Kya khoya kya paaya jag mein
Posted on: August 16, 2020
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Today, August 16, 2020 is the 2nd Remembrance Day of Atal Bihari Vajpayee (25/12/1924 – 16/08/2018), the former prime minister, one of the greatest statesmen, a nationalist, a good orator and a poet.
The political career of Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been an open book and it does not require an elaborate discussion. Suffice to say in brief that at the age of 18, Atal Bihari Vajpayee became politically active by participating in Quit India Movement of 1942 and was imprisoned for one month. In 1957, He became the member of Lok Sabha for the first time at the age of 33. From 1967 to 1984, he continued as a member of Lok Sabha without any interruption. Again from 1991 to 2009, he became the member of Lok Sabha. With nearly 5 decades of experience – both from the opposition and ruling parrties’ sides, one can gauge the vast political knowledge he had gathered to be rightly called as ‘Bhishma Pitamah’ of Indian politics who was admired by both the ruling and opposition parties.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was known for his hard-hitting speech as a member of the opposition. But his speeches always remained within the boundary of political rivalry on ideological platforms and did not spill into personal enimity. It is because of this quality that Atal Bihari Vajpayee commanded the respect of all the prime ministers he faced in the Lok Sabha and of members of the opposition when he was the prime minister. In his very first terms in Lok Sabha during 1957-62 as a member of the opposition parties, Pandit Nehru, the then prime minister, was very much impressed by his debating skills. Once, he introduced Atal Bihari Vajpayee to a visiting foreign dignitary as a young and dynamic member of the opposition and he predicted him to be India’s future prime minister. His prediction came true after 40 years.
Let us recall a couple of examples in support of what has been stated above. During the Vote of Confidence motion in 1996 in Lok Sabha, Atal Bihari Vajpayee as a prime minister had quoted an instance that happened in the Rajya Sabha in November 1962 during the discussion on Chinese aggression in October 1962 :
It is not that I did not have disagreements with Nehru ji. These disagreements came out strongly during debates. In one of such debates I called Nehru’s personality and character as a mixture of Churchill and Chamberlain. (Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of the UK from 1937-40 was highly criticised for his appeasement policy with Adolf Hitler. Winston Churchill was the prime minister who led the English to victory against Nazi Germany in the Second World War). Despite the comparison to two of the most controversial and critiqued world leaders, Nehru did not get angry. Later that evening, I ran into Nehru ji at a banquet in honour of a visiting foreign dignitary. He called and congratulated me for giving a rousing speech in the Rajya Sabha and he left smiling.
In 1994, when United Nations Human Right Commission at Geneva was to discuss a Pakistani resolution to label India as human right violator in Jammu & Kashmir, the then Prime Minister, P V Narsimha Rao chose the leader of the opposition, Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the leader of the Indian delegation to defend India. The Pakistani resolution was defeated. The fact that Narsimha Rao selected Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the leader of the delegation rather than other senior leaders from his party like Salman Khurshid who were part of the delegation, speaks volume about the calibre of and confidence reposed on Atal Bihari Vajpayee by then prime minister.
It is not known when Atal Bihari Vajpayee turned a poet. Whether it was the poet in him that pushed him to the politics or vice versa. He had said once that ‘he was poet by instinct and the politician by accident’. He had a literary bend of mind if we go by his association with magazines such as ‘Rashtradharma’, ‘Panchjanya’ and the newspapers like ‘Swadesh’ etc, during his younger days. Probably, he may have started writing poems during the the Quit India Movement of 1942. On August 15, 1947 when India got indepedence and people were celebrating the freedom from British Rule, Atal Bihari Vajpayee wrote the poem in a sombre mood:
पंद्रह अगस्त का दिन कहता
आज़ादी अभी अधूरी है।
सपने सच होने बाकी है,
रावी की शपथ न पूरी है॥
जिनकी लाशों पर पग धर कर
आज़ादी भारत में आई,
वे अब तक हैं खानाबदोश
ग़म की काली बदली छाई॥
The people of India at large came to know Atal Bihari Vajpayee also as a poet after his release from the Bengaluru Central Jail in 1977 following emergency. In his one year of life in the jail, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had written many poems in the pseudo name ‘Kaidi Kavirai’, some of which used to be smuggled out of the jail, translated in Kannada and pasted on the walls of colleges in Hubbali and Dharwad. ‘Kaidi Kavirai Ki Kundalian’, the collections of poems written by him while in the jail has been published. These poems belong to satirical and inspirational genres. An example of one of his satirical poems which he wrote while when he was ill in the jail:
डॉक्टरान दे रहे दवाई, पुलिस दे रही पहरा।
बिना ब्लेड के हुआ खुरदुरा, चिकना-चुपड़ा चेहरा।
चिकना-चुपड़ा चेहरा, साबुन, तेल नदारत।
मिले नहीं अखबार, पढ़ेंगे नई इबारत।
कह कैदी कविराय, कहां से लाएं कपड़े।
अस्पताल की चादर छुपा रही सब लफड़े।
But post-emergency years, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s poems have become more visible than before. In some of his political rallies, he had started reciting his poems probably realising that poems of 6-8 lines have more impact on his audience to draw his point of view than a longer speech.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s most popular and an inspiring poem, kadam milaakar chalna hoga has been included in class-8 textbook along with the poems of Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Surykant Tripathi Nirala, Ismat Chugtai, Harishankar Parsai etc for 2019-20 onwards.
When Atal Bihari Vajpayee was admitted in a hospital in New York in 1988 for his kidney check-up, doctors had suggested kidney operations. That whole night, he could not sleep. During that night, the poem, maut se than gahi was born.
Another poem of Atal Bihari Vajpayee which I like is hari hari doob par. The last six lines sums up the philosophy of life which say that the sun will rise again and there will be sunshine. But I will not get to see the dew drop on the green carpet of grass of my garden in all the seasons:
सूर्य तो फिर भी उगेगा,
धूप तो फिर भी खिलेगी,
लेकिन मेरी बगीची की
हरी-हरी दूब पर,
ओस की बूंद
हर मौसम में नहीं मिलेगी।
To quote Bhagwat Goyal who has translated Vajpayee’s poems in to English, Atal Bihari Vajpayee believed that “politics and literature cannot belong to separate compartments. Rather they enrich and refine each other. When a litterateur gets involved in politics, his politics gets more refined. Similarly, if a politician has a literary background, he cannot ignore human feelings and emotions.” I have watched some of the important proceedings of the Lok Sabha in which I saw his speeches both as a Prime Minister and as a member of the opposition. To me, his speech sounded like a mix of statesmanship and literature like the one below.
The game of power would continue. Governments would come and go. Political parties would be formed and dissolved. But the country should survive and democracy should remain there forever. The debate (on Vote of Confidence Motion) would come to an end but the chapter which would start from the next day needed to be pondered over. The bitterness should not increase.
On the occasion of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 2nd Remembrance Day, I present one of his poems, ‘apne hi mann se kuchh bolen’ (2002) which has been turned into a non-film song composed and sung by Jagjeet Singh. The video of the song featuring Shahrukh Khan and Atal Bihari Vajpayee was produced by Saregama which was directed by Yash Chopra. The song is preceded by a preface read by Amitabh Bachchan, which was written by Javed Akhtar. This song is a part of an album, ‘Samvedna’ (Sensitivity) containing six poems written by Atal Bihari Vajpayee which have been turned into songs composed and sung by Jagjeet Singh.
The poem is philosophical one. It says that let the heart speak. Let it measure what has been gained and what has been lost. In one of the antaras, the poet says that earth is millions of years old and life is eternal. Elders may give a blessing of 100 years of life (sau sharadon ki vaani) but body has its limit. So, one should be ready to open the doors on the last knock.
Video Clip :
Audio Clip:
Song-Kya khoya kya paaya jag mein (Jagjeet Singh NFS)(2002) Singer-Jagjeet Singh, Lyrics-Atal Bihari Vajpayee, MD-Jagjeet Singh
Lyrics
kya khoya kya paaya jag mein
milte aur bichhadte mag mein
kya khoya kya paaya jag mein
milte aur bichhadte mag mein
mujhe kisi se nahin shikaayat
yadhyapi chhala gaya pag pag mein
ek drishti beeti par daalen
yaadon ki potali tatolen
ek drishti beeti par daalen
yaadon ki potali tatolen
apne hi mann se kuchh bolen
apne hi mann se kuchh bolen
prithhvi laakhon varsh puraani
jeevan ek anant kahaani
prithhvi laakhon varsh puraani
jeevan ek anant kahaani
par tan ki apni seemaayen
yadyapi sau sharadon ki vaani
itna kaafi hai antim dastak
par khud darwaaza kholen
itna kaafi hai antim dastak
par khud darwaaza kholen
apne hi mann se kuchh bolen
apne hi mann se kuchh bolen
janm maran kaa avirat phera
jeewan banjaaron kaa deraa
janm maran kaa avirat phera
jeewan banjaaron kaa deraa
aaj yahaan kal kahaan kooch hai
kaun jaanta kidhar savera
andhiyaara aakaash aseemit
praanon ke pankhon ko taulen
andhiyaara aakaash aseemit
praanon ke pankhon ko taulen
apne hi mann se kuchh bolen
apne hi mann se kuchh bolen
apne hi mann se kuchh bolen
apne hi mann se …. kuchh bolen
3 Responses to "Kya khoya kya paaya jag mein"
August 16, 2020 at 8:46 pm
Sadanand Ji, Thanks for this thoughtful post on Shri AB Vajapayee .Never heard this song which has a great appeal.
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 16, 2020 at 8:31 am
Nice sharing.
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