उठ मेरी जान तुझे लड़ना है अभी -मुंबई के लिए

उठ मेरी जान तुझे लड़ना है अभी
शहर के मक्तलों1 से उभरना है अभी

साँस रोके बैठी है हरेक रहगुज़र
उदास आँखों से बहता एक खामोश डर
संभल के चलना है, नहीं डरना है अभी
उठ मेरी जान तुझे लड़ना है अभी

ये तेरे रहनुमा, ये नुमाईंदे तेरे
कफ़न भेजेंगे खोखले लफ़्ज़ों के
इन्हीं ज़ख्मों को मलहम में बदलना है अभी
उठ मेरी जान तुझे लड़ना है अभी

इस से पहले के फिर से आदत हो जाये
फिर तू अख़बारों के पन्नों में खो जाये
'बस बहुत हुआ' का एलान करना है अभी
उठ मेरी जान तुझे लड़ना है अभी

खून सड़कों पर नहीं, रगों में बहे
ख़्वाब बिखरे नहीं, आँखों में रहें
गर बदलती नहीं दुनिया, तो बदलना है अभी
उठ मेरी जान तुझे लड़ना है अभी

(1 मक़तल: place of sacrifice, killing fields)

एक और कविता

रस्सी से बंधी हुयी

बोझ में दबी हुयी

बुझी आँखों से देखती

दुकानें सजी हुयी

झुलसती गर्मी में

पानी को तरसती

जनवरी के जाड़े में

नंगे बदन ठिठुरती

दिन भर भागती

सड़कों की ख़ाक छानती

सपनों की तलाश में

रात भर जागती

एक और कविता भी है

जो हमें दिखाई नहीं देती

या दिखाई दे, तो भी

मूंह फेर लेते हैं हम

जिंदा रहने की दौड़ में

थोडा जीत जाते हैं हम

At the IGA: Franklin, New Hampshire

This is where I would shop

if my husband worked felling trees

for the mill, hurting himself badly

from time to time; where I would bring

my three kids; where I would push

one basket and pull another

because the boxes of diapers and cereal 

and gallon milk jugs take so much room.

I would already have put the clothes

in the two largest washers next door

at the Norge Laundry Village. Done shopping,

I'd pile the wet wash in trash bags

and take it home to dry on the line.

And I would think, hanging out the baby's

shirts and sleepers, and cranking the pulley

away from me, how it would be

to change lives with someone,

like the woman who came after us

in the checkout, thin, with lots of rings

on her hands, who looked us over openly.

Things would have been different

if I hadn't let Bob climb on top of me

for ninety seconds in 1979.

It was raining lightly in the state park

and so we were alone. The charcoal fire

hissed as the first drops fell....

In ninety seconds we made this life—

a trailer on a windy hill, dangerous jobs

in the woods or night work at the packing plant;

Roy, Kimberly, Bobby; too much in the hamper,

never enough in the bank.

by Jane Kenyon, from Collected Poems. © Graywolf Press, 2005.

'what if', the biggest question in our lives. i guess a perfect life would be without any 'what if' moments. and i'm so far away from a perfect life! so many things that i wish i could change, say if i'd a time machine, i would definitely have done things differently, prevented many events before they affected me for ever.

but then i pause and think. whatever has happened has made me what i'm today. so if i do change the past, it'll definitely affect my present. and there is one aspect that i would never want to change in this present life. the fact that i've her with me, calms down my mind everytime i've this fantastical urge of going back and changing things.

and this is why i shared this poem with you all today. yes, things could have been different, maybe even better, but then they wouldn't have been what they are today. and all said and done, if you've love in your life today, you've survived all that your past could do. 

because i've love, because i've her, i will live with all the 'what if' moments of the past. what i've is, is so many times more important that what i could have.

a thought about smokers

she (while obviously uncomfortable with somebody smoking around her): uh! why do people smoke?

me (on phone with her): 'coz people think they look cool when they smoke

she: but that was some middle-aged uncle ji!

me: people start smoking when they are young, by the time they realize its actually not that cool, they can't let go of it!

she: hmmmm

me thinking (wow! one of those rare days when she agrees easily!) :D

'cos i'm never gonna stop falling in love with her

man its 13 years! i fell in love with The Corrs, their music and of course the lead singer Andrea when i first saw this song :) how time flies! am sure i would have shared this with dee if i'd known her then.



i remember waiting for love to come to me, spending almost my entire early life in this desperate search, making many false starts, stumbling through love that i felt (then) was true, and finally when i did find her... it was as if my whole life was meant for that one moment, to be shared with her, no more searching, no more aching... just living every moment filled knowing that there is somebody whose heart sings to the same tune as mine. and if there is one song by The Corrs that i would have dedicated her then, that i want to dedicate now, it is this one... 'cos i'm never gonna stop falling in love with her