CHERISH with HARISH

It's a cage of bricks. We all enjoy, laugh on jokes which come straight out of the pigeon path or from the BM, but rarely from the heart. It's fun, but there's something missing. There are ideas everywhere, there are views everywhere, but very few voices. Everyone works hard for careers, for assignments, but what about that higher level which we all know of? It's nice, but the brick structures promise much more. Everyone studies of sustainability and shit like that, but the lights are left ON at 11 am. Nothing new, that's how careless youngsters are. But why? Then why do they call themselves 'elite'? And when they refer to the 'Common man' why do they address him as someone else? There's something missing...

the posters with blood on them, the red kurtas with hoarse voices. the eyes with all the veins, the hands which moved in every direction. the pens which wrote the scripts of revolutions, the papers which becam manuscripts. May be the voices were heard, or may be the voices just died down And we live on...

The same feeling, the same breeze, the same smell, the same images. Smells of memories, memories of joy, joy of freedom, and freedom, undefined. It's the same feeling, it's the same month of MARCH. It's back. I am a writier, as I have the same pen, and the same paper. BBut I am a poet, as I have the same zeal, the same smiles, the same tears. It is the same sound of the dry leaves. It's somehow the same poem, Suddenly, it's the same me...

(at Bhuj, Feb'10) That gate was open, we closed it so that people from outside could not come in. But are they actually outside? Are WE inside? Can't we be outside? I stretched my hand and opened the gate again, and suddenly... all of us were INSIDE...

Not many people were excited when I told them that I was leaving for Lothal. They said it's a boring place, with nothing, just a few broken structures. That's it! That's it? I reached the digging site at around 12pm. It was hot. I kept standing there. As a student of class 6th, I had studied about the Indus Valley civilisation for the first time. For the first time, I came across the names of the cities Mohen-jo-daro, Dholavira and Lothal. It was a magical world. A civilisation, which was one of the first in the world. Extremely well-planned and advanced. Two of these cities were in Gujarat. I had never lived in Gujarat and I had no relative from the state. So, these places, for me were as exciting and as adventurous as a fairyland...may be like Antarctica or the Egyptian pyramids. Harappa culture was quite far from me, or at least that's what my NCERT said! I kept standing there. It was hot and the site looked beautiful. Exactly the way it looked in my class 6 NCERT bo...

It is just a 30 second advertisement fim. Just 30 secs. We take almost 50 seconds to open our eyes properly after a night's sleep. And this ad- just 30 seconds! But still so many doubts, tensions... VISUALS.I am enjoying it. Going to hospitals to look for the location. I have always loved the process of looking for locations. You imagine, then you follow this hit-and-trial method to check if there's actually a location which is similar to your imagination! Let's see if there's one. Afterall, it's just about those 30 seconds!

(I wrote this sitting on my berth in Ashram Express from Delhi to Ahmedabad. I was tired, but still I wanted to be up! I didn't want to sleep, but still I enjoyed the phase of not-doing-anything!) Yeh khuli aankhen, dekhen dhundla, har saans kahe ek kahani thakaan ki. Palken maano ho chattano se bhaari, Kaaya ab lage mitee hui si. Iss nidra ke kya kehne, ab andhera lage behtar, ujaale se!