can we have results for the story writting competition????

जगीन प्रत्येक मनात आनंद म्हणून

राहिन प्रत्येक मनात आठवण बानून

दुःखाची नसेल सोबत कुठल्याच क्षणाला

सुखाचा देईन ओलावा प्रत्येक मनाला !!

ठेवेल प्रत्येकजण मला आठवणीत,

मी म्हणून, . . . माणूस म्हणून !

दिसेल प्रत्येकला सुर्य-स्वर्ग माझ्यात,

पण नसेल मोह माझ्या सह्वासाचा !

असतील प्रत्येकाला स्वप्न…

मी होण्याची, आकाश बनण्याची

जाणवेल शितलता चंद्राची मझ्यात,

तरी नसेल इछा तिला मिठीत घेण्याची !!

असेल फक्‍त जाणिव

माझी. . . माझ्या आधारची

जाणवेल माझं प्रेम प्रत्येक श्वासात

तरीही नसेल मोह . . . श्वास घेण्याचा !

तेंव्हा मी असेन तिथे

माझा श्वास तुला द्यायला…

आणि जाणवेल तुला माझं अस्तित्व

मॄत्युच्या पलिकडे दिसणारं. . .

सोडेन माझा श्वास

तुझ्या श्वासात मिसळून

पाहिन वाट उद्याची, पुनः जन्माची

पुन्हा एकदा जगण्यासाठी. . .

ह्या वेळी असेन एक माणुस सामान्य

तुझ्याकडे, त्याच्याकडे आधार शोधणारा

आधार शोधतांना अनेकदा पडणारा

आणि. . .आधार मिळाल्यावर सिंह होउन गरजणारा!!

त्यावेळी मी प्रयत्न करेन,

‘तू’ बनून जगण्याचा

तेंव्हा तू प्रयत्न करवास ,

 मला पंखाखाली घेण्याचा !

मी थांबीन विसाव्याला तुझ्याजवळ थोडावेळ,

 घेईन अनुभूती, तुझ्या स्पंदनांची

बघीन ठोडी स्वप्न – नव्याने जगायला,

वाकेन, मोडेन – पुन्हा नव्याने धावायला !!

पण . . . पण तेंव्हाही तू नसशील तर?

तर . . . तर मलाच व्हवं लागेल मोठ . . . खुप मोठं

व्हावं लागेल तोच सुर्य – तोच स्वर्ग,

ठेवावी लागतील मनाची दारं उघडी,

तुझ्यासाठी, त्याच्यासाठी. . . प्रत्येकाचंसाठी !!

सांग ना…तू असशील ना तेंव्हा ?

मला थोपटायला, निजवायला,

 मला मिठीत घेऊन कुर्वाळायला

मी रडलो तर माझे डोळे पुसायला,
माझ्या बरोबर रडायला

आणि रडता-रडता माझ्यात हरवायला !

सांग ना… आसेल ना तुझी जणिव

माझा श्वास जिवंत ठवायला ?

असेल ना तुझा आधार

मला पुन्हा रुजवायला ?

कदाचित तू नसशील तिथे

तरीपण . . . माझी एक आपेक्षा

तुझ्यात असाण्याची,

माझा आत्मा असण्याची !

आणि तू असतांना सुद्धा

कदाचित मलाच व्हावं लागेल मोठं

द्यावा लागेल तुला हात,

द्यावाच लागेल मझा श्वास

तरी पण घेईन मी पुःजन्म पुन्हा जुन्याच अपेक्षेने,

एक ‘माणूस’ होण्याच्या, तुझ्या पंखाखाली जगण्याच्या

त्यासाठी कदाचित पहवी लागेल मला वाट

तुझी, तू आकाश बनण्याची

विसरून स्वतःला तुझ्यात,

‘आनंद‘ होऊन. . . फक्‍त  ‘आनंद‘ होऊन जगण्याची!!

 – ॐकार बापट

PS: I clicked this snap from Chandni’s 3.2MP Nokia Camera on East Street, Camp, Pune

On that Sunday Father in the church sees one man sitting on the bench all alone and is crying. Father comes to him and asks” What happened my dear son? Do you have any problem?”

“Father I want to confess “that guy replies.

“Come to confession box. God will definitely help you” Father Smiles back.

The guy then takes father back in the past and starts telling him the entire story……….

“What the F***? Why these bloody Americans blame us for every mishap? Tomorrow, even for earthquake they will point at us. Especially, we Muslims.” Salim started screaming in the middle of the library of University of California. I was surprised to see him in such a state of mind. He had this very bad habit of bursting emotions in front of others. I soothed him and took him away from the crowd at University corner. Salim put the newspaper in front of us and showed us the news. Javed one of our group member and a very good friend of mine was arrested as a suspect of the last month’s bomb blast. And they were planning to arrest few more Muslim students of university for the sake of investigation. That was very mean. I was trying to calm him down. And suddenly he pushed me back and shouted at me” You won’t feel the pain buddy. Tu to India se hain na. Try to feel it when every American Bas**** stares at you suspiciously.”

“I don’t think those Americans have enough brain to figure out difference between Hindustani and Pakistani” I muttered.

     After a day long discussion we decided to meet Jahir. Jahir was 27 year old, 7 feet tall, well built, moralistic Muslim. He was a noted person who was always ready to help others. Though he was humble nobody had guts to trouble him. His father was the freedom fighter in Hindustan and was executed in 1942. Everybody had a respect for him. He took us to someone called ‘Aziz Bhai. After lots of discussion, few rounds of arguments and few phone calls we came to a conclusion that we had to teach those Americans a lesson. But how? So we came up with a plan of demanding a ransom of 10 million dollars from American government. In just next 2-3 days Jahir taught us few fundamentals of armaments like how to reload the riffles, how to pull the trigger, functioning of sniper etc. we were amazed to see the knowledge of Jahir. He was handling all those weapons as if he deals with it everyday. We then finalized our target and the name of the mission. ‘Mission Revenge’

        Dream view Apt,

49/6, King’s Road, LA.

The Day – 19:15 Hrs

     We all except Jahir rendezvoused near Dream View Apt as decided. I was scared to death. I had never thought of doing this in my entire life and today I was actually into it. I was sweating a lot and after every minute was crossing my heart. Tension was suffocating us. After some time our target, Mr. Calvin Smith’s entered the apartment in his car. Mr. Smith was an officer of LAPD who was handling the case of bomb blast and was targeting us. So we had decided to kick his ass and bring him down on his knees.

         Just after a minute Jahir came in his car accompanied by Javed. We greet each other happily. Sameer whispered in Javed’s ear “How?”

  “I’ll tell you everything later. Right now we have to hurry. Let’s see what Jahir has to say” Javed replied.

   Jahir addressed us” We are not extremist and today also we are not going to hurt anybody. We are just going to frighten them. We will demand ransom for whatever they did and will leave the place. Are you all with me?? “

 “Yes of course we are with you” everybody responded and then we followed him to the building.

    We all were confused because we were not having any gun, no equipments but nobody dared to ask Jahir about this. We were wondering how security guards allowed us to enter the apartment. They not even bothered our existence. We directly went to the basement parking near Smith’s car. Car driver opened the car and handed over all the weapons and few communicating devices. Driver told as that police would not be able to trap our conversation during the mission as they can do with mobiles. He also gave some pamphlets which had a message written on it in Urdu to paste on each door of the apartment.

    We all were set to achieve the goal and were about to move to capture our positions. Suddenly Jahir interrupted us and asked me to take sameer’s position outside the apartment in the nearby building. We had rented that building few days ago so as to spy on Mr. Smith. This position was very crucial as in case of emergency the person outside was supposed to handle the situation and I don’t know why but from day one Jahir was not ready to trust Sameer. He never disclosed it in front of us but we all sensed it. I think he was ready to trust all Muslims and me though I being christen but not a Hindu.

    As and when I came out of the building, security guard locked the door from inside, blocked all security cameras and alarms and rushed towards the staircases. I too took my position in the near by building. I was able to see each and every activity taking place in Dream View. Also my room was exactly opposite of Mr. Smith’s flat and I could (was able) see main entrance and all 3 rooms clearly. As I was having communicating devices, I was able to hear them all very clearly.

   Everybody took their positions and Jahir knocked on Mr. Smith’s door. One of the bodyguards opened the door and to my surprise he allowed him inside. Then those two bodyguards took the charge of the flat. Jahir then forced all family members to sit on the floor. He even slapped Smith twice for no reason. Meanwhile one of the bodyguards called LAPD and gave the details and demanded the ransom. Within few minutes of time the entire Dream View was surrounded by police cars, ambulances and armed officers. Few choppers too were there around the building. Javed with his companion was roaming on the roof without fear as he was aware of the fact that unless and until Mr. Smith was in Jahir’s custody no one can hurt him. Others too were at ease and were joking and pulling each others legs. Though phone was ringing Jahir was not in a mood of picking it up. I thought he was stretching it a bit.

23.10 Hrs

     The entire situation was pressurizing. I went to pee and when I came back, I saw few police were charging towards the building. I immediately alerted all of them. I could hear few rounds of fire and shouting of my friends in excitement” we shot them down. They are going back. Hurray”

     That few minutes were very stressful. My courage was failing. I was worried about the mission. Though the police force had withdrawn, it was not necessary that they won’t charge again.   

    Jahir picked up the phone and called negotiators “You BXX…., ASXXX…….bloody Americans…….10 Million dollars or blow up Boooommm” Jahir then leaned out of the window holding the baby of MR. Smith by his leg upside down. “Get back your forces or I quit the bloody leg in my hand …… get back”, he yelled.

     Somebody from force asked Jahir “What the hell do you want …… you jerk”

     “10 million dollars…… you son of a b…….” Jahir replied.

“Are you all donating the amount to an NGO and that’s the reason u need that?” officer questioned.

“Get off u AsXXXX”, Jahir was not in mood to listen to anybody.

  When Mrs. Smith tried to hold the baby Jahir slapped her and pushed her back on the floor. We were stunned to see him like that. We never had thought that Jahir could be so cruel. But then I thought that’s the part of our mission.

1.30 Hrs

Again I saw a troop of commandos charging towards building. Before I could inform on the microphone I saw Javed on the top of the building collapsed with his partner. And before I could understand anything I heard some rounds of fire on the second or third floor. I was trying to inform Jahir on microphone but he was in stupor.

    The door was broken and officers shot Jahir and others dead.

“I was supposed to help them father but I couldn’t. It’s my failure and I am not supposed to live. I am ashamed of myself. We are not terrorists.”

……saying this that guy take out the pistol from his pocket and shoots himself before Father can tell him anything.