Budh Ki Muskrahat,بدھ کی مسکراہٹ : (Urdu); Afsana; افسانہ ; Short Story

Budh ki Muskrahat, :

بدھ کی مسکراہٹ ,(Urdu)

Afsana; افسانہ ; Short Story

Doctor Aunty, ڈاکٹرآنٹی : (Urdu); Afsana; افسانہ ; Short Story

  Doctor Aunty, ڈاکٹرآنٹی  :

(Urdu)

 Afsana; افسانہ ;Short Story

Surprise, سرپرائز : (Urdu/Hindi); Afsancha; Laghu Kahani; افسانچہ

 Surprise, سرپرائز :

(Urdu/Hindi)

Afsancha; Laghu Kahani; افسانچہ 

           

                                             
                                   सरप्राइज      

उस रोज़ जब मैं घर से निकला तो मेरी पत्नी बडी ही उत्सुकता से दरवाज़े तक आई. प्यार भरी नज़रों  से  मुझे देखा और फिर अलविदा कहने के लिए बोली. "गुड बय डार्लिंग, शाम को जल्दी आना, आज इवनिंग शो देख लेंगे।" वह कुछ ज्यादा ही मेहरबान लग रही थी। मैंने उसके गाल पर चुमी ली और जवाब में कहा,  "असंभव, आज ऑफिस में बहुत काम है. सात आठ बज जायेंगे।" दफ्तर पहुंचा तो मालूम हुआ कि बॉस  की तबियत ठीक नहीं है और वह दफ्तर नहीं आयेंगे। उनकी सारी इंगेजमेंट्स कैंसल करलीं। पूरी डाक उठा कर उनके घर पहुंचा। दिन का काम जल्दी जल्दी निपटा लिया. फिर सोचा चलो आज श्रीमती जी को ही सरप्रयज़  दें

दो ढाई बजे घर पहुंचा. कॉलबेल दबाई. कुछ देर के बाद दरवाज़ा खुला. सामने नाइट गाउन पहने मेरी बीवी उलझे हुए बालों को समेटती हुई आँखें मूँद रही थी। उसे अपनी आँखों पर विश्वास ही नहीं हो रहा था। "तुम, तुम इतनी जल्दी.....! सब ठीक तो है न?" उसके लहजे में ताजुब और परेशानी साफ़ नज़र आ रही थी. वह मुड कर अन्दर जाने लगी और मैं पीछे पीछे हो लिया। "खाना खाया है या फिर होम सरविस से मंगवा लूं?" डायनिंग टेबल पर बिखरे हुए बर्तनों की तरफ इशारा करते हुए वह कहने लगी,"दरअसल मेरी सहेली आरती आई थी और हम दोनों ने इकठे लंच कर लिया. वह ज़रा जल्दी में थी इस लिए ज्यादा दैर नहीं ठहर सकी।" मुझे उसकी बातों पर यकीन करने के सिवा और कोई चारा न था। मुझे एहसास हुआ कि मैं जल्दी वापस आकर उसकी प्राइवैसी में दखल अंदाज़ हुआ। डस्ट बिन में पडे हुए सिगरेट के टुकड़े उसकी बातों को झुटला रहे थे. या फिर ऐसा भी हो सकता है कि आरती सिगरेट पीने कि आदी हो. कौन जाने सच क्या है?

Barson Pehle, برسوں پہلے : (Urdu/English); Nazm; نظم ; Poem

Barson Pehle, برسوں پہلے :

(Urdu/English)

Nazm; نظم ; Poem 

Mid-term Performance-Review of Bureaucrats: (English)

  Mid-term Performance-

Review of Bureaucrats: (English)

In its latest decision the Central Government has decided to retire all such Officers of Indian Civil Services viz IAS, IFS, IPS, IAAS, IRS, IRaS, IPoS, IIS etc who are found inefficient upon review after 15 and 25 years of service. They will however be entitled to pension as earned by them on such date. The exercise is aimed at increasing efficiency in the bureaucracy besides bringing down corruption in the administration.

Previously officers were permitted to seek voluntary retirement with a similar view to weed out the dead wood but the scheme proved counter productive as it was the efficient officers who sought retirement because they got better offers from the private sector companies while dishonest and inefficient officers stayed put.

In order to understand the implications of the present scheme we have to analyse as to how the Indian bureaucracy absorbs and develops new talent and functions in our democratic set up. Traditionally, in our society first preference is given to medicine and engineering degrees for which one has to qualify pre-medical or pre-engineering examinations with very high merit. Whoever are left, try to obtain graduation degrees in various disciplines and some of them appear in Indian Civil Service examination. However in the case of children of  Government Officers who taste perks of bureaucracy early in their life, the career charting is different. Most of them are groomed for the civil services from childhood itself. Consequently, the bureaucracy turns out to be a jugglery of mediocrity who pose as know-alls in all fields, fill positions from District Collectors to Secretaries, go on deputations to Public enterprises and manage PSUs as diverse as Steel giants, textile manufacturers, drug companies and fertiliser corporations. Nevertheless, with liberalisation of economy the scenario has changed and bright people now look towards multinational corporations for better career prospects. On the contrary the civil services have started attracting maladjusted engineers and doctors of late. But then India is a country of 120 crores and therefore despite this change of preference long queues can still be noticed for getting into Indian Civil Services. As already mentioned the children of erstwhile bureaucrats continue to prefer the Services while the Politicians tactically prefer matrimonial alliances of their children with such officers who would help them in the long run. It can be seen that most of these officers come from particular colleges and from specific locations like Delhi, Allahabad etc. The alumni of these colleges help each other in networking, lucrative postings, deputations, foreign assignments and even promotions.

It is no secret that most of the bureaucracy in India is corrupt. A few who are exceptions only prove the rule. One may recall the in-house voting conducted by UP bureaucrats some years ago to find out the most corrupt officers in the cadre. The results were startling. The bureaucracy has inherited corruption from their forerunners in the British establishment but it received a new impetus from the socio-political set up of the country. The politicians and bureaucrats form a vicious circle, one promotes the other. The bureaucrats who help politicians to achieve their nefarious objectives subsequently get party tickets for elections and become ministers after their retirement. Under these circumstances the bureaucrats lose no time to implement illegal orders of their political bosses and fill their coffers both in India and abroad.

With the implementation of the announced scheme, it needs to be noted that evaluation of Officers after completion of 15 or 25 years of service will entirely depend upon the performance appraisals of such officers recorded year after year. Who will write these Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs)? They will either be written by their political bosses if the officers are senior enough or by such superior officers whose bridle will be in the hands of politicians. Both of them will be prejudiced against honest and conscientious officers. Given the fact that honesty is inversely proportional to efficiency in a country like India, this too will work as a handicap against the honest officers while the dishonest and smart officers will have smooth ride throughout their career.

The performance of officers also depends upon the places they work, the environment they are set in and the prevailing work culture. The officers with better network and effective godfathers have no difficulty in getting postings of their choice at places where they do not face any problems whatsoever. They enjoy their postings as also manage excellent ACRs while their counterparts work under adverse conditions and face militants, naxals, labour unions or political hooligans and resultantly are not able to show as good tangible results. I remember the case of an officer who was brought on deputation to Delhi, his home town, from a militancy infested state to become a member of the team set up for organising an international exhibition while his counterpart in the militancy infested state was asked to look after double charge i.e his own job as also the job of the deputationist. The officer on deputation worked in his home town, his children continued to receive education in Delhi's elite school, he expanded his network by including more politicians in it, got an outstanding ACR, received an award and managed his posting to Delhi after the end of the exhibition while the period of exhibition was shown as having worked in  the militancy infested state. The other officer whose life was in danger could only get an average ACR because none of his bosses ever visited the state during the period where they could have appreciated the good work he had done. Such are the ways of bureaucracy!

The most important tool for evaluation of work of officers is through targets assigned to them, both quantitative and qualitative, and achievements against them. While it may be easy to fix targets for the officers in the field, it is not so easy to fix targets for those officers who work in the Ministries and Secretariats and deal with files only without getting exposed to practical difficulties. Even if such targets are fixed arbitrarily they remain only an eye wash and therefore are prone to the subjective evaluation of their bosses. Such officers have a definite edge over the former and therefore secretarial jobs provide a shelter for the blue eyed boys who manage postings in such places.

The proposed system will work against the interests of the officers belonging to reserved categories such as scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes and minorities who do not have many godfathers in higher echelons of bureaucracy. Given the fact that they are admitted to Civil Services with lower merit, they are not expected to be as intelligent as their higher caste colleagues and produce similar results. Therefore, their weeding out will be facilitated surreptitiously. Even today if seniority lists are analysed thoroughly it will be noticed that the percentage of officers belonging to these categories dwindles gradually as they go up the ladder in their career and may be negligible at the end of the road due to the subjectivity and prejudice. Many officers of lower castes are stiffled and stunted enroute during their journey towards superannuation. The proposed scheme will further put hurdles in their path of progress.

Last but not the least it may be seen how sincere the government is for ensuring efficiency of the bureaucracy at present. There are innumerable complaints which have not been even acknowledged not to speak of taken up for investigations. The cases whichever taken up for investigations are not completed for number of years wilfully so that the officers quietly superannuate. Wherever cases are investigated the agencies ensure that these remain week with loopholes in evidence so that these fall by wayside during trial. It would be high time to investigate the mortality percentage of cases handled by the investigating and vigilance agencies of the central and state governments to see how efficient these agencies are. Let us hope the government does not make laws that make cure worse than the disease.

Pahadon Ka Romance, پہاڑوں کا رومانس : (Urdu); Afsana; Short Story; افسانہ

 Pahadon Ka Romance:

پہاڑوں کا رومانس (Urdu)

 Afsana; Short Story; افسانہ 

Neelami, نیلامی : (Urdu/Hindi); Afsancha; Laghu Kahani; افسانچہ

Neelami, نیلامی : (Urdu/Hindi)

 Afsancha; Laghu Kahani; افسانچہ 

बचपन में राजा हरीश चंदर की कहानी पढ़ी थी। बेचारे ने पेट की खातिर चौराहे पर सरेआम अपनी पत्नी का नीलम किया था मगर सचाई का दामन कभी नहीं छोड़ा. गरीब औरत किसी दौलत वाले के हाथों बिक गयी। 

युसूफ की बात कुछ अलग नहीं थी. भाईयों ने गहरे गढ्ढे के अन्दर धकेल दिया, राह पर चलते मुसाफिरों ने बचा लिय और दास बना कर नीलाम कर दिया. नीलाम होते होते वह अंततः मिस्र के शाही दरबार में पहुँच गया जहाँ बे यार व मददगार युसूफ की सुंदरता काम आई। ज़ुलेख़ा की कृपा दृष्टि उसपर पड़ी। लेकिन सभी दासों का नसीब ऐसा नहीं होता है। अक्सर ग़ुलाम कोख से कब्र तक ग़ुलामी की जंजीरों में बंधे रहते हैं। 

पिछले तीन दिनों से एयर कंडिशंड हॉल में करोड़पति क्रिकेट खिलाडियों की नीलामी हो रही थी. कोई छे करोड़ में बिक गया और कोई सात करोड़ में।  

सिराजुद्दीन ने भी टी वी पर पूरा तमाशा देख लिया और फिर आई पी एल का उत्सुकता से इंतज़ार करने लगा. आज दफ्तर बंद होते ही उसने स्कूटर स्टार्ट की और सीधे पेट्रोल पम्प पर रोक ली। तीन सौ के बदले आज तीन सौ पचास निकालने पड़े. फिर घर के लिए सब्जी भी तो खरीदनी थी. जिस भी सब्जी का नाम लिया, कीमत दुगनी हो चुकी थी। वह दिल थाम कर रह गया। हर दिन के मुकाबले में आधी ही सब्जी खरीद पाया। दिल में अलबता यह संतोष था कि दूसरे महीने से आई पी एल के मैच शरू होने वाले हैं। 

 

 

 

Cricket - The Money Game: (English)

Cricket - The  Money Game: (English)   

Now that Indian team has lost the Test series in Australia as also the 20-20 match it is high time we need to sit up and take stock. This is the second white wash Indian team has faced in succession. The team which had climbed up the ladder to number one position only a year ago has had a steep fall and could not retain that position for long. For such a fall there must be some reason which needs to be examined.
Unfortunately in India we are an emotional people who build temples of ordinary mortals and start worshipping them as Gods, be it Amitabh Bachchan or Sachin Tendulkar, while the Corporate lobby and the Mass media use these images to their advantage to rake in crores from the gullible consumers. These Gods repeatedly project themselves as philanthropes but do not tell the truth to the ordinary people that it is their hard earned money that they utilise in such philanthropic activities.
One has to look at the history of Indian Cricket and find out how many matches have been played by India since she started playing international cricket and out of these how many have been won.  Since 1983 India could not reclaim the world cup till recently and it took them almost 27 years to do so. Just 8- 10 nations play cricket out of which India is the most populated, yet we cannot win a world cup at five or six year interval. Why?
Can't India produce fast bowlers, dependable batsmen and dedicated fielders? The answer is NO. Just a win here or there and we start fire crackers and celebrations in every street worth the name. On the contrary Australians did not lose a single test for a decade, yet there were no celebrations nor did the Australian Government come out with doles to their cricketers in the shape of free residential houses, free allotment of plots of land or cash gifts.A misuse of national resources. After all what is it that these cricketers do which others do not do. They too play for earning a living. Had such gifts been given to soldiers who die for their motherland fighting militants in Kashmir or naxalites in Andhra or standing guard at sub-zero temperatures with frost bites on their feet and thousands of kilometers away from their families one could understand the logic but what sacrifices do these cricketers make in order to deserve special attention. I have not seen any honest Army soldier or Officer residing in a house of more than 50-60 lakhs not to speak of hundreds of crores.
And now these Cricketers want the Bharat Ratna too without any contribution to the welfare of the nation. All that some of them have done was to pile up personal scores endlessly by staying put in the team without reason when their performance was at the lowest ebb and by blocking the younger deserving replacements. A comparison of two cricketers will show what lobbying does. Gavaskar faced a battery of fast bowlers of West Indies unmatced to date and fought battles single handedly that too without wearing a helmet or other body guards while Sachin has been playing with all the armour on. So who is greater in his technique and contribution.
Leave aside Cricket see the results of Olympic games. Indian participants, with all the doping instances that have surfaced of late, do not return home with more than one odd gold medal, a few silvers and half a dozen of bronzes as against China which claims second or third spot in the medal tally with countless gold, silver and bronze medals. What a shame for our Nav Ratnas and Padmas!
Surprisingly the politicians are also making hay while the sun shines. Otherwise why is it that such Political Stalwarts as Sharad Pawar or KPS Gill should accept posts of BCCI or IHF. And then we have already seen the ugly face of Suresh Kalmadi in the Common Wealth Games. Given a choice these politicians would never leave these posts all their lives and like to make them hereditary.
I only wish that good sense prevails on our politicians and they bring in public accountability for all these institutions and make BCCI, IHF and IOA and the like accountable to the public.

Khud Kushi, خود کشی : (Urdu/Hindi); Afsancha; Laghu Kahani; افسانچہ

Khud Kushi،خود کشی 

(Urdu/Hindi)

 Afsancha  Laghu Kahani  افسانچہ 

 आत्महत्या  

घरेलु परेशानियों से तंग आकर पिछले रविवार प्रातः सात बजे के करीब मैं आत्म हत्या करने के लिए घर से निकल पड़ा और यमुना नदी के किनारे खड़ा हो गया। अचानक मेरी नज़र एक खूबसूरत औरत पर पड़ी जो कुछ ऐसे ही इरादे से वहां आई थी। मुझ से रहा न गया और दौड़ कर उसके पास पहुँच गया कि कहीं वह इस बीच छलांग न लगाये।   

"महोदया जी, आत्म हत्या करना बहुत बडा पाप है। आप को ऐसा नहीं करना चाहिए." मेरे मुंह से ना जाने क्यूँ यह शब्द उबल पड़े। 

"मेरे पास और भी तो कोई चारा नहीं है। मैं ज़िन्दगी से तंग आचुकी हूँ।"

"ज़िन्दगी से लड़ने में जो मज़ा है वह भागने में नहीं। आप पढ़ी लिखी मालूम होती हैं। अपने पाँव पर खड़े होकर मुसीबतों का सामना कर सकती हैं. फिर ऐसी हरकत आपको शोभा नहीं देती है।"

मेरी बातों का उसपर इतना असर हुआ कि वह पलट कर वापस चली गयी।  तब तक मैं भी भूल चूका था कि मैं किस काम से यहाँ आया था। जल्दी जल्दी घर पहुंचा और सीधे अपने बेडरूम में चला गया। मेरी बीवी हाथ  में मेरा  खुदकुशी का नोट लिए बिस्तर ठीक कर रही थी।  

मुझे देखते ही कहने लगी , "क्यूँ लौट आये। तुम्हारी यह गीदड़  भुभकियाँ तो मैं कई बार सुन चुकी हूँ। मुझे यकीन था कि तुम उलटे पैर लौट आओगे।"