महाकवि निराला से मुखातिब हुआ था मैं..[संस्मरण] - प्राण शर्मा (निराला जी की पुण्यतिथि पर विशेष प्रस्तुति)

पिता जी ने कहा- “देख बेटे, हिन्दी की रत्न परीक्षा तो तूने अच्छे अंकों से पास उत्तीर्ण कर ली अब लगे हाँथों प्रभाकर भी कर ले। यह ले सौ रूपये और नालंदा कोलेज के प्रिंसिपल से पूछ कर सभी पुस्तकें खरीद ले। हिंदी की अच्छी शिक्षा पायेगा तो विद्वान बनेगा, पता है क्या तुझे कि कभी महात्मा गाँधी ने कहा था; भारत के असली शत्रु वे लोग हैं जो भारतीय होते हुए भी व्यवहारिकता में अंग्रेज हैं, उन लोगों की कृपा से आज समूचा भारतीय समाज अंग्रेजी की जंजीरों में जकडा नज़र आ रहा है। नगर-नगर में अब अंग्रेजी के पब्लिक स्कूलों की भरमार हो रही है। उनका जाल फ़ैल रहा है। सरकारी दफ्तरों और संस्थानों में अंग्रेजी का ही बोलबाला हो रहा है। हिन्दी और प्रादेशिक भाषाओं की अस्मिता पर घिर रहे संकट से आक्रान्त अनेक निष्टावान और कर्मठ विद्वान् लोग जूझ रहे हैं। तुझे प्रभाकर और हिन्दी में एम.ए करके ऐसे हिन्दी के प्रतिबद्ध लोगों का अनुसरण करना है। बेटे, माँ के समान होती है अपनी भाषा-बोली, तभी तो वह मातृभाषा कहलाती है। तुझे व्यवहारिकता में भारतीय बनना है, अँगरेज़ नहीं। अँगरेज़ तो चले गए लेकिन अपनी ज़बान यहीं छोड़ गए, अंग्रेज़ी परस्त लोगों के संरक्षण में”।

 पिता जी हिन्दी, संस्कृत और अंग्रेजी के विद्वान् थे। पंजाबी होते हुए भी वह घर घर में बनारस के पंडितों जैसी हिन्दी बोलते थे। उनके उच्चारण में .कुछ लोग उनको बनारसी पंडित समझते थे। उन्होंने कुछ इस अंदाज़ से उपदेश दिया कि उनके मुखारविंद से निकला हुआ एक-एक क्लिष्ट शब्द भी गुलाब की पंखुरी जैसा कोमल लगा। उनकी बातों से मैं इतना जियादा प्रभावित हुआ कि एक सौ रूपये मैंने अपनी जेब में डाले और दूसरे दिन सुबह सबसे पहला पहला काम नालंदा कॉलेज में प्रवेश पाने का किया। प्रिंसिपल श्री रामलाल से पुस्तकों की सूची ली और लाजपत नगर की मार्केट के पुस्तक-विक्रेता के पास पहुँच गया। सभी पुस्तकें खरीदने में देर नहीं लगी।

पिता जी अति प्रसन्न थे, क्योंकि उनकी आज्ञा का पालन मैं बखूबी कर रहा था। घर में उत्सव जैसा वातावरण हो गया था। नयी दिल्ली का एक बहुत ही सुंदर इलाका है--सुंदर नगर .उसकी मार्केट से रसगुल्ले मंगवाए गए। प्रभाकर में प्रवेश पाने से सबसे बड़ा लाभ यह हुआ कि मुझ को छंदशास्त्र पढने को मिला। कविता कहना सीखा। यूँ तो फिल्मी गीत गाते-गाते लय में कुछ न कुछ कहना मैंने पहले ही जान लिया था। जब भी छंद में कोई गीत ,कविता या ग़ज़ल कहता तो उसे गाते-गुनगुनाते हुए मुझे अच्छा लगता। उन्ही दिनों संयोग से नालंदा कोलेज में कविवर उदय भानु हंस के दर्शन हुए। वह अथिति अध्यापक के रूप में कुछ घंटों के लिए वहां आए थे। पता चला कि वे अच्छे कवि भी हैं। उनको सामने पाकर सुखद लगा.एकाध साल के बाद उनकी यह रूबाई पढ़ कर मैं झूम उठा था-

 

मैं साधू से आलाप भी कर लेता हूँ

मन्दिर में में कभी जप भी कर लेता हूँ

मानव से कहीं देव न बन जायुं मैं

यह सोच के कुछ पाप भी कर लेता हूँ

 

प्रभाकर में लगे काव्य -संकलन की कुछ काव्य-पंक्तियों --

बुंदेलों हरबोलों के मुंह हमने सूनी कहानी थी

खूब लदी मर्दानी वह तो झांसी वाली रानी थी

-सुभद्रा कुमारी चौहान

 

वह आता

दो टूक कलेजे के करता

पछताता

पथ पर आता

-सूर्य कान्त त्रिपाठी निराला

 

इस पार प्रिये तुम हो मधु है

उस पार न जाने क्या होगा

-हरिवंश राय बच्चन

 

कवि कुछ ऐसी तान सुनाओ

जिस से उथल-पुथल मच जाए

-बालकृष्ण शर्मा नवीन

 

और नरेन्द्र शर्मा की एक कविता जो याद नहीं आ रही है,में मेरा मन डूबा ही हुआ था कि एक दिन पिता जी बड़े-बड़े विद्वानों की समझ में न आने वाली निराला जी की क्लिष्ट कविता "राम की शक्तिपूजा" कहीं से ले ले आए, मेरा शब्द-सामर्थ्य बढ़ाने के लिए। कविता की प्रारंभिक पंक्तिओं---

 

आज की तीक्ष्ण शर विधृत क्षिप्र कर वेग प्रखर

शत शेल संवरण शील नील नभ गर्जित स्वर

प्रति पल परिवर्तित व्यूह भेद कौशल समूह

राक्षस विरुद्ध प्रत्यूह क्रुद्ध कपि विषम हूह

 

ही पढ़ कर मेरा अपरिपक्व मस्तिष्क चक्कर खाने लगा, पसीने तो छूटने ही थे। मैंने पिता जी से विनम्रता से कहा कि अभी मैं इतना समर्थ नहीं हूँ कि ऐसे क्लिष्ट शब्दों को आत्मसात कर सकूं। वह नहीं माने और जबरन मुझ को अपने पास बिठा लेते और राम की शक्तिपूजा की पंक्तिओं के क्लिष्ट शब्दों के अर्थ समझाने लगते। उनके बार - बार समझाने पर भी मेरी अल्प बुद्धि उन्हें पचा नहीं पाती। मैं दूसरी पंक्ति के शब्दों के अर्थ समझता और उसकी पहली पंक्ति के शब्दों के अर्थ भूल जाता।

चूँकि पिता जी को मेरा शब्द-सामर्थ्य बढाना और मुझको विद्वान् बनाना था इसलिए वह डटे रहे। यह सिलसिला कई दिनों तक चला। एक दिन मैं विद्धांग शब्द का अर्थ भूल गया। नर्म दिल के पिता का धैर्य टूट गया। देखते ही देखते वह लाल-पीले हो गए। सिंहनाद कर उठे-"तेरा ध्यान कहाँ रहता है?" फिर धमाकेदार तमंचे शुरू हो गए उनके। कभी मेरी एक गाल पर और कभी दूसरी गाल पर, मेरी आंखों में आंसुओं की झड़ी लग गयी। अपने सत्रह-अठारह वर्ष के पूत को केवल एक शब्द के लिए बुरी तरह मार खाता देख कर मेरी माँ कराह उठी। छोटा भाई उसकी पीठ के के पीछे लुक गया। पड़ोसी वाली मेरी हम उम्र निशि जो सरसों का साग और मक्की की रोटियां देने आयी थी, उस कारुणिक दृश्य से सुबक उठी और अपनी गीली आंखों को दुपट्टे के कोने से छिपा कर अपने घर में भाग गयी। मैं उस पीड़ा को अपने मन में में लिए कई दिनों तक तड़पता रहा। सपनो में महाकवि निराला जी से मैं घायल मन से कई बार मिला और उनसे मुखातिब हुआ - निराला जी, "राम की शक्तिपूजा लिख आप तो क्लासिकल पोएट बन गए हैं लेकिन आपकी उस क्लिष्ट कविता ने मेरी कितनी दुर्गति करवाई है,आप क्या जाने?

Remembering APJ Abdul Kalam’s ‘Vision 2020’ on his birth anniversary; where does Indian economy stand?

 

Dr. Kalam devoted a decade of his life pursuing the model of PURA or Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas.

The nation remembers its 11th President, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam in many forms – missile man, space scientist, nuclearization leader and people's President. But one common trait which runs through all his roles was his unflinching optimism and devotion to being productive for the nation. The year 2020 marks a landmark year – it is the milestone of the Vision 2020, which he laid down two decades ago as a pathway to an economically developed India with societal inclusion.

The cornerstone of this vision relied on three principal factors – we need to realize and unleash our potential as a nation, we need to build an economy based on technological leadership and finally, we need a balanced growth model where rural and urban can not only co-exist but thrive together.

While we co-authored Dr. Kalam's final book, Advantage India in 2015, he told me a story that highlights this aspect of identifying our latent national potential. In 1975, ISRO needed beryllium diaphragms for a new device. Today, we can find these diaphragms in high-quality audio speakers. But few nations had the ability to make them 40 years ago. Dr. Kalam and his scientific team approached a US-based firm that agreed to sell them to India. Just when the deal was about to go through, the US government blocked the sale as the material was being used in their strategic missiles.

Denied a critical product, India started learning more about it; and discovered something startling. The US diaphragms were made from beryllium rods produced in Japan - and the Japanese makers had outsourced the beryllium from us! India was among the top four producers of this rare element. The team was dismayed to learn that a product whose raw material we possessed almost exclusively, was denied to us. A committee of top research labs was then constituted to make our own beryllium diaphragm. In four months, we triumphed.

In this real-life run of a story similar to "The Alchemist", the message is clear. There are many "raw berylliums" hidden in our nation. Often they are ignored, sometimes even discredited. Dr. Kalam saw this latent potential foremost in the youth of the nation – whom he believed we need to trust and invest more. He talked about revamping our education system, via rebuilding legacy institutions like Nalanda and creating a World Knowledge Platform in India to transform the nation into a "vishwa guru".

Secondly, we need to build a spirit of technological nationalism. This is a broader and inclusive nationalism we need. Technology provides developing economies the ability to leapfrog certain stages of development. Our mobile phone revolution, for instance, leapfrogged the landline stage, growing from a million mobile connections in 1999 to over 760 million smartphones by 2021. India with its market can also build collaborations across nations based on technological abilities. A shining example is the BrahMos Cruise Missile co-developed by India and Russia. While India brought its knowledge in developing the targeting mechanism, Russia contributed to the propulsion system. It gave both nations the capability to develop and produce perhaps the best cruise missile system in the world with a business volume of over $7 billion.

Today, India has the world-class ability in IT, communication, pharmaceuticals and space - let us find collaborations for them and unleash true entrepreneurial energy into them. What do we need to leapfrog here? The stage of environmental degradation associated with manufacturing. Make in India, Make it Green, and Invent in India.

There is also a need to make our spending on research and development more result-oriented. It concerns me that no Indian citizenship holder has won the Nobel Prize in any of the sciences, despite India's National Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) in science and technology to over Rs 1 lakh crore annually.

The third aspect is about making the rewards of development reach across rural-urban, across genders, and across economic groups. One key opportunity which has arisen out of the current pandemic crisis is our chance to transform our habitation-economy model. The pain of the exodus of migrant workers must compel us to discover a new India where there are opportunities for income in villages and smaller towns – and where the only path to growth is not via the painful process of migration. Dr. Kalam devoted a decade of his life pursuing the model of PURA or Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas – where he promoted a model of connectivities in village clusters to spur economic development and urban class services of healthcare and education in India's 600,000 villages. The post-pandemic India has a chance to not just go back to older times, but also to create novel pathways. What road shall we choose?

India has tremendous potential to innovate and rise to the occasion. In March 2020, at the beginning of COVID-19, India was reeling in its medical system. Hospitals had no PPEs, markets had no sanitizers or masks. India was then importing nearly 100% of its PPEs. It was thought to be the basket case that would collapse under the pandemic. But not only did India endured through one of the longest lockdowns across the world it silently revamped its entire medical supply industry.

 

By June India was making 200,000 kits a day and by the end of July 2020, India opened up to export PPE and other protective supplies to the rest of the world. Pune-based Serum India is planning to produce 100 million doses of COVID vaccine as soon as the clinical trials are positive. But why does it take a crisis and panic to start our genius innovation? Why cannot our inventive brain apply constantly, under the motivation to enable a developed India? How do we create this ecosystem of constant improvement in a time when India is being seen as a global opportunity to cushion against the Chinese dominance in manufacturing in a post-COVID world?

One of the firm thoughts of Dr. Kalam was that forward-looking societies need to be careful about selecting who their adversaries are. Powerful nations like India will eventually win over their select opponents. So it is on us today, whether we choose to contest poverty, illiteracy, or disease – but we designate our own fellow citizens as our adversaries based on their difference of political leaning, faith, or region. A nation is as great as the challenger it chooses to confront.

(Srijan Pal Singh is the CEO of Kalam Centre. He was the Adviser for Policy and Technology to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and co-authored the book Advantage India. Views expressed are the author's personal.)

please see this link (below)......................

http://www.financialexpress.com/

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam birth anniversary special: Discoveries, places, days dedicated to India's 'Missile Man'

 

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam birth anniversary special: Discoveries, places, days dedicated to India's 'Missile Man'

India today remembers its Missile Man, the great educationalist, the person behind the success of the Indian aerospace science programme Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, on his birth anniversary. Dr. Kalam inspired people and young minds across the globe. With his knowledge, initiatives, and achievements, he has left an everlasting impact not only in India but also overseas. The world has acknowledged his contribution as his name continues to receive commemoration in the most respectful forms. Listed below are discoveries, places, holidays, satellite, etc. named after A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

NASA names space bacteria after Dr. Kalam

It was a proud moment for India three years ago when a research group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered a new microorganism in Space and named it after the 11th President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam. The organism was called 'Solibacillus kalamii,' a gram-positive, rod-shaped, and aerobic bacterium.

Kalam SAT - World's lightest satellite

Kalam SAT, a satellite named after India's rocket scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, was built by an Indian High school student team. It was an experimental student payload under the Cubes in the Space program by a STEM-based education program by Idoodle Learning.Inc and NASA in 2017. The satellite is widely claimed to be the world's lightest satellite.

Abdul Kalam Island in the Bay of Bengal

This island was earlier known as Wheeler Island. The Abdul Kalam Island is an island off the coast of Odisha. The island is equipped with the Integrated Test Range missile testing facility.

Mount Kalam named after Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

Mount Kalam overlooks Spiti Valley, and the peak is around 6180m above sea level. It is located near the Bara Shigri Glacier in the state of Himachal Pradesh.

World Students' Day

The world also recognises the birth anniversary of Dr Kalam on 15 October as students' day. In 2010, the United Nations had declared 15 October as "World Students' Day.

Other honours

Some many institutes and universities have also been named after Dr Kalam. Similarly, there is also the Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Award, an award instituted by the government of Tamil Nadu. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex, a military research institute in Hyderabad, is named after India's rocket scientist.

Rare Photo of a Siberian Tigress Hugging a Tree Wins The Wildlife Photography Award 2020

A rare photo of a Siberian tigress hugging a fir tree has won this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. It took Russian photographer Sergey Gorshkov 11 months and a range of hidden cameras to click the picture of a Siberian tigress hugging an ancient Manchurian fir tree in the Russian Far East.

The unique image was selected from over 49,000 entries. Judges believe the photo offers a ''scene like no other'' and is a ''unique glimpse of an intimate moment deep in a magical forest'.'

''Shafts of low winter sun highlight the ancient fir tree and the coat of the huge tigress as she grips the trunk in obvious ecstasy and inhales the scent of the tiger on resin, leaving her own mark as her message. It's also a story told in glorious colour and texture of the comeback of the Amur tiger, a symbol of the Russian wilderness,'' one of the judges said.

 "The lighting, the colours, the texture - it's like an oil painting. It's almost as if the tiger is part of the forest. Her tail blends with the roots of the tree. The two are one," WPY chair of judges Roz Kidman-Cox told BBC News. The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.