WO LADKI

Wo Ladki
Mushkilon se usay muskurata dekha
Taaron ko din mein jagmagata dekha
Sweater ko kirnon mein nahata dekha
Kirnon se chehra bhi jhilmilaata dekha

Gehri aankhein hain gehre raaz liye
Zulfein apne mein sau andaaz liye
Chehra bhi hai suraj ka aizaz liye
Lab surkh mizaaj e shiraaz liye

Usne yaadon mein dil phansaa rakha tha
Muskuraahaton ko door bhagaa rakha tha
Itni masroof nahin jitna bataa rakha tha
Lekin maine bhi ek deep jalaa rakha tha
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Ye kya rishta hai jise humne banaa rakha hai
Sawaal kyun apne beech ek khadaa rakha hai

Yehi sawaal raaton ko jagaa rakhega
Ye aksar humein khudse khafa rakhega

Mere peeche uske aage hai zindagi badi aisi
Kya mere peeche hatne ki aa gayi ghadi aisi

Socha ki na de paaunga usko sab kuch
Haq mera banta hi nahin phir ab kuch
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Koi pehle koi der se jeevan mein aata kyun hai
dopahar ko dil naya chand dikhaata kyun hai
baat ghalat hai to dil mujhe manata kyun hai
Zindagi ne khilona humein banaya kyun hai

Zimmedari aasan nahin hai is dil ki
Ek asmaan hadd nahin hai is dil ki
Bikharne ki zidd nayee hai is dil ki
main na sunoon ab koi baat is dil ki

Quateel Ahmad
23 Jan 2013

Fone per baat karta hai rabt se malaal, achcha hai
Wo mujhse door gar, rahta hai khush haal achcha hai

Jiske goshon mein naummeedi ki fasal hi lehlahaaye
Us khet mein building banane ka khayal achcha hai

Bahot sharaab pilayi hai aaj mujhe raqeebon ne
Doobe may-e-hasad mein khumar-e-visaal achcha hai

Na mujhse Urdu bol, wa mun Turkie nami danum
Jo do zubaan rakhta ho aaj usika haal achcha hai

Quateel Ab ek hi shakhs ko shiddat se dhoondiye
Wo brahman jisne kaha tha ye saal achcha hai

Kya martaba badha liya apna?

Kya martaba badha liya apna?
Kya mujhe bana liya apna?

Ab aati nahin mujhse buu koi
ya badal liya tuney libas apna

use aksar ruk ke dekhte hain
kiraaye pe utha hai makan apna

paison ka kuch asar hua hoga
aisa munh tha kahaan apna

apne mein mukammal hoon
Khud se dil hai badguman apna

Guns and People

Guns don't kill people
Its people that kill people
People with guns that is
So keep people away from guns
Or people away from people

The people who are away from people
Are ones that go closer to the guns
Its the those with the guns
That kill the people

The sickness is in being away from people
The sickness is in being close to guns
When its people who make people
Why is it people who make guns
People who make guns
Kill people
They are the enemy
Of those who make people

People have life
Guns have death
People with guns
Use life to bring death

Quateel Ahmad
16 December 2012

after the Sandy Hills elementary school where a 20 yr old man killed more than twenty 4-6 yr old schoolchildren. This poem is an exception to my not writing on current topics.

Horrible Poetry

I had a real friend who later turned imaginary
A chap with disposition rather dromedary

Cheesed off with my tongue rather blunt
He felt he needed to pull this tasteless stunt

Restrict friends and hide oneself away
On facebook's easily possible today

But the question that deigns to be asked
Why was this subterfuge so blithey tasked

Ah! I see that we share some groups
My comments critiques taken to be rebukes

My corrections I didn't know were unwelcome
Now straight talk I have totally dumped

All I now offer is applause and appreciation
Be it a verse trite or banal pontification

And if I don't understand something
I just keep quiet. Its okay not knowing

And when the pompous fools jabber about
With fucked-up language and blow their spout

I just ignore this in the interest of peace
Don't throw me out of this group o please

I have pissed many people off I know
Only because those who should say no
Have led the deluded into believing
Their words have weight of thoughts in sieving

But it keeps me up at nights this pandering deceit
Language curses me for letting plant the seed

'What for I am' seething blindingly this way
There's no grammar discipline or metered array

Why is it that those who should know better
base the praise on the topic not verse or letter

If form is not important and topic adequate
Why not just write it down and exclaimate

This is no poem but a warning call
Let's see by morning who's first to bawl

Quateel Ahmad
Dec 2012

Kya zaroori hai

Tujhse mohabbat is dil ki majboori hai.
Kya yeh adaa e berukhi zaroori hai

Chaand aur sooraj bhi ek ho jaate hain
Dilon ka garhan lagna kya zaroori hai

Har maikade mein tu dikhaayi deta hai
Hosh khone ko uska hona zaroori hai

Hausle ko mere farogh dete hain
Mera girna jinke liye zaroori hai

Mausam e gul mein sirf kaliyaan hain
Is soorat e haal mein dakhal zaroori hai

Dast-bardaar na ho itni jaldi mein
Bojh ki nazaakat samajhna zaroori hai

Quateel Ahmad
12 November 2012

Ashiaane mein sajaaya kya kya

Ashiaane mein sajaaya kya kya
khwaab dekhe to sazaa kya kya

Ek chhoti is humne baat kahi
Matlab dekho nikaalein kya kya

Hum hi hai jo khayaal rakhte hain
Waise keh jaate hain log kya kya

Bada saada sa khat likhkha aur
Ki namabar ko nasihat kya kya

Achcha hota jo tum bhi pee lete
Lutf nashe ke bataain kya kya

Sab hi yahan meherbaan apne
Guman ye dekho sikhaaye kya kya

Ek moorat teri banaane ko
Mitti mein milaaun kya kya

Laute bhi us gali se 'Quateel'
Jaley kya aur bujhaaye kya kya

Quateel Ahmad
26 October 2012

I Am Black

There is a leitmotif
Of arrogance and ignorance
In your honest friendly nature
You want to erase all sense
Of impropriety and savage conduct
by giving me new appellations

I used to be known as a negro
Or Black
or colored even
for those who wanted to
Capture the varying shades
Of my beautiful existence

But they made it hell
Picked on, slaved, beaten
Raped, murdered and sold
all because they could.
All this while they were saving my soul
With their own god and ways

I didn't mind
I came to this big country
Which I first landed on
with fettered feet
But when I sang
God listened
When I walked
Breeze was born
And when I ran
Deer looked at me with awe
I was a specimen like no other
In chains when no one else was
I was black and that was that

That was a long time ago
And today I am as much a part
Of this land as any other
The bones of my great ancestors
Is in this earth
Rivers here I have bathed in
Fields tilled and fish caught
animals reared and slaughtered
Married and children begot

Then some kind souls want to
Wash away old sins of others
Make me want to forget the torments
Linked with my black negro being
Decide to call me African American

I am at once proud of my proud lineage
My people, Africa and a smile
Till I think about it.

Is my being American
not halved by being called thus
Is this any way to address people
Most who have never been to Africa

Chinese Amercian, Asian American,
Japanese American, Indian, Pakistani,
What lies behind these names?
Are citizens of Indian, Pakistani and Latino
race not American?
Why is a person Chinese American yet another African American? Does it matter if Chinese are confused with Korean American, Hmong and Vietnamese or Filipino...

But more than anything else
Why don't we have Irish Americans,
Italian Americans, German Americans,
French Americans, Polish Americans
Czech Americans and of course English Americans

They are all simply described as white
Or even more simply as Americans.

So I would rather be called a black American.
Or just an American
I am from here and nowhere else
I am not going to be caught up in platitudes
created by weak or evil minds

So I have decided that I will write my name
And my colour is for all to see
Don't nigger me for I am Black
And the world is happily black brown yellow red and white
And all shades in between.

As good as it gets

We only have ourselves to blame
Our pleasant togetherness
was that drifted us apart,
We had what was good,
but needed more,

Harboured incredulous notions
of love passion fed
by movies by books,
By words of twisted poets heavenly sublime
I wanted us to be better
You wanted us to be perfect
Neither seeing what we were, are
hunger for a greater love
became its very poison

Today passing through the shadows
Of fleeting relationships
Of veneers of attachments and likes
Of lusts and pitys
Realise far from each other
That thing we had
Was as good as it gets

Feb 7, 2011

KYA BAN KE

Mil naseeb ban ke

Bol saaz ban ke
Baras abr ban ke
Taras pyar ban ke
So bachcha ban ke
Sun mann ban ke
Naach khushi ban ke
Chadh jawaani ban ke
Thehar gham ban ke
Jaag ishq ban ke
Badal mausam ban ke
Bichad saathi ban ke
Jee dariyaa ban ke
Mar khwahish ban ke
Quateel Ahmad
18 October 2012

ODE TO JOY

And this is how the story went
From lofty palace to tattered tent
A wave had risen unexplained
Of Joy strong jagged unplaned

It just ran right through the world
Bowed rivers great and brooks curl'd
In mountains of snow skin and fire blood
Through fecund fields of redding mud
Grew to be like an endless shore
Then came and sat on Heart's floor
Who let it rule from that small deep seat
And other Emotions felt unjust the treat
Joy was restless it needed space
To break the walls and be a flighty grace
Sorrow vowed to change make
To run Joy out and its place take
Fear and Despair flew Sorrow's banner
Anxiety and Pain in similar manner
Joy the strongest took no heed
A friend the wanderer didn't need
Since then the battle rages on
Joy leaves the heart and is unbound
Still it reigns when it returns
Sorrow and Joy rule Heart by turns
Quateel Ahmad
Dec 2011

THE DRUMMER

Lies in state resplendent
his old uniform brassy
Shined to a gleam
By someone I don't know

The flies buzz around
Its hot, the power's out
So far he's the only one
Not sweating or cursing
Probably at peace
Probably

The parlor window overlooks
The road to the cemetery
And in the verandah outside
The bench favoured by him
And his band
Where they smoked cigarettes.
Waiting to lead the final journeys
Disuse now writ upon the old bench
there is soft rubbery wood rust
that shows up after the rains
and just stays
Dries and darkens
Like the future of many

Of the perils a long life
the risk of loneliness is the biggest
He would recall certain days and deaths
With sadness and pride
When he led columns of hundreds
And of times when tears didn't dry

Its changing world this is
the young have no clue
Of the proper ways to death
And before that what it is to do

The drummer knew that and more
The town now full of strangers
The parish thin and weakening
The Bugler was the only one left
A wheezer with just half a lung

The wake seems long
And the arrivals few
Some just happened to be
so will stay for the final trip

Those who walk into the parlor
See pictures brought by the son
A life faded but vigorous once
A war and a wedding
some shiny shoes
Some gummy smiles
Him doing the jive

It is time and the Bugler makes
A sorrowful call clear and powerful
Eyes watering from pain
Of lung or bereavement
Who can tell

The body is placed
In Lobo's hearse,
newly repainted
Fittingly

The mourners numbers swell
Every household in the village
Is present here in flesh
And many more in spirit

All ready to go but none moving yet
Till the Drummer's son picks up
The drum and sticks and is adamant
Starts the final journey

His paced out beat not clearly struck
But timed perfectly
A lifetime of listening at work
The Drummer seems at peace
And his final journey marches
To the beat of a different drummer

Quateel Ahmad
2012

DISDAIN

The spirituality you seek is just as ethereal
so why disdain the things that are material

Why does transigence bother you o mortal
The fibre of our being its the very material

Auspices stars omens signs everywhere
Rises self-belief makes it all immaterial

In a moment all resistance capitulate
On lover's glance not orders ministerial

KAM HAI

Jitna bhi kiya hua kam hai
Ab chalne ko raasta kam hai

Kehte hain badaa hai dil uska
Is marz ki to davaa kam hai

Rai leta hoon apne chhoton se
Unmein ajza e raaegan kam hai

Jo muskuraaye apni aankhon se
Dil main uske maiyl kam hai

Kayi hain ab haqdaar iske
Aur pyaar mujhe mila kam hai

Maine keh diya tha sabkuch
Wo kehte hain likha kam hai

Sulagta hai dil

Sulagta hai dil to karta hai sawaal bhi,
mohabbat mein aati hai subh e zavaal bhi

khamoshi mein hain pardadari ki alamatein,
tanhaiyon main panapte hain malaal bhi

muskurate ho ab bhi baatein karte ho,
rakhte ho dil mein bewafa khayal bhi

gile kya karun tum se kya shikayatein,
sannaate bhi hain sukoon la muhaal bhi

nibah rahe hain is salikay se rasm e duniya,
guzre chand roz phir mahine aur saal bhi

main apna haal e dil bayaan na kar paoon,
teri ankhen bhi khushk hain laal bhi

Another sher

Hum ne ek doosre se kuch chupaaya bhi nahin,
Usne kuch poocha nahin maine bataaya bhi nahin

sher

Tum mujh mein ho main nahin tum mein

Bas yahi baat achchi nahin tum min

Kya Karun

Husn e jaana ki taareef main kya shuru karun,
khatm na ho jo baat main kya shuru karun

Kamzarf se samandar labon pe beqarar,
Ab apne khayalon ko kya beabroo karun

Wo ghazal ke maiyne poochta hai mujhse,
Ab aaine se main use kya roobaroo karun

Sachchai ne nawaaza hai tanhayi se mujhe
Kyun na meetha bolna main bhi shuru karun

Karne ke waaste mujhko baatein hazaar hain
Har baar talkhiyon ko hi kyun surkhroo karun

Mardood e adab mein Quateel apna shumar hai
Is bujhi kalam se kise kya khushroo karun

Maikhaana

Maikade mein le zehen behosh aata hai
Jaam uthaane per hi usko hosh aata hai

Dastoor-e-mai jaanta hoon main faqat itna
Chadti hai usko ghoont jo ghutne ko aata hai

zubaan larzey na kabhi hain pair lad'khadate
Fun ye maahir zinda kharaabon ko aata hai

Dil kiye pathhar sile lab liye dinbhar
Har shaam wo jaise khulne ko aata hai

Kabhi shab e vasl kabhi subh e shaad
Paymana wohi naya manzar roz dikhaata hai

Random 'Free' Thoughts

And it is that time of the year again. When we as a nation lament and berate, enjoy and celebrate our being a country. When channels rerun Gandhi the movie and news channels have panel discussions on why we should leave him behind. 

An honest man with a just demand in a completely unreasonable format sticks out his chin, leaving people like me in a dilemma. The rest of the junta is quick to jump to his cause, little realising what he basically wants is a violation of democracy as constituted here. The party in power is not clean and any reasonable route closed by the crusader. He is a simple man who wants a simple solution. And he is willing to die for it. Good for him and I can only pray that the disaffected throngs who gravitate to him realise what's happening. But have no hope of that happening.

I cannot condone the ruling alliance for fear of being riled by my fellow civil society members as being corrupt. it seems if you are not caught up in the hubris of anti corruption debate and lost all sense...then you are not worthy of this freedom that many people have given their lives for.

This brings me to the next topic. In these times we see people (poets specially) sing paens to those soldiers who laid down their life for the country. What I can't fathom is why now? Is it less important on other days? Or more important today? When such overwhelming collective reverence takes place in this country it will mean only one thing. It will be forgotten the next day till the next independence day. And my emotional junta that sings aye mere watan ke logon proudly with a tear gleaming... Doesn't really know what freedom means. India got freedom from the british in a largely unmilitary fashion. The soldiers who fought for the country did so in wars and skirmishes with the neighbours. 

So is independence day remembrance indicative of military achievements? How soviet of us to do so! And the whupping the chinese meted out to us is termed 'sacrifice'. While 71 is termed as military superiority. The idiocy of the masses is truly supreme. The chinese are getting ready once again and looks like our pants are down again. Low number of aircraft, specious border connectivity, which is a ridiculous border to begin with.

What bards dream of epics to unleash on this day. Tales to rend hearts and move minds to mush. When you talk to soldiers you realise they know what they are getting into. I will never forget a train journey I shared with a soldier. It was the quietest one I've had. I asked him where he had been. He was with IPKF in Lanka and although he did not speak much his eyes spoke of lost comarades and faulty intel inputs. Misadventures by a dilletante PM and pain of lost comrades. But still the guy was not feeling too noble. He did his job quietly collected his pay. If public adulation is what the armed forces were after we would be overwhelmed with applications to join the forces. Not a 30% shortfall in junior and middle level officers. This same facebooking, twitter typing youth doesn't even consider the career as the money is more in writing code and even selling credit on the fone to farmers in Idaho. Jai jawan used to be a stirring cry in our country. Now it is just a tv programme.

Anna Hazare took the law into his own hands when he burnt down alchohol stills in his village to make it alchohol free. Today even though it is your democartic right to drink alchohol in Maharashtra if permitted , you cannot in ralegan siddhi... This 'gangajal' style justice may be what is needed but it cannot be condoned.

True freedom is independence of thought. Of being able to think for oneself. And seeing todays herd mentality... I doubt we are free. We are manipulated first by parents, then by peers and finally by media, the agents of mass manipulation. To anticipate the next movie, next save the tiger marathon, the next rozgar yojana and the next Gandhi. We live like Pavlov's dogs ready to salivate at the next bell.

Holi Masti

Holi ki rangeen jab dete Chahcha badhayee
Padosan dikhe hai pehle, piche apni lugayee

Chamchamati lungi pehin Pehelwan Kallu
moonch per hain tav laaye
jaise kahein 'koi hum par rang daal ke dikhaaye'

Hai! Misrain kaun si saadi pahin hain ayiin?
Bheeg kar gayee aur bhi kas,
Rang maley unko hum khoob jas tas

Rajjo aandhi ki tarah ayee
toofan ki tarah gayee balti bhar ke
syaani ho gayee woh bhi rangon mein phans ke

Kaun kahe hai Baiju se
ghontne ko thandaai
bhaanj rahe hai aise
jaise apne liye hi banayee

Boley mast nayan, jeeb ladkhadaye
ab ki holi maun hain hum
baat mein teri man dooba jaaye

pati aise bhi pad gaye raste
jo itne din baad
patni ko dekha khul ke hanste

Paan lagaa rahe hain tunn Nirale
mal rahe kya chuna katha
moonh mein sabke chaale

In sab drishyon se door Kallu
peete asmanjas ke haale
Keh hi diya "Arre! koi mujhpar bhi rang to dale!'

Sawaal ka sawaal

Sawaal ka sawaal tha jawaab nahin mila mujhe
Jawaab mein kya pata kya mila mujhe

Tunay kya samjha kya payaa mujhe
Jisne mujhe samjha kuch aur hi paaya mujhe

Sulag raha hai dil jo chita ban kar,
Ab ke sawaan dhoondega jaane kaise kahaan mujhe

Jo thi koi baat mujhme khaas bhi,
Ghul gayee hai dhull gayee itna usne rulaya mujhe

Main likhna chahata hoon, aur peese hai zabt mujhe,
Meri kismat ki hunar mila hai kam mujhe

Sher

Ghairon ke shor mein wo itna uljha hua hai 'Quateel'
Apne hi dil ki baat sun nahin paata

Gamla

Ya to uski uljhan la-ilaaj ho jaye

Ya meri ulfat bakamaal ho jaaye

Ek roz to main usse baat karun
Ek din mera bemisaal ho jaye
 

Kitaabon mein jawaab nahin milta
Humsafar jab sawaal ho jaye
 

Rang badal rahe hai yun paymane
Aaj ka kapoot kal ka laal ho jaye

Gamle sa jo har ghar ho jaye,
Mehke saari duniya nihaal ho jaye

Paheli

Hoon sabki ki zaroorat main
par ameeron ki numaish main

Aish nahin na imaan main
Par har gali mein biktaa main

Deen dharam se door hoon main
Mandir masjid ki bheed hun main

Har kadam par saath hun main
Saaye se bhi paas hun main

Ab aur bataana theek nahin
Samajh gaye ho kaun hun main