colors of the wind

रंगों के हम हो लिए संग 
रंगों से ही है मेरा जंग 
रंग बिखेरना चाहूँ मैं 
चाहे फिर वोह हो बेरंग

I’d look and wait for you everywhere,
Never to be found;
And then I’d smile my silly head
Thinking I was wrong

There were promises and signs
Singing me a song,
Taking me by my hands
Telling me that you’ll be around

But neither did I find
Nor my eyes tired grew -
Seeking you somewhere ..
.. somewhere that I knew

Then came a day
when colors rose
and sitting by my side
you struck a pose

You held my hand
and I heard the song
the song I knew
that wasn’t wrong

I knew you’d come,
I knew I’d exist,
come fill my soul,
let it not cease

Lie here with me
every twilight;
embolden me
my precious knight

पन्नों में मिला उनका साया
पन्ने के शब्द ही हैं हम साया
खो कर भी है मैंने सब कुछ पाया
जो पाना कभी न चाहा पर है खोया

Numbers have a lot of power. Places, somewhat. But a person lasts an eternity . . .

500 years later I might see you again. It will be a distinct fragrance that will make me take notice of you. Labyrinths of your scent will have me enthralled. And when I fix my eyes upon yours it will all be transformed.

I shall find myself once against in those cosmos where two strangers meet, consummate and part ways as strangers again. It would be akin to a trip down a Lazarus pit – consuming me and at the same time filling me all over again. I shall see myself caught in a storm with a strange sense of both loss and gain. But in the end I shall realise that your feelings for me are like the flowing river – something I would have known all along yet failed to have been impressed by. I shall have thus relived in a flash what would seem like a life time.

And with your eyes still fixed upon mine, now turning into a disapproving stern gaze, I shall gently smile the warmest of smiles I would have smiled in ages. I will not remind you of fires that I would have burnt for you, for it won’t be necessary. I will have no words for you. I will hold that gaze awhile one last time and then walk away knowing that it is the best thing I will have ever done.

After many years, they say, the serpent rose from the sands that glowed. Slithering away in desert sands, with nothing in sight to cause a flinch, the serpent was free to roam and learn.

Whereupon once entering civilization, the serpent was chased away mercilessly with sticks and stones, was jeered at, called names and made to fear. The serpent who had never known such inconvenience or unhappiness came about to live in fear, feeling trapped all the time. In desperate attempts to find a way out, the serpent resorted to self-imposed isolation and made it a way of life.

Once in a while the serpent would chance upon a willing child who would appreciate his beauty and wit and think of him as somebody magical and capable of great powers. Such kismet meetings transformed the serpent – he started learning again about the world around him and began to take great joy and pride in his being. The serpent had found himself again.

One day the serpent came across a child who exclaimed in joy to see him like the many children he had met by now. The serpent looked the child into his eyes. Suddenly the child yielded a huge belt and rushed forward to lash at the serpent. Faced with such premonition, the serpent attacked the child and bit him. The child let out a cry of pain and ran away. The incident left the serpent hurt and a bit wary of children; but he had learnt to be aggressive when necessary. He quietly slithered away to go on learning many more things about the world around him.

If you should chance upon the serpent today, be assured that he is a gentle creature. Only if your heart is pure would you be able to appreciate him, only if your mind is free from biases will you be able to befriend him.

I looked up at the night sky. Dark, tranquil and a lone star I saw. I blinked at it teary-eyed and it twinkled back at me. I knew.

कहीं उस पौधे के पत्तों से
उनके पल्लू की याद

कहीं उस नाम से
बीतें पल्हों की मल्हार

कहीं आंसुओं से उन रंगों की याद
जिन्हें मैं समेत नहीं पायी कभी

उस हाथ ने दिए लाखों क्षण भरे बेमिसाल प्यार
उस हाथ के सहारे, बेफिक्र चलने की याद ..

उस हाथ के सहारे, बेफिक्र चलने की वो याद

They never believed me and they never will.
They never listened to me and they never will.
They never had faith in me and they never will.

What then was that deafening vacuum years ago ?

What is this smile of enlightenment I now wear ?

Just an invisible fay, am I ?

कहाँ गए वोह रंग, कहाँ गए वोह ढंग,
कहाँ गए वोह दिन, वोह रातें, वोह मीठी तन्हाई,
कहाँ छिपी है वोह, कहाँ मिलेगी फिर,
कहाँ गया वोह दिल, कहाँ वोह चाहतें …
कहाँ, ए मासूम, कहाँ ?

A Scuttle,
Hey Stop !
Oh maybe ..
it was not

But something seems not right
They’ve set the edifice alight !
When all’s seemingly quiet
I gather up my might

I know they do not see me
That’s how I intend it to be
So that I swoop down sudden
Bamboozle the one’s gun laden

Quick lightning like I strike
they give up without a strife
My friend around the corner
knows then that we’ve got warmer

Then warmth of joy and soil
I disappear in style
For all when ends alright
I know I am the Night