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.