And we open the gate

   “There is a painting on my table
Nicholas Roerich –by name
Its name -and we open the gate
Which gate? Eastern or western?
Or the southern gate to Hell?”
Debakanta Baruah

The great disadvantage of so called addabaz witty image is that it is hard to maintain. And gradually you begin to transform in to a great pseudo while maintaining it.
If you are not a celebrity and tend to bring art or poetry as adda topic –most of your friend will start booing, yawning, and yelling at you. Anyway there are hundreds of other of topics for the gossip (scandals, mms, Bollywood, Hollywood cricket or may be political sicussion as an serious alternative),There is no dearth of topic for our addas day in or out.

But our existence is dichotomous ….thats why word and philosophy of ‘paradox’ , ‘bigotry’, ‘conflicts’ keeps recurring in my thoughts ,hence many time in my blog also. May be that is the reason why poetry above (originally in Assamese) has kept ringing in my ear over the years. But in my mask I hate people who coats sugar coated poetry line in day to day affair.I have read the poem long long back ,and at that time I was of the believe that Nicholas Roerich is name of a painting ,when internet spread I got to know that it’s a painting but the painter of ‘And we open the Gate’ which was the title of famous poetry written in Assamese about five decade back by Debakanta Baruah, and the word hunted me for nearly two decade .Thanks to Google I kept searching for Mr. Nicholas and got fascinated by his work and life.
Nicholas Roerich -Born in Russia died in India, a great visionary painter and a true citizen of world.Call it destiny or other last Sunday I was in Delhi for a scientific conference –and early morning Times of India carried a big advertisement - Nicholas Roerich : An Eternal Quest" photography exhibition at National Gallery of Modern Art ( NGMA ). As usual dullness of my scientific conference increased as it proceeded, I sneaked out –and loitered in the gullies of national gallery of Modern art, Delhi. There were series of painting on Himalayas, on mythology, Russia and of eastern Horizon.
I went through the leaflets –at one corner I saw the lines –and we open the gate through its proximal bluish hue and distal bright light- the painting itself. The painting I was looking for so long.
And we open the gate
Which one?
To Nicholas Roerich the painter, To Debakanta Baruah the poet, to the art critique, to art and poetry lover?
To me it was all about breaking the shackles of routine called life and confessing to friends that I have this habbit of sneaking out of my regular life and open the gate to take solace in art and poetry.
That’s escapism they started yelling.
‘Yes no it’s all about opening the door ’I replied back.

N.b: The paradox : One person approached me last night and started giving lecture on importance of spirituality in life felt like puking . I asked myself –Is it easy to open the door against people whom you don’t approve of.

believe

One of my greatest regret of my life is not to be present on Woodstock festival-1969 .The 3 days of ecstasy filled peace love and music. May be the festival didn’t proved any point .It doesn’t matter- But it was a congregation of thousands of people –who believed we can change the world through music. Those believe are very important, which we seem to be lacking in modern lifestyle infested world.

I believe I cant change anything-not to speak of society or any big stuff ,I can not even extract a smile in return many time.

Last Sunday I had to come-back from Delhi to Dehradun, My workplace. It is only 240 km .To my surprise there was no train reservation, no bus, No shared taxi and there were hundreds of people waiting en route to Haridwar.For the Shahi Snan of MAHA KUMBH on Monday.

Boy boy!

From Delhi ISBT ,I took, Auto, rikswa ,indica, Santro to reach my place at a 100 time cost and in triple amount of time after midnight. I felt like I am en route to Woodstock -1969. Business was at its peak. All I had to do was reach for the Shahi snan and have a dubki to wash off all my sins.(there may be too many to my credit).I didn't do that May be I don't believe in all those.And in all these these three month of Maha Kimbh HAR Ki PAURI is only 50 KM from my place ,but I was not there .

But there were people who still have the believe.

These believe -I think may be important to live.