Friday 30 September, 2011

INLAND POST

INLAND POST
¼varnsZ'kh;-- yhyk/kj txwM+h English translation by GP Bahuguna ½
Don't enclose anything in this letter
Neither your ideas nor your memories
No enclosures allowed in this letter.
Neither any impression of your relations
Nor the story of your troubles and grievances
Neither promises to meet again nor any communicable disease.
Neither your family lamentations nor your signatures even
Otherwise this letter may be censored.
No enclosures allowed in this letter.
Those without any shelter
Are the most suspects and helpless lot
On the face cover one side the name and address
Of the recipient
And on the other side the name of some sender must be there
The news demand care
No enclosures allowed in this letter.
The sender knows,
What has not been written
And the reader understands why it has not been written .
He can read even the blank sheet
even without a single alphabet in it.
Therefore don't enclose anything in this letter.
Do not insert anything in this letter.
Neither any explosive phrase,
Nor the news of your childbirth.
Neither news of a sudden demise
Nor paper bomb
Neither any reasonable argument
Nor any New Year greeting or an intension of
divorce
No enclosures allowed in this letter.
The total issue is the letter only.
Which the bloodless face of the postman carries
who will be castrated in the evening if returned
without delivery.
Translation into English by Govind Prasad Bahuguna
No enclosures allowed- This is an inscription on the face cover of Inland letter Post stationary tagged by the Indian Posts and Telegraph Department sold in Post offices .

Thursday 29 September, 2011

The Undesired Me


                    The Undesired Me
¼ vupkgk eSa &yhyk/kj txwM+h English translation by GPBahuguna ½

A bough of Pine tree swayed
A gust of wind began to chat with window–covers
The wick lamp flickered to die
Darkness settled on all corners of the room,
On all objects of the room–the table, the chair,
And the leaves of book lying open.
Matchbox could not be found
A long waiting silence spread around the room
To welcome the much desired sleep
A loving sleep full of sweet dreams.

Translation into English by Govind Prasad Bahuguna

Wednesday 28 September, 2011

MARKET OF HUNDRED LANES


MARKET OF HUNDRED LANES
¼lkS xfy;ksa okyk cktkj &yhyk/kj txwM+h- English translation by GPBahuguna ½
(1)
A bunch of my friends joined vocations
famed for arousing brilliant-moods
Some in cultural journalism
Some got linked with crime reporting
It was due this people were found dead in news lines
Even a shoe was seen breathing life in commercial ads

Some friends became sellers, some buyers
Busy in their efforts to strike international deals
but they were never visible on scene
yet available on websites for daily chat.

They acquired skills in producing instant bliss
to be sold out instantly
They hated to retain bliss for next day as choice.
They wanted to transform all souls into godly male and female spirits
They favored pleasure even in perfect bliss
They picked up words from folk languages through Hindi
Which sound opposite words in English.
Switching on to speak in Hindi formed a large society by itself
which demanded commercials to be designed in Hindi only
Finishing into Indianised sing-song of English in the end

Our friends intentions got well established
Their destination became easier by
making people realize to read news for ads
And ads for the news was necessary.
Dropped a hint that cartoon columns were in great demand for conveying condolence messages
And the editorials became popular tool for sermonizing.
Self-employment was diluted with news
flowing from districts about departmental activities
Revolution was the name they gave for clumsy haste
And replaced confusion for change.

And finally a social awareness-
See the newspaper as only piece of paper
And not a chronicle of day-to-day happenings
Some friends who manged to go abroad by trick
Were detained due to their country made shoes
The country made shoes were carriers of
queer diseases in wealthy nations
Some of them were held in for shoe-check
before they could move for chest-screening.

(2)

There were five men in crew to shoot a commercial film
One market researcher cum target seeker,
one each from promoter,copywriter, artist cum visualizer and cameraman.
They had capabilities in their field
To create waves in dry-society.

To handle the blockheads to mind their own mood
They sowed seed of flavor in mental attitudes
To generate a mood and to remind its taste in future
They simply needed to repeat command.

Their aim was not to present picture of
A determined, self-reliant beautiful woman
But to pack all verse, tune, music and art into the control of computer,
to transform a lass into beautiful lady instantly.
Their aim was to sell goods through beautiful things.
Their quest was not aimed at finding an ideal for woman but to create an icon for the brand
To be sold by a Miss Universe round the globe
By displaying her body like carpet
To create a crazy obsession in poor shoppers for
For such an expensive purchase.
They held many attractions to fight law of gravitation
They were successful in proving their point
The exchange of commodity meant a real exchange of ideas.

They have silently crept into everything
In hills,in deserts,in fields and objectives
As against looking natural like grass or moss
They appear natural like junk
With their huge money they are present in everything
Either to encash or smash it.
By exhausting their brain completely 
They brought out a big throbbing heart minus brain
Which seemed like cake.
They are my friends; you need to be careful about them.

They are a salable flock on retail
in the streets of cheap market
dealing in public taste,demand and supply
Can be seen as good or bad needy customers
mixed in the crowd of honest brokers and queer thugs
On their dream shops of weird good wishes.


(3)
They informed the healthy and wealthy initially
Then to the lean and thins and jolly fats
Revealing that - you have no information
People were shocked to learn that they had no information
The most informed was more shocked to learn
that he had no right information
The poor destitute was also told he had a right to information
Becoming aware of information he began feeling more happy
This all happened in such a way as
to outdo the bulk of information gathered for thousand years
Then suddenly some abstract technique
came traveling in between
In a fashion of message with technique
Or say some kind of transparency in technique of information with such amazing precaution that
nowhere in the craft of news delivery
the technique was found lacking in skill


A game was put on show in a miracle form of avatar
To respond by throwing waves of water if called by its name Water Gardenia
the Dream girls in scanty outfits emerged to sow half moods
who were nurtured to grow harvest of moods in waves.
Besides the see-through baths some new bath sports were added in the show.
Baths of fish, baths of horses,
Baths of bulls and baths of lions' bath were also added
along with water play of elephants.
Having all this some water thistles popped up from unknown sources breaking all inhibitions and contracts
A water chestnut blew up in the form of careless devil pod
The water caltrop appeared without anybodys knowledge like some regret notice of interruptions in a show

The was like emergency notice
Not in the form of some information but in the form of some pollution.
This was a scene intended to be camouflaged by subsidiary scenes
The stagnant and decomposed water either needed a gush outlet or an obstruction to fall

The new force only pushes the old force out
The obstacles only can create waves
A cascade down can only turns into water fall
But presently there are more falls than the waterfalls in sight.
(4)
One friend said on chat
It is not the women but the saris are always
beautiful
Why on earth should anybody think of committing suicide
who possess such beautiful saris
(A name pops up dazzling like some pearl
from the Great Sea)
The saris manufactured by this company saves women
From committing suicide
And the price also is not dearer than your life
(And then the last message)
You can buy many things at lesser price than your life.

I forget for one moment the lotus famed blooming
navels which make the saris beautiful.

(5)
A former Miss World issued a statement-
The media people know better than we people
To what many given purpose we serve as models
The advertisers have scented in what use this water thistle can be used
How useful is the species of this water weed to hide stagnancy 
(6)

A team interviewed a thousand people
And dared to tell one hundred millions people they had no information at all

Then to break an important information
A flash back scene of mind joined with sculptural art moved
to announce that a new sales girl has been selected for world market who happens to be Indian
crowned today with the title of Miss Universe.
To show her new well settled life
she indicated to her new house on the hundredth lane
which outshines the magnificence of a famous tomb of Agra

(A simple fact,which could never be understood at university was brought home here by an illustration of
extreme realism)

Most of the walls were made of glass and mirrors
which embarrassed me every time I saw
my reflection in it

There was a layer of dust on its bed
despite all walls made of glass
As though it was not a bed but some cemetery
where the dust had settled not only on its grass
But on the spirit also.

Although there was proper arrangement for
the hot and cool temperature.

Bathed in talcum dressed and designed by computer
You can see yourself in whatever form you like
In this way she reduced her crown to dust
And she saw her crown emerging from dust.
In the end a demon rose from an old field
Smeared with filth of moss all over its body
An embodiment of mood
The crew of five men made it to dive into sea
And then transformed it in sizzling freshness
next moment
Its potato like head covered with helmet
Survived for few moments like coconut cover
And then throwing sand all over
the demon got changed into tree of green forest
The Earth hung on its shoulder like a green towel
A damsel stood by its side sporting a water-blossom in her hand
One moment she seemed to change her form like boy
to take a dive
But the next moment the boy seemed to take dive like a girl
This was a man-woman maneuver to wipe out gender discrimination
But the transmutation of man-woman characters into single body within seconds was a reality exposure
The media understood the purpose this advertisement
And the advertisers knew the purport of this news
(8)
The Drop of sweats seem as dewdrops
Unlike debt economy in times of need
Although economy of semantics have gone disturbed.
The words give strayed meaning now
Just as the educated means being technical now.
For his own feel one of my friends
borrows the experiences of other friends
which brings the desired moonlit night for him
on this earth bathed in sweating.
His goals become soft like relics gone moist in dew
Unlike the uninsured deaths becoming examples of financial loss.
Some friends converted death into profit
By taking lessons from this mortal world
Insurance became a necessity
To make a nominee richer by the death of insurer
Oh God ! lend me a life longer enough
to enable me to pay off installments before my death.
(9)
On a look this road gives an impression of a market
But describing it feels like a picture of solitariness
The fear from crowd goes out to draw fear from loneliness.
All pathways which pass through this road
are seen as a pair of my friend's legs moving on them
The vanished pathways begin to open again on road
The solitariness joins you like a friend till end
The relations weaved by endless threads
come to mind when I see the trodden paths on the face of road
And every time my own trodden paths get mixed up with the beaten paths
But the road is a certainty which wears out all pathways by itself
This road crowded with the merchants and jugglers
Branches into many alleys and streets
Leading the pedestrians to turn back on the same path again and again.
At the end of these roads is the Great Ocean,
The ocean of worldly life
Where all kinds of small and big boats, large and tiny ships stand anchored
All ways here lead through airways and waters ways
To travel through these ways you have to leave the roads
To stay put in one place
I have been keeping off to write about this due to my vanity
(10)
Thanks to the rule of anarchy
Which eventually got us accept the law and order
Thanks to the barbarism of ages
Which turned us civil to a great extent
Made us see our debts and taught us to be debt-free.

The Twinned lanes got reborn into market of ten lanes
My friends have reached there
They sometimes bring peace through war
Sometime silence by raising language-dispute
Their formula phrase tells whenever a man refused to change, history also did not change
The slow can be made to move fast and the fast to go slow
But the one which stopped moving altogether have to be given start first.
One has to stop telling, tomorrow is going to finish
everything
This thunderstorm of illusions raised like a revolution
Is being screwed up by my friends
My friends are not extracting oil from sand but a brain from the dirt
They are sucking out air gap between two atoms
So that the position of man may not be belittled
by extending the world of impoverishment under the shadow of affluent world
The life of less fortunate may not take roots in the world of fortunates
The twinned lane passing through the ten lanes
Have changed into market of hundred lanes.

Tuesday 27 September, 2011

A HOMAGE

A HOMAGE
¼J)katyh & yhyk/kj txwM+h English translation by GPBahuguna ½
Facing recession after wealth and
Haunted by fear of going poor again,
The formerly poor,
Pull on the same outer and inner garments the next day also
in disgust.
calling the statement- history repeats itself.
Did not trim his beard for dressing
Did not shine the fate of shoes
The prospects to change body and soul seemed
stuck-up in swamp
The sense organs seem to give way
Before time.
Hands unable to reach where it is itching the back
Blood in calves seems drying up.
On scratching the skin throws off ash like dust
As if one was not living in body but on the funeral ground.
Yesterday churned coffee;
today there are blisters on palms.
He has moved far away from the domain of effort.
Where the money breeds money
Where the money melts into sweating and man takes shelter
In the air-conditioning
On this historic moment
He is obsessed by fear to lose control on his functional organs
And crazy to rely more on sense organs
Due to slump in the capital growth and his bad physical condition
Bearing the sins and fatigue of civilized society
He has been reduced to poor lot pining for love
And dragging on road to frustration and grief
Sometimes the cycle of decency and pleasure
Moves due to sexual drive
Sometime the whole universe seem to revolve
Round on the wheels of money
Sometime the aesthetic sense of beauty
Begins to show up pleasant state of mind
All securities are the result of pains and sufferings
He began to recall
How he was driven to the new world by his temperance being broken time and again
Where an unattractive look also amounts to spreading
Violence.
He geared up himself to remove his whiskers right away
Had a quick bath and changed into fresh laundered clothes 
Was inspired by the polished shoes to put on clean shocks.
In the midst of
Running for desire and money affairs his sensibility
Begins to confuse him
Due to imbalance of financial collapse and his sensual urges
There were stray memories of his first sexual adventures
During the thick of his acute penury
When recollection only meant memorizing your lessons.
He had never thought then his climax-forte
May finish in the release of urine only
Or who knows, it may choke like his throat someday.
In the sky Stars were breaking while chasing the stars
The moon followed its moonlight
On lanes strewn with broken glass pieces.
The sweltering sun using air as its towel
When managing its photo energy into vegetation
Which had extended like semen and blood in the birds feathers
He recalled from his memory once a poor young lad
Who had not yet grown his whiskers fully
Happen to pass through lanes of harlot market one day
Later made practice to pass through it everyday
Once a lass old enough to be his sister pulled him
Close to her company
Opened her bosom saying whether he would like to be fed by her
Or he would prefer to act manly
While I will not charge anything for feeding
But will charge ten rupees if he behaved manly.
In that momentous of the beginning
No mother!– Said the overwhelmed youth in trembling voice
I am a poor student, would not you consider some concessions
I have only five rupees…
The rich organic tendencies embedded in memories past
Going weaker day by day
Deserve all compliments
For they make every one poor alike in the end.

Translation into English by Govind Prasad Bahuguna