SADAQAT

Uske khwabon mein
Mai ab tak roshan hoon -
Ya kisi chand ki roshnai mein
Mai raat Kay andhere ki tarah
Chup gaya hoon -
Yeh yaqeen se nahi keh sakta
Magar uski rooh ki pakeezghi ki kasam
Uske dil ki masoomiyat ki kasam
Itna yaqeen hai mujhe ki
Apni saheli ki shaadi mein
Woh dulhan se zyada
Khoobsurat lag rahi hogi

LAMAKAAN

(For B)

Someday
We will never meet
Someday
I will walk
The footsteps of Anna
And jump off
The pages of Tolstoy
And you might wander
The genderless world of love
In Wintersonian universe
While two foolish souls
In a dilapidated building
On a godforsaken mountain
Will keep on tracing the neutral space
Where masculinity and feminity meet

KHUDAI - خدائی

Duniya Ka kadakta shor
Aur bijili si raftaar
Yak lakth khatam kardena
Buhut dushwaar hai
Magar kabhi kabhi
Kaano pe haath rakh kar
Khamoshi dekh lena
Aankhein moond kar
Andhera sun lena
Khudai se kam nahi

دنیا کا کڑکتا شور
اور بجلی سی رفتار
یک لخت ختم کردینا
بُہت دشوار ہے
مگر کبھی کبھی
کانوں پہ ہاتھ رکھ کر
خاموشی دیکھ لینا
آنکھیں موند کر
اندھیرا سن لینا
خدائی سے کم نہیں

OF RELATIONS AND UNIVERSITIES

Within the fluidity of relations
Let the currents crystallize
Brand it and install an authority
Let it make absurd demands
And issue unethical restrictions
Until nothing remains
Not even nothingness
But a formality, a habit, a tic -
This can be one among many ways
How a relationship dies
But this is the only way
An institution kills itself

KHUD KALAMI

Furqat mein
Kuch aur hota ho ya nahi
Ye zaroor hota hai -
Aadmi khud se baatein karne lagta hai -

Tou kisi roz
Agar tumne mujhe
Kisi tanha sadak pe
Apni dhun mein bhadbadate dekh liya
Tou jaan lena
Mai tumse hi hamkalaam hoon

THE ALEATORY POINT

(A NON-DELEUZIAN POEM FOR DELEUZE)

The hollowness
Death, dread and void
Pain, agony and ache
Suffering, misery and affliction
The emptiness -
Philosophy is recognizing
The empty square within life's square puzzle
Wisdom rests in reminding onself
That the emptiness remains unfulfilled
That this emptiness actually
Propels every movement within.
Art is the realization
That the square is
One among many shapes