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જાણે લક્ષ્યગામી 'પૃથક્' અધુરે અટકી પડે...

An Eye Opening Process…

Again a new experience… again something that has something to do with eyes and cars!

A honey-bee bit me just above my right eye a day before yesterday. It is a painful event but let’s put pain aside as ir has no role to play in this article. The honey-bee bite caused a lot of swelling. The result was that the next morning my face was one and a half tomes its original size and my right eye was totally shut. My left eye has some problem with vision so let me nit go deep into that rather concentrate more on my right eye as it plays the lead role here.

I consulted a doctor and he right away started the treatment. So, by the evening next day I was able to open my eye slightly. I was able to see a slit of light. Now here is my first experience… it is like what I saw and what came to my mind with it…

My mom was standing in front of me when I was trying to open my eye. As I could open it slightly, I saw her eyes thru the thin opening slit and darkness surrounding it from every direction. A sight of hope… but this is what struck me….

A scene from a movie called Mission Kashmir came to my mind. It is a bollywood movie. In this movie a cop kills innocent parents of a kid during a antiterrorist operation. Now, he wore a black monkey cap during this operation and the boy saw his eyes thru that cap. So, that the boy saw only two eyes in black background and that murderous eyes haunted him for many years…

What I saw were the eyes of my mom…loving, eager to see my eye opening…

The second thought that came to me was of a view in the mirror of the car in front of you. When you see in the rear view glass of the car ahead of yours, you could only see the eye of the driver… with black background.

The next day morning I was able to open it slightly more. So that was like a view from the windscreen. It was better than before…still there was an upper limit and a lower limit! But a lot of water was running down from my eyes so the vision was a little hazy…

It took a couple of days more before I recovered fully. It was a nice experience I would say. I got complement that was looking like a guy being punched by someone and I wondered from where Mohammad Ali got his punch line…

Float like a Butterfly… sting like a Bee!

9^th Jan, 2008.

પ્રશ્નાવલિ

ચમકારા પહેલા વીજળી કરે ગડગડાટ શા માટે...?
ઉડાન ભરતું પંખી કરે ફડફડાટ શા માટે...?

કિનારે આવી સમુન્દ્ર કરે ઘુઘવાટ શા માટે...?
ડુંગરા ઓળંગતો પવન કરે સુસવાટ શા માટે...?

વરસાદ પહેલા ઊકળતો બફાટ શા માટે...?
યુધ્ધ પહેલા થકવતો વિશ્રામ શા માટે...?

સૂર્યની સેના લાલાશ શા માટે...?
તણખો આણે પ્રકાશ શા માટે...?

શીત હિમ બાળે શિશિરની ઊપજ શા માટે...?
હસતી આંખો રેલાવે નીર શા માટે...?

આનંદનો સાથી શોક શા માટે...?
દર્દનો સાર્થી આઘાત શા માટે...?

આજની સવાર ના ભૂલાવે કાલની રાત શા માટે...?
સપના પણ નભે યાદો પર શા માટે...?

ઊઘડતી આંખો કરે છે રુદન શા માટે...?
ને મીચાતી આંખોમાં એ જ નાચ શા માટે...?

સૂર્ય સાથે અસ્ત થાય મેઘધનુષ્ય શા માટે...?
અવાજ પાછળ અલોપ થાય પ્રતિઘોશ શા માટે...?

'પૃથક્' આ લખતા તને થાય રોમાંચ શા માટે...?
આ પ્રશ્નાવલિનો ના દેખાય ક્યાંય આરો શા માટે...?

Behind the wheel…

Do you like cars?? Do you like to drive them?? Are you one of the crazy perceiver who cares to think how your suspension springs dance when you slam on the brakes or pick up the pace? When you spin your steering? Do you enjoy the sound of your car’s first roar in the morning and when it starts rolling? Do you feel the gears moving in you when you go from second to third gear? Do you like to count zero as the number of cars that overtook yours at the end of the day? Do you feel like breaking of a dream when you have to turn the ignition off? Do you always find yourself looking back in admiration at your car at the first corner you turn after you lock and start moving? Do you feel yourself truly “YOU” when you drive? Well, I do.

But here I want to write about some experiences when the view out of the windshield looked different… when the world outside the car asked for special attention or extra consciousness from inside.

1^st experience is from 1^st July 2007. It was a rainy evening in Ahmedabad. I had to go to the airport to drop a friend. On our way to the airport my wipers stopped working. It was raining heavily and we weren’t in a position to stop. In a few moments the windshield was all foggy and the view was all blurred due to the flow of water. Then we had to open the window glasses and had to see thru the open window. Somehow we reached the airport… at the time of returning to the city the situation was worse. I was alone this time and the water had formed a layer on all the glasses by film condensation. But the good part, there was a friend of my friend at the airport and she also was going towards the city so we decided that I would follow her car. So as we started, I was able to see almost nothing and all my concentration was on two red back lights of her car. It was a good experience, when you are almost blind and following, literally blindly, the only lights in the sight, without thinking what it is or what direction is it leading. And then the flow of the water on your windshield and different patterns formed by it – that gives a feel of a door invisible otherwise but so much existent and in reach, an image to blind you from the reality and still so real in itself.

In a few minutes I had to take a turn from where I had to take a different road. And soon the image lost in reality…the door shut – hidden by the light which refused to come thru it. The patterns united and became a single shade of black. And then my eyes started a search for their existence. They started blinking rapidly for a while and then stopped suddenly; alert and wide open like checking any footstep around or looking for their own footprints in the air. Soon they found themselves breathing as the car reached another corner and we found the street lights to take us home.

My second experience is from 5^th September 2007. We went to a hill station called Mt. Abu. It was rainy season and we enjoyed our two day stay there. We had to start at 5 O’clock in the morning the next day. When we open the door of our cottage we found that we were in a dark cloud. It was so dense that once in the car we weren’t able to see the mark on the road just a couple of meters away, with all our head lights and fog lights. We decided to move on. This was an experience when all I knew was I was moving, on unfamiliar roads, in unknown direction, unaware of the valleys on either sides, unknowledgeable of the possible bears wandering around to hunt. We actually turned a wrong corner and reached a dead end. Moving around in the cloud can make you feel gloomy and lost. Till the farthest point where your sight can reach you see a blend of grey substituting everything that ever existed. With every breath you take you give way to the spreading giant to eat you from inside. And you keep on running into it in to find a way out of it.

We found the correct path and started descending. Soon we left the blurred grey and entered a smiling combination of blue, green, orange and violate. And the joy of living prevailed in the surroundings again.

The third experience is from 27^th September 2007. It was just after the dusk at the industrial south east of Ahmedabad. The silence in the air was so much disturbing. There were many other vehicles on the road but looked lifeless moving objects. The air was still and the yellow in the sky so dull that froze the flow of gasoline in the cars and of blood in the drivers. The view from the glass was of a model of a civilization in a museum, where motionless idols perform a frozen moment in the history. A moment that has taken away the smell from the flowers, withdrawn colors from the rainbow, evacuated the life from the plane of the Earth…
Well, the life was pumped soon and the rainbow was colored again and the flowers were spreading the fragrance again, as the wheels moved on.

The “Good” Germans

I have been to Germany for an exchange. This is my experience of the German culture and people.

For Germans, I had an impression that they consider themselves a level above the others. They are generally rude and unfriendly. They would not talk to you and would not like if you would start talking. They are very much in their own business and mind much if anybody comes close to their domain.

But what I experienced in the three quarters of a year with them is entirely different…entirely opposite. Germans are very polite and helping in nature.

I had an impression that they are not helping but I have seen them stopping the tram for anybody whom they see running. They would do the most anyone can do to help you even in a very small matter. I was told they are kind of rude and don’t smile. But I have seen them always smiling whenever my eyes met their eyes. Always ‘Danke’ or ‘Danke Schön’ (Thank you!) is replied with ‘Bitte’ or ‘Bitte Schön’ (Not at all!) and ‘Entschuldigung’ (Excuse me!) with ‘Kein Problem’ (No problem!), both with smile. I found them very polite even during casual talks. I had an impression that they don’t talk much; they would sit in the tram or u-bahn or s-bahn and read their news paper or magazine. But I have seen them traveling with beer bottles and singing “We are the champions…” in really thick voice.

Another thing worth learning from the Germans is their self discipline. Most of the systems in Germany are open and one can cheat easily if he wants but still nobody cheats. Honesty prevails all over! They are very open to new things and accept good and bad things from others equally. I found them very interested in knowing about other cultures and languages. And I have seen them adopting some customs which they found good.

In short, Germans are really a good community, friendly, honest and caring. That is my experience, hope you have the similar experience…

પૂછે છે!

જેનાથી આશ હતી મને વૃષ્ટિની,
એ નૈઋત્યના પવન દિશા પૂછે છે.

જેને હતો વિશ્વાસ બંધ આંખનો,
આજે બે વત્તા બે ચારનો તર્ક પૂછે છે.

મુઠ્ઠીમાંથી પાણી બની વહેતી આ રેતી,
મારી ભાવનાઓનો અર્થ પૂછે છે.

જેના આધારે જીવન આખું પસાર કર્યુ છે,
એ મને પોતાનું જ અસ્તિત્વ પૂછે છે.

કેમ કરી રોકું ઊર્મિઓના થનગનાટને?
વાટ નિરખતી એ સ્નેહાળ આંખો "કેમ છે બેટા?" પૂછે છે.

જેના પર ગ્રંથો લખવાનુ મન થાય છે,
કૃતજ્ઞ છું - એ એક શબ્દ માટે તો પૂછે છે.

શું જવાબ આપું 'પૃથક્',
જ્યારે એ મૌનનું પણ કારણ પૂછે છે?

૧૩/૦૪/'૦૭

Heaven

Have you ever been to the heaven? Have you ever just passed by the door(s) to the heaven? By the way do you know how many door(s) does the heaven have?

Why?

Well, I just want to know if the “Heaven’s door” is still intact! And what are the ways one can transit through them if they are still standing?

Why? What you mean by “still standing”?

Hmmm….there are two reasons which have lead me to this curiosity…

And what are the two reasons?

Well, ok. I will tell you…

The first one is the knocking on that door. It was started by Bob Dylan in 1973. I am talking about the song called “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”. It was written by Bob Dylan for the movie “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid” as a county song. But then it was sung in a variety of genres and by a number of different people. In 2004, it was voted number 190 by representatives of the music industry and press in Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" issue.

According to Jon Bon Jovi, the song is covered by probably a hundred people… Wikipedia counts The Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, Bryan Ferry, Mark Knopfler, Roger Waters, Eric Clapton, The Sisters of Mercy, Seether, Cold Chisel, U2, Guns N' Roses (which reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart), Television, Stained Class, Avril Lavigne, Warren Zevon, Daniel Lioneye, Bon Jovi, Randy Crawford, Beau Jocques, Chaozz (Czech) and Zé Ramalho (Brazil). Also British punk Rock band, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Red Army Chorus and Ensemble, South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo with U.S. country diva Dolly Parton.

For the complete cover list… http://www.bjorner.com/songsk.htm#_Knockin'_On_Heaven's

I just thought of looking for different versions and in a single search I found 34 different versions, with 2 or 3 repeating from same singer but sung at different occasions. So today my playlist contains only 34 tracks all with the same title still different genre and different singing and so on. Which includes some more names like Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Red Hot Chilli Pappers etc. I am listening to them from the morning and it is late night by now when I am writing this. But still I am not thinking of switching it off or to turn to some other tracks. I am liking it the same as I heard it for the first time…

The one from Guns and Roses rocks as the one by Avril Lavigne. The one by Ladysmith Black Mambazo is cool and Mickie Krause’s version is different…but good.

A great song! And I am sure it is famous enough to be listened by a lot of people daily. Surely one or the other radio station broadcast it daily.

Thus, after so many knocks on the door for so many years I doubt its existence.

Wow! I believe the architect of the heaven would have considered enough factor of safety while designing the door so don’t worry about the knockin’.

And what is the second reason..!?

The second reason is a recent experience I had.

I think I have been to the heaven or at least I have peeped into it.

What? When? How?

I am a traveler and recently I have been to a Palace in south Germany called Schwetzinger. It was kind of summer resident for the kings of that region. A really good place… I was roaming around in the garden there and then at some point I saw this...

A Look into the Heaven!

And when I was here, I felt nothing other than happiness and I don't know where that happiness came from! My feet were still but my eyes were dancing and so was my heart. It was a moment when my brain stopped opposing my heart. May be it was dancing in the same rhythm as my heart.

A moment to remember! So, now tell me about the doors and possible ways of transition.

........................

Hey say something.... Don't react like others did... Don't look astonished... Don't be speechless... Don't look Lost!