THE POET

THE POET

When the dawn goes 

down to the Day

 Ascends the Sun to rinse

The earth's tray

Having survived a night

Mortals set to pray

Flora revives, buds smile

To muse they sway

In a lonely, forgotten

Gaunt cottage far away

A poet lost on his desk

As wreaths on a grave

On paper, his words lay

While the world

Picks morsel,

He shoves

Hunger at bay

Weaving verse

Keeps him gay

Dawn to the day

Then dusk, be it may

A poet remains a poet

Whatever you say.

REVIEW - SONGS OF A FLYING SPARROW

                                         

                                                       REVIEW

                          SONGS OF A FLYING SPARROW

                                              BY: DR RAJEEV PUNDIR

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A doctor by profession and a writer by default. His passion for writing compels him to open his heart in his short stories and novels. He writes in Hindi and English both. 

he resides in Faridabad, Haryana, where he weaves the story and creates characters on the first floor of his house.

You can connect with him at - rajeevherbal@gmail.com

'Song Of A Flying Sparrow ' by Dr. Rajeev Pundir is the story of a young girl Chia who has been brought up in affluence. Her highly ambitious mother holds money above anything else. The concealed truth of Chia's birth is revealed to her and begins her struggle to find her biological father.

The story is well organized in terms of plot. It is crisp, an easy read and intriguing. All the characters are well drawn and seem to be real, though I felt Chia's character a little deficient and had more scope in terms of strength and determination. I would have liked her to be a little more ambitious with an urge to carve a niche for herself being the 'sparrow' of the story. The book gives a fascinating insight into Rini's character, the mother of the protagonist, as a money-minded woman who would not mind going to any length to fulfill her desires.

Metaphors are brilliant at few places and speaks highly of the author's writing prowess.

Taking nothing away from the author, the book is marred by poor editing and pathetic typesetting. At many places reporting clause is in one line and the discourse is in the next. Also, the smaller font was really testing for my eyesight.

To sum up, 'Song Of A Flying Sparrow ' is a good read, not unusual but different, and a mature story from a mature writer.
I wish him all the very best.

                                                                

                                             Dr. Rajeev Pundir

This book is available at: https://www.pustakmandi.com/songs-of-flying-sparrow

Let’s celebrate Pathankot Attack….

Let’s celebrate Pathankot Attack….

Let’s confess we’re a eunuch country…

So, five or six (oh, sorry, we are not clear about it yet) infiltrated in our country from a route used for 

similar intrusion and left unguarded for their convenience.

Hilarious.

And our hyperactive media and the common man wondering and asking why the army taking so long

to neutralize the remaining terrorists when they had managed to liquidate four of them within a few

hours.

We are aware and concerned citizens and we pay our taxes honestly and pay generously to our Army 

so that we can rightfully expect them to safeguard us.

Well, the army does what we expect from it.

But do the rest of the security agencies do their bit?

The five terrorists freaked about in Punjab for hours. Honour them and convey gratitude for not 

harming the civilians.

The Punjab Police SP goes to a distant shrine unguarded and weaponless but in a beaconed vehicle. 

He chooses a lonely and unusual route to return. The terrorists throw him out and abduct the useless 

jeweler accomplice oh his. He lets them go without any resistance. And shamelessly thanks to God 

for saving his life without having a pinch of regret that his irresponsible conduct played a part in 

imperiling the country and an important air base.

We have such eunuch police officers guarding us. Take my word; he will enter in politics after 

retiring from Police service.

They roam about in his beaconed SUV for hours and receive salutes at barriers and checkpoints.

Pathankot is not merely a terrorist attack. It is a memorandum handed in person by the inimical 

forces 

eyeing the sovereignty of our nation. It’s a tight slap on us.

We forgot the attack on Parliament.

We forgot Mumbai.

Now, we should forget Pathankot.

Should we keep forgetting and confess loud to the world that we are a eunuch country and five 

armed 

men are enough to scare us.

Once Again, the ghost of separation has come alive. Once again, an acrimonious neighbour with 

sluggish economy, a pathetic fraction in geography as compared to ours, a population not even half 

of us intrudes and troubles us with its scampish habits.

Every time the pervert neighbour feels instigated to act impish, some of our brave soldiers have to 

pour their lives on the feet of the motherland as a libation.

Our politicians spit out a few hard words and forget.

Life engages the common man and erases the hunch of vulnerability.

But the pain of absences is foisted upon the families of martyrs, the orphaned children, the old 

parents who lose impetus to live and bear the corpses of dead hopes for rest of their lives obliging an 

ungrateful nation.

One clear proof that we have hardened and have grown apathetic towards the attacks on our integrity 

as a country is that none of us can recount the last five terrorist attacks on us.

We wake up and feel the twitch when the attacks are sizeable in magnitude. After all, we are big-

hearted Indians.

We are not cowards. We are generous, amicable and peace-loving neighbour.

Thanks to our politicians for making us understand the difference between war and Proxy war.

We had accepted that.

We inflated our chest when they made us believe that Pakistan does that because it can’t defeat us in 

a war and it does all such crass and inglorious acts of inhumanity.

But isn’t attacking a strategically important air base is same as attacking India?

Should we utter some hard words, issue a puny ultimatum and leave it to our vexatious neighbour to 

deal with the miscreants who dwell on its land and forget everything in cold blood yet again?

Since 1947, Pakistan has not stopped troubling us and we have behaved like a pardoning big brother. 

We have answered it in wars started by it.

We didn’t encroach on an inch of its territory. We say we are mightier but we failed to bring back 

Kashmir to normalcy. We have failed to win the trust of Kashmiri’s beguiled by our troublesome 

neighbor.

Let’s confess we are cowards.

Let’s confess our Prime minister lies about his 56’ chest.

TIME

TIME

Would that time had no passion for pace

It too, felt jaded, it too, felt laze.

Mom's lap of luxury still be mine

Humming crooning lullabies

She is a mellifluous singer

Soft rhythmic taps, affectionate kisses

My childhood would linger.

Four-limbed hopping gosling

Yells and screams

Crawling, I would ramble over

To my dreams.

WRITERS..

WRITERS....

Billowing smoke you let go

We see as a seraph smiling

You may enjoy but we hear 

And expound birds' dulcet chirping 

Moon's appearance in phases 

We admire as fatuous kindling 

Yes, may be touchy and eccentric 

But we are soft and pitying 

Our minds of crystalline purity

Love us for our wits n profundity

We are writers....

WE HAVE BEEN ODD, LET’S BE EVEN NOW….

                               
         WE HAVE BEEN ODD, LET’S BE EVEN NOW….

                                                             ….FOR OUR OWN GOOD

National Green Tribunal pulls up the Delhi government for failing to reduce pollution and outcomes proposition that private vehicle will run on alternate days on odd-even arrangement starting on the first day of 2016.

The knee jerk reaction was among a slew of measures taken by the mortified government, comprising of proven novices on account of frequent U- turns.

The move has received a mixed reaction. To some, it is senseless, impractical and illegal.  We Indians surely know logic. 
Some argued feasibility, people having two cars would take one car one day and the other on next day and plan may fail if people buy more cars.

Some unabashedly refused compliance citing the in adequate quality and quantity of public transport.

Here are some of the comments-

‘I would do anything to avoid getting fleeced by auto and taxi drivers’

‘Every day we hear about incidents of chain snatching and other crimes. There is no option but to buy another car’

‘In case of emergency should we act or take care of odd- even numbers of our vehicles’

True, the move of ration road space is certain to inconvenience commuters but can anything deny that the present situation of demands drastic and immediate measure? Can we gain without pain?

A renowned author who is a self- acclaimed reformer and one who beats his own trumpet about changing the country, criticised the odd-even traffic rules.

He says, ‘At a time when we need economic growth and jobs, somebody decides to get half the vehicles off the roads and destroy productivity.’

The bragging author got his reply.

Many others reproved Delhi Government for thinking something to improve the city’s toxic air quality. All right, I agree the decision is tough, unfeasible, impractical, absurd and whatever. But do we have a better solution?

I’m not a great fan of Arvind Kejriwal and maintain that he preaches more than he practices. And to add that, the blunders he has made in his endeavour to establish a foothold in mainstream politics further spoils his image.

He has delivered less than he promised and his covenant of providing people clean governance proves mendacious by his own rapacious implementation more for self-fulfillment than for the ‘Aam Aadmi’.

I, a common man, feel beguiled and betrayed. However, without any predilection, he merits benefit of doubt on the ground of inexperience and despite of going bungling ever since he has worn that crown of thorns.

I admire him for this prompt and tough decision of curbing pollution that many cities in the world had experimented successfully with in the past.

All of us were not born rich and have gone through many years of life without having the luxury of private vehicles. If not so, then there are an uncountable number of less fortunate in our country who commutes by public vehicles and  counter exigencies. If they can, we can too.

There are arguments that people would buy a second vehicle with odd or even number. Okay, but for whom this proposition is being brought? It is for us and nothing can be implemented if we are not ready to cooperate. If we are prepared for the doom, let it be.

Another argument is what if a party stretches beyond midnight.

We can always plan accordingly if we are willing to make the city air clean. And, wouldn’t it be nice if the parties end timely?

I asked my students for their views on the rule. Most of them favoured it and mentioned numerous advantages of the rule. Most astonishing thing they said was, ‘We do not want to go to college or to work with an oxygen cylinder hanging on our backs.’

Let’s accept with all humility that we have zealously contributed to worsening the situation and now it is imperative for us to participate in remedial measures with equal fervency.

Nothing is possible if we are not willing. At least, accept it for a few days as the government has promised that it would be taken back if it causes inconvenience to public.

So let’s shut up and cooperate for our own good.

                                दिल खफा -खफा सा है

खफा-खफा सा है

बुझा-बुझा सा है

ख्यालों की पेनि्सल से

ख्वाबों की तस्वीरें बनाता है

कुछ देर निहारता है 

फिर मिटा देता है

हौसले का कागज

रगड़ रगड़ कर

फट जाता है 

पिजरे में फसे चूहे सा बेचैन

रास्ता ढूढता है

अब थककर बैठ गया है

कुन्डी में अटकी जिदगी

कुतरता है

सहमा सहमा है

दिल खफा -खफा सा है।