chidiya

कैसे फुदकती थी तुम अल्हड
पंखों को समेटे
नन्हे पैरों से टहनियों पर बैठे
कभी थोड़ा सा उड़े और कभी
पेड़ों के तनों को खटखटाती हुई
मेरे ध्यान को तुम बूँद बूँद बटोरती थी


क्या पेडो में कोई खज़ाना छिपा था
जो दिन भर उनका साथ नहीं तुमसे था छूटता ?
मैंने तो कई काट के देख लिए
पर वो तो बेजान से मायूस से
सड़क के किनारे को घेरे गिर जातें थे


कितनी सदियों से तुमने खेल खेले इनके साथ
कभी राज़ न बताया मुझे इनका
मेरा भी तो हक़ था इनपे
इतना ढूंढो न अब उनको तुम
आयो हीरों से जड़े सिहासन पर बैठायूं तुम्हें
तुम भी रहो मेरे संग सोने के पिंजरे में


अब तो चंद ही पेड़ों का साथ बचा है
अब तो मेरी गली का मुख करोगी ही तुम
फिर भूल जाओगी उन  हरे पत्तों को
जो बस गर्मी के ताप में हो जाते थे गुम


पर यह क्या ऐ नादाँ चिड़िया
तू अपने परों को क्यों त्याग रही है
अजब ज़िद है तुम्हारी
कराह के जो मुझसे यह कह रही है
इस आकाश में उड़ान कैसे भरूँ
जब बंजर हैं इसके नीचे की ज़मीन
अब कण नहीं है इसमें जीवन का बचा
आखिर डाली डाली फुदकने का नाम ही है ज़िन्दगी

Let me be in love

Let me be in love
So that...
When I stand alone in a desert
Lost in the dunes of relationships
I believe there will be an oasis
when you will be with me
When I am crowded with faces
I will feel your eyes looking for me


Let me be in love
So that...
As the night descends
and the stars sparkle
The moon beams and so will I be
I believe your eyes upon them
Will be smiling with glee
sparkling with the love for me


Let me be in love
So that...
When I am pushed to despair
I will clutch to hope
Fueled by your thoughts
As I stumble on failures
My heart will still be sated
with the wishes of love
showered on me


Let me be in love
So that...
This world will seem always colored
with infinite hues
otherwise impossible to see
Framing the picture of life
like an impossible perfect
With the shades of heaven
On earth are there I will believe
If I am in love...so let me be...

थोड़ी देर थमने की बात नही है साकी

तेरे दर पे मेरे माज़ी का है ठिकाना

चल तो दूंगा अपनी डगर पे फिर से

पर नशे में कमबख्त जिंदगी 

फिर छूट जाएगी मैखाने में

Many words have been written now for the past few years , mostly in the form of poetry and short prose. Thoughts have been poured looking for rhyming words constricted by the length of the poetry form. The pen has been active - lately more than ever. The place has been same, may be the same desk but the air has been different, I guess a bit more polluted more dusty certainly. New lines peeping on the dermis of  my face, call it experience, term it as age. It may not be the same though. Age doesn't ensure experience, after all our opposition leader is in his late forties!

Back to the changes since my last outpouring of thoughts on this blog a few years. There is a certainly a new addition apart from the all the kilograms gained - the shiny greys - those which would be in majority in the years to come. So, are they to be hidden under layers of burgundy and dark brown. Nah! I am definitely too lazy for that. The time spent could churn a few lines - I would value and remember that more. What if the mirror may not remain by friend for long. After all...

आईना आज भी देखे है गौर से..
जैसे फिर से पहचान मुझसे बनानी हो नयी
पूछता है नासमझ
वक़्त ने तुमको बदल दिया है
फिर आईना क्यों देखते हो तुम फिर वही...

I have never felt time to be so loud, banging my ear drums that it is passing by. The clocks are all silent though - but its the mind that hammers counting every second that slips by. Where was the counter when we are in out twenties? It was as if time would remain same forever and as if the mirror would see exactly the same face forever. And then one fine day for a decade or two - the hammering starts. Now you are busy trying to catch the moment a little too feverishly for comfort and then one fine day (I am sure of this!), the acceptance will dawn. The time will run past, but we have to be still, still so that we can feel life not bound by time. It's difficult but that feeling will come and the hammering will transform into humming. The mind will hum the music of life - and that will infact be niravana!!!

कमबख्त खवाइश इम्तेहान लेती है
 हर वक़्त
 मंजिल रूबरू हो चाहे
कदमों को खिंचती है ये दर बदर 

The cup

The cup hisses silently
I, on the sofa,
With my feet up, drawn...
Don't wanna move an inch
Till the sight of the next dawn

The sun had set long ago
Dinner's finished
Beds spread, Days done
But the evening ...
not wanting to go.... yet.

I whiff the familiar smell
Too known to ignore
It's just a few steps...
to the kitchen table,
next to the door

Fresh to my taste
May be the flavour which I like best
Or the one which I like a bit less
Too tempting to resist
It's time to arise, walk a few steps

But, seconds have passed,
The flavour may have left
Like the smell of just wet ground
Gone after a shower of rain,
Do I go the distance
May be all in vain ?

A few still moments
Then a familiar voice
Of footsteps....
And the cup
Of my favourite brew
As I grab for that sip
What more could I ask
Than a wish come true!

Summer sun

Steps hesitate
As the skin feels the wrath
The wrath of the sun
on the concrete path..

I try to fit in my shadow
Hoping for shade

Eyes squint,
As I wait on the street
For the cool of the bus
Dreaming of the back seat

A long road ahead
A few mirages teasing my patience
Gust of hot wind
Hurting with the summer fragrance

Drops of water on my forehead
get wasted as sweat
An overused handkerchief,
dying to be thrown
in that bucket of water back at my home

A pair of parched lips,
As I quiver with thirst
The last drop from my bottle
To my despair
escaping into the dust

Breathe in the hot air
filling my lungs
Burning fire inside me
Like the burning hot sun

Oh..I miss the trees
That once lined the street
Soft shades of different shapes
Like a mother's assuring embrace

They stayed beside me
As I enjoyed this street
Making me forget..
there was a summer sun indeed..

A summer sun indeed
Waiting to devour
Whatever walked in this heat!!!!