Sunday, June 26, 2011

Has Hindi Literature died after Agyeya? Or not!

Its ironic to write about Hindi literature in English. But if your sentiments are not publicly searchable in Google then I guess they do not exist, times have changed. If there were no Jai Shankar Prasad, Premchand or Mahadevi Verma Hindi would still have only be known for Tulsi, Sur and Kabir. But after this era as time got shorter and shorter new literature started to find its place more on podiums than in books and even lesser in class rooms. Hasya Kavi Sammelans became forefront channels to spread what they thought was Hindi. Poems became story telling that has little to no lifetime beyond the relevancy of the story itself. The conditions of writers fared not so bad some even turned out to be huge commercial success, thanks to the Bollywood and Television. Now some of the same very writers question why Hindi should be easier, I guess they are the ones who could find their roots in novels sold on the Railways kiosks. So where is this language? Like many other non-English international languages it does find challenging to keep up. The most dangerous is lack of quality Writers who can express today's challenges in a timeless manner. Aloofness from Government and mid to poor financial backing from India's Hindi belt are also some contributing factors. मंचीय कवियों पर Doctorate हो रहे हैं। चुटकुले लिखने वाले आज के साहित्यकार बन बैठे हैं। बस अब तो यही कह सकते हैं:

न रह गयी समझ मुझमे, न लिखने का मन ही करता है।
कभी थे यायावर हम भी, अब तो बस कल की ही चिंता है।
जो अग्नि थी भी कभी मुझमे, बुझी सी अब वो रहती है,
जलाया सोच कर ये था कि स्याही इसी से बनती है।
किताबें हो गयीं वो कम कसम खाके जिसे सच बोलूँ,
सुनेगा कौन सच मेरा किताबें झूठ की जो खोलूँ?
कवि वो जा चुके हैं सुन जिन्हें आँखें नम होती थीं,
कलम उठता नहीं मेरा खीझ अब मेरी ये पीड़ा है।
कभी थे यायावर हम भी, अब तो बस कल की ही चिंता है।

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