জীবন, তোমাকে প্রাণভরা শুভেচ্ছা !

হৃদেয়র গভীরের বিষন্নতা মাঝেমাঝে পেয়ে বসে

কুয়াশা ঘন হতেহতে দৃষ্টি কেড়ে নেয়

দম বন্ধ হয়ে আসে, ঘেমে শরীর একাকার

মুক্তির আশা ক্ষীণ তবু যুদ্ধ চলে অবিরাম

মস্তিষ্ক ভয়াবহ ধংসস্তুপে পরিণত হতে থাকে

সমেয়র ঘোড়াটা যেন লাগাম ছাড়া দৌড়ায়

বেঁচে থাকাটা অর্থহীন মনে হতে বাধ্য

অবাধ্য, একেঘেয় অপ্টিমিস্ম তবু হাল ছাড়তে নারাজ

মুষ্টিবদ্ধ আঘাত হানে অবজ্ঞা, অপমান আর অন্ধকার

অসহনীয় যন্ত্রণা ছিড়তে থাকে সবগুলো বন্ধন

দিনশেষর রক্তীম আভার মত খবরটা পৌছায়

আবার বাঁচতে ইচ্ছে করে, আবার সব ঠিকঠাক

নতুন বছর নিয়ে আসছে অফুরান সম্ভাবনা -

জীবন, তোমাকে প্রাণভরা শুভেচ্ছা !

WE HAVEN’T GIVEN THEM THE RIGHT…

Last few days were a bit hectic for me. My team has been changed in the office and I have been introduced to a new one where I need to carry out new responsibilities. Also at the same time, I am in a resolute mission to complete a seven hundred and seventeen page novel within Sunday next.

Reaching room from the office, I am hardly spending any time in any of my day to day activities other than reading. As a result, I am completely out of knowledge of what is happening all around.

Last night one of my friends came to my room and I put the book aside for a while. While conversation was going on I switched on the TV, after all without the tea and background music (chaos!) of TV no conversation becomes lively now a days. My friend was describing something about the names of all his childhood crushes when a news caught our attention.

News is:

Narendra Modi government has decided to bring a new act in his state where every individual would be made accountable for Voting lawfully. If anyone doesn’t go for Voting due to any reason, this act will empower the government to take action against the individual and also give them the right to take away the person’s right of Voting.

Reason behind this grand (?) idea is to educate the aam admi about the importance of Voting in democracy and to increase the poor percentage of vote casting.

Though we are now habituated of every kind of nonsense and hardly any ridiculous news gives us shock but neither I nor my friend could stop our instant reaction coming out of mouth "What the hell?”

Politicians' view:
National Spokesperson of Bhartiya Janata Party, Mr. Prakash Jawrekar started elaborating the benefits of this proposal canceling all the dangerous aspects of this bill. He didn't take a second to reject the charges that Narendra Modi has actually come out with this plan to start another dirty game of religion based politics.

On the other hand Spokesperson of Gujrat State Congress started opposing the Act as obvious but grounds of his opposition are much alarming. He neither uttered a single word regarding the Rights of every individual nor questioned once who the hell are they (Narendra Modi, Government or any Politician involved in this) to force anyone to go for Vote, how can they even dare to think these kind of mockery of democracy.

One thing he did genuinely, accepted the fact that he doesn't know exactly what the Constitution says about it and whether there is any provisions or not that any state government can pass this kind of Act.

Media's reaction:
Other than a single news channel no one else gave any attention to such big news. May be, running Tele Brands and Home Shopping programs are more important to them than this. And two eminent journalists who were running a special debate on the topic were hardly sensitive about the issue. They were continuously asking standard ridiculous questions to the Political Leaders giving them more space to convince the aam admi about the importance of this law with their disgraceful theories.

It's strange that through out the program the anchors never asked the leaders who have given them the right to play with the basic rights of every citizen. They seemed concerned mainly to find out how this Act would be beneficial for Modi and how would Congress and other parties will react to it.

They didn't show any intention of condemning the idea at once. They neither used any harsh and appropriate words against the leaders nor gave them any impression that media would not tolerate this kind of autocratic behaviour of the government in the name of democracy and raise their voice if this notorious idea would not be trashed out immediately.

Common men’s Outburst:
Misuse of power by the politicians is a known fact and somewhat synonyms of the word ‘Politics’. We hardly care when Politicians bring new Acts to gain more power every new day which also gives them increased authority to suppress aam admi more lawfully.

But Narendra Modi and his colleagues’ greed has reached to such a point that they have decided themselves to bring a new law which would make Voting a compulsory duty for every citizen, those who won’t go for voting, government would have the rights to punish them and take away their future voting rights. How insane? Who the hell are they to do so?

Actually, Narendra Modi and every politician like him has forgotten that people by using and also by not using their rights of voting choose them for governance only and never gave them any right to play with the basic rights of a civil society. They have no rights to lecture us and teach us forcefully about what is good for us and what is not. And also, if they are so tensed about our ability of utilizing the rights properly then they must resign from their offices with immediate effect as we have chosen them without knowing what voting right actually is! Are you ready for that Mr. Modi?

Problem is, we all are very busy in our fight for survival and it’s hard to get time for other things. But our lack of interest in the happenings of the surrounding is becoming more and more dangerous every passing day. Politicians are taking advantage of this situation and twisting the rules according to their own bloody interests.

We usually think that media is keeping eyes on these politicians and preventing them from any misdoing by raising voice and unearthing the conspiracies. Yes, they are doing it also but there prime focus is not social service only like earlier when it used to be; now main objective of media houses is to raise TRP and increase subscription so that maximum profit can be generated from it. After all it’s also a business. Jo beekta hai, wohi dikhta hai…

So, stop depending on media, thinking it would raise alarm whenever there would be any crisis; it’s quite possible that there won’t be any sound at all or you would be given all faulty data to misguide your conscience. Raise your voice against all these hazardous activities of the mechanism called government with the utmost strength you have. Otherwise… well, we all know.

I am condemning the ill will of Narendra Modi and his government here in my post and expressing my truest anger against his deadly idea of bringing the Act which would threaten us to punish if we don’t utilize our own rights or snatch away the voting rights from us forcefully showing a damn to our own opinion.

Listen Narendra Modi saab and all you same boat brothers, you have the power but don’t forget it’s given by us and do not dare to play with our rights as we haven’t given you that right yet and we won’t ever.

I did something four years ago...

During the 3rd semester of my Masters Degree, once I got a chance to work in a commercial bilingual feature film called "Kambdi Kalaai" as an Assistant Director. The opportunity came to me all of a sudden and I was really thrilled getting the opportunity.

The Director was a NRI girl came from America and she had earlier worked in some projects of Zee Telefilms I heard. The Chief Assistant Director who actually took my interview and selected me was a struggling director who had a huge experience in the fields of reporting and film making in his kitty.

During the pre-production phase I was traveling from Noida to GK everyday. Sometimes Production used to provide cab for my pick up and drops and sometimes I needed to take care of my own conveyance, but that was hardly any problem. I was reading scripts, finalizing details and most importantly, thinking of the project 24X7 and I was very happy.

As everything was finalised well before Director Ish's landing in India so pre-production didn't take much time. Soon the whole unit moved to a firm house in Chattarpur for the shoot and my traveling continued.

Everything was new to me. Yes, I had worked in some small projects earlier in my institute and I did know about the basics of camera, lighting, scripts, screen play etc. but working in a professional environment with a professional team was something very delightful and a learning experience.

Everything was going very smoothly and almost 70% film was shoot. Then one night at around 1 am I faced a situation which was unbearable and quite humiliating for me. My Director and Assistant Directors had nothing to do with it, Production Manager seemed unaware of everything and Production In-Charge requested me to pass the night somehow and everything would be sorted next morning. (Lets avoid the details).

Passing one night was not a big deal and I was trying to convince myself that bade bade desho mein aisi choti choti batein ho jati hai, if you wish to go ahead you need to go through potholes sometimes and etc. etc. ..... But I was really hurt that none of those guys with whom I was working for last so many days didn't care about my problem seriously.

After thinking from several aspects and spending more than an hour walking on the dark and narrow roads inside the jungle of Chattarpur, I decided to quit. It was almost 3 o'clock. I took up my bag and left the place forever.

Afterward, it's a simple story. I have been contacted by those guys a few times and they showed sympathy. Chief Assistant Director said sorry for the incident as he could do nothing and tried to motivate me to forget about the whole thing and to join the unit again.

Many friends who were around that time were also trying to convince me to give it another try. But hearing the whole story form one of my friends, my Maa called me and told that I had done the exact thing, she's proud of me and advised not to compromise with dignity ever in life. Sounding filmy I know, but that's the most motivating factor which helped me to forget the incident like a bad memory and I never told this story to anyone.

Now after almost four years, suddenly I have come to know about the film from one my colleagues. As decided at the beginning the movie was released from United States in DVD format. My colleague downloaded the film and gave it to me. Reaching room I was watching the movie and identifying the small details of the locations, movements, dialogues... Many memories were coming in mind which were long forgotten.

Film ended and I was thinking about the quality of the movie, whole thing came out quite nice... Then suddenly, I saw my name on the screen as Assistant Director. I was speech less for a few seconds and then an enormous happiness surrounded me. I really didn't expect this thankfulness from the unit and that's the reason I never tried to find about it in last four years.

I have no shame in accepting that I am delighted to see my name in a commercial feature film's credit list which reassures the credibility of once a Mass Communication student who used to dream to be a film maker one day.

Though the film is not a master piece nor recommendable to everyone but still if any of my friends wish to give a glance to it can click in Kambdi Kalaai.