The pond

 

I sit near a pond with a drenched brow

The drops that wash the sins away of believers

Throngs line up for miles with chants

Purged once they return after a holy dip

Till when the water is tinged with the residue

The sediments of acknowledged vice

Whereas I defy my chasing soul

With a stout denial of deliberate errors

My waters evaporate to leave the pond

Replete with filth of practical wisdom

Like a beast burdened with bridled salt

When the flow in vicinity could offload

The salt now silts the drenched brow

The tributary to a dried up pond

Where the coagulated sins bask.

Enroute Lucknow

2352

12.56 hrs

13.5.26

The re-aging

 

The sparkle of astonished soul

Enchanted at the unfolding life 

In quest of another opportunity 

To the virtue within,gets doused.

A sense of déjà vu staggers 

The mystical journey in woods

The groping and staggering in deep

Where intertwined foliage blinds

The piercing rays of blazing sun

One dares not stare into the sky

And unable to find a way within

Clasping at slithering support 

With limbs slimy in profuse perspiration 

The fangs of venomous sympathy 

That sting with a smile in the dark

Disenchanted by this blow of succour 

The puerile self fails again

Forged repeatedly by the reality 

The brittle child is smashed and buried

Till when everytime we peep within

The mirror wears a different mask

When things mean us and we the things

Where is the in-valuable ‘I’ in the re-aging?

Delhi

2351

12.30 hrs

13.5.26

चक्रवात

  

तूफ़ान में उफाँ भरता, मंद वायु में जान भरता 

प्रचंड वेग से अखंड मेघ लाता है चक्रवात

जलद का टकराना समीरण का चकराना 

परस्पर भेद का अश्वमेध कराता है चक्रवात 

निर्भीक गज- अबाध और सर्वदा अग्रज 

समर उपरान्त खेद व्योम में छेद करता है चक्रवात 

कोप की वृष्टी, बिखरी हुई सृष्टि 

भंगुर मेघ में रजत रेघ, भरता है चक्रवात

 गहराइयों को अपनी मुस्कराहट के पीछे समेटती हुई, 

वह किनारे के सहारे उम्मीद में एक बार फिर आयी,

थोड़ी शाम हुई तो उसकी उलझन कुछ और बढ़ी 

रात होते होते वह शोर मचाती हुई अपनी परछाई के पार 

पद चिन्ह ढूंढती हुई उफान में अपनी सफ़ेद पड़ती बाँहों को,

फैला कर एक बार फिर अपने अंगूठी पर सजे बुलबुलों को 

पत्थर और मिट्टी में तोड़कर आसमां में चीखी माँ.

 ये जो काली यादों में मेरे अश्क़ रिस्ते हैँ 

अलफ़ाज़ों में घुले दर्द किसको दिखते हैँ

स्याही में कभी अश्क़ उभर कर छलक़ जाता है 

कहते हैँ लोग कोयले में हीरा चमक जाता है

The old strap

 

The time with a scratched old strap

Often slips down his wrinkled wrist

As he recalls the same events decades later

Everytime there is a similar stimulus

For the past still surrounds his cage of bed

Warding off new events as they fail to trespass 

The sheath of wonted memories and emotion

Still vivid in the canvas of unreceptive mind

The meadow still sprouts tender life within the wood

The sap runs deep and spirals to the shedding bits

Often he gets hurt after a fall somewhere

But continues to stretch with the same zest

Forgetting that he branches are no more 

 Turgid with flesh to bear new fruit.

Sometimes there is the old chirp

That flaps back to the deserted nest

To dangle upon the woody twigs again

He smiles and pulls up the old strap again

To tick on his swollen wrist and fading pulse

The siren of an ebbing dusk on a grey shore.

Enroute Dehradun 

2350

6.5.26

15.57 hrs

The control

 

The vagabond breeze fills life

In the wayward waves of sea

While we tend to control the thrill

By dipping our palms in their design

The sea listened with a trumpet 

At the wonted shrill pitch of mahout

Today the tides break the fetters

That bind it to a frivolous shore

And crashes into the darkening woods

The mutiny of the unpaid loyalty, though,

Footprints camouflaged in another type

The tusk prods into the lush foliage

Unmindful of the shrill threatening pitch

The farm of cane is parched presently

But it holds promise of cherished fruit

While the clouds strike silver lines 

Into the greying noon in the day

Dumb, deaf and immobilized in the sludge

The beast of a disgruntled mind.

Mumbai 

01.12 hrs

2349

5.5.26