नीम का पेड़

आज सुबह जब खिड़की खोली,
नीम की पत्ती मुझसे बोली,
में तो हूँ इतनी कडवी,
फिर भी तुम रोज निहारते, मुझे देखकर खुश हो जाते.
कारण क्या है ये तो बताओ,
ऐसे ना तुम मुझे सताओ.
प्रश्न सुन में मुस्काया, हुआ चकित, थोडा भरमाया,
होठों पर मुस्कान बन, आये दिन पुराने याद,
याद आई वो पकी निमोरियां बहुत दिनों के बाद,
उनको देख में झुंझलाता,
आँगन में खेल न पाता.
जब सूखी पत्तियों में लगती आग,
धुएं से हो जाता बुरा हाल.
शाम को जब सूरज ढल जाता, चंदा मामा छत पर आता,
गरम हवा जब मुझे जलाती,
नीम की पत्तियां ठंडी-ठंडी,
उस गर्मी से हमें बचातीं.
दशहरे पर जब उडती पतंग,
नीम का वो पेड़ हमेशा रहता था संग,
ये उसी की ठंडी छाँव का कमाल था,
जो जेठ की भरी दुपहरी में पतंग उड़ाते,
और नीचे आकर माँ की खूब सारी डांट खाते.
ऐसी अनेकानेक यादों से भरा है बचपन,
और हर उस याद में रचा-बसा है वो नीम का पेड़.
उसकी पत्तियां हो सकता है कडवी लगेंगी,
पर उससे जुडी यादें हमेशा मीठी रहेंगी.

Love what you do.......

Belief can change our world,

It makes us realize our potential,              

But it needs something,

Something which is essential,

Something which we all own.

But it remains unknown under the curtain of negligence,

We’ll be able to unhide it if we show some prudence.

& this prudence will lead us to our transformation,

Only, & if only, we follow our true passion!

It is the courage! Courage of moving that extra inch when going gets tough, courage of trying new things in life, courage of overcoming the fear of failure. But the question remains how’ll we do that? Luckily, answer is in one word – PASSION.

I’ve realised that courage is not the absence of fear, but it is the realization that something is more important than fear. And this something is something which you are passionate about!

Soldiers, who are willing to sacrifice their lives in battlefield, don’t do so because they are extremely brave, rather, they do it for a cause, a cause which is more important than anything else in their life. 

So crux of the story is, in order to become brave, you got to find something important in your life, something meaningful, something for which you are willing to move that extra inch, something you are passionate about.

The moment we do so, our job is half done! What remains is just the secondary part. Because your passion will infuse the other prerequisites in your personality. It will make you work hard, it will make you achieve the level of required skills, though you do need some sort of discipline in your life. 

Take the example of Sachin Tendulkar. Despite of his mastery over strokes, his years of hard work, credit for his greatness goes to his hunger(definitely hunger for runs!) By saying this I’m not undermining the importance of hard work, or skills. These qualities are definitely required, these are necessary, but, these alone are not Sufficient! We got to have hunger/passion for whatever thing we choose to do in our life.  We got to LOVE what we DO. (Reminds me of Steve Jobs speech in Stanford Univ.) 

I intended to write some poem here. But, what came out is what you’ve just read. Basically, I felt like writing something, so I wrote it. I don’t care if you like it or not, I don’t care if you make some goddie-goddie comments or not, I don’t care if you share it or not, what i do care is that I followed my passion. (Although, while writing this, I’ve suggested you some ways to publicize my blog!! Haha!) 

So, Be passionate about your ideas, about your dreams. Don’t do things just because you have to! Your dreams will surely come true, just listen your heart and give it all! Remember the immortal words of Swami Vivekananda: जीवन की अवधि थोड़ी है और म्रत्यु अनिवार्य है, इसलिए आओ, हम अपने आगे एक महान आदर्श खड़ा करें और उसके लिए अपना सर्वस्व त्याग दें.....