Socha Naa Tha...

Guzre jo haseen lamhe the saath tere
woh dhoop aur woh barish ke lamhe
socha na tha kabhi teri bheegi hasee ko taras jayenge
aur socha na tha rango se un lamho ko
kore kagaj par kaid karne ki koshish mein
girte aansun se woh tasveer bigad jaegi

chup jata hai jab chand us badal mein
woh khuli aankhein aur tanha raat ka akelapan
socha na tha khulein balon ko tere phir na chu payenge
aur socha na tha un balon ki khusboo ko
foolon mein dhundhane ki koshish mein
hum sara aasheeya hi ujad denge

ladte hai jo do yaar kahin bazaar mein
woh aashiqi mein ghula zara sa pagalpan
socha na tha tere nakhron par phir muskura na payenge
aur socha na tha sirf usi dupatte ki aad mein
woh naya jahan banane ki zid mein
hum kisi aur se ishq na lada payenge

us reshmi jism ki narmi aur garmahat
woh bhare jawa badan par maheen tang libaaz
socha na tha in sard raaton mein haq phir na jata payenge
aur socha na ki har lamha tadap kar
tumhe apne sapno mein lane ki koshish mein
hum sari zindagi kabhi so hi na payenge 

©Rakesh 2012

"Google instincts across the LoC, 2011: Sex, Shahrukh, Cricket and Kashmir"

If any of the above words in the headline brought you here, high probability that you’re either an Indian or a Paki. This is what, at least, Google Trends data of 2011 corroborate. No matter how much we hate each other, some threads run common among us; it’s the same blood running in our veins. Indo-Pak cities top the charts when it comes to Google-ing ‘Sex’, ‘Shahrukh’, ‘Cricket’ and of course, ‘Kashmir’. Our brothers across the fence beat us in each of it, but there are some other surprising revelations too. Have a look:

Sex:  While other three search queries have fairly obvious chartbusters, this was an unexpected but a pleasant surprise for unlike others, sex unites. Also, an unreliable randomly sampled quick scan of online user created data showed a clear preference for Paki males and females over their Indian counterparts. While an average Paki male is hailed for his virility, a Paki female score for her…well, I really didn’t get it.

So much we share our curiosity for sex that seven Indian and one Paki city feature in the top ten global cities which queried for ‘sex’, substantiating that Kamasutra was not just a fluke. The chart is topped by Colombo though. Delhi, unexpectedly is ranked far behind at fifth. The surprising entries here are the culturally reserved cities of Calcutta, Lahore and Hyderabad.  Basic instincts do come out, some or other way.

Among regions, the brothers stand neck to neck with Pakistan ranked second, closely followed by India at third.  The list surprisingly is topped by, our sub-continental cousin, Sri Lanka. 

 

 

Shahrukh: We all know the rage Hindi Cinema is in Pakistan. Who better than our global superstar Shahrukh can represent Bollywood across the globe? Apparently, the top four cities which queried for Shahrukh the most comes from Pakistan. This is not surprising given the overdose of Shahrukh, Indians had in the past year. But still there are five Indian cities, where they could not get enough of Shahrukh offline, in the top ten. This surprisingly does not feature Delhi, which is said to be his own territory.  Tier-II cities like Indore and Ahmedabad and laid-back cities like Kochi made their marks too.

 

Cricket: With the quadrennial Cricket World Cup hosted in the sub-continent this time and India finally winning it after twenty-eight years, it was hardly a surprise that maximum Google queries for ‘cricket’ came from the sub-continent cric-rivals: India and Pakistan. The semi-final among the arch-rivals was nothing short of a war-battle. Eight Indian cities and two Paki cities combinedly clean-sweep the list.  Another surprise is the number of tier-II cities like Indore and Jaipur making it high in the list.

Kashmir:  The bone of contention and a powerful political tool, which has made the lives of natives a misery; it seems that no one across the borders really cares about the region beyond territorial claims; of course, if Google Trends data are to be believed. Over ninety per cent of Google queries for Kashmir came from the regional-capital of Srinagar; other very few from the border towns.