हिंदी शायरियां

१ न थम जाए वक़्त की राहे, तुम आँहे भरा न करो,
न रूठ जाए रूह जिस्म से, यूँ तुम हँसा न करो।

२ सितारों में ढूंढती हूँ तुझे किनारों पे बैठे हुए,
चेहरों का मायाजाल है, पर्छायियों के कमाल है,
सपनो में भी ढूंढती रहूँ, पर मिलना तो तकदीर का खेल है।

३ जाम है, मेहरबान है, महफ़िल की सजी शाम है,
बस हम ही तनहा है, सोये हुए इस रात की चादर ओढ़े।

४ इन आँखों में जो नींद भर आये, सपने तुम्हारे ही हो,
आंसुओं की बहार जो आये शिकवे तुम्हारे ही हो,
अंधेरो का खेल है जीवन, उसमे उजाला न आये,
किनारे तुम्हारे ही हो, सहारे तुम्हारे ही हो।

५ इंतज़ार था किसी साथी का, जो प्यार से कर दे जीवन रंगीन,
मिल गया ऐसा दोस्त हमें, जो राह से मिटा दे सारे पल ग़मगीन।

६ हजारों कलम से निकले होंगे प्यार के नगमे,
पर हमारी भी पढलो, एक और ही समझ के।

७ रात ले आई फिर वोह हसीं यादों की बारात,
पलकों के साए चला आया ख्वाबों का नरम साथ,
दुनिया तो नींद की चादर ओढ़े पड़ी है,
और हम चुपके से चाहे साजन का संगाथ।

८ मीठी बातों से ये गहरे ज़ख्म भर गए,
प्यारी मुस्कान से इस दिल को चैन दे गए;
शीशे का बना होता ये जिस्म तो टूट दिए होते,
जाते जाते आँखों से ऐसा तीखा वार जो कर गए।

To the night

The glowing night steals upon me,
It envelopes my body in a shiver.
The trail of darkness leaves a sliver
Of pain upon the reverie.

No moon, no stars, no sound of crickets,
All there lies is the shroud of the night;
Against it I have no will, no might,
My body knots into thickets.

The darkness scares me not, nor soothes,
It touches deep but I budge not-
It leaves me cold, it leaves me hot-
And something deep inside me it uproots.

A seed of love,a ray of hope-
they are meant not for the lovers of the dark;
For what the night brings, it takes back,
When away from the sun it flies.

Different

They tell me I am so different.
And thus they alienate me.
I walk around each acquaintance,
Searching for the rewarding look,
For being different.
But all I get is awe and sympathy,
For being different.

Memories

I climb up the mountain of life,
Dragging with me a bag of dysfunctional relationships,
With no consolation of exclusive memories
to keep me company through the miserable nights... .

The sadness of stories

Deep in the abysses of memory,
Fragments of stories lay mute.
Characters and episodes,
Flung about the chasms as if caught in a storm.

The conscious,
The sub-conscious,
The unconscious -

The memories,
The thoughts,
The fantasies -

A hash of all this
Breeds the storm.

If every second were weighed down so,
the times would never be happy.

But why,
Why the hell,
Do I take the hash to be so depressive?

It might be gleeful,
memorable,
savourable,
favourable,
anything.

Prayers get answered only if you pray hard enough.

When the body takes over

I stand in awe as my body lies in another's arms,
I watch in wonder how it rests in another's curves.

There ws a dream once,
Of a firm shoulder and a warm breast,
But like everything else,
Dreams shifted in their place.

Like the tree that welcomes four seasons
And the river that carries new memories every day,
My body embraces fresh smells and skins,
Shedding them like snake-moults every night.

It delights in the contractions of lust,
Unabashed, it screams in joy at each hurt.
It becomes a saint for the day and the whore of the night,
It laughs at the moral farce and flirts with carnal desires.
It challenges the heart, beats the logic of the mind,
And like wanton breeze,
Slides through faces and deep-seated drives.

All the while, I stand in lost thoughts,
Unknowing whether to admire or despair.
When my body walks ahead of me,
What can I do but follow it lamely?

And yet, we come together for a while,
Before the nightfall, before the taste of sweat n blood prevails:
She tells me that she loves me,
And I say, so do I.

One comforting hug, and we fall apart,
But I know her feelings well,
And she knows mine.