निवांत क्षणांचे अन्वयार्थ किंवा असंच काहीतरी...

डोहात तरंगे काच, अन व्योम व्यापते नीळ
फुंकरही व्हावी वात, अन फूल घालते शीळ
संन्यस्त कातळावरली ती गजबजलेली वेळ

त्या खडकापाशी आज क्षण शांत भेटले चार
बाष्पास दिसावे सहज घन सांद्र, गोठले, गार
पाऊलखुणांचा तेथे काळाशी जुळला मेळ

त्या स्तब्ध ठिकाणाहून कितीदा गेलो नि आलो
पण काळ थांबला स्तब्ध, तेव्हाच स्तब्ध मी झालो
क्षण सुन्या फलाटापाशी ती धुक्यात थबके रेल

स्मरतात वायफळ सूर, रेंगाळत येता सांज
ते चर्च सांगते वेळ, राउळी वाजते झांज
नि आर्त सूरांनी सजते मशिदीत शुभ्र ती वेल

निःशब्द, असेच निवांत क्षण हळूच उमलून यावे
अनन्वयच त्यांची खूण, भय त्यांच्याशी विसरावे
हा निमिषांचा निमिषांशी निमिषार्धासाठी खेळ

मैत्रीच्या भुताचे दशावतार किंवा असंच काहीतरी...

ते नाते कधीच नव्हते
मैत्रीचे कसले बंध?
वार्‍याला अजून स्मरतो
सुकल्या जाईचा गंध

मी उगीच भावुक होतो
मैत्रीस समजून नाते
वार्‍याशी खेळुन सुकते
रानात तृणाचे पाते

कुठल्या नियमाच्याधारे
मैत्रीचे नाते व्हावे?
वाहणे सुकेना म्हणुनी
पाण्याने पारा व्हावे

मौनाने स्पष्ट करावा
मस्तकात भिनला पारा
तुज मात्र सोडून भगवा
वाटला अबोली तारा?

वागेन कसाहि कधीही
हे बंधन अतूट गमते
डोहात ठरेना तारा
अन रिती अंजली भिजते

का मला कधी ना कळले
मैत्रीचा नसतो रस्ता
मग धूमकेतू दुरूनी
सूर्याशी आला नसता

त्या रस्त्यावर भर दिवसा
मी मुक्त मनाने हसलो
फसलो मी, कळले मी त्या
सूर्याला मित्र समजलो

मग हेही मला उमगले
सूर्याला नाही वैरी
त्याच्या अस्ताशी झडती
स्तोत्रांच्या सावध फैरी

तेव्हा मैत्रीची सारी
व्याख्या एकेरी झाली
एकाची मैत्री झाली
एकाने मैत्री केली

ना कधी गायली कोणी
मैत्रीची सहस्र नावे
मंतरल्या काळासाठी
'भूत' एवढेच म्हणावे

1.2.3.4.

1.

Before the irresponsible electronic media hijacks the issue, before the urban – upper caste – and so called learned people spam my inbox and orkut with ‘apocalypse now’ messages, and before the otherwise proudly apolitical people get selfishly political, let me laud the Indian judiciary as a whole and the apex court in particular for one of the most satisfying, landmark, and just judgments of recent times.

2.

It is always debatable whether reservations can achieve the social justice and equality, we dream for – I mean at least the constitution of India, and many like me dream for. Though I am not hundred percent sure that they can, in the same breath, I must concede that I do not know of any alternative policy that can. In a counter-argument to this, please do not give me vague answers, rather suggest a more effective way – for a simple reason that I do not know any. And yes, please suggest ways that can be implemented affirmatively. I am a thorough non-believer of ways that accept social equality as a principle and then leave it to the social conscience – for I know that they do not work. And since no solution for any social problem will resolve it hundred percent, the fact that - reservations alone may not achieve the equality - is a weak argument to oppose their implementation.

As it is high time that opponents of reservations need to suggest alternate ways, supporters also need to experiment and figure out if there are any better ways. I think we have to admit that reservations alone are not going to help. It is high time we find more efficient alternate solutions for bringing the social equality into reality. Till then, there could be mechanisms running parallel to reservation schemes – that work on keeping the social fabric intact and maturing the social conscience. These mechanisms and experiments may become mainframe solutions when they are proved to be feasible in practice.

In order to minimize the known fall-outs of reservations, make sure that benefits go to those who need them, and improve parallel mechanisms, it is possible to set continuous monitoring mechanisms – continuous evaluation of reservations as a methodology along with its manifestation, encouragement for timely discontinuation of such schemes and leaving the economic elite out of the circle of beneficiaries. I had stated these in my earlier article on digitalization, though in a different context. It is immensely satisfying to see that the apex court’s judgment addresses all these issues. I always believed that such a middle ground - accepting reservation as a policy and optimizing its manifestation – always existed. Though I would have liked to see these views coming out through discussions in the very house that unanimously amended the constitution, I must appreciate that at least the apex court has shown a great character in departing from the bipolar view on the issue and finding out an optimized solution.

3.

For those who are going to spread those ‘I hate reservations’ chain emails, please observe how our educational, economic and social stratification is highly correlated. Obviously there will be exceptions. Obviously there will be upper-caste poor. But these exceptions are exceptions enough to call them an aberration and not a trend. Obviously something needs to be done for them as well. But, to say that economic criterion for reservations is alone sufficient, is being too naïve for the simple reason that the criteria for denying education have not been economic for ages. I am sure that there will again be those emails and communities from the students apparently concerned with the equality and unity of the country. I had received those profusely in the past. They were concerned about the students fighting against reservations. Surely everyone was. They were happy that students were fighting for a cause and morally supported them, if not actually. The sheer feeling of ‘being bechara’ was amazing, thoroughly amazing. The portrayal of this as the sole justice-seeking movement in the country was fascinating and then there was media to glorify it. May be this was something that was directly affecting students, which made you, the concerned, react more strongly. I can imagine that that may be the case. But, I expect that someone, who is so concerned about the state of education and justice, to be equally sensitive towards others, who are fighting with their backs against wall for their rights. I do not expect you to be involved always, but just to acknowledge their struggle and show some sensitivity. But, if you are going to remain completely indifferent to the fact that thousands of slum dwellers walked on the streets of Mumbai for their rights and not a single newspaper or electronic media covered it, and then tell me that media has been forced not to cover the anti-reservation stories (when I am actually getting irritated with 24 x 7 telecast of students’ protests); if you are just going to abuse some people protesting against demolition, and then tell me to show my support for anti-reservation protests; if you are simply mesmerized by the heights of dams and not bothered how government gives false affidavits on rehabilitation of affected people, and then tell me to sympathize with you and express shock for government quoting number of injured students lesser than actual; if you are going to ridicule a social activist by calling his or her fast as a publicity stunt, and then expect me to be sad for students fasting against reservations; then (even though I will be equally concerned and sad for the fasting and injured students) I am going to laugh at you, your ignorance, and your selfishness, loudly and lavishly. So dear folks, I am not a party to your pure acts of cynicism against a step that more than causing injustice, and hampering quality of education, has threatened your dominance and arrogance!

I do not even want to write about media and electronic media in particular, for I am tired getting irritated with them. Forget about looking at it in the light of social justice, forget about exploring models for social justice, forget about emphasizing on discontinuing hatred and discrimination, they seemed keener on telling the story of how “two thakurs (V.P. Singh and Arjun Sigh)” did it. I just hope that they will some day realize that they can play an important role in social experimentations and strengthening the democracy.

4.

With due consideration of my ignorance and lack of knowledge, I think the only approach for analyzing reservation as a policy has been to either point out its drawbacks and bolster the ‘apocalypse now’ view, or quantify how many benefited from it. We need to look beyond and think of it as an experiment. We need to find out, if this can be a model for alleviating social injustice, if we need a completely different approach or a modified approach, and how can the balance between emphasis on leaving it to maturation of overall mindset and forced implementations be achieved. We need to answer these questions, because we need concrete models for alleviating social injustice. This is because the bases for social injustice are going to change with time beyond caste, race, religion, and financial conditions and because we just love discrimination.

I hope that the government and the parliament will look into the remarks of the apex court and establish mechanisms to ensure effective implementation. And I mean mechanisms to not only ensure that benefits reach to the affected people but also make this a dynamic policy and a space for social experimentation. I hope that the definition of creamy layer will be modified to reflect the increase in annual income after the sixth pay commission has been implemented. I hope that the creamy layer will be redefined in terms of ratio of annual income to the cost of higher education. I hope that we will come up with models and methodologies for implementing the principle of social justice. This is not just in this case. It is important we do that now, for we are going to need it in future – for, as I said, we just love discrimination.

We are envisioning knowledge based societies for the future. This may not be a distant future, and hence time is not far when knowledge will become a new basis for social stratification. I fear this, because I feel, as the societies evolve, so do the bases for discrimination. If we are looking at India as a role model for the future plural and diverse knowledge based societies across the globalized world, we better be equally passionate about being a pioneer in realizing social justice in such a society.

It is specifically satisfying to see that with the current reservation measures, we have taken a direct step in not only minimizing the caste-based social injustice in higher education but also bridging these two bases of social stratification – caste and knowledge. I hope that this also becomes an experiment to which the future generations can look up, if at all they need to (and I hope they do not need to) address newer forms of social injustice.

देखावा

तो बुंद टपोरा गोळा
संतूर भारल्या वेळा
दीठीत रक्तिमा तान्हा
ना दिपल्या अजून ज्वाळा

ती फेनफुलांची दुलई
गुरफटून जलधी घेई
पुळणावर उठून बसली
माडांची तिरकी राई

क्षण राग उषेचा गावा
नि निरोप निशेचा घ्यावा
जग प्रसन्न म्हणते ऐसा
दूरून दिसे देखावा

तो मधला साहिल माझा
तो अलिप्त म्हणून माझा
देखाव्यात हरवलेला
बंदिस्त किनारा माझा

सौंदर्य जळाचे दिसले
अन रंग नभाचे टिपले
माडांच्या पार्श्वी कोणी
अन गृहीत त्याला धरले

कुणी ठाव त्याचा घ्यावा
त्याच्याही जावे गावा
अंतरात शिरून त्याच्या
भावही जरा देखावा

तो उदासवाणा नाही
देखावा जरूर पाही
पण भ्रामक प्रसन्नतेची
व्याख्या त्या माहित नाही

ती लाट फुटे एखादी
सोडून सख्यांची गर्दी
तो भिजतो अन ती रुजते
क्षण तेवढेच संवादी

क्षण चिंब तो ओघळावा
उत्स्फुर्त रंग मिसळावा
विस्कटल्या चित्रामधुनी
रंगतो खरा देखावा