New Year Resolutions!

Laugh more, worry less
Trust more, doubt less
Do more, ponder less

Paint more, imagine less
Write more, think less
Create more, wonder less

Hope more, fear less

Be happy with me
Learn to live free

It's the same list all over again
My new year isn't so new then!

Fact, Fiction

I hear your footsteps
or maybe I am dreaming
or still hoping

The life we had
I can see it slipping away
I can see it
in the silence of a helpless father
in the coldness of a broken mother

I lie on your bed sometimes
to take in your smell
or what is left of it
to help me sleep

Fact is real
but fact is cruel
Fact is you are gone
So I am in love with fiction

It's the only way I know
to live without you
To write you into my life
till I run out of words

Prisoner

The disappearing light
The shadows take over
The day is ending


I look at you smiling
in a faded photograph
I am lost again


Prisoner of the past
learning to let go.. but
Hope dies slow

Dewdrops

I nestled in your arms
curled up like a young leaf
before the dawn

The night was cold
Your breath kept me warm
before I froze

in the morning mist
waiting for the sunlight
to shine on me

Soon the Sun rose
and my smile sparkled
just for a while

then I melted away
and was lost forever
like the dewdrops

in a cold Winter morning
leaving a cold sigh
of warm smoke

in your lips
calling out my name
but all in vain

The Haze And The Blossom

The haze was suppose to lift - but it stayed on
like an uninvited guest.. for days on end

Then one day, without warning -
cleared altogether, when one had gone
accustomed to it.

The denial had turned to acceptance when
familiarity bred compassion..

Now it's denial again, a failure to accept,
the familiar is a stranger again!

The flowers which never
bloomed in the sunshine
but blossomed in the haze
now show signs of dying
with each passing sunny day

When your existence
becomes dependent
on something beyond your control,
wherein lies the blame for the life
which withered away?

The haze which couldn't stay?
Or the sun which now returns?

Or did the flowers deserve their fate
for loving the traveling haze?

Maybe it was meant to be...
a love which blossomed and died...
a love which could never last..

Except for in folk-tales
or in legends hearsay told

of a rare blossom,
one in hundred generations could witness,
nurtured
in an untimely,
uninvited haze

My Slow Dance...

Years fall apart..
Walls come undone..
Clumsy feet trying to recall
the rhythm of yesterday..
when we knew how to dance
like the world didn't exist..

I traveled around.. roamed the world..
was lost and found.
You were there somewhere..
with your worries and care..

Rooms of conversations, of passionate exchanges,
remained unopened all through the years

Under the night sky,
the past singing in blues
and the present standing still..
We found the key,
if just for a while,
to the room we left behind.

Different destinies
collide for a moment
and soon will depart..

But for now,
here's my little chance,
perhaps my only,
to have my slow dance
with you.

तेरे बगैर.. माँ

कई सिरहाने बदले है मैंने
पर वो सुकून कही मिला नहीं
जो तेरे गोद में सर रख कर
सोने से मिलता था, माँ

देखते है, सुनते है
अंगिनत किस्से-कहानियाँ
उनपर मगर अब यक़ीन कम होता है
वो बचपन की तेरी एक राजा और
एक रानी की कहानी
अब भी सच्ची लगती है, माँ

डर जाता हूँ, मैं सहम जाता हूँ
जब भी बुरा सपना कोई
आँखों को ढूंढ़ लेता है
तू दौड़ के आएगी सहलाने मुझे
पल भर को ये उम्मीद रहता है, माँ

कई बार की है कोशिश लेकिन
चुटकियों से मात खा जाता हूँ
मीठे का मिठास, नमकीन का नमक
अंदाजों में घुल जाते है
जुबां पर अब भी ठहरा है मेरे
वो स्वाद तेरे हाथों का, माँ

दिल को बहलाने के बहाने कई है
मगर ऐसा कोई मिला नहीं
जो तेरी तरह तेरी कमी को मिटा सके
जैसे टूटे खिलौनों के रोने पर
तेरे एक छूने से
मेरी हँसी जुड़ जाती थी, माँ

ऐसा कभी सोचा ही नहीं था
तेरे बिना भी कोई ज़िन्दगी होगी
ये और बात है की
तेरे बगैर मैं अब
जी रहा हूँ, माँ

Diwali No More

Banana trees standing guard..
Lighted lamps glowing in the dark..
Smiles and laughter
Happiness and cheer

Under the moonless sky,
a family of five
gather for celebration

Those were the real Diwali...
It's just lights and crackers now...
nothing else!

Wild Run!

Umbrella flying!
Bare-footed, Free-spirited
Wild run in the rain!

It rains down the lane
Then I think of you. And now
it rains in my eyes.

This rain reminds me -
of the freedom of childhood
or of some lost love!

Mid-life Crisis

In the middle of an afternoon rain
I take my silent walk to nowhere
Treading with care on the wet lanes
Avoiding puddles here and there

Children run around dancing on the way
Splashing water, playing with each other
They laugh and smile invitingly as I lay
Waiting, standing cold under a shelter

Wrapped in each others' arms, young lovers
Ignite their passion in the falling rain
They pass by leaving me to remember
All my past lovers and their love in vain

‘Life is for the young and the restless’
A deep sigh, then I walk on nonetheless

Your Yesterday…

It’s another day in the making
I am going back to your yesterday

I see you only in bits and pieces
Let me hold onto your yesterday

I am sinking in my nothingness
Come drown me in your yesterday

In your dreams I fall asleep
Wake me up in your yesterday

I could have died in your arms
But I am living in your yesterday

Temptation

When the foreplay
last longer
than the act

and the after-effects
felt for days on end

It's an affair
doomed
for failure

bringing down everything
you had build (till then)
on its way out

Dust

Dust of Time
falls on everything

the shelf of books
unread
the rack of shoes
worn-out
the table with stationery
disorganised

No dust settles
on the memories

The Return

I had walked alone the long mile
Traces of my travel you can see
I am here at last, I see you smile
But my countenance lack glee

The man whom you bid farewell
And the man who now returns
The stark difference you can tell
Only in you the flame still burns

You walked away, I said nothing
I thought too deep for too long
I knew I was losing everything
Yet I knew I had to be strong

'You let go when you can't hold on
Even if you know you can't live on'

After You

The pieces broke loose
I was complete in your arms
Falling apart now

Prisoners Of Hearts

Such longings! Such dreams!
Never lets go or moves on...
Prisoners of hearts..

Luck, Life

Luck and all His friends
Masters in the art of Time
Life hopes in their midst!

Grief

Five stages of grief
Is it the first or the last,
when it never ends?