सोचता हूँ एक दिन ऐसा भी होगा...

सोचता हूँ एक दिन ऐसा भी होगा
खुद से मैं कह सकूँगा डूबती सी यादों में
अब न इंतजार, न मंजिल की तलाश
ज़िन्दगी गूंजती है कायनातों में...

मेरी बालकनी के नीचे से... हर साल एक कारवां गज़र जाता है

मेरी बालकनी के नीचे से
हर साल एक कारवां गज़र जाता है...

चहकती हंसी, उम्मीदों भरी बातें
थिरकते पैरों में बनती कई यादें
जो ज़िन्दगी भर इन मुसाफिर को
हंसांएगी, रुलायेंगी - कुछ बातें, कुछ यादें...

...

सोचता हूँ, इक दिन मिलूं तो पूछूँगा
कहाँ किया है दफ्न सपनों को
ये पत्थरों का शहर कैसा है
जहाँ  शीशे में सब बंध जाता है..

तुम्हारी अपनी दास्ताँ भले ही सही
ग़र बता दो कि ये  कैसे किया
रूह से फैसला वो ख्वाबों का
जो उभरने से पहले बीत गए...

ये दास्ताँ भले तुम्हारी है
मगर...
मेरी बालकनी के नीचे से
हर साल एक कारवां गज़र जाता है...

...for these handful of dreams

When you told me
without knowing
that…
there is no home!
…not for me.

I looked at you
trying to read your eyes....
They were sincere
understanding
and frank…

I was not surprised.

I had this feeling

…that
Home is a myth
created by the frightened cavemen…
…that
it is the ideology of
of the lost traveller…
…that it is the dream
of a crippled child….

And I had also known…
…that a part of me
is frightened, crippled and lost…

maybe...
I need a home more than you…
maybe...
I can also afford not to need it…

So
let us, my dream,
face together
this dreamless world…

...even if,
to face it
I have to crush my dreams…

Maybe
it is for these handful of dreams
that
I want to defy the world.

- Sept 29th, 1976 (Lucknow/ Kanpur)

life's dangling legs,...in the dark silent valley

This was scribbled some quarter of a century back, when I was going through my own process of becoming "twice-born"/ द्विज

I survived - and grew as a person!
--------------

Even though I'd like to live
and walk a man in search of sun;
and pass through blossoming apple orchards,
with a song of love and joy in eyes...

And ride the clouds to touch the rainbows,
and write poems on the sands of river banks.

I'd like to listen to the birds of life
and kiss the lips of opening buds
and dance with the whithered autumn leaves
on the music of the breezy winds...

BUT on my shoulder
is a mourning vision:
Life's Dangling Legs
in the Dark Silent Valley

- 11-12/06/86 (ISABS/Jaipur)