NOTE: IF you don't read Hindi, then please scroll down to English translation of this note
पानी की कुछ बूंदों से गीला हो जाता है थोड़ी सी हवा चली तो उड़ जाता है एक छोटी सी चिंगारी उसे भस्म कर देती है, कागज़ की कोई हैसियत नहीं कि वह किसी का भी सामना कर सके. कागज़ शायद दुनिया की सबसे कमज़ोर चीज़ो में शुमार हो सके. कागज़ की कोई हस्ती नहीँ.
जन्म से पहले हस्पताल में किसी कागज़ पे इक तारीख़ लिखी जाती है. फिर जब बच्चे का जन्म होता है, उसके होने का प्रमाण उसकी माँ या पिता की ख़ुशी नहीँ, उसकी चलती साँसे भी नहीँ बल्कि इक कागज़, जिसे जन्म प्रमाण पत्र या अंग्रेजी में बर्थ सर्टिफिकेट ( Birth Certificate) कहते है. अब बच्चे को पढ़ना है तो पाठशाला में यह प्रमाण पत्र चाहिए, जीता जागता, बात करता बच्चा नहीँ तो कैसे प्रमाणित करे कि वो है. साथ में लगता है टीकाकरण का प्रमाण कि आपका बच्चा तंदुरुस्त है.
इसी तरह दसवीं, बारहवीं कक्षा का परिणाम, कुछ कागज़ और. फिर और भी ज़रूरी राशन कार्ड, पासपोर्ट, आधार या ऐसा ही कुछ, कागज़ो का ढेर बटोरने में दिनों, महीनो सालों लग जाते हैं. फिर आप नौकरी करें या व्यापार, उन्हें करने के लिए कितने ही कागज़ लगते है, और उन से होने वाली कमाई के नोट भी कागज़ हैँ. यह रंग बिरंगे कागज़ हाथ में आये तो लगता है बाकी कागज़ों ने अपना काम ठीक से कर दिया.
PAPERS
It gets wet by a few drops of water, it flies away when a
little wind blows, a small spark burns it to ashes, paper has no capacity to
withstand anything. Paper may perhaps be counted among the weakest things in
the world. Paper in physical sense is almost powerless.
Our whole life is based on the foundation of that ‘physically
powerless’ paper. Our life revolves around making papers, earning papers,
spending papers, collecting papers, hiding papers, showing papers and then we
remain just as a name in some papers.
Before birth, a date is written on a paper in the hospital. Then when a child is born, the proof of her/his existence is not the happiness of the mother or father, not even child’s own breath or beating heart, but a paper, which is called the Birth Certificate.
Now, if a child wants to study then this certificate is
required in the school. A living breathing, talking and playing child is not
proof enough that he exists, but the paper called Birth Certificate is. Along
with this, vaccination information seems to be the proof that your child is
healthy, yet more papers.
Every year that child brings home a paper called Report
Card, only then one is sure that he has learned something, report card is the only
proof of learning. When your child plays or sings, participates in essay
competitions or any other competition, more papers are found which you save,
"these will be useful eventually," you tell yourself. And perhaps they
do come in handy one day.
Similarly, results of class 10th, 12th, some more papers. Then it takes days, months even years to collect the other important documents like voter card, passport, social security card or anything like that. Whether you do a job or a business, so many papers are required to do them, and then the currency notes of what you have earned doing that work are also paper. When these green colored papers come into hand, it seems that the rest of the papers have done their job properly.
While collecting papers, if health gets affected, papers of
doctor's prescription, papers as reports of tests done, papers in form of
request for leave from office, this race of papers keeps going on.
You get married in front of the entire family with a priest
as witness, but to prove it, the marriage certificate will be required, yet another
paper.
After collecting all the papers, earning, spending,
maintaining them, one day when one runs out of breath, your family needs to prove
to the world that you have left the mortal world, but for that, a death
certificate will be required, one more paper. In reality, if anything matters
from before birth till past death, it is just a paper.
Paper that gets wet by a few drops of water, it flies away
when a little wind blows, a small spark burns it to ashes, paper has no
capacity to withstand anything. Paper may perhaps be counted among the weakest
things in the world. Paper in physical sense is almost powerless.
Our whole life is based on the foundation of that ‘physically
powerless’ paper. Our life revolves around making papers, earning papers,
spending papers, collecting papers, hiding papers, showing papers and then we
remain just as a name in some papers.
