আমার মতন

আমি ভালো আছি
নিজেকে বলছি তাই
এলোমেলো হিসেবগুলো
মিলিয়ে দিতে চাই...
ধুলোজমা বই এর তাকে
বাসি ইচ্ছে আছে
কাল রাতের ভাঙা চাঁদ
গভীরে তলিয়ে গেছে...
চেনা পথে হাঁটব না আর
নতুন ঠিকানা আমার;
আবার আমি আমার মতন
বাঁচতে চাই একবার...

Melancholy

Many moons ago she was my friend. Those were days when we used to laugh for no reason, talk not giving a damn to the ticking clock, share our over-stretched silence and burst out our frustrations whenever we want.

But then one day, the wind changed its direction and we had to part. Our hopes that germinated under the same sky relinquished before the sun-burnt reality. We were deeply dismayed as we saw our friendship melting away. For the first time we could listen to the sound of the clock loud and clear.

Time raced and we could not swim against its waves. We ended up in benighted lands where we are lonely amidst the crowd. In the dying moonlight we stand like two islands, oceans apart. Our existences wrapped in grim solitude.

photo share

for my mother....

অনেক পথ হেটেছি তোর সাথে
হোচট খেলে ধরেছি তোর হাথ,
আবোল-তাবোল রঙিন আঁকি-বুকি
ঘুম পাড়ানি গান, জেগে থাকা রাত...
এখন তুই অন্য পারে থাকিস
দূরাভাষে গুছিয়ে কথা বলা;
দু' এক পশলা ইচ্ছে আজও আছে
বুকের ভিতর, জমিয়ে রাখা থাক.....

কখনও ভোরে আধখোলা চোখে
আমার কথা ভেবেছ কি তুমি ?
ভাঙা ফ্রেমে গল্প আজ ও আছে,
আলতো হাতে ছুঁয়ে দেখো যদি...
গল্পগুলো রঙিন কাঁচের টুকরো
দূরবীনে চোখ রেখে দেখো ;
খাতার পাতায়ে আজ ও লুকিয়ে আছে
সেদিন ভোরের শিশির বিন্দু দুটো ...

Hope....

Recently I was reading Victor Frankl when I came across the expression “delusion of reprieve”. For a Bengali this phrase does not need any psychological explanation. Years back the same expression came into being with Tagore when he said “Britha asha morite moriteo morena”. For all my non-Bengali friends “delusion of reprieve” is that last hope which always remains with you even when you know that everything is over. It is so true especially with relationships. You know it from the bottom of your heart that everything is blighted, you cannot change the present and you have to continue sleeping every night with your past. Yet you continue to live on with that last spark of hope which is immortal. You will perish and your memories too but that spur will still be alive.

আর একটা জীবন

বৃষ্টি এসে গুনগুনিয়ে গেছে
মেঘের ভাঁজে ছবি আঁকা আছে,
ঘুম চোখে আমার মুখে দেখো
আঁচল দিয়ে স্বপ্ন জড়িয়ে রেখো,
দেখবে একটা জল তরঙ্গ আছে
এঁকে বেঁকে যাওয়া আসার পথে,
কখন যেন হাথ ছানি দেয় আমায়
নীল উড়নি উড়িয়ে নিয়ে যায়;
ইচ্ছে করে তোমার কাছে যেতে
তোমার সাথে নতুন করে বাঁচতে ---
আর একটা জীবন
অন্যরকম .....

ক্লান্তি আমার আপাদমস্তক
তোমার ঠোঁটে বেঁচে থাকার স্বাদ
যাত্রা শেষে নতুন যাত্রা শুরু
উন্নত বাঁচার অভিলাস

Wilds of Life!

Singapore is green! That’s the first thing I noticed about it. But as I go closer to the picture I realize that this green is not just beautiful but well tamed. This green is not wild as the green in India.

This reminds me of an adventurous Philippino friend who once told me that she doesn’t feel excited about visiting Singapore. She said it’s absolutely no fun when you know that you are walking down the bustling streets and nobody will dare to snatch your purse. Everything is so controlled, including your anxieties.

Well there are always two sides of a coin. Being an Indian I value the safety and security threads so well maintained by the Singapore government. Kudos to them! However the evolution of life demands bitter experiences too. The curve of life should be a mishmash of humps and smoothies. That’s how you learn to reflect upon things. That’s the way I want to live it. I mean oceans are meant to have waves. That’s its raison d’être.

Therefore albeit I love Singapore I still miss the wilderness of India.

Rightly Wrong

I am not the first to feel that I am the right person in the wrong place. I am sure many more feel the same way. The diversity of life always fascinates me and that is one of the reasons why I always make an attempt to feel it more closely. Sometimes the experience is unexpectedly good but most of the time it is average. When I say average I actually try to mean it is like a mixed bag. But whether you like it or not, the experience remains.

I do not see any wrong in walking those extra miles to cross the borders to experience the new. But I move on to the back foot when the new refuses to accept me. It is a little bizarre when I see my need but feel the resistance at the same time. And that’s when I actually start believing I am in the wrong place albeit I am the need of the hour.

So what do I do then? Do I retreat? Do I compromise? Or do I revolt? Well, the answer is not so easy. As long as my experience goes, every human action will not have an equal and opposite reaction. Human experiences cannot be considered as simple or complex mathematical calculations with a static numerator and denominator. Depending on the strength of the experience, how intensely it affects your emotions, you can actually take a decision. But once the decision is taken it is done. Never look back otherwise you may find reasons to regret.

Gopi in the Loo...

কথোপকথন

ভুল করে রাত জেগেছি আমি
ভেবেছি ঘুম ভাঙ্গাবে আলো,
অন্ধকারে নিশিযাপন
ভেজা কুয়াশার চাদর ...
বুঝতে পারিনি আলো তখন
আমার বুকের ভিতর
তিরতির করে দানা বেঁধেছে যে,
আজ সে মহীরুহ..
আঁচল দিয়ে আগলে রেখেছি
বুকের ভিতর আগুন,
এখন আমার রাতের সাথে
সম্মুখ কথোপকথন ...

When Gopi meets the little monster

Gopi's Boss s(t)ings!!!

একটু একটু করে, জীবন এগিয়ে চলে
শুকনো পাতা জমে থাকে
বই এর পাতার ভাঁজে...
রং চটা মলাটে আবছা হয়ে যায়ে স্মৃতি রেখা
বিকেল হলে মনে হয়
এই তো সকাল ছিল
কখন যেন দেরী হলো খেয়াল করিনি তো!
সেদিন যেখানে বৃষ্টি নেমে ছিল
সেখানে আজ হলুদ পাতার ভীর,
সেদিন যেখানে বন্যা হয়েছিল
সেখানে আজ শুকনো নদীর তীর;
জীবন দিয়ে জীবনকে চেনা
কুড়িয়ে পাওয়া চেনা অচেনা বীজ
মাটির নীচে লুকিয়ে রেখেছিলাম
নেশার মতন বেড়ে চলেছে
দিন প্রতিদিন...

colors

fabric

on the move....

e-Agriculture: the emerging face of Indian agriculture

Rapid innovations in Information Technology can be a gateway to social development. One such significant innovation is ‘e-Agriculture’ which has the potential to change the face of agriculture in modern times.

The term, 'e-Agriculture' refers to an emerging field that focuses on the use of Information Communication Technologies (in short ICTs) to improve information flow to farmers. This involves ingenious ways of conceptualizing, designing, developing and applying modern information and communication technologies in the rural arena with a focus on agriculture. The ‘ITC e-choupal’ model is an excellent example of e-agriculture in India.

But ‘e-Agriculture’ is not just an information technology; it promotes the integration of information technology with multimedia, knowledge and culture to improve communication and learning processes between various actors in agriculture locally, regionally and worldwide.

However there are challenges and the most important is to identify ways to make this technology accessible to the rural communities and to communicate technological advancements in local languages so that communities practice what they learn. For this to happen a constant process of dialogue and discussion is integral. One such endeavor is the ‘e-Agriculture Community of Practice’.

The e-Agriculture Community of Practice

The ‘e-Agriculture Community of Practice’(http://www.e-agriculture.org) is a global initiative by FAO and its partners where people from all over the world exchange information, ideas, and resources related to the use of ICT for sustainable agriculture and rural development. With over 7,000 members from 150 countries and territories, the e-Agriculture Community comprises stakeholders such as development practitioners, policy makers, planners, and information and communication specialists. The overall aim is to enable members to exchange opinions, experiences, good practices and resources related to e-agriculture, and to ensure that the knowledge created is effectively shared and used worldwide.

How does the e-Agriculture Community of Practice function?

The e-Agriculture community initiates and encourages knowledge exchange - between ICT4D (Information Communication Technology for Development) practitioners, international agencies, governments, universities, research organizations, NGOs, private sector, and the wider development community. Discussion topics are demand-driven and led by partner institutions that specialize in different areas of e-agriculture. The e-Agriculture community also runs a platform which is a virtual meeting and sharing place where users can share experiences, opinions and good practices related to agriculture. The website uses several web2.0 tools to provide interactive, up to date and relevant information to the community. Being a community-driven initiative, much of this depends on the existing and future members of this website to carry forward the revolution and to bring together like-minded and enterprising people from around the world to work together.

e-Agriculture Community of Practice in India 2010

Recently the ‘e-Agriculture Community of Practice’ supported a 3 day conference on e-agriculture as part of e-India 2010, from 4-6 August in Hyderabad, India. The purpose of the event was to bring policy makers, development professionals, researchers, academicians, community stakeholders and corporate officers into a discussion to strengthen linkages through knowledge sharing. Mr. Gireesh Kumar Sanghi, MP, Rajya Sabha, Hyderabad chaired this discussion.

In the end

e-Agriculture has made a stronger start in India that in many other developing countries; but it still has a long way to go. For it to benefit rural communities, the rural digital divide must first be bridged. Locally relevant digital content has to be developed or adapted; and access to ICTs should be made affordable for rural populations. Otherwise e-agriculture applications will remain beyond the reach of rural communities and will merely exacerbate the existing rural digital divide - leading to an ever-widening knowledge gap between information “haves” and “have-nots”.

Time to go back!

Time to go back.

It started with a lot of anticipation. Some happened, some didn’t. A few were manipulated and rest was destined. There were days when many came to support. Yet sometimes I walked alone miles after miles….
It was beautiful, it was ugly, it was harsh and it was fantasy. It continued, it hung, it overwhelmed and crashed.
I forgot to count because I was always bad with numbers. My numbers kept dangling from the branches as I moved on. There were crossroads, there were failures. But there was hardly any time to sit back and repent. It kept rolling in lightning speed as I had to run to keep the pace.

But I cherished every single day, every tiny moment. It was fast but never lost. It all accumulated inside me. They grew with me day by day. They became my reason for being.

Today I am going back but this cannot be the end. It always starts over and over again. It reminds me the day I came in with a promise to go back. Today I keep my promise and take the vow to come back again!

Alive!

It is getting dark outside. May be it will rain.

This part of the city is really beautiful. It’s green.
You can even listen to the chirping of the birds.
Sometimes I just feel like looking across the window. I could see the birds swiftly moving their tiny necks.
They are always flying with the flow of life. They are alive!

We have a lot to learn from these birds.
They fly high yet do not fear to come down.
But we strive for the height, reach there and then feel insecure all the time.
We stagnate, get saturated.
Still we don't want to come down. We forget where we actually belong.

কিছু থেকে যায়ে...(some still remain)

কিছুটা সময় হল
স্বপ্ন গড়িয়ে এলো
দু চোখ বেয়ে,

আধ খোলা জানালায়ে
আলো ঢুকে আসে
ঘরের ভিতরে

শুকনো পাতা ছড়িয়ে ছিটিয়ে
পরে আছে আনাচে কানাচে

সব শেষ হয়েও
কিছু থেকে যায়ে
মনের গভীরে ...

surprise

How do you feel when you talk to somebody after 15 years? Strange! Sometimes it takes ages to say that one "hello". Things would have been so different if we could have communicated earlier. But yeah we did not let this obvious thing happen so it finally happened as a surprise.

My way

I look at the sky. It is eternal. Sometimes it is dark, sometimes it shines. It always exists. No matter it is the time for the sun or the moon; no matter you recognize or not. It stays. Never retreats. Complains, cries, contemplates. It is human. It loves life. It slows down, rests, rejuvenates and restarts....

I do the same way!