ना यहाँ लोग कांच के, न दिल ये पत्थर का,
इस शहर में अब जी लगाना क्या
यहां मौसम भी आदमी सा रंग बदलता है
ऐतबार कैसा, कौनसी उम्मीद, हँसना कैसा, रुलाना क्या
सुर्ख आँखें भीगी सी, लब सूखे हुए
सब समझ आ रहा है, अब और समझाना क्या
कागज़ के फूल घर में, पेड़ों की लाश बाहर
ज़हर खा गया है ये ज़माना क्या
चिंगारियां उठी हैं तो शोले उड़ेंगे,
इस आग से अब यार घबराना क्या
बदमिजाज दोस्त, खुशमिज़ाज दुश्मन
बिन पिए “शिव” लड़खड़ाना क्या
I walk by the streets
I sing an old song
there are some merchants
who hawk their stories
some old, some freshly baked
I fall for this one
the one with mountains and rivers
there’s freshly stoked tea somewhere
the lump of ginger, I feel it in my throat
There’s a tea stall on the other side
the one where people brew their dreams
An old man pours a story
the chai wallah flavors it
I sip a few words,
I try to gulp some down
My story seems incomplete
I add some more lies, sugar coated
they blend well, the stories
but some words fall down
unknowingly, or knowingly perhaps
in my cup of tea
I call for another one
some more storms steamed in
my half-empty cup
my half-filled stories
I crush, and swing them around
As I start again,
I walk by the streets
I sing an old song.
कतरा क़तरा मेरे ठन्डे अश्क,
कतरा क़तरा तेरी बहकी चाहत
कतरा क़तरा मेरी उलझी आहें,
कतरा क़तरा तेरी सांस की आहट
कतरा क़तरा तेरे जिस्म की खुशबू,
क़तरा क़तरा मेरे रूह के हिस्से
कतरा क़तरा मेरे लहू की रंजिश,
क़तरा क़तरा तेरे प्यार के किस्से
कतरा क़तरा तेरी यादों का मंजर,
कतरा क़तरा मेरे कफ़न से रिश्ते
कतरा क़तरा मेरे पिघलते सपने,
क़तरा क़तरा इस मौत की किश्तें
When the vast sky says hello to the enormous ocean
It’s just the breeze I hear among the roars
A half-dressed sun hides beneath the clouds
I try to dress it with a half-naked orange moon
This evening seems to have lost its sheen
And the night seduces the stars into illusion
The sun-baked hopes seem to wither
I wash their face with a new song
I look up, and then down as the silence caresses me
I hear a good-bye, my shadow moves away
It’s just me and the night, as we sleep hand in hand
a cushion of the half-naked orange moon, and a blanket of dreams
It’s just I wanted to think,
Just like, I never write
It’s just that sky is so dull,
Or else the sun is too bright
It’s just I wanted to scream,
I want to start a new fight
It’s just I’m always wrong,
You think you’re always right
It’s just that day never ends,
Maybe he’s late for the night
It’s just that love is so blind,
It’s never out of the sight
It’s just that white is so black,
It makes the black so white,
It’s just my thoughts are so loose,
Like broken strings of a kite
The trees want to whisper,
and leaves dance in the isles
The breeze trickles them
It seems they are all drunk
The road’s too long,
and the journey unknown
A gang of clouds kidnap the sun,
I’m not sure who’s the one
The moments gather here,
all of them
They hymn a lullaby,
a newborn moment falls asleep
What lyrics they were,
i don’t know
A haphazard song,
the one with me and you in it
The smell of dew,
still afresh
The mist of hopes,
thickened with expectations
This road seems to go nowhere,
the dreams chose to stay still
Aimless i wander,
in this world so unknown
I live by this moment,
of peace and serenity
A tear in my eye,
the taste of which is sweet
The sun pays its ransom,
the clouds let it free
Some words that i write
some words that i breathe
It’s a moonlit night
The stars sewn in a necklace
Yawning with their mouth open
Spilling the lights around
I spread my arms on the chair
Wanting to hug the warm night
The darkness of sky that I inhale
Lights up a corner of my soul
Somewhere, down there
there’s a mystifying silence
That echoes like ripples in the water
And spreads like the shadow of my dreams
The moon is blank, yet full of visions
I pick each vision and untie the knot
They look familiar, as if always were a part of me
There are some I wrap, to cherish later
My eyes pull the curtain,
And my nerves are smoothened
I see a moonlit night
The stars sewn in a necklace
