Hello, we are pleased to invite you to join us for a conversation with Dilip Simeon in Chandigarh on Saturday, August 3; 2024. More details here: https://pagdandi.substack.com/p/jaag-musafir
Kindly RSVP if you plan to come: https://forms.gle/P7vAeWmWHWic7pgi6
My regards and gratitude to Pagdandi Collective for organising this conversation.
What follows below is my personal addition to the matter above, inspired by the title, Jaag Musafir. It evokes memories of one of my most loved comrades, Rabindra Ray (Lalloo), who died in 2019 in Darjeeling. In our college days, he would always be humming this song, it was his favorite. (Mine was Hawaaon pe likh do; hawaaon ke naam).
Rabindra was a poet. Here’s one of his poems, sent me recently by his student, Sarover:
Perhaps
silence
like an interstellar drift,
perhaps gladness
or a smile,
perhaps pain, perhaps
our singularity,
though we know
each other
only
as we meet – R Ray
And this is a poem I wrote for him: My friend
This (photo below) is the last time I saw him, he’s on the extreme left, and our comrade Achintya in the middle. This was in Naxalbari, (next to a commercial centre !) in 2015. Here’s my account of that trip. Comrades like Lalloo were my hamsafars; they have gone to the common destination of all musafirs. I will always love them
Wahan Kaun Hai Tera – Sachin Dev Burman – Guide 1965
Lyrics – Waha Kaun Hai Tera: वहां कौन है तेरा मुसाफ़िर जाएगा कहां
Wahan Kaun Hai Tera Musaafir Jaayega Kaha
dam lele ghadi bhar, ye chhaiya paayega kaha
waha kaun hai tera musaafir jaayega kaha
wahan kaun hai tera
bit gaye din, pyar ke palchhin, sapna bani vo raate
bhul gaye vo, tu bhi bhula de, pyar ki vo mulaqate
pyar ki vo mulaqate
sab dur andhera
sab dur andhera, musaafir jaayega kahan
dam lele, dam lele
dam lele ghadi bhar, ye chhaiya paayega kahan
waha kaun hai tera
koi bhi teri, raah na dekhe, nain bichhaye na koi
dard se tere, koi na tadpa, aankh kisi ki na royi
aankh kisi ki na royi
kahe kisko tu mera
kahe kisko tu mera, musaafir jaayega kahan
dam lele ghadi bhar, ye chhaiya paayega kahan
wahan kaun hai tera
o musaafir tu jaayega kaha
kahte hai gyani, duniya hai faani, pani pe likhi likhayi
hai sabki dekhi, hai sabki jaani, haath kisike na aayi
haath kisike na aayi
kuchh tera na mera
kuchh tera na mera, musaafir jaayega kahan
dam lele, dam lele
dam lele ghadi bhar, ye chhaiya paayega kahan
waha kaun hai tera
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Another of my close comrades, Ajay Singh, who passed away in 2020. This photo dates back to the late 1970’s
Ajay and me in April 1973, just after I emerged from the ‘underground’
Here are some more materials pertaining to my and my comrades’ personal experiences:
In Naxalbari, forty-eight years later
A Political Man: Memories of Ranajit Guha
Achintya Barua remembers Ranajit Guha
An Open Letter to the world on the Bangladesh crisis of 1971
Closing the Circle (Frontier, August 2012)
The Broken Middle (On the 30th anniversary of 1984)
A Brief History of the Sampradayikta Virodhi Andolan; Movement Against Communalism (1984-1993)
Naxalites should lay down their arms and challenge the ruling class to abide by the Constitution
Permanent Spring: Indian Maoism and the Philosophy of Insurrection
A WHITE LINE AND A MOSQUE (December 2000) (inspired by a visit to Wagah in 1989)
Baldev Singh Mann: My darling daughter! (1986)
Sarbpreet Singh: The Curious Connection Between Sikkim’s Lake Guru Dongmar & Guru Nanak
Seamus Heaney’s Advice to the Young. By Maria Popova
What I have learned (humans aged 6 to 92)
Of Bagpipes, Horses and Golden Orioles (2008)
Venue for a Speech on Tamas: A Chronicle of an Event That Should Never Have Happened
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After the truth-shower 