On Poetry

A true poem has no meaning. It is only a feeling which connects one seamlessly to self and others. Words only contour inexpressible sentiments.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Grand Hollowness

What they learn and know

Makes gigantic architecture 

Having perfect arches and beams of logic 

Intricate carvings of flawless wordsmithery 

But lo and behold 

It covers only a grand hollowness

Offering no shelter

No solace either

No place for rest and recreation 

Their design is to leave you 

Awestruck and bewildered 

The tragedy is that you visit them eagerly  

Is it that hollowness within you seeks assurance 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Living and Reliving Reality

A piece of news is there due to its newsworthiness, and the shock value of news makes it more so. The greater possibility is that the reported happenings may not be the trend or representative of the larger reality. On the other end, strangely, something that is just an event of a very quotidian type gets flashed and even that shocks people. Why does this happen? The reason is that specific trends and practices people tend to overlook or do not take notice of because these are so routine, and when these come under abrupt media focus, all those who are aware of the trend and even part of it get shocked to discover it to be a shocking matter. Living reality and reliving reality reported are different cognitive phenomena.  

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Laissez Faire: the Substance of Democracy

 It is capitalism that loosens close-knit communities letting their members recognise and exercise their individuality. Further, an individual discovers his or her person and owns that. People do not know or ignore the simple fact that democracy is a byproduct of capitalism. Chinese collectivists deployed captive capitalism to build a massively productive economy but now it is difficult to keep the mechanism captive. Capitalism inevitably casts subjects into human beings, who in turn tend to remake the society into a republican order. 

Self-respecting people consent only to a republican democracy. They should know that the processes and procedures that they see as democracy are only processes and procedures of democracy, not democracy itself.  The sustaining substance of and for democracy is capitalism. People in businesses serving each other devise means that transform into the republican regime. Any knowing democrat would always seek the maximisation of laissez-faire. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

Globalism v. Internationalism

Nations, I think, would never succeed in designing globalisation, though I believe it would be the default destination of human evolution. A nation propagates the dismantling of barriers only when it has an edge versus the rest in competitiveness. Moreover, a powerful nation may disregard fairness in honouring intellectual rights and trade norms with impunity. Though one can propagate democracy in international relations theoretically or rhetorically, it is not feasible practically. A nation can only ensure its interests through good economic policy domestically and by entering layered bilateral pacts and multilateral arrangements. There is only limited scope for globalisation in the world though it should be promoted; nations can only have better internationalism suiting their national interests as well as global good. Globalisation needs goodwill which interstate interfaces hardly generate, whereas internationalism needs tacts, which every country deploys. If they skillfully act in pursuing their own good, they would be promoting internationalism and thus globalism incrementally. If most nations act rationally, it would become the operating logarithm of the world, without which no country be able to carry out its international business. The problem is that those countries that fail domestically also fail the fair global order. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Historiography Shock

Among others, one purpose of historiography is to pave the passage of the future. It is always the future that poses the most critical challenge to humanity, a community, or a person. In this respect, knowledge of the past is a vital resource. It depends on the wisdom of people to use the past and move ahead well-equipped to suitably shape the future or let other people use the past to control them to their whims and fancies. The colonial historians did exactly the latter. India has yet to recover from that historiography shock. We are still far away from acting in unison to ensure that each of us can work to our best for the good of ourselves, our nation, and humanity.

Niraj Kumar Jha

हमारा सत्य

सत्य कोई परम सूत्र नहीं; 
नहीं यह कोई अबूझ रहस्य।  
यह यात्रा नहीं, 
गंतव्य भी नहीं।
यह प्रयोग नहीं, 
यह आविष्कार भी नहीं है। 
सत्य सतत सत्प्रयास है; 
संवेदना से युक्त क्रियाकलाप है।  
सहानुभूति का भाव है; 
स्वानुभूति की क्षमता है।  
यह क्रूरों का प्रतिकार है;
दुष्टों का उपचार है।  
यह सीमितताओं को चुनौती है; 
संभावनाओं के प्रति  सकारात्मकता है। 
सत्य हमारा अस्तित्व है; 

हर क्षण और कण इसकी धुरी है। 
सच हमारा प्रतिदिन का जीवन है।  

जीवन विजयी, सत्य जयी है। 

नीरज कुमार झा