1 verses · ~1 min
जीवन का नया दौर शुरू हुआ बची-खुची साँसों को जीने की बेचैनी ख़ूब ग्रह हैं मेरे भी एक दिन काशी छोड़ मालवा जा पहुँचा था महामना मालवीय का कर्ज़ा चुकाने को, लखनऊ बसने की बात स्वप्न में भी नहीं सोची, बचपन में सुनता था परदादा चंदिका सिंह यहीं कहीं खेत रहे भारत के पहले स्वतन्त्रता-संग्राम में अटकी थी याद कहीं हज़रतगंज कॉफ़ी-हाउस की जहाँ कभी झूमा था मौजी मज़ाज़ संग केसरिया कैसर बाग अपने अजायबघर में भीनी-सी महक छिपाए है भगवतशरण उपाध्याय के गंधमादन की। मघई की महमहाती भीतरी तरलता में फूटा था बनारसी ठाट बूटी की बहार गहरे बाज़ी- बजरे में बिहार तबसे अब तलक रीवा,ग्वालियर,उज्जैन इंदौर,काठमांडू, काशी कहाँ-कहाँ भटका नहीं हल्दी की गाँठ लिए पंसारी मुद्रा में।
इति
The Poet
शिवमंगल सिंह ‘सुमन’
Shivamangal Singh 'Suman'
1915 · 2002
There is a particular form of literary courage that has nothing to do with defiance or rebellion the courage of choosing to remain human when circumstances press hard toward despair. Shivamangal Singh Suman possessed this courage in extraordinary measure. He wrote across the full breadth of the progressive literary movement in Hindi, and his work bears the mark of a mind that refused to choose between aesthetic beauty and social conscience, insisting with deep patience that both are necessary if poetry is to perform its highest function. His verses walk the razor's edge between lyric grace and the weight of lived suffering never collapsing into sentimentality, never hardening into polemic. Born in Unnao in 1915, Suman rose to lead Vikram University as its Vice Chancellor, becoming one of the rare figures who moved between the world of intellectual administration and the world of pure creative fire without losing his substance in either. He received the Padma Bhushan and Sahitya Akademi recognition, but his true monument is the quality of sustenance his verses have provided across generations of readers who found in him a poet who understood that the will to go on is, in itself, a form of sacred defiance.
Paired Painting
Rajrajeswuree Ghat, Benares
James Prinsep, a polymath and scholar stationed in Benares, captured this scene with a profound sense of devotion to the city: he documented it with scientific precision and artistic grace. The Rajrajeswuree Ghat stands here as a living testament to the spiritual heartbeat of Varanasi, where the sacred waters of the Ganges meet the enduring stone architecture. Through this lithograph, we are invited to witness a moment of daily life, where the mundane activities of laborers and travelers harmonize with the monumental presence of the temples. Prinsep saw Benares not merely as a colonial assignment, but as a site of immense human complexity, and his hand reflects a deep reverence for the people and structures that define this holy city.
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