Between the instant
When you fall from the sky,
And the one
When you cover the dry,
There's one
When you cross my eyes.
Which I wish would never pass by.
Rain|Balcony|Chai.

Journey

Some journeys are undertaken for business. There are many that are done for leisure, and then there are few that are done for love of some form. These ends that we set out for, are sometimes realized, and we return feeling victorious, having got what we desired. There are other times, when we return having lost everything, or at least more than we intended to anyway. But I have come to believe, through my travels, that irrespective of the ends, each journey imparts us something that we didn't know we wanted in the first place. I do not have a word for it. Closest I could think of is mileage. But this is probably why each journey is an end in itself. And this is probably why, I am not inclined to live a life where traveling augments staying; but instead one in which staying augments traveling.

Coding by the sill on a lonely evening

Whose codes these are I think I know,
They have been dead for a while though;
They will certainly not mind me throwing
Their sub-routines out of the window.

My computer must think it queer,
To attempt this task without fear,
Between a rock and a hard place,
The longest evening of the year.

I give the compiler a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
Tired itself, it responds in a ages,
Several warnings and error messages.

The bed is lovely, warm and crêpe,
But I have deadlines to keep,
And files to code before I sleep,
And files to code before I sleep.


(with apologies to Robert Frost)

Happy Birthday.

There's no price in cash or gold,
Of all our years bought and sold,
As we celebrate the feeling,
Of staying young and growing old.

क़ाफ़िला

आज फिर चला शब्दों का एक क़ाफ़िला.
अनजानी किसी जगह से,
आया दिल की ओर.
कागज़ की तरफ किया रुख़
और बन गया स्याही की डोर.

क्या पता

यूँ दर्द की गहराईयों में उतरने से ना रोक ...
क्या पता इनमे डूब के ही अपने आप को पा लूं..

In the end.

...And at the end of it all,
When the curtains fall,
Maybe I'll have no love and no glory,
But I'll have my own story.

राज़

दोस्त, नया कोई राज़ बता.

ज़िन्दगी की अफरा-तफरी में,
खोई हुई दिल की आवाज़ बता.

इन अनकही उलझनों को,
संग पिरोने वाले अलफ़ाज़ बता.

जिस छत की देहली से,
खुले आसमाँ तले,
पर फैलाये आज़ाद परिंदे,
लेते थे परवाज़ बता.

दोस्त, नया कोई राज़ बता.

Happy Valentine's Day.

To those filled with laughter,
Living happily in the ever after,

To those hung up on each other,
Or those who never bother,

To those who have loved and lost,
Those who had it all, but almost,

To those stuck in the gridlocks,
And those not yet off the blocks,

To those who are on someone's mind,
And the someones who are left behind,

To those who crashed and burned,
To those who lived and learned,

To everyone in this strife,
I raise a toast, for love and life.

The invisible force

Why do you deny so hard,
this invisible force between you and me ?
Have you never heard,
of electromagnetism or gravity ?

Too much, too little.

Too much has been said,
about life, this adversary.
Too little has been done,
to make it simple as it should be.

With what we got

With what we got we must thrive.
With all we got we must strive.

Words

Once again, I collected,
A bucket-full of words to spell you grace.
Once again, you came,
And they spilled all over the place.

Past, Present, and Future.

You ask me to live in the present ?
Pray, tell me how ?
Or at least tell me, when really is it ?
Is it now ? Or now ? Or now ?

What about the past ?
Whether the fond memories of what I've seen,
or the disappointment of what could've been,
It never lies to me,
It always stands by the side of me.

What about the future ?
Abuzz with possibilities unbound,
Where things are not lost, but only found,
I could be anyone I want,
Think of all the wishes I could grant !

----

Kid, I understand your dismay.
But you must look at it this way:
The past that you're so fond of,
And the future that is so potent,
Was once, and will be some day,
the present.

Broke

Sir, you are tough indeed.

In the face of the tide,
You surf the waves far and wide.

In the palms of death,
You show no fear.
In the qualms of life,
You don't shed a tear.

But in your moments of despair,
(Albeit thin and rare),
Beneath the unwavering flair,
I see your scars.
I see how broke you are.

क़त्ल-ए-आम

नज़रों से जो येह क़त्ल-ए-आम ढाते हो,
बिना तर्कश के इतने तीर कैसे चलाते हो ?