बच्चे!

बच्चे! वे अपने चेहरे पर  जो था उसकी शांति लेकर चलते हैं,  और हम बैचेनी का सागर ढोते हैं, हम चुन-चुनकर किसी की फिक्र करते हैं,  उनसे स्वतः सबकी फिक्र होती है,  सब में फिर चाँद - तारे, जल-जीव,  मनुष्य और जो कुछ है,  वो सभी आता है!

© मनन शील

Ramkuwar’s Lassi, the cool drink of the Gods

Ramkuwar loved the cool weather as a child. And he loved the mountains. Though it was only once that he had visited the Himalayan mountains with his family during his summer vacations, the cool air, the smell of the pines, the flavour of the mountains had stayed with him. Kharkhoda is extremely hot in summers. So, Ramkuwar’s family, when they were well off, went to the mountains to escape the heat for some time. Later on, when the business of his father declined and they became extremely poor, Ramkuwar didn’t get a chance to visit the mountains again till he was of a ripe age, but as I told you the coolness, scents, and the flavours of the mountains stayed with him.

Now, he had to take care of his family as well because of the declining health of his father. He must find some business to start, but when he started looking for a suitable business for himself in the summers, the weather was extremely hot, it was as if the Sun God himself was filled with rage, bent on burning and boiling all that lives. Ramkuwar wasn’t able to do anything with this much heat in the weather, and at some time the heat went to his head and he started fighting with anyone he met with even a slight disagreement. The going was getting more and more difficult for his family, when one afternoon, something happened…

Ramkuwar visited an old halwai shop in the neighbouring village where he had gone to look for some job or some business idea, with his friend Tillu, where there was a gathering of people all listening to a Storyteller guy. He was narrating the story of ‘The Legend of Andy’ which is one of the most popular myths of Kharkhoda. He also started listening to the narration - of how Andy used to bless Kharkhoda and do great deeds while always sipping his favorite Lassi. The narration of this sounded heroic to Ramkuwar and he suddenly knew what he wanted to do. When he returned to Kharkhoda, he started a halwai shop with the help of Tillu, the special offering of which was ‘The Himalayan Lassi’...

He flavored his Lassi with rare ingredients - other than the basic ingredients like Curd and dry fruits, he also added one drop of a mysterious syrup - the ‘Tantana Thanda Pahadi Jhatka’ he called it and it is heard that he was provided this syrup every night by the ‘Goddess of the mountains’ during his dream of the Himalayas and when he woke up the very little bottle that he kept under his pillow was filled with the syrup…

His Lassi was loved instantly and till today we say that Ramkuwar’s Lassi is the cool drink of Gods. Whenever we visit his Halwai shop, we feel as if we have entered a shop in the mountains and when we taste his Lassi, we reach almost to the Kailash mountains where Shivji dwells, meditates and blesses us all…

© Manan sheel.

A Joke

A Joke

You laugh

when you get it…

There can be no

half understandings, 

half laughs about a joke,

that is the beauty of it

If your mind

is clear enough,

the joke penetrates

to the layers of absolute-ness,

leaving the relative,

stops relating to all,

And in its utter depths,

a Joke is pure giggle,

a guffaw of purity,

endlessly communicable,

Sans any reason,

Really, just a Joke…

© Manan sheel.

DAKU HUSH !!!

DAKU HUSH !!

People are not sure about DAKU HUSH, whether it was a legend or a figment of Manu’s

and Golhu’s imagination. But whatever it was, the new generation of Kharkhoda has

taken to loving the character of DAKU HUSH dearly.

A word on the pronunciation of HUSH -> It is not pronounced to rhyme with English

words like ‘blush’, or ‘hush’, but it is pronounced like ‘push’, so HUSH has an ‘uuuuuuu’

sound to it.

For that matter, continuing with the existential qualities provided by this pronunciation -

‘uuuuuuuu’. Hush hailed from ‘Hushlok’, which was also the old name of Kharkhoda. So,

at that ancient time, as the legend goes, Kharkhoda was really ‘Hushlok’. People are not

really sure whether this was an ancient time, or are they talking about a parallel

universe that is cuter, more friendly, and whole than our present one. The name

‘uuuuuuu’ provides a round quality to the place. At that time, the only inhabitants of the

place were ‘Daku Hush’ (who was the King of Hushlok), his queen ‘Mehbooba Hush’

(Hush’s love), their mantris like ‘Pappu Jamura’ (who played a fiery Guitar), ‘Harrattu

Hazam’ (Hush’s personal barber), a few more mantris who kept on always dancing and

singing, and cute animals and birds of all kinds. These animals and birds looked like

stuffed coochi poochi toys and were named like Sheru (Lion), Bandaru (Monkey),

Ghuggu (Bird), and so on with the characteristic ‘uuuuuuuu’. These animals and birds,

around twenty of them were the subjects of DAKU HUSH, who provided them with all

the necessary things not only for their survival, but also for their joy and songs and

dances.

On the appearance of DAKU HUSH -> He had a big round tummy which her

beloved wife Mehbooba Hush lovingly called Pyaaru Tondu (Lovely Tummy).

Daku Hush used to wear Police Uniform Khakee colored. And he had thick,

curled moustaches like that of the demon Ravana, from Ramayana. His tummy

and his moustache were the most notable features of him. Apart from them, he

had little bowed legs, he wore a constable like hat. And one more thing, in the

little pocket of his shirt, he kept a photo of Mehbooba hush. The photo was

always visible above the pocket.

Mehbooba Hush was a very beautiful lady. She was fair-complexioned and had a

beautiful nose which Hush called Tunnaku. Hushu was a deewana (ecstatic

lover) of the Tunnaku nose. Tunnaku always attracted Hush because of its

smoothness, roundness, shine, fluffiness and the most because it was a part of

Mehbooba Hush, with whose soul Hush was in love.

In Hushlok, everyone was Happy, so happy, Jolly, so Jolly. People enjoyed comedy. A

long time back, a resolution was passed in Hushlok that the name of everyone and

everything will end in ‘u’. It was done to make everything sound cuter (Pyaaruer in

Hush(u)’s language). So, new born animal babies were named like Pappu, Sheru,

Birdu, Raldu, Bhandu, Bandaru, etc. And ‘u’ was added to the earlier names. It had a

wonderful effect. The names really became cuter, Pyaaruer and Wondru in every sense.

Hushu was wondru in every sense (‘Wondru’ was the word in Hushlok for

‘Wonderful’). He was a man with lots of luxurious interests. Thus, He was

‘Shaukeenu’ in their language. Hushu seldom became angry. There were some

fixed, rare (because everyone knew them) circumstances when Hushu became

angry (‘Gussu’, in Hushlok language). One of these circumstances was when

somebody skipped the second ‘h’ in his name while pronouncing. That is when

someone called him ‘Husssss’, ‘Daku Husssssss’…In such circumstances, Hushu

would start ecstatically dancing and order his subordinates to fire their guns in

air (which emitted a ‘Tha Tha’ sound) and a song would automatically

(magically?) start playing in the background, the words of which were ‘Tha Tha

ki beat pe naache Hush.’ (‘Hushu dances on the beats of ‘Tha Tha’). After the

great dance would end, Hushu would become extremely happy and on that day,

he would take the role of ‘Tondu Halwai’ and distribute ‘Naan Khataai’ biscuits that he

prepared himself to everyone in his Kingdom, never ever failing to take his share. In

Hushlok, even things started because of anger ended up being danced about, because

of our Jolly hero DAKU HUSH.

I think this legend of DAKU HUSH became the heartbeat of the present generation of

Kharkhoda because of the laughter and jollyness it provides to the world which is

becoming rarer and rarer with each passing year. Today, everything is taken seriously

and people are forgetting the simple laughter and the forgiveness and carefreeness the

laughter brings. DAKU HUSH will save this world…

P.S. DAKU HUSH always insisted that wherever his name is mentioned, it should be in

CAPITAL LETTERS. He had a reason for this insistence - he felt that the people who

always use small letters and disdain the use of CAPITAL ones, are probably too careful

with everything, and all he wanted was the people to be CAREFREE, JOLLY and

LOUD!!!

© Manan sheel.

What is a writer? Who is a writer?

What is a writer? Who is a writer?

Someone who doesn’t take sides - 

Who is neither with the hero,

nor against the villain,

Who knows the part each character plays,

who creates life in the written word…

A writer is the God of his world,

whose opinion is equally conveyed

by the positive and negative…

Being a God

he thinks of the hero and the villain,

and cares for both of them,

He knows the Dusshasana and Krishna

characters of his inside out,

and himself is neither…

Nor is he just a reporter,

but someone who knows life

enough to be confident

of the truth of what 

he is conveying…

© Manan sheel.

Tailor Stopping midway

What caused our tailor 

to stop in midway of his work?

What stopped his hands

while sewing, and brought his moving feet

to a standstill?

What was that thought?

Was it some past event, or a possible fear

of an event in the future?

Or was it something that overwhelmed 

him in his present train of thoughts?

Only he knows what happened,

Or maybe after the moment has passed,

he also has forgotten…

© Manan sheel.

With the old poet...

Looking at the photograph of an old poet of a lost language, people see a bamboozled expression, as if he got lost while attempting to know this life, What story of life he understood they don’t know, he is looking at a flower through his glasses, but he is also looking  at something else, the thing isn’t visible to the people but it is reflected in the empty, yet somehow meaningful gaze of the poet,

As his daughter sits close to him,

holding his wrinkled hand into hers,

it looks like she understands his gaze,

and enjoys his smell of the old people,

that is like the smell of old things,

rich, overwhelming, humble, not forceful, subtle,

that I call the fragrance of wisdom,

the poet points to the flower

and the butterfly circling it,

and little buds of moistness float

in the daughter’s eyes,

for here is the nectar,

collected in the little moments

with the old poet…

© Manan sheel.