№ MMXXVI

RACHNA · A LIVING ARCHIVE

Rachna by M.

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MM · XXVI

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Bhima in the Kurukshetra War

Veera

मापदण्ड बदलो

Mapdand Badlo

Dushyant Kumar
3 min read 4 versesसंघर्षstruggleहौसला

4 verses · ~3 min

मेरी प्रगति या अगति का यह मापदण्ड बदलो तुम, जुए के पत्ते-सा मैं अभी अनिश्चित हूँ । मुझ पर हर ओर से चोटें पड़ रही हैं, कोपलें उग रही हैं, पत्तियाँ झड़ रही हैं, मैं नया बनने के लिए खराद पर चढ़ रहा हूँ, लड़ता हुआ नई राह गढ़ता हुआ आगे बढ़ रहा हूँ ।

अगर इस लड़ाई में मेरी साँसें उखड़ गईं, मेरे बाज़ू टूट गए, मेरे चरणों में आँधियों के समूह ठहर गए, मेरे अधरों पर तरंगाकुल संगीत जम गया, या मेरे माथे पर शर्म की लकीरें खिंच गईं, तो मुझे पराजित मत मानना, समझना – तब और भी बड़े पैमाने पर मेरे हृदय में असन्तोष उबल रहा होगा, मेरी उम्मीदों के सैनिकों की पराजित पंक्तियाँ एक बार और शक्ति आज़माने को धूल में खो जाने या कुछ हो जाने को मचल रही होंगी । एक और अवसर की प्रतीक्षा में मन की क़न्दीलें जल रही होंगी ।

ये जो फफोले तलुओं मे दीख रहे हैं ये मुझको उकसाते हैं । पिण्डलियों की उभरी हुई नसें मुझ पर व्यंग्य करती हैं । मुँह पर पड़ी हुई यौवन की झुर्रियाँ क़सम देती हैं । कुछ हो अब, तय है – मुझको आशंकाओं पर क़ाबू पाना है, पत्थरों के सीने में प्रतिध्वनि जगाते हुए परिचित उन राहों में एक बार विजय-गीत गाते हुए जाना है – जिनमें मैं हार चुका हूँ ।

मेरी प्रगति या अगति का यह मापदण्ड बदलो तुम मैं अभी अनिश्चित हूँ ।

इति

Dushyant Kumar

The Poet

दुष्यंत कुमार

Dushyant Kumar

1933 · 1975

Dushyant Kumar did something that required a radical courage most artists never summon. He took a form synonymous with moonlit nights and the ache of unfulfilled romance and dragged it into the burning lanes where injustice stank and the ordinary man had no language for his helplessness. Born in 1931 in Uttar Pradesh, he dismantled the ornamental tradition of the Urdu ghazal and rebuilt it in Hindi as a weapon of the dispossessed. His singular collection Saaye Mein Dhoop became one of the most quietly devastating documents in the entire tradition of modern Hindi literature. The Emergency of 1975 gave his verses a context that proved them prophetic. Unlike mere political poetry, his words outlasted their moment to become permanent fixtures in the vocabulary of Indian dissent. He wrote not with a scholar's distance but with the shaking hands of someone who had looked injustice in the face and refused to flinch. He died at forty four, leaving behind a body of work so concentrated and incandescent that its light has not dimmed in half a century. To read Dushyant Kumar is to understand that poetry's highest function is not consolation but confrontation.

Bhima in the Kurukshetra War

Paired Painting

Bhima in the Kurukshetra War

This stirring composition captures the overwhelming ferocity of the Mahabharata, specifically focusing on the formidable presence of Bhima, the second Pandava. With his legendary strength, Bhima stands as a force of nature upon the dusty plains of Kurukshetra, wielding his mace with a singular, devastating purpose. The artist masterfully conveys the chaotic rhythm of ancient warfare, where the lines between man and beast blur amidst the swirling sands of battle. It is a moment of profound intensity, reflecting the weight of duty, sacrifice, and the cataclysmic scale of a war that would define the moral landscape of Indian civilization for millennia to come.

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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 Mapdand Badlo carries.