A SUMMER THOUGHT

To protect the soft feathers of his queen

From the growing glow of the summer sun,

Day stretches his travel duration,

Wakes early and takes late cessation.

Water bodies, his trusted cooling agents

Desert him to his discontentment,

Evaporate to entangle with their secret lover air

In their clandestine summer affairs.

Enraged by the scarcity of water,

Scorched by the fast rising temperature,

Trees turn pale to reflect their grief,

On their morbid faces of red-yellow leaves.

Air, the custodian of human breath,

Hides water vapors it swallows from the earth,

Flows dry and hot to make life wearisome

Affected by the steaming in sunbeams.

For its day-long torturous and mischievous acts,

The nature sinks in guilty-feeling after the sunset,

Remorsefully stretches on earth a moonlight cover,

Also sends the cool breeze from her ocean core.

Haves and have-nots settle for the night,

In aerated building or naturally cooled hut,

All rest in the invocation of peaceful slumber,

As God disposes His duties in His unique demeanor.

YOU WARNED ME

As I intimated to you about the fire of adore,

 Ignited unconsciously for you, in my core;

You warned me of the consequence of adding air to the fire,

“It’s dying and killing, be sensible,” you whispered.

You were half-right and half-wrong, in your expressions,

As sensibility, have no harmony with a blind devotion.

I will not bother if it is proved to be dying for me one day,

But I will not allow it to be a killer for you any day.

I told you “It’s glorious and God’s most blissful blessings,

I will fetch you the warmth and light aspect of the things.”

Since then I am firm to prove my words right,

And not allow the killing flame touching your skirt.

Resolute to protect you as a camel does to its owner,

In the desert in a sandstorm behind its huge structure.

If any day you will begin to feel a burning sensation,

Of the fire, report an inconvenience and need protection,

I will veil it promptly with my winding-sheet,

And will absorb in my last breath all the heat.

But I will not let the feather of your wings be broken,

And the soul of love be defamed or your entity be shaken.

YOUR WIND

                 Hi! Dear earth,

I slide down from the top of mountains,

Waft sprightly from the heart of oceans,

Flow humbly over your hot, bumpy terrain,

With my mild, cool, clean, composition,

To cause smile on the lips of flowers of your garden,

Fulfill your soul with soothing sensation.  

Your complaint of pollutants permeating your vision,

 Is the result of their mix up with me on the effusion.

The hotness in me that burns your sensitive skin,

Is the misdoing of the stubborn radiant sun.

I cannot willfully cause your strife,

As I vibrate only to see, you thrive with life.

When I am silent, I am busy in bringing rain,

For your hot bumps and traumatize plane,

To play with the leaves of your trees sim sim sim

And pour on your meadow rim jhim rim jhim

 I have no intention or interest to go elsewhere,

If I am to live, I will live at the service of yours.

नशा

सूरज  जब अपने रात्रि विराम को हो लेता है,

चाँद  जब अपने  प्रेमी  नभ  को  चूम  लेता  है। 

तारें जब आसमान को  फूलों से सजा लेते हें  ,
तुम्हारी यादें, तुम्हारी कमी दिल को झकझोर देते हैं।

शुष्क नज़र तुम्हारी तलाश का  नाकाम प्रयास करती है,
जुदाई हमारे दिल को तहस नहस कर रख देती  है।
हम इस दर्द से मुक्ति  पाने की सूरत तलाशते हें,
विवश होकर हाला  की मदभरी पनाह में चले जाते हें।

शराब हमसे किये हुए  नशे का  अपना वादा निभाती है,
मूर्त दुनिया, रिश्तेनाते नजरसे ओझल होती जाती है।
अस्थिर, अवास्तव मगर अद्वुत  राज्य में, मैं पहुँच जाता हूँ ,
क्षण भर के लिए प्रखर, प्रचंड महाप्रतापी राजा बन जाता हूँ।

मैं नशे के राक्षसी  चंगुल में कसकर फसजाता हूँ,
शेर के जवड़े में फसे हिरन की तरह तड़प जाता हूँ।
जहर खून पर अपना कब्ज़ा जरूर जमा लेता है,
मगर जेहन पर इसका नियंत्रण धीरे धीरे ढीला पड़ता जाता है।

जहर और यादों की इस रस्साकशी में प्यार विजेता उभर आता है
शिकंजो की इस भिड़ंत में तुम्हारा भारी पड़ जाता है।
बाला  की जीत और हाला की हार हो जाती है
शराब गमसे निकलने का सिर्फ एक झूठा बहाना साबित होती है।

तुम्हारी यादें पहले सा हिल्लोर मारती रहती है,
हम दुःख के सागर में पहले सा गोता खाते रहते हैँ।
तुम्हारी बराबरी सिर्फ तुम हो ये मैं समझने लगता हूँ,
अपनी नादानी पर मूर्खों कि भांति हँस  उठता हूँ।    

My Valentine

Looming among the constellation of stars,

Of your vast sky, I am a small celestial figure,

Placed closest to you, my valentine earth,

Appear solely for your cause, amuse and worth.

My smallness is only a physical aspect,

Under my tiny bosom throbs a huge heart,

Doused by deep devotion solely for your pleasure,

Resolute to wipe the darkness of your sphere,

And for that, I follow you all your revolution

Matching your pace with my small formation.

Intertwined with the breath of my gravitation,

Strand of waves on the surface of your ocean,

Hurries to reach me with all their tidal powers,

Return failed, but for me their sincere efforts matters,

As love is equally replete in both success and failure.

I am happy to witness your glorified varied nature,

Care to cover them with my silver attire.

Each of my rays I pour into your surface,

Eagerly awaits a charming smile on your face.

I do not ever wish anything any day as a return;

In fact, love is not dependent on restitution.

Giving is the principle of my adoration,

Taking is not the definition of my devotion.

My love for you is there profound, unmoved from ages,

Will continue with all its glory until we are in the stages.

THE WEDDING DAY

Twittering of birds did not intercept his slumber,

A little stirring in the house woke him from his torpor.

 His mind spun around arrangements of the morning,

Halted in the taste of tea first time she had prepared for him.

The possibility of meeting in the banquet all people he earned,

 With his goodness throughout his life, exited his mind.

All the tasks were given to the caterers and the tent-house teams,

Still he went on inspecting and supervising every bit of them.

 He kept his eyes on the preparations of the home of the bridegroom,

Besides meeting every necessary requirements of his own home.

The anxiety of the arrival of the procession of a bridegroom,

Outweighs the success news of a kidney or liver transplantation.*

He wished to sit all day long unmoved before his daughter,

And watch her decorated in traditional bridal attire.

Responsibilities pushed him out, threw him into sundry chores,

On each movement, his feet and eyes dragged him towards her.*

Heart remained inside her room and body was obliged to actions,

The corner of an eye flew at intervals spontaneously in her directions.*

It was a big day regarding its length and import

Begins before the sun resumed its tour until after midnight,

The bands, the fireworks, the orchestra, dances of kids,

The dinner of the congregation all made the function colored.   

When the new couple left and the last soul in the wedding hall depart,

His feet halted, body stretched on a couch, eyes shut in contentment.*

The *rd things only a man who has given the hand of her daughter in marriage can understand.

THE NIGHT BEFORE THE WEDDING

Exhausted by the wedding preparations

Music, dance and other ritual functions.

The family sunk in the invocation deep slumber,

But sleep was at remote for the worried father,

Or maybe the night has playfully enlarged its tenure,

And needlessly did animosity to increase his torture.

A guardian in him waits eagerly for the night,

To end early so that he can perform the pious rites.

A loving father prays the morning to arrive late,

As it would snatch away the glow of his heart.

Life was never so leery and exciting before,

Not even then, when he himself got pair.

It’s a stunning combination of distress and delight,

Harbor at the same time in the same port.

Light and shadow coexist at the same spot,

Past and future roll on the screen of present,

Storm and serenity hover over the same coast,

How can he sleep in this unevenness and unique night?

AN EVENING BEFORE THE WEDDING

Kids and women from the wedding household dance and rejoice,

An evening before the day to ease out the weariness and stress.

He too on being forced joins them to celebrate the occasion,

Dances mechanically without proper music-steps coordination.

His memory dates back to the first day, in his laps he held her,

His first true and alive wedding gift from his beloved life partner.

The day she caught hold of his mustache, pulled out his glasses,

He felt the excitement of his fatherhood despite inconvenience.

Ever since, she lighted his home, gave him the fatherhood,

With most affection, he met her wishes as much as he could.

Stretching out of his limitations of salary into the borrowings,

He did many times fulfill her aspirations to keep her smiling.

I see him covertly weeping and secretly wiping tears,

At intervals of music, drawing out from pocket a tissue paper.

I visualize from his face the dense cloud of sorrow and tension,

That he scrupulously but fruitlessly tries to hide behind dry grins.

I hear the unuttered melancholic music of his grieved heart,

Through the forced and unsynchronized beats of his feet.

Even the dazzling electric ceilings of the banquet hall,

Is unable to subdue the gloom of his mourning soul.

I bend to his ear, whisper some words and pat his head,

He nods in affirmation, returns a smile and moves ahead.

SERENE AND UNMOVED

My dry meadows wait patiently for days together,

As I know that, about its aridity, my sky bothers.

If she is not still parting water now for my need,

It’s just because her pot of cloud has exhausted,

And she is busy somewhere gathering the nectar,

For my misery and discomfort, I cannot blame her.

My surface waits amidst the torment of darkness,

Without a complaint of negligence for your absence,

Because I trust, my moon tries sincerely to appear,

On my sky with the splendor of her glowing sphere,

But an ominous cloud is blocking her alluring light,

And I cannot raise a question about her conduct.

My garden waits for days for the spring to emerge,

In its dry and dying condition, with its hopeful foliage,

As it trusts the queen of the seasons and her nature,

To be honest in vows; timely and explicit in her tour,

 The delay in her arrival is due to a prolonged winter,

And this I cannot count as her neglectful behavior.

Such is my love for her and believe in her personality,

Serene and unmoved by any situation or eventuality. 

THE TRAIN ACCIDENT 1

Shadows of innocent buds eagerly waiting to blossom,

But forcefully extirpated from branches, haunt my dreams.

Young men and women struggling to get out of the debris,

Wince their bloodstained faces and yowl before my eyes.

Writhing venerable elderly people and their screams,

Hammer my head and scratch violently my eardrums.

My days and nights become intolerably turbulent,

Ever since, I got the news of that train accident.

Even though I did not see the accident site,

Neither did I know the victims nor did I ever meet,

But it was an adequate cause of concern for me,

That they all trusted our rail transporting authority.

When I as a railway man step into a compartment,

To ensure their amenity, care their comfort,

I become their man and they my people,

Even though for a brief period, for a short travel.

That valuable emotional attachment, their humbleness,

Their respect, creates in my little heart a great oneness,

A loss to them and their family anywhere on the land,

Troubles me too much, makes me concerned.

I know my concern or I will do no good to them,

I cannot marginalize their loss, lessen their mayhem,

But I can pray for them, soothe their souls as their ally,

Being an insignificant member of the Indian railway family.