She couldn't fetch me fortune
Nor did she bring me any glory
But she put my heart to solace
By always listening to my story...

My unspoken dreams, my fears
My unhealed wounds, my tears
My expression of joy she broadcasts
Upon tides of time forever it lasts

Forbidden emotions she handles
Fizzled memories she rekindles
Despite all selfish forces
My vanilla soul, she endorses

She's been there from beginning
She'll stand by my till the end
She's none but my dear Poetry...
My forgotten old best friend


Pradnya Joshi
5 Jan 2008

चंद शेर ...

बहुत मुश्किलसे रोक पाए है आंसू
हमें अब रोने को न कहो
मेहनतसे लाइ है होटोंपर हँसी
उसे यूंही खोने को न कहो

जाने क्यूँ मिली है सज़ा
हम तो बेगुनाह है
के इतने अपनोंके बीच भी
हम बेपनाह है

जिन्दगीने कितने सितम किए
हमेशा हमने की वफ़ा है
पर अब जिंदगीसे कहो कोई
के हम भी उससे खफा है

दर्द की नशा काफ़ी है
हमें तो खाली जाम ही मिला है
इस कदर दिल है टूटा
के न बचा कोई गिला है

खूबसूरत सपने सजाए थे हमने
न जाने किसके भरोसे
निवाले भी लुट गए थालिसे
जिन्दगीने थे जो परोसे

- प्रदन्या जोशी

That evening...

“…and the call concludes with action item on the design team with a deadline of next week”…I completed my summary email taking my own sweet time and picked my stuff…all in hand and began waddling towards my cab. It takes a long almost a kilometer walk to reach from my building to the main gate. It being Sunday evening, practically nobody was there in/outside office. 6:6-30 was the time and the tired me was walking rather sluggishly. It was a beautiful evening. Twilight illuminating freshly manicured lawns… faraway hillocks resting peacefully…cool breeze driving waves in the artificial pond next to my glass building…scent of carefully tamed flowers filled the air…clean blue sky with occasional cotton clouds swimming in…without even realizing I was observing the campus like I had never seen it before. In the daily hustle bustle I never really had the time to feel landscaping at my workplace completely. Having been brought up in the chaos of the fastest city; I always craved for peace…serenity. I was crazy about mountain view, flowing waters, green lawns, flowery gardens and pure air…and there it was. All of it. Very much at my disposal awaiting my attention. I recollected a dialogue from one of my favorite movies Parineeta …” Tumhare paas kya kya hai tumhe pata bhi nahi hai”. This sudden realization dawned in me pushed me on the contemplative track.

I decided to enjoy the ambience for a little more while and parked myself on the edge of the fountain where water was purling by. I relaxed almost immediately. The peace filled in the air was dissolving the noise in my mind. In my leisure time I am usually never without music…in either listening mode or singing mode. But yesterday I didn’t feel the void for music. Maybe the hymns of silence were musical enough that my ears couldn’t hear but something in me could listen. The whole setup was complete. Just complete. And I didn’t want to move an inch…say a word…need a thing…

Who says meditation is tough?

-- Pradnya Joshi
25 August 2008

गोइंग ग्रीन!

So what do you usually do on your Sunday mornings? Let me guess…get up as late as you can…sip on a hot ’n creamy cup of coffee munching on savories spiced up with Sunday Times(Yeah Sunday Times is a part of Sunday breakfast, isn’t it?) lazing around in the balcony…enjoying anticipative aromas of your Sunday special feast ‘in the making’ swaying from the kitchen...and by the time your mom/roommate/wife persuades you to finally go for your long lasting cozy bath, you realize the clock has already struck 12 noon where in you’re late even to catch a matinee! Half of ‘The’ day you had waited eagerly for, killing an entire tiring working week is over. Gone. And what have you done? Practically nothing! Isn’t this more or less similar in your case? With little variation as per our marital/financial/habitual status we end up ‘wasting’ our precious Sunday mornings…But not everyone does this you know. At least the members of Vasundhara have been doing something really incredible since past 90 odd Sundays by spending just 2 hours in totality! They are going green…

Continuous Contour Trenching is the best proven technique that has been successfully executed throughout major water harvesting and forestation projects, especially in the Indian sub-continent. It involves slashing the mountain to mark 2 feet wide contour trenches along the object hill in concentric circles and parallel to each other and to the ground from Top-To-Bottom with the only glitch being these contours should have no slopes. That’s IT. This simple paradigm has the potential to sustain forests, conserve the fertile layers of soil, and harvest most precious nectar of nature… rainwater! The rainwater otherwise descends with full gravitational pull scraping all the possible earth and leaving behind eroded rocky mountain which turns impotent to conceive further foliage. Hundreds and thousands of such hillocks and mountains have thus been robbed off their vegetation and within no time the rainy clouds wagon also ceases to stop by them. Lands over lands enter this vicious circle awaiting draughts lingering right around the corner. CCT impedes this treacherous flow of rainwater and forces it to get absorbed in the soil in trench. The water which escapes one contour gets trapped by the next and so on. As the end result, the rainwater which falls on the mountain is retained by the mountain and is consumed by the forestation or drips through the rocky layer to rise levels of under ground water. What can be better than this? CCT has thus resurrected hundreds of deserted villages in rural western Maharashtra and set them ‘tanker free’!

The PANCARD hills surrounding Baner locality are good for nothing. Seasonal grass paints them green in monsoon for a change however otherwise they lay hopeless with hay and thorny shrubs. Bunch of environment freaks set out to do something about mother earth in a scale that is reasonable, manageable and affordable. Pune Municipality encouraged them by providing them with 2 thousand free saplings. The objective is to work towards a clean and green environment. The task force is no full time dedicated social workers but civilians with regular jobs, responsibilities and liabilities, motives and excuses. The timelines are 2 hours on Sunday mornings. The plan is to get together, dig the contours, plant the saplings, water them, breathe fresh air, and to be happy about having planted and sustained at least a tree. Who all come? Doctors, IT pro’s, managers, drivers, baner natives, senior citizens, school children, college youth, agricultural experts, agriculturally challenged one’s like me, a patrol pump owner comes, bachelors, families…anyone and everyone. Yet, we still have dearth of people at times! This has been happening since last 90 weeks and will continue till the saplings grow out of their infantry so that their roots are strong enough to survive by themselves. One day not very far from now the PANCARD hills will majestically flaunt its flora. Neems will purify air…Flame of forests will blossom saffron…Jamuns will reap syrupy fruits…Shady Banyans will break into the rocky summit to grow old and tell the tale of simple effort by simple people.

2 Hours on a Sunday morning for your own environment। Is it really too much to ask for?
-- Pradnya Joshi
P.S. Kindly get in touch with me in case you're a puneiite n want to make most of your sunday mornings!

Bucket list afterthoughts

Sure it was ironic. Me and my friend were desperate to catch a light/comedy movie to dilute our moods stressed due to hazards of both work and QLC (for those of you who don’t know QLC its Quarter Life Crisis…the state of deep sh*t while you’re in your mid twenties!). We were determined to settle even for the worstly rated movie with apparently single or so star. However the ad of Bucketlist caught our attention and the strong recommendation from a friend propelled us to check two squares in the half empty plan.
The movie is off course is FANTASTIC. The cast, story, the dialogues and cinematography all could get a 10/10 (at least from me!) But I ain’t doing the movie review here. I am talking about Bucketlist. My bucketlist!

All of us dream. Some dream big, some small and some both. But each one of us have those desires pondered over say while in a boring lecture with open eyes, while staring at the roof during sleepless nights or while killing long lonely traveling hours. Things which we aspire to own or deeds which we are inspired to do. Places which we long to visit and events which we pray to happen…they all reside somewhere lost in our minds. Some are doable some are pure fantasies. Bucketlist is the to-do list which jots down all or at least main of such heartfelt unspoken dreams…before you kick-th-bucket!

Mine has action items as trifle as riding a bullock cart to as extravagant as sky diving in Alps. To soak in moonlight in Bhedaghat on a full moon night and to perceive the hues of the dawn while witnessing sunrise on a flight…
To attend the service and choir in Vatican and to spend a Christmas with a family with decorated Christmas tree, socks full of gifts and cake with hot wine after-treatment. To be able to understand and appreciate Shakespear’s classics and Khayyam’s verses when I read it. To listen to raag Malhar live on a lush green mountain top when its pouring and to attend a mushaayra with dardee company. I wait to dance night long garbaa in Navraatri with my dear friends and I crave to perform salsa with a good lead and to do justice to his skills. Beating my dad in a sophistical argument and singing along with my brother on the same stage have been my fancies since long.
I find the idea of a ride in a jet black limozine having a well dressed chauffer just as fascinating as that to cross the mustard or sugarcane fields on a tractor. To see a live cricket match when India is playing and to learn to play guitar. A walk in Valley of flowers in spring and meditation on the Pondicherry beach the rhythm of the gushing bay of Bengal waves on background…aah! When do I get to do these?

I yearn for sudden guests and informal gatherings. I love trips on the fly and am dying to be a part of an adventure with limited cash and lifts and last moment hush-bush! It would sure give me immense joy to cook for a dearone who’ll come home tired and hungry and say “I am dam hungry…can I get something to eat?” (Not many would vouch for m cooking skills so this one is a little tough to happen I know ;)) There is a whole list of dishes which I want to learn to make! Performing as a learned dancer was (and still is) a huge huge aspiration. I had even got a chance to join a dance group who were to participate in the dance festival which would take them all around Europe. Alas! My new job resuming dates and the dance festival clashed and this dream of mine crashed to pieces leaving me pensive.

Off course! Not all dreams come true but some do without giving you any warning. As a child I always wanted to come out with flying colors academically. To match the performance of my dad I had practically burnt midnight oil to do great in my matriculate exams. The day my results were out was the day when a dream cherished for about 10 years had came true. That day won me a different denomination in eyes of people in our circle. And expectations from me shot up rocket high. One dream come true had given birth to many more. Despite the times of failures, rejections and uncertainties met in the later years, ‘that’ day remains frozen in my life as a verdict of the good times I’ve had… My fancy of touring on bike came to reality when 10 of us close friends set out vroom vroom in a gang on 5 bikes on our biking trip to Mekedatu… On my way to Calcutta when I was informed to have been upgraded to Executive class despite having an economy class air ticket, I was enthralled by the grandeur of that suite and elite company which I hoped to get to do after maybe a few years of professional pursuit…

I was haunted with mysterious Egypt and thought I have to go all the way there to see how a real Mummy looks. Least did I know that I would bump into many of the mummies in London’s natural history museum itself! Glad as I was to have seen the mummies but also annoyed at the English to have stolen the same from Egypt at the same time! …Not being a party animal had kept me ignorant about the youthful face of the world. When I got an invite to celebrate the new year’s eve at one of the most famed parties in town, I was sure I would be like a foreign body. But to my surprise, I felt great! Different. Glamorous. But great for sure! Dancing crazy that night shed my diffidence of being ‘naïve’ considerably. I knew then what Cinderella must have felt!...

I can’t tell you what a rapturous moment it was when the blossomed cherry tree showered hundreds of its tender pretty flowers on me in Stratford-upon-Avon. A daydream I had treasured to bathe in ‘Saakoora’ had been granted all of a sudden! My friend accompanying me simply failed to understand the reason for my elation. What’s a big deal ..he must’ve thought? I wish I knew what’s a big deal myself…but it was! And my heart knew it…

My dreams…many are ticked(I don’t want to say crossed!) and many are waiting to be espied yet. I know there is a long way to go and its not enough to just dream but one has to strive to bring them into reality. It takes a lot of perseverance, determination, efforts and off course the backing of luck.
I am always a not go-getter about them and that’s exactly where I was hit! The crux of this movie shook my recently developed apathy and forced me to contemplate over my bucket list all over again. I am surely not going to wait till I am hit by cancer or heart trouble or alike. The clock is ticking and I am already late to book my seat for the Valley of flowers trek this year. You joining along? J

--- Pradnya Joshi
18 May 2008

P.S. For those who haven’t seen Bucketlist, it’s a beautiful movie starring Jack Nicolson and Morgan Freeman. If you have dreams, it’s a must watch!

कितनी अजीब बात ...

क्यों इतनी अजीब है ज़िंदगी
के कोई कभी समझ न पाए
कई बार थामना चाहा इससे
पर यह मुई तो चलती ही जाए...

पास आता है कोई
तो डर सा लगता है
दूर चला जाए वोही
तो अजीब दर्द होता है

जब खुशिसे झूमता है दिल
तो नज़र आता है दुनिया मे भरा गम
उसी दुनिया के जश्न चुभतेहें आखोंमें
जब अपने दुःख मे डूबते हैं हम ...

नींद के इंतज़ार में रातें
चैन के इंतज़ार में दिन
मंजिलोंके इंतज़ार में रास्ते
और काफिले भटकते रास्तोंके बिन

अनकही आरजू अनसुनी रहे
कुछ ऐसे ही सारे हालात है
के ज़िंदगी अपनी होकर अपनी नही
ये कितनी अजीब बात है ...

- प्रदन्या जोशी

Ab kuch aisaa aalam hai...

Ke khwaab zyaadda aur zindagi kum hai...

Murjhaae hue din Sooni Sehmi raatein
Rozmarraaki duniyaadaari paapi pet ki baatein
Naa anhoni kaa dar aur naa honi kaa jashan hai
Ab kuch aisaa aalam hai
Ke khwaab zyaadda aur zindagi kum hai...

Dil air dimaag ki jung mein Dil ki hi haar hai
Tanhaai kadwi sacchaai aur samjhotaa hi pyaar hai
Khushkismati ki daud mein hum to aaste kadam hai
Ab kuch aisaa aalam hai
Ke khwaab zyaadda aur zindagi kum hai...

Kuch naajuk rishtey kuch gehre sadmein
Choor choor armaan kahi toote waadein
Is dil ke kai raaz isi dil mein dafan hai
Ab kuch aisaa aalam hai
Ke khwaab zyaadda aur zindagi kum hai...

Lagta hai apni kahani kabhi kisiko sunaaoon
Dard ko alfaazmein baandhe paani mein bahaaoon
Par likhneko naa bachaa kaagaz na kalam hai
Ab kuch aisaa aalam hai
Ke khwaab zyaadda aur zindagi kum hai...

-- Pradnya Joshi
November 2007