Inspiration

क्या हार में क्या जीत में, किंचिंत नही भयभीत मैं,
संघर्ष पथ पर जो मिले, ये भी सही वो भी सही,
वरदान माँगूंगा नही!
---AB Vajpayee---

उँचा और उँचा और उँचा......सबसे उँचा!!
---My Father---

मैं पराजित होने के लिए इस दुनिया में नही आया!
और न ही असफलताएँ मुझे हतोत्साहित कर सकती हैं!!
---My Father---

बोल कि लब आज़ाद है तेरे, बोल ज़बां अब तेरी है!
तेरा सुतवां जिस्म है तेरा, बोल की जाँ अब तेरी है!!
---Faiz Ahmad Faiz---

You are not only responsible for what you said,
You are also responsible for what you have not said.
---Dr. Martin Luthar King---

Doing 'right' thing for 'wrong' reason is worse than
doing 'wrong' thing for 'right' reason!!
---Unknown---

कश्ती भी नहीं बदली, दरिया भी नहीं बदला,
हम डूबने वालों का जज्बा भी नहीं बदला,
है शौक-ए-सफर ऐसा, इक उम्र हुई हमने,
मंजिल भी नहीं पाई, रस्ता भी नहीं बदला...
---Unknown---

यूनान, मिस्र ओ रोमा सब मिट गये जहाँ से...
अब तक मगर है बाकी नामो-निसान हमारा
कुछ बात है की हस्ती मिटती न्ही हमारी...
सदियों रहा है दुश्मन दौरे जहाँ हमारा !!
--- आलम्मा इक़बाल ---

एक चुप, सौ सुख !!
---निशा नागपाल---

My first flight

I entered the premises, there was something very different. Everything was at a complete halt. Men or animal, nothing was in motion. No one was bothered about anyone or anything. All the men were hard asleep making up for mental and physical fatigue for last one day and two nights. It's all due to the successful completion of marriage function but the environment was as if hundred years war was over. I was not used to of this environment at least at that time of the day. It was only 10 in the morning and everyone was asleep.

I heard someone talking, it was on the back side of the premises. I followed the sound and rushed to the place. Two old men were talking to each other in a very suspicious manner. Their posture and gesture suggested that something bad had happened. I went closer, trying to overhear them.
"...... is dead", hearing these words, I went to old man smoking bidi and narrating the incident in a very serious manner. I touched his shoulder and asked him
"Who is dead, tell me who has died?". He was not at all surprised or disturbed on my sudden emergence. He looked at me with a rock solid face and microscopic expressions not visible to my naked eyes. He took a long puff of bidi, I was standing in front of him for my answer but mesmerized by the longest puff of smoke taken in by him and started to calculate how much smoke will he breath out. Now, I was concentrating on his nose and mouth, the only two possible outlets of the commodity I was more concerned than the person died. Finally he opened his mouth, moved it sightly as if adjusting the barrel of his smoke gun and then fired it. Smoke and smoke everywhere, I was completely covered by the smoke cloud and started to feel lighter and lighter. I couldn't understand it for the first couple of seconds but then I realized butterflies in my stomach because of my increasing altitude.
"Increasing altitude!!!!....am I flying???", I could see things getting smaller and smaller down there.

I was not aware of the concept of escape velocity but worried that it can end up putting me at a point of no return, may be in space. Now it was really getting worse, it's not a joke, it's a matter of my life and death. I don't want to be there in space, someone told me there is no oxygen in space.
"oh GOD please save me, please..please..please.."
"No, it's not working, GOD doesn't work on such a short notice. Call 'maa'..call her..call her quickly".I shouted with all the air in my stomach "Maaaaaaaaaaaaa............."

Finally it worked, 'Maa' worked. She saved me from becoming the first Indian astronaut launched in space by a tiny bidi smoke. My body still shivering due to the worst incident ever happened to me just now. I could hear the chirping of human voices all around me, it was getting louder and louder.
"What happened?", someone shouted.
" Someone has fallen down", other replied.

"No, it was someone up there.", someone from the crowd said.

I regained the consciousness slowly and opened my eyes. A group was there to give me the standing ovation after my long flight and successful landing. Someone was smiling at me seeing the future prospect of a potential astronaut. I analyzed the area around me. It was a lot different from the place I started my flight. It seems like a upper berth of railway compartment. My father tried to control the situation in his loud voice."No, No. Nothing has happened. He cried just due to a bad dream. We are used to of it. Don't worry you all."

I recognized the whole family from the upper berth, tried to smile but couldn't because of that humiliating smile on every one's face for me. I wasn't embarrassed -it was something I do often- but they were. After all train is not a place to have bad dreams, one can have it at home.