बीभत्स· Bibhatsa
01चीख
Cheekh
Ashok Vajpeyi
3 verses · ~18 lines · 1 min
5 verses · ~2 min
यह बिल्कुल मुमकिन था कि अपने को बिना जोखिम में डाले कर दूँ इंकार उस चीख़ से, जैसे आम हड़ताल के दिनों में मरघिल्ला बाबू, छुट्टी की दरख़्वास्त भेजकर बना रहना चाहता है वफ़ादार दोनों तरफ़।
अंधेरा था इमारत की उस काई-भीगी दीवार पर, कुछ ठंडक-सी भी और मेरी चाहत की कोशिश से सटकर खड़ी थी वह बेवकूफ़-सी लड़की।
थोड़ा दमखम होता तो मैं शायद चाट सकता था अपनी कुत्ता-जीभ से उसका गदगदा पका हुआ शरीर। आखिर मैं अफ़सर था, मेरी जेब में रुपिया था, चालाकी थी, संविधान की गारंटी थी। मेरी बीबी इकलौते बेटे के साथ बाहर थी और मेरे चपरासी हड़ताल पर।
चाहत और हिम्मत के बीच थोड़ा-सा शर्मनाक फ़ासला था बल्कि एक लिजलिजी-सी दरार जिसमें वह लड़की गप्प से बिला गई। अब सवाल यह है कि चीख़ का क्या हुआ? क्या होना था? वह सदियों पहले आदमी की थी जिसे अपमानित होने पर चीख़ने की फ़ुरसत थी।
(1971)
इति
The Poet
अशोक वाजपेयी
Ashok Vajpeyi
1941 · 2008
Ashok Vajpeyi occupies a towering position in contemporary Hindi letters as both a prolific poet and a master architect of cultural institutions. Born in 1941 in Durg, he joined the civil service and subsequently shaped India's modern arts landscape by founding institutions like Bharat Bhavan. Despite his immense public responsibilities, his poetry remains fiercely dedicated to the intimate and the personal. He views poetry as a civilizational defense against the crushing impersonality of the modern world. In collections like Shaher Ab Bhi Sambhavana Hai and his Sahitya Akademi Award winning Kahin Nahin Wahin, Vajpeyi explores the themes of love, death, nature, and absence with remarkable linguistic precision. He writes in free verse, employing a sparse and exact vocabulary to capture fleeting moments of domestic quiet or sudden metaphysical dread. His work has been translated across the globe, bringing modern Hindi sensibilities to a vast international audience. Vajpeyi demonstrates that a writer can navigate the complex machinery of the state while keeping the solitary flame of the poetic conscience brilliantly alive.
Paired Painting
Keechaka and Sairandhri
This profound work captures a harrowing moment from the Virata Parva of the Mahabharata. It depicts the villainous Keechaka, the commander of King Virata, as he approaches the disguised Draupadi, known here as Sairandhri, with dishonorable intentions. The painting masterfully portrays the psychological contrast between Keechaka, who is blinded by his own arrogance and lust, and the trembling yet defiant Sairandhri. Varma utilized his mastery of light and shadow to heighten the theatrical tension of this illicit encounter, serving as a poignant reminder of the dignity and peril faced by the heroine during the period of her exile. It is a work that demands we look beyond the surface of the royal court to the moral gravity of the situation.
Open the viewer →
If this held you
Four more, in the same key.
Chosen for their rasa and their register, not their popularity. Each one carries some part of what Cheekh carries.
