AMANDA GORMAN: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/01/amanda-gormans-inauguration-poem-the-hill-we-climb/ Did I resent that she was an Ivy Leaguer---did it sound too cliche? A bit...and then my knee-jerk reaction gave way to the larger picture of what Miss Gorman means for us all-A young dynamic woman of color on a national podium!!!!!! And what words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ‘The Hill We Climb’ When day comes we ask ourselves, ‘where can we find light in this never-ending shade,’ the loss we carry, a sea we must wade? We’ve braved the belly of the beast. We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what just is isn’t always just-ice. And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it, somehow we do it. Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished. We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reci
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दिवाली (यादों भरी) क्या अब भी घरों में इस वक़्त होती है पुताई ? क्या अब भी खील-बताशे कहलाते हैं मिठाई? क्या नए कपड़ो का अब भी होता है इंतज़ार? क्या अब भी मिटटी के दीयों को रात भर भीगा कर, दिन भर सुखा कर, शाम के लिए करते हैं तैयार? मुट्ठी भर फूलझरियो को सोच सोच कर जलाना, और अंत तक बचाते हैं क्या अब भी वो पांच अनार? सादी सी थी, दून की सर्दियों में लिपटी वो दिवाली, मसूरी की ठंडी हवाओ ने कईं बार दियों की पूरी कतार बुझा दी , पर अब सात समंदर पार, सफ़ेद से होते बालों पे मेहँदी लगाते हुए, खुद ही जल जाते हैं, यादो के कितने छोटे-बड़े दिये यहाँ तो यादो का पिटारा होता ही नहीं खाली तुम वहाँ शायद साल में सिर्फ एक बार मनाते हो दिवाली! #दिवाली #दून
मास्क मैं तो अपनी जान बचाने तक के लिए मास्क नहीं पहन पा रही हूँ. (दम घुटता है कम दिखता है ना जाने मैं कैसी दिखती हूँ ? मास्क जम के भी कहाँ टिकता है ?) सच मैं तो अपनी जान बचाने तक के लिए मास्क नहीं पहन पा रही हूँ, तुम सदियों से बुर्के और घूँघट में कैसे रह लेती हो? तुम्हारी खुद की पसंद है तो समझ भी आता है, गर नहीं, तो यह दस्तूर-ए-बंदिश कैसे सह लेती हो? कैसे ? क्यों? कब तक? ---Nidhi Thakur (June 1, 2020) English: Mask: I am not being able to wear a mask, even to save my own life. (I feel suffocated. I see much less. I don’t know how I look with it? Plus, the mask doesn’t even fit well?) Truly, I am not being able to wear a mask, even to save my own life. How have you been living in a Burqa or a long veil for centuries? If it is your choice, I still understand. But if not, Then how do you bear with this tradition-of-shackles? How? Why? Till When?
Kal Karenge Faisla
...Let's debate tomorrow, whether there is a God or not. Today, surely a little prayer cannot hurt!
A Heartfelt Thanks to the Medical Community
Youtube link: A Heartfelt Note of Thanks to the Medical Community English: In every battle, there is that one braveheart, In every victory there is a head that wears the crown, In this battle, YOU are the soldier, And You that Alexander! For We ‘the ordinary’ have been ordered to stay indoors! You have been called to the battle-field And we know that you will go, for you have made a promise That you may not have a medicine for every ailment, Still you will not break humanity’s hope in you. Christ-like, you will definitely ‘touch’ every ‘leper’ You will offer him/her some medicine, and plentiful blessings. We will never know your pain sitting inside our homes, You have homes too, we will forget often. Yes, we will often forget, That even your kids need home-cooked meals And that you should also go home every once in a while. Sometimes, there will be casualties under your care, And other times, some cures will take a very long time, full
....That Old Person
When you live with that 'Old Person', you realise that old-age needs so much more than we ever thought, and all of it is so costless, in a way!