“Mujhse hi aaj mujhko mila de,
dekhoon aadaton mein tu hai ki nahi…
Harr saans se poonchh k batah de –
inke faaslon mein tu hai ki nahi.”
Are you still there, I ask myself sometimes. In
the dark cobwebbed corners of my mind, knee-deep in half-remembered memories, I
sometimes ask myself if you’re still there. During dusty auto-rickshaw rides
along potholed by-lanes, when a sudden whiff of a flowery perfume takes me
years back and I raise my hand to see if a few loose strands of hair are once
more softly blowing in my face, I ask myself if you’re still there. Just before
taking off the maroon kurta, checking
the breast pocket for a pair of minus-powered glasses that were never mine, I
ask myself if you’re still there. Beneath snatches of poetry littered across
the sky of an ever defiant chimera, at the corner where yesterday’s neverland
meets tomorrow’s never-to-be-land, bathed in the dying light on today, perhaps
I will always ask myself – tu hai ki
nahi.
Comments
Post a Comment