simply teaches us to remain in awareness of who we truly are. We are not our names or titles or accomplishments. We are beyond those. I remember a friend who was the vice president of a very big company telling me, ‘I am not the vice president but I work as the vice president.’ Similarly, we simply have donned our roles and identifications.

    Dhumvati urges us to drop all identifications and simply play the role that time demands.We are not the role. We are no-thing. We are no-one. Our true self lies beyond the object, observer boundary. We are the awareness that always is. The awareness from which the experiences emerge and to which the experiences return. We are the stage which witnesses the play of the object and the observer for the stage will remain even when the play ends and the players vanish!

    If you ever experience this stage in your life, think about what you really identify yourself with. Who you are really when you are stripped of all the identifying badges? What are you without this game of winning and losing?

  • ‘Don’t search for me. I do not matter,’ Faith tells her mother.

    ‘Don’t search for me. I do not matter,’ Faith tells her mother.

    Shirin has a dream where Faith talks to her and tells her not to search for her because she does not matter to anyone.

     

    ‘Faith,’ Shirin whispered as she looked at her. Faith was wearing her wedding dress. ‘Yes Ma, it is me and I have come to tell you something. I know you’ve been so worried about me. You’ve left everything behind just to find me. Your husband and mother-in-law are upset with you. Why are you going to such a lot of trouble for a person nobody remembers or even bothers about? 

    Who am I? To you, I am your daughter, but for the world, I am a nobody. They forgot me the moment I got married. To them, I am not even a tiny, momentary speck in this indifferent universe. My existence does not matter to anyone. So, why worry so much about some body like me? 

    You have spent days looking for me in this hot and dry desert. Even if you are able to find me and bring me home, what will happen? My father will berate me, my grand mother will keep telling cursing my existence because she feels that I am a liability that needs to be protected from this cruel world. 

    As a girl, it does not matter that I can work and earn on my own. It is not important that I can create my own life. To people like Papa and Dadi, I am still a liability. 

    Sad-Woman

    There are women in big cities who are working and living their own lives but every now and then, something happens with one of them that reminds the people that girls are still vulnerable, they still need protection despite all their progress. 

    When that ‘something’ happens to one of these ‘independent’ girls living in big cities, the impact is felt by every girl living in every village, every town. That one incident is narrated to the girls day in and day out. It shakes up their confidence and faith in themselves and the world around them. The parents become even more fearful for their daughters. Some of them even wish that they had no daughters. 

    At that time, their achievements, their progress does not matter. It does not matter that women have made their mark in every sphere of life. 

    All that matters is that they are women and a nameless person can rip them apart in a fraction of second. He may be a nobody but every body in this world is scared of him just because he is a man.

    Ma, don’t search for me even though I am your daughter. I do not matter. People are happier without me. 

    Finding me will destroy your peace of mind. You will forever be worried about me. Forget that you even had a daughter. With me gone, you are free to travel, to explore the world, to find yourself again.’

    With a whiff of the mist, she disappeared. Shirin opened her eyes. She was in her bed in Jaisalmer. Shirin opened her eyes. She was in her bed in Jaisalmer.

    Faith-The Mystery of the Missing Girl by Shailaza Singh

     

  • The Wrapping- All That Glitters May Not Have Gold

    The Wrapping- All That Glitters May Not Have Gold

    We all love the flashy and the bling. People are drawn like flies to the glitter and glamour and for most of them it does not matter what is beneath the wrapping. 

    As I was watched the children tear open their presents for Christmas, I wondered if the joy of opening these presents would still be the same had the presents been simply wrapped in brown paper?

    The joy of tearing open the gift and discovering what is inside has become a momentary joy in today’s world. After a while, the gift becomes inconsequential like the hundreds of gifts that we get every now and then. For most of us, if the gift is not wrapped in shining paper, we feel disappointed while receiving it and may even hesitate to open it.

    Whether gifts or human beings, the case is the same. We love the stars that glitter in the sky but fail to notice those lone light houses that stand bravely in the raging storm while the stars are covered in the clouds. Not many ships may come that way but those who do come find their way home thanks to the bright shining light of that lone light house. Yet, the light house stays forgotten while the world gazes in wonder at the stars.

    Ships may have been able to chart their courses because of the north star but had it not been for the light houses they would have crashed against the rocks.

    We love admiring those famous faces that stay in the news for every little sneeze that they take but we hardly pay attention to those who are quietly making their way in the world, building their life, fighting their challenges and inspiring people around them. Not many people may know them but these people work as light houses for those who come their way. Perhaps if we were to pay more attention to these every day heroes, we would also be able to create something out of our own lives.

  • What is the point of a big fat Indian wedding?

    What is the point of a big fat Indian wedding?

    Does spending all that money in a fat Indian wedding guarantee happiness for life?

    My marriage had been fixed. My prospective in-laws very categorically told my parents that whatever my parents will be giving, will be to me, their daughter. We were quite naive at the time. We thought that they didn’t want anything. But more of that later. Anyways, my parents started collecting their savings. After all, it was their daughter’s marriage.

    My marriage wasn’t a very lavish one. But then, we are a middle-class family which doesn’t have that kind of money. The relatives and friends who were invited for the wedding came with their bag and baggage. Every thing went as per the plan. However, the marriage for which so many people came, so much was done, did not last long.

    Today, as I look back, it makes me wonder why do some people spend so much on a daughter’s marriage especially on all calling and hosting relatives and friends for days or even weeks? They take out all their savings, some of them even mortgage their houses, all for a grand wedding. I know they do it for their daughter but why? What is the point?

    If the parents have kept some money aside for their daughter’s marriage, why cannot they have a small wedding and then give that money to their daughter in the form of a fixed deposit or investment so that she has something for a rainy day? In today’s day and age, where people can be equated to chameleons and relationships are so fragile, why cause so much of pollution with all that band-baaja-baarat? Why have such a big carbon footprint?

    Why not have a solemn affair which is more about the union of two souls and the blending of two families?

    I know age old customs will not die. But then, it is just a thought.