Passing Marks of a Bohemian

A short post today. What is better? Life of a Bohemian with passing Marks or one conforming to social norms with a distinction?

I was listening to a Nida Fazli's poetry recital on Friday night and that triggered a thought . What are Miracles "Chamatkaar", the vedic definition of Miracle is the act or action which is devoid of human intent, design or planning . "Jisme insaan ka ikhtiyaar na ho , woh chamatkaar" . In short ,  a "Divine Intervention". 

We spend majority of our life, following fixed social and cultural lines, norms  and  conclusions. What we eat, how we read, what we speak, what we wear and how we love is all a function of whats been concluded largely generations ago , bound by social and economic realities. Each generation adds a bit, some start to  like maggi, some like jeans , some speak Half english and Half Hindi , but is this incremental change an evolution ?  Fact is NO, we add a little bit to this universally applicable  divine intervention in everything , how much have WE changed . Some would argue  a lot of things have changed , do people change ? I was wondering last night , what would confession of love be considered , immorality or truthfulness, depending on who is confessing and who is judging , but that has largely stayed the same over centuries. Society has fixed norms of what Looks good and what doesn't ? Ask Tongans , what is size zero ?  Or the Koreans about "Mahie Gill Kind of"  eyes . What is the change we made  , what's our view ? What is our contribution to the way collective mankind thinks . Not much . What we eat , also is socially and economically driven , what do WE choose , not much . Make no mistake , all these "followers" are  not the subtle souls of society, they are the young , sorted and evolved . How we love is even more primitive , we express love when asked . Love is expressed largely by confession , still ? Then what has evolution done to us ? Very Little, I am convinced. Choosing a college , a course, a Job , a spouse , a car , a career is that all the "maverick" we all wanna be ?

Our lives in fact don't embrace "Chamatkaar ", we give ourselves too much unearned unnecessary credit for being who we are , we are largely just "Tukka" , an orchestrated fluke  ....just subjects of  a Karmic and destinical event cycle. We make just small cosmetic changes to the journey of life , do we have have the courage to become Bohemian ? The sad dichotomy is that we wish the pleasures of  a rebel without being a rebel . 

One such Bohemian rebel tribe of people, are romantic poets . I have been very touched by Shiv Kumar Batalvi's poetry  since my teenage . He was  a noted punjabi poet and died at age 36. He has to his credit some of the best romantic poetry , I have ever read. 

Shiv Kumar was born in Bara Pind Lohtian (Shakargarh tehsil), in Punjab (now Pakistan) in July 1937. His father was a Patwari by the name of Pandit Krishan Gopal. After the partition, his family moved to Batala. As a child Shiv is said to have been fascinated by birds and rugged thorny plants and nature's landscape. He was moved by a series of emotional episodes , Perhaps the most celebrated such episode is his fascination for Gurbaksh Singh's daughter who left for the US and married someone else. When he heard of the birth of her first child, Shiv wrote 'Main ek shikra yaar banaya', perhaps his most famous love poem also sung by Jagjit, a tearful love ballad. 

He married on Feb 5, 1967. His wife Aruna was a Brahmin from Kir Mangyal in district Gurdaspur. By all accounts, Shiv had a normal marriage. He had two children, Meharbaan (b. Apr. 12, 1968) and Puja (b. Sep. 23, 1969) whom he loved immensely. By 1968 he had moved to Chandigarh, Meanwhile, his epilepsy got worse and he had a serious attack while at a store in Chandigarh's Sector 22. Shiv Kumar Batalvi, the poet, literally dominated poetic gatherings in his short life. 

In the early 70's Shiv came to Bombay for a literary conference. In keeping with Shiv's outrageous behavior there is a story about his trip to Bombay as well. Part of the conference involved readings at Shanmukananda hall. After a few people had read their work (one of whom was Meena Kumari), Shiv got on the stage and began "Almost everyone today has begun to consider themselves a poet, each and every person off the streets is writing ghazals". By the time he'd finished with his diatribe, there was not a sound in the hall. This is when he began to read 'Ek kuri jeeda naam mohabbat. gum hai, gum hai...'. There wasn't a soul untouched when he finished either.

I heard it when I was 23 and still unsettles a day, if you read it right. 

By saying, "Prabh Ji Saanu Ik Geet Udhaaraa Hor Deyo", Shiv gave all credit for his writings to The Almighty God, as if all his poetry was from that Divine Power. This speaks of his spiritual leanings. This was the greatness of a poet who wrote best of the Punjabi poetry but according to him it was only God who had bestowed on him the power to write and he had nothing, of his own, to write or say.

Shiv was an alcoholic, a smoker and a incessant romantic soul. Shiv Kumar died in the 36th year of his life on May 7, 1973 in his father-in-law's house at Kir Mangyal near Pathankot. Shiv Kumar Batalvi is an Icon in Punjabi literature , but did he live a social "conforming " life , answer is NO . Did he embrace Chamatkaar? Yes Totally . 

Chamatkaars or Miracles happen when the grit to lead a Bohemian , rebellious life wins  over the comfort of "plastic" social life . Chamatkaars are in Hari Prasad Chaurasia's flute , In Shivkumar Sharma's Santoor , in Nida Fazli's poetry, In Jagjit's voice, In  Gulzar's nazms and in every whatsapp conversation, which gracefully merges the writ of divinity to the will of mankind.

Feel the Chamatkaar, feel the power of divinity or ignore it . You either live one life as a bohemian rebel or let it pay off houses , card , kids, education, keep people happy with social conformity,  till you become victim of biological aging or a man-made accident (often easily attributed to destiny).

So , choice is with every Human, Live predictable, comfortable or Live Bohemian , Be a rebel ....I would choose the Passing Marks of a Bohemian over a distinction as a conformist.

One Life , Live It ....make more mistakes, trust some more, even more , love fiercely and have no regrets . Be ruthless and unforgiving, be unprecedented in every endeavour .

Die doing it, not thinking about it .  I will ....