A sketching break in the English period

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Yesterday, during the English period in class VII'A',we were discussing about hobbies. One shy and quiet student came up to me and showed his sketch book.He had done so many drawings of legendary and mythical characters with an adept hand. I was impressed to see the budding artist and instinctively took his sketch book and did a life sketch of him. All the while he kept on looking at my hand busy in sketching him

Monsoon Drizzle

The first droplets of Monsoon rain after the scorching and sweltering heat of long Summer are so fascinating that they have always ignited the creative mind of many a poet. The dark cloudy sky, high wind followed by a shower of rain always make me nostalgic and this year they paved way for me to lend wings to my feelings so as to scale the heights of the realm of poetry.

Monsoon Drizzle

Cool, little droplets of monsoon drizzle,

Why and where have you been so long?

The long spell of summer heat had been on

With days parched and wind gone.

And a soul left all weary and forlorn

Dreaming of a meadow green and mellow

Battered and withered only to drag on

With a cheerless life all dreary and hollow

Come, O’ rain, come and fall in drops,

To fill in all the gaps and crevices

And mop up every pool and puddle,

Waking the sleeping earth up to a new harvest

jeewan ki kitab

A few days back, in the leisure period, Kumud, one of my colleagues started

 reading our palms. To me, she said,"aapka jeewan to ek khuli kitab hai."

This left me pondering over the statement

कुमुद ने मेरे हाथों की लकीरों को पढ़ कहा-

"आपका जीवन तो  इक खुली किताब है

कुछेक पन्ने तो समेट रखा कीजिये ."

बात मन की गहराई में जा कहीं धंस गयी

औ न चाहते हुए भी जब पन्नों को पलट डाला

तो मस्तिस्क के पटल पे कुछ यूँ चित्र उभरे-

जब जिसने चाहा-

दो-चार पंक्तियाँ जोड़ी या फिर काट-खुरच डाली,

औ इक हाय सी उठी जो शून्य में विलीन होते  गए  

किसी ने सुन के भी अनसुनी कर दिया

जब जिसने चाहा -

स्याही भरी पूरी द्वात ही उढेल डाली,

औ अश्रु की बाढ़ में शब्द धुंधले पड़ते गए

किसी ने देख के भी अनदेखी कर दिया

जब जिसने चाहा -

कलम की नोंक ही चुभो तोड़ डाली

औ इक दर्द भरी सिसकी होठों पे उभरी

किसी ने छु कर भी अनछुआ छोड़ दिया

जब जिसने चाहा -

नाता तोड़ गाथा अधूरी छोड़ चल दिया

औ कहानी मानों पंखे से झूलती इक लाश बन गयी

किसी ने पढ़ कर भी अनपढ़ी छोड़ दिया

ये क्या विधाता ने किया -

मानों जीवन नहीं, बनिए का बही-खाता हो

जहाँ बस इंसान के एहसानों का चालुखाता हो

जी करता है इस किताब को

किसी जर्जर इमारत के जंग खाए दरवाजे की तरह बंद कर डालूँ

आज इस अधूरी गाथा को इक कफ़न में लपेट दफ़न कर डालूँ .

Car Servicing Day

After seeing off Mani and spending a nice time with Sammi , going on a shopping spree and movie seeing, I returned to Patna on 20th Oct. There were still two days left for the school to reopen after the Autumn Break. The next day, on 21st, I drove to Hyundai Servicing Centre for the servicing of my car. It had been raining since morning and so getting the assurance of the work being done in an hour or so,I finally snugged myself on the sofa in the office browsing idly the pages of the newspaper.

When done with the reading, I tried to do some still life sketching. Just then an elderly person arrived and sat just opposite to me. Here, I thought I had a perfect subject to sketch and deciding not to miss this opportunity, I did a rough sketching of him but to my dismay, the servicing of his car was over and he left in a hurry.The funniest side of this episode was that till then I had attracted quite a crowd of curious onlookers and one of them even offered himself to be as the next subject taking his seat on the sofa all ready to be sketched. Adding spices to this was his friend's comment-"madam, inki tashwir zaroor se bana dejiye taki inki patni inhe deewar par latka sake," Unaccustomed to such kind of airings, I took leave of them with a promise to do it at the next servicing of my car.