Curses & Blessings

Hemant Karkare, a senior police officer, was killed by the Ajmal Kasab gang in Mumbai on 26/11, 2008. Karkare died because he had rushed out to defend an injured colleague, and faced automatic assault rifles with just a service revolver and no bullet-proof jacket. He was awarded the highest peace-time gallantry award, Ashoka Chakra, posthumously.

Earlier, Karkare investigated the Malegaon blast case in which 10 lives were snuffed out and 80 were wounded. He sent a fake sadhvi called Pragya Thakur – a former ABVP leader – to jail as a principal accused who had given her own bike in which explosives were stored, to be detonated in Malegaon with lethal effect.

That Pragya Thakur is now out on bail in these happy days for Hindutwa terror. Curiously, she is also the BJP candidate for the Bhopal parliamentary seat. And she says,

"Hemant Karkare was killed because I cursed him."

Did this wretched female caricature of a sadhu mean she had blessed the Ajmal Kasab gang to murder Hemant Karkare? What dangerous beasts are trying to rule us for a second time?

20 April 2019

[Photo of Hemant Karkare courtesy: Wikimedia Commons]

That I am alive …

Sharing my translation of a poem

By the Bangladeshi poet

Mahadeb Saha (1944-)

That I am alive …

===========

That I am alive is the greatest source of joy,

For this good fortune, I’ll accept everything,

Any misery, punishment in any form.

I am ready to become a wretched beggar

Just to see the light of the dawn.

That I can keep looking at a rose

For as long as I wish to,

For this simple delight, I will

Bow down to accept grief in every form.

That I am alive is the greatest source of joy,

And in contrast, every misery becomes trivial.

Being deported, exiled to a desert island;

But for the cloud, the deluge, the sound of dewdrops,

I’d love be alive

And serve a thousand years in prison

That I am alive is the greatest source of joy,

And for this joy I will bend down

To receive every blow that’s thrown at me.

বেঁচে আছি এই তো আনন্দ
------- মহাদেব সাহা

বেঁচে আছি এই তো আনন্দ, এই আনন্দের জন্য আমি সবকিছু মাথা পেতে নেবো,
যে কোনো দুঃখ, যে কোনো শাস্তি-
শুধু এই ভোরের একটু আলো দ্যাখার জন্য
আমি পথের ভিক্ষুক হতে রাজি।
এই যে গোলাপ ফুলটির দিকে যতোক্ষণ খুশি তাকিয়ে থাকতে পারি,
এই সুখে আমি হাসিমুখে সব দুঃখ-
মাথা পেতে নেবো।
বেঁচে আছি এই তো আনন্দ, এই আনন্দের কাছে কোনো দুঃখই কিছু নয়,
এই নির্বাসন, এই শাস্তি, এই দ্বীপান্তর;
এই মেঘ, এই ঝুম বৃষ্টি, এই শিশিরের শব্দের জন্য, 
আমি সহস্র বছরের কারাদন্ড- মাথায় নিয়েও বেঁচে থাকতে চাই,
বেঁচে আছি এই তো আনন্দ, এই আনন্দে সব আঘাত আমি মাথা পেতে নেবো।