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.
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 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
A speck of vapor swirls upon douzed embers
While a flame had once crackled beside
The constricted bend that splattered
The truant drops from a gushing brook
But now they overhang the lively vale
Pent up within the grey strands in sky
Their breath swoops to caress the ashes
That smoulder upon a demised pyre
Lit once along a brook that splattered
On the flame of life somewhere within
The conflict ends with no side to rejoice
Though sometimes the thoughts precipitate
The drops descend not in the gushing brook
But in the vale to ooze out now and then
Amidst the constricted bends of sight.
Enroute Mumbai
2347
4.5.26
19.30 hrs
There are treasures that entice dreams
By their resplendent sparkle that winks
Often to add glitter to an ever eager flow
The gush to fall from gorges to the delta
That ends with a poise of strangulation
By the closed clutch of accumulated silt
Drowning only to find the cherished jewel.
Amidst this paradox of the twirling path
Where the origin and destination mingle
For the grave swings and cradle is buried
When the courage finds a crevice to sprout
The search that confounds the determined mind
Is to find the destination to commence.
4.5.26
Enroute Mumbai
2346
18.21 hrs
The fleeting moment gasps
Like an over galloped horse
The infinite benevolence
With an incessant pouring
Has left no margin for breath
To resonate within the emptiness
To recline in the nothingness
For the flow is always beyond brim
The canvas is heavy throughout
With the coagulation of myriad hues
That often it feels black within
Whereas the culmination of shades
Garnered in the pallet of eventful life
Should have had incandescent strokes
While the specks that sprinkle down
From the cascade of overflowing cup
Mirror stars to twinkle with a prank
Recline and enjoy their night in dark
With a deep breath in nothingness.
Enroute Mumbai
2348
20.00 hrs
4.5.26
