Reflections!!!

Tried my hand at some Urdu expression and the English one just happened!

Khumaar

Ek ajeeb si bechaini

Kuch kar guzarne ki chaahat,

Apne wajood ki talaash

Ya dil ki raahat ?

Dil mein hai hulchul

Man mein laakhon khayal,

Inhe khwaab kahoon

Ya uljhe hue saawal ?

Kahin toh leke jayega

Ye khumaar,

Shayaad hai koi jagah

Gul-e-gulzar

***

Haze

A fuzzy restlessness

To do or die – A desire,

A quest for myself

Or my heart’s composure?

The heart is edgy

The mind  - a flock of reflections,

Are these dreams

Or bewildered questions?

This whirl will lead me somewhere

Through this haze,

Of a thousand flowers

Maybe there’s some place

***

A Walk To Remember -II ....Joy is like the rain...

‘I saw raindrops on my window

Joy is like the rain’ 

When we were little, this was one of the hymns that we would sing at the top of our voices, our cacophonous symphony being conducted by one of the nuns, from our school St. Mary’s, on the piano. It took us a few years, to truly realize the charm of the showers, and the glee that it filled our hearts with.

Shillong is not too far from Cherrapunjee and Mawsynram, both of which had the distinction of qualifying as the wettest place on earth, for several years. So the town itself experienced spells of rain that sometimes stretched into a week. Those would be the days and nights of an unceasing, whining, drizzly kind of rain. The dampness pervaded everything from shoes to books to mattresses. The only thing that it couldn’t dampen was our young minds. They sprang up, as lush as the greens, with its touch. The most enjoyable part of the rains was again and of course, our walks to and from school.

Dark Brightness

Blue, green, red, golden
Mottled colours
I made your rockets, chocolates
Your electric-sparklers

Your child's visage
Reveals my age
But your child's mind
Doesn't bind
My revelations of God's rage
My value of my daily wage

When your purchased colors
Painted your skies
Mine faded forever
Did you hear my cries?
Or just bangs and blasts?

So for you bright lights,
Variegated colours
For me pitch blackness,
To live life's hours

This is another one from my angry teens.The fireworks industry in Sivakasi, India employed thousands of child workers and many of them got injured and blinded while working with the hazardous materials, which also shortened their lives. The situation is supposedly much better today with NGO campaigns and government action,even though it seems some units still employ children especially during summer vacations.

Jungfrau Visited

While the sun shines

Make hay,

I knew forever

Not the real way

Fields of green

Turn shades of brown,

As the farmers

Mow them down

Pied beauty

Of lucid purity,

For miles around

Defying serendipity