Kya Tum Ho

Dil ki har khalish mein tum ho
ankhon ki har nami mein tum ho
har unsuni dua mein tum ho
pyaase labon ki tapish mein tum ho
har maskin ki chatton mein tum ho
bedaaron ki thokaron mein tum ho
benoor duniya ka pata tum ho
har mausam ki fiza tum ho
jiska koi nahin uske tum ho
koi ho zariya sarmayedaar tum ho
sajjaadon ka nishaan tum ho
Kufr ki wajah tum ho
malik e do jahaan tum ho
har zarre me lapataa tum ho
mere kehne se nahin tum ho
maine likha jo tum ho

Conference Cruelty

Amid the polite applause and
pompous falsely self effacing speeches
strut people with naked desire
to be seen and heard by the herd
award after award for fleeting successes
Handed out into salivating arms

Around tables the bored herd awaits
Mouthing fancy hard boiled candy
sipping water stolen from a mountain brook
music thunders, the chief guest smiles
and no one notices
on each table a burning pyre

Sweet roses innocently burning
consigned to the mad dervish flames
of candles framing exqusite bouquets
fanned by a hell freezing ac on song
the smell sickly sweet acridy
no one smells

noses clogged with stench of money and pride
Surely peerless beauty roasted
is a tragedy but all are blind
Is the achivement of the corporate
that of human cruelty over beauty divine?

Pehli Baarish

Meri ummeedon par badal baras pade
Lekin baarish ne khwaahishon ko seencha bhi

Teri yaad phir nami ban ke chehre par hai
Gham ko dil ke bahar kheencha bhi

Ab ke baarish muhabbat se tar kar degi mujhko
Mujhe qaid mein milega dareecha bhi

Bayaan

Ab tere husn ka zikr kya karun
Gulabon ki main guftagoo kya karun

Zubaan mein itni lachak hi nahin
Reshami ehsaas bayaan kya karun

Surahi dekhi hi nahin maine kabhi
teri gardan ko misaal iski kya karun

Nal mein hi dekha hai paani jheel ka
Hai itni hi bisaat apni main kya karun

Tokrion mein hi naagin dekhi maine
Teri chaal ki main baat kya karun

Olympic ke hi dekhe maine teer kamaan
Bhavon ko teri unke barabar kya karun

Ab aa meri baahon mein seene se lag
Tanhayi mein tujhse baatein kya karun

Urdu

Like poetry in a bookstore's shelf
Urdu's forlorn today shorn of power and pelf

The raging river is now a simpering stream
Evaporating faster than a poor man's dream

Some posey admirers both canine and asinine
Pick and place its words so their verse can shine

In this age of venal jingoistic pride
Given the status of an unwed bride

'I love Urdu' they almost always say
'I want to learn it sometime' when they are going gray

Merrily lapping up those who cheaply dish it out,
Full on make up lashes and Miss India pout

The pusher gets his momentary accolades
Like this she's mauled in many poetry charades

And the ignominy of identity theft
Suffer the sisters Hindi to the right and Urdu to the left

Where's Urdu's new prose, speeches, volumes of thought and imagination
In such a short while such complete subjugation

What was once the language of the native and elite
now homeless in free India's streets

Like all treasures she has been betrayed by its own
India has left her to die all alone

Her children who she educated so well
Have sent their children to english medium with church bell

Left to languish in madarsas and maulvis tuition
For a female she had zero intuition

She did not know even when she was not so young
She would be tied to a religion and properly strung

I know she has no religious bend or line
But like a spirit is both sublime divine

She did not know that she will be cast aside
And now gone the last shred of pride

I know she's welcome on the border's other side but
Does that absolve my linguistic matricide?

Dil mein

Teri baatein ab khanjar si hain meri jaan dil mein
Har baar sun kar hota hoon budgumaan dil mein

Muhabbat ki ravaani mein muhaaide kiye they buton se
duaa lab per yahaan aur shikwa wahaan dil mein

Humsafari ki aadat hi hai jo saath chale jaate hain
Na wo narmi hai un nigaahon mein na tamanna dil mein

Badlaav hai mizaaj ka ya halaat ka asar,
iska makien tha jo kahbi jhaankta nahin dil mein

Izhaar kar rahaa hoon ilzaam ho to behter
Ek arsa hua kisiko bithaaya nahin dil mein

Its always you

Its always you
from the beginning and since
solemn, comforting, unquestioning,
In punctures of lost rhyme
in the folds of stolen time.

Remember it like yesterday
moments that beckoned softly
the quivering heart steady lay
in the flight of a stolen glance
fire longs to escape
a rebel to disobedience
willing perpetual slave
love of tender broken wills,
unopened books, heavy hearts
very sweet the young pain
That went straight through
it ends where it began

sawaal inquilab se

Har gali mein jo goonj raha hai
Inquilaab nahin to kaho kya hai

Tareekh mein peeche reh jaane ke dar se
Har koi nikal pada hai ghar se

Har masale ko kya yeh suljha dega
Inquilab kya humko naya hausla dega

Yakin nahin ummeed hi sahi
Gandhi nahin to munh bola murid sahi

Jis swaal ka jawab nahin wo kahaan mil jaayega
Badhta kadam ab soch ke kya paayega

sawaal durust hain lekin kya karein
ilzaamon ko har jagah dharein?

Aur yeh baat uski samajh ke baahar hai
jinn uska tha ab chiraag ke baahar hai

Jhuki Nazar

Jhuki nazar ko pyar ka paigham samjhun,,
ya uska inkar sare aam samjhun,

haal e dil haath to aa jaaye mere,
main iska jhukaav, rujahaan samjhun,

batein nigahon mein karni thi so ho chunki,
wo kya meri bolein, main kya unki samjhun,

sabr ke damsaaz aur honge zamane mein
aashiq hun, sukun ko main kya samjhun

dil mein tasveer sajee rakkhi hai,
main kya hasrat-e- deedar samjhun