Rakho....

Yaadon ke guchhe mein ek yaad piro ke rakho.
Purani kitabon mein ek phool chhupa ke rakho.

Har panne ke kone mein siyahi bhari koi kahani ho.
Mere naam ke labzon se woh kahani bana ke rakho.

Kabhi meri payal ya chudi giri hogi tumhare paas
Uss gire hue mere khwaab ko kahin sajaa ke rakho.

Jab tumhare kandhe par sar rakh ke roi thi main,
Unn bheege hue se palon ko apne dil mein dabaa ke rakho.

Raston par hum chale the behke-behke kadam leke
Unn raston par kabhi-kabhi thode phool bichaa ker rakho.

Kabhi kaha nahi kuch bhi par suna tha, band hoton se
unn khamosh se lamhon ko hoton se lagaa ke rakho.

Sardi ki woh subah yaad hai, jab khushi ko dhoop se seencha tha
Uss naram dhoop ki roshni se apna ghar nehla ke rakho.

Jab chali jaaun main, toh aana iss naye ghar mein,
Tab tak inn yaadon ko zaraa sambhaal ke rakho.

Aaj

Zaraa si der ho bhi jane do na
Aaj hamaare paas baitho zaraa sa
Jaanaa toh hai, do pal thahar jao na
Hamare pehlu mein ruko zaraa sa
Alvida toh kehna hi hai, aaj nahi toh kal
Bas aaj nahi, kal ko talo
Chhodna hai daaman tumhara chalte-chalte
Aaj do kadam bas aur chal lo
Aansu hain, zindagi bhar behne ke liye
Aankhon mein nami rahegi, tum chaho ya na chaho,
Bas ek aur din hansi maangi hai,
Aaj sookhi-sookhi khushi banke aankhon mein reh jao

Talk to me like lovers do

Talk to me like lovers do.
Tell me about the good in man.
I've seen my shades of black.
Show me the world of colour again.
I know of hardships and reality.
But I want the land of dreams
Take me there, where lovers go.
I want to know how safe life can seem.

Tell me good isn't over.
Take me away from tears.
Tell me fairy-tales can be true.
Tell me there are no reasons to fear
I know that life's not easy.
Tell me it would be with you.
Show me the land of candies again.
Talk to me like lovers do.

Oh! I know of hoping against hope
Lay back the assurance and the trust
Give me back some of the child I had.
Tell me trusting you won't hurt.
I know I can be strong.
Tell me I don't need to with you.
Tell me you will be strong for me.
Talk to me like lovers do.

That's his soul

"That is his soul!" she exclaimed.
She had seen it only through the cloudy drapes
all the years appearing muddy and shrunken.
No soul so foul, so treacheous in its being. No!
But She had never seen it so clean now.

She saw it rise, as she dropped her tears to the earth
she saw his soul removed from the cloudy drapes
and it was as clean as an angel's...
Like a new child, bathed in his blood he
clean and pure, his soiled soul now free

but that is his soul! she thought
oh but she had wrongly judged
now, life went past, like spring breeze
she saw his soul too late
she bade it farewell, and sealed her fate

Travel we do

Before we reach the Arms cradling love,
the heaven-enwrapping tassels of the angels
and the embracing bosom of Mother Earth
we travel and seek in the darkness, we do,
The love, the glory and the pride...
Convoluted and corrupted, is what we get
*For we see through a glass darkly,
and the truth, before it is revealed to all,
face to face, we see in fragments.
Before we make Earth our Mother again
And the journey from our life to Her Motherhood
is but a moment....
though travelling through which, is an Age....


* taken from the Bible 1 Corinthians 13:12

Tears

Oh Tears! I say... Yes you....

You've been with me all these years, haven't you?

You were there, rolling down my cheeks, consoling and warm

When my soul left my side, leaving me guilty and unarmed

You went through my body, like the lump in my throat

You hugged me like my blanket when the nights felt cold

You went through my breath with the melancholic sighs

You stayed embedded in me, like crystals in my eyes

Now look! How my eyes shine because of you!

Loyal you've been, and you're still seeing me through.

Tears! Will you leave ever, leaving me alone?
Walk away like my world did, and be gone?

I fear the loneliness, which is ever so close
It is taking me into its shadows, and I lose.

Alone as I get more alone, I lose my soul.
I've fought battles and won, only to lose it all.

My strengths depleted, my support is but weak
I stand alone, and friendless as these words I speak.

A foreign land weakening my will
How I fight, I don't know still!

May be it is you who still stands by me
without you, I am as lonely as I can be.....

The God called "Tequila"

Tequila- the small, water-look-alike liquid. It was a cold night. I didn't know that the hippie-heaven Goa could be so cold. I sat freezing on a bench at the party, with a sore throat, sniffing nose and Out-of-Place persona. I just didn't know anyone there. Only the bar counter seemed inviting. So I walked up and took a shot. Now, I'm glad I did.
It was fire going down into my ice-cold belly. I needed that heat. For sometime it took away me into a comfortable and known zone. I took 4 more. And I went and sat back on the park bench in the party. Loneliness was now inviting and peaceful. I sat and observed. I felt warmer and happy. I wasn't high. I was away. I was cut-off. My friends were all there, in front of me. But I wanted to sit away. I know I can be weird.
The EDM, the dimly-lit garden and coconut trees and the thought of being in the land of sun-and-sand. It could be likened to heaven- hmmm some what heaven.
It didn't last forever though.
I could feel the effect of the tequila wearing off, like a magic potion losing its desired results. I felt the cold wind and I could feel the mosquitos biting on my calves. I had somehow become immune to the sounds and noise. But it was wearing off and I could hear the badly-dressed sluts, asking their one-night-stands to remember their names. Odd and Annoying and Spectacular.
I do not know the side-effect effects of the Tequila God in the lost state of Goa.
But I wasn't being able to breathe. I gasped for air and somehow got reminded of the loneliness again. My feet kept moving to the EDM, but the head swarmed through space somewhere.

Alone in the crowd, when I thought I would be the crowd. I felt like a High God in my strange elements, away and aloof. Under the coconut tree in Goa.

Only consolation I found was in typing this inane article on my cellphone. The desparate urge to write came with the big gasps of air. I needed to survive with in these words I wrote.
Next night, I lay sipping hot coffee, watching really cute firangs in the candle-light, listening to the soulful voice of Celine Dion, telling me about these "Precious Times", while i gaze on the starlit skies, lying on a comfy hammock- I'm living!
I know this is what life should be. Life will be such.
Home away from home.
I know I will sit back on my arm chair when I am old and reminiscise about the day in the years to come.
Viva la Goa (with due applause to the tequila).