My New Book 'One Day in the life of Javed Khan' is out now!

Really excited to tell you that my novel 'One Day in the life of Javed Khan' has been accepted by Ukiyoto Publishing, Canada and is now on the stands! I am thankful to my publishers for placing trust in my work.

For those ordering from Amazon.com, 

the Paperback + Kindle link is @ amazon.com/dp/9354902251

Indian buyers and those from other countries where Amazon is not available, can order from Ukiyoto website- https://www.ukiyotoindia.com/product-page/one-day-in-the-life-of-javed-khan 

This book is also available on Amazon India.

When Javed Khan’s illusion that once out of jail he would be a free man is shattered, he finds himself questioning the relationships, prejudices as well as the very notions of crime and justice in our society. Along with his younger sister, Ayesha, he sets out to make a fresh start only to realize he is in a far bigger jail and things are anything but normal. Despite loss and miseries, he persists with an unflinching hope. 

Poignant, insightful and flipping between past and present, it is not just Javed’s story but of all those like him who are wrongly labeled as terrorists. 

Based on thorough research, One Day in the Life of Javed Khan presents the truth with specific patterns through a thin veil of fiction.

Something I can BRAG about!!

Happy to tell you that two of my poems have found a place in the lovely BRAG literary magazine published from Manchester, UK 😊

Thank you BRAG team ❤️

Get your copy @ bragwriters.com

Mountains

 

In sketch pen

Goddess for Nine Days

Mixed media on A5 paper

Original work

Enough Is Enough

 

Even Mahatma Gandhi would have lost his cool today. 

#rapeculture

Medium- FC Pitt pens on A5 paper

Color Version in FC Polys

Nothingness

 The joy of nothingness!

In FC Pitt Pens

Hell- Fire

 

There are many pressing issues nowadays like massive virus outbreak, Indo-China border tussle, unemployment, suicides, floods, economic slowdown and what not. Sadly, we are invested in scripted political dramas that TV channels play out day and night. We need to understand distractions and prioritize our issues.

Who smoked how much weed and who got into a stupid tweet war with whom are ways to snatch our attention from government’s failures in core matters. We need to see that a hellfire is raging around while we are enjoying it as if it is a holy fire.

You Must Be Around: Eighty Poems on Love, Life and Longing - Revised Edition!

Check out the revised edition of my poetry collection

You Must Be Around: Eighty Poems on Love, Life and Longing 

now available at a reduced price of Rs 99 (Kindle) in a new cover edition! Available on Amazon worldwide!

                                            

With thoughtfully crafted words and lovely imagery, these eighty beautiful poems on love, life and longing will touch your heart and soothe your soul.

The first section, ‘Love’ describes the ideas about love, and feelings. The second one, ‘Life’ deals with aspects such as nature, death, rebirth and Karma. The third one ‘Longing’ is about pain and heart-breaks.

The Linear Tide- My New Book is Out!

I am so glad to tell you that my new novel 'The Linear Tide' is out (e-book)!

The unique story of a simpleton Avni, an erudite Manav and a compassionate Anurag, 'The Linear Tide' is out on Amazon India!

When Avni meets an erudite and loving ad-man Manav, he splits open a new world of knowledge, literature, art and creativity in front of her making her realize how philistine she had been. Anurag, a vet who also enters her life guides her into a world of compassion, even though he is fighting his own demons and she finds herself trying hard to save his life from collapsing. Their lives then take a strange turn when the ghost of the past returns and she decides to make an unusual choice.

The story, through many other interesting characters, also explores some relationships which are perfect in their own peculiar way.

Do check out. I hope you will enjoy reading it!

Handcuffs

Love, did I tell you that
I hand-picked each syllable of
The verses you tossed at me
In your fits of affection,
They still sing in my playlist
I never hush them up

Love, did I tell you that,
The hues you so loved
Are trapped in my knitting pins
On long haunting nights,
That half-done crimson sweater
Still comforts me to sleep

Love, did I tell you that,
The cotton socks we bought
In matching fluorescent colors
In flying pups, giggling kittens print
On the New Year flash sale once
Still warm my feet on coldest days

Love, did I tell you that,
You flew off but I am still caged
With my heart and soul tied
With handcuffs only I can see

*

We are often handcuffed by things that seem simple and innocuous. They affect us emotionally in many ways. 

Revive

I penned this poem years ago. Revival is not only inevitable but it is necessary as well. Everything stagnant rots. Shedding off emotional baggage is an important step of this process.

गुफ्तगू

नीम  शब्  बेहोश चाँद  और एक ग़मज़दा  दिल 

आज  ज़िन्दगी  को  गुफ्तगू  करने  बुलाया  है ...

Lockdown

अपनी छोटी सी मुट्ठी में एक टुकड़ा धूप पकड़ती 

अपनी ललचायी आंखों से अपनी भाइयों को निहारती 

उस गेंद को उनसे ऊपर उछालना चाह्ती हुई बच्ची

वो मैं ही तो थी 

अपनी थकी हुई माँ के साथ चूल्हे के पास सिकती 

शाम होते ही खेल छोड़ घर भागती वापस आती  

अपनी दादी के साथ मंदिर सत्संग में बैठी हुई 

वो मैं ही तो थी 

स्कूल में सहेलियों के साथ पीछे की बेंच पर, धीमे हंसती 

घर का फ़ोन नंबर मांगने वालों को शिकायत का डर देती 

बूढ़े टेलर से अपनी स्कर्ट को बार बार और नीचे सिलवाती हुई 

वो मैं ही तो थी 

एक ही रास्ते से चुन्नी लपेटे चुपचाप कॉलेज आती जाती

बनारसी साडी में शर्माते हुए चाय समोसे की ट्रे लाती 

एक अजनबी से ख़ुशी से सात जनम जुड़ती हुई 

वो मैं ही तो थी 

अपने बेटे में अपने अधूरे सपने छुपाने वाली 

अपनी बेटी के लिए चुन चुन दहेज़ जोड़ने वाली 

खुद को भूल सबकी पसंद को पूरा करती हुई 

वो मैं ही तो थी 

वो खिड़की, वो मंदिर, वो पीछे की बेंच 

वो सीधा रास्ता, वो टेलर, वो रसोई

मैंने तो हर तरह के 'lockdown' देखे हैं

तुम्हारे लिए ये सिर्फ एक नया शब्द है

जिसने तुम्हे परेशान कर दिया है 

पर मैंने जाने कितनी सदियों जिसे हर रोज़ जिया है 

Philosophy Series Sketch No. 05: Arthur Schopenhauer

This work is done in HB and pencil on A5 paper.

This is the final sketch of my Philosophy Series. He is my favorite philosopher and one of the very few western thinkers who understood and weaved Eastern philosophy into his works. He was an exponent of Vedas and Upanishads. Also, I think his aphorisms are really good. He was a pure vegetarian and an animal lover. The name of pet poodle was ‘Atma’ a Sanskrit word for ‘Soul’.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 –1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work The World as Will and Representation, wherein he characterizes the phenomenal world as the product of a blind and insatiable metaphysical will. Building on the transcendental idealism of Immanuel Kant, Schopenhauer developed an atheistic metaphysical and ethical system that rejected the contemporaneous ideas of German idealism.

His work has been described as an exemplary manifestation of philosophical pessimism. Though his work failed to garner substantial attention during his lifetime, Schopenhauer has had a posthumous impact across various disciplines, including philosophy, literature, and science. His writing on aesthetics, morality, and psychology have influenced many thinkers and artists. Schopenhauer saw his philosophy as a continuation of that of Kant, and used the results of his epistemological investigations, that is, transcendental idealism, as starting point for his own. As a consequence of his monistic philosophy, Schopenhauer was very concerned about the welfare of animals. For him, all individual animals, including humans, are essentially the same, being phenomenal manifestations of the one underlying Will. The word "will" designated, for him, force, power, impulse, energy, and desire; it is the closest word we have that can signify both the real essence of all external things and also our own direct, inner experience. For this reason, he claimed that a good person would have sympathy for animals, who are our fellow sufferers.

Schopenhauer died peacefully on September 21, 1860, in his apartment in Frankfurt at Schöne Aussicht 16. He was 72.

Death Of Conscience

I read about the elephant last night and ever since there is an unsettling eerie feeling within me. I am pained, saddened, ashamed and disturbed in equal measures by what the locals in Kerala’s Malappuram did to that poor pregnant elephant who was scrounging for food. Who on earth, in his right mind and with even an iota of conscience could do a vile thing as to feed it pineapple laced with crackers. The crackers burst into her mouth and she died standing in water. The attempts to rescue her went futile probably she was too heartbroken to ever trust humans again. 

This incident is not the only one and not will be the last one but it is another noose that has tightened its grip on our collective humanity and conscience. I am way too depressed even as tears fill my eyes as I write this, I demand harshest punishment for those monsters and a radical change in animal protection laws in India. Sadly, the priorities of Indian government are can make this seem like a very distant dream. We are currently obsessed with changing the name of everything- cities, stadiums, roads, or even the country- from India to Bharat after the great king Bharat, a step closer Hinduism. In the whole drama that plays on the national stage along with many other pointless ones, we have forgotten that it is collective ethics and morals along with a robust justice system that make a country great, and not just assuming the name of a king once called great in some mythology books. Real life needs attention and care and more respect than mythology.

It was a gruesome murder not only of an animal but of humanity too. Human stupidity and cruelty is boundless. It is a shame. Sadly, TV channels, instead of raking up this ghastly issue to shake the people’s conscience, thought it more important to please, we all know whom.

Read@ https://bit.ly/36UyWKC 

भूख (Hunger)

बदला बदला सा है लग रहा वो शक़्स क्यों  

के भूख नहीं जानती तहज़ीब-ो-अदब कोई 

शहर से जा रहा वो छाले लिए पैरों में 

के उसे बुला रहा गांव का टूटा घर कोई 

Last night I saw a very disturbing video of a migrant laborer eating a dead dog on a highway in Rajasthan. He must have been terribly hungry and destitute. This is the story of our laborers who leave their villages for cities to earn bread & butter. Cities have proved them wrong; there is no love for them. Employers have not paid them their dues and government is busy in blame games. The poor migrants are going though a very rough patch. That video shook me somewhere deeply and these poems came out. I applaud people who are helping them. At the end of the day, it is people supporting each other only.

The translation –

Why does that person seem different these days?

For hunger knows not of any manners & etiquettes

He is leaving the city with blisters on his feet

For that tattered hut in his village is calling him

Caravan

I keep your warmth tangled in my tresses

Like the wispy clouds entangle the moon

Trapping its silvery halo in dewy softness,

Like a seed within some fleshy ripe fruit

I carry your gaze in my wide open eyes

In them it quietly floats instead of sleep

Like mist over two far-off mountain tops

Like long dead stars on a placid lake

I keep your smell filled in my breath

Laden with old woods, untamed seas

Moss covered rocks on soaked earth

Like a mouthful of winter breeze

I keep your touch locked in my fist

In my palms that I stare night & day

Guessing which line may lead to you

Like a traveler trailing his caravan

That he knows well too, has long gone…

Philosophy Series Sketch No. 04 : Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Sephardi origin. One of the early thinkers of the Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism including modern conceptions of the self and the universe. He came to be considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy. He was born a Jew but at 23, was expelled from his community and shunned by his family for his philosophy and revolutionary ideas. He was a trained lens maker and polisher and earned his income from this craft.Spinoza's magnum opus, 'The Ethics' was published posthumously in the year of his death. The work opposed Descartes' philosophy of mind–body dualism, and earned Spinoza recognition as one of Western philosophy's most important thinkers. Spinoza argues that the way to 'blessedness' or 'salvation' for each person involves an expansion of the mind towards an intuitive understanding of God, of the whole of nature and its laws. In other words, philosophy for Spinoza is like a spiritual practice, whose goal is happiness and liberation.

RIP Irrfan Khan

An artist never dies. He just moves to a different world🙏
Rest in peace the versatile and inimitable Irrfan Khan. You are in a better place now. You will always be alive through your work in cinema🌼

Self-Portrait