तू है…के नहीं?
He and I आज एक याद फ़िर ताज़ा हो चली है संग वो अपने सौ बातें और हज़ार एहसास ले चली है तोड़ वक़्त के तैखाने की ज़ंजीरें खुली आँखों में टंग गयी बीते पलों में बसी तस्वीरें सुनाई साफ़ देती है हर बात अफ़सानों का ज़ायका और निखर गया है सालों के साथ दर्द और ख़ुशी का अजब ये मेल है संग हो तुम फिर भी नहीं हो बस यही क़िस्मत का खेल है
Since You’ve Been Gone
Since you’ve been gone
Been trying each day
To find the strength
Pick up the pieces
And somehow move on
Days run into days
Years begin to turn into years
Yes time has tried to be a friend
But the heartache won’t mend
There’s no easy way
I look around
I see the world I’ve built
The life I live
There’s an emptiness
Despite the happiness I found
So much has changed for me
Yet so much has not
My first birthday had you carrying me in your arms
And now my first one with you in my memory, my heart closer than you'll ever be
Maybe it’s not going to change
The way I feel
Guess it’s meant to be
The emptiness is you driving me
It’s destiny even if it’s strange
Since you’ve been gone
Keep trying each day
To make you my strength
Make meaning of these pieces
Put on a smile and brave onयादें
कुछ यादें एक खलिश सी होती हैं बरसों दिल में सुलघ्ती रहतीं हैं दबती छुपती तो हैं मगर दहकती रहतीं हैं बीतते सालों का मरहम पा के भी दर्द देती हैं गुज़रा वक़्त सब कुछ भुला नहीं देता मन में बसा चेहरा धुन्दला नहीं देता तेरी मुस्कान दिल में अभी भी गूंजती हैं ये पलकें आज भी तुम को ढूँढती हैं तुम्हे याद कर यह आँखें दो बूँद और रो देती है नहीं लिखा था शायद साथ तुम्हारा होगी किसी खुदा की मर्ज़ी पर हमें नहीं है गवारा गलती तो खुदा से भी होती है यादें आ आ कर बस येही सदा देती हैं
यारी
यादों के लम्बे पाँव अकसर रात की चादर के बाहर पसर जातें हैं आवारा, बेखौफ़ ये हाल में माज़ी को तलाशा लिया करतें हैं ख्वाबों में आने वाले खुली आँखों में समाने लगतें हैं फिर एक बार बातों के सिलसिले वक्त से बेपरवाह चलतें हैं वो नादान इश्क की दास्तानें वो बेगरज़ यारियाँ समाँ कुछ अलग ही बँधता है जब बिछडे दोस्त मिला करतें हैं यादों के लम्बे पाँव अकसर रात की चादर के बाहर पसर जातें हैं
Memories
Memories are like the rain At times, a passing drizzle That brings welcome relief At times, a downpour With no end in sight There are times You want to reach out And every drop That falls in your palms Sets you aflutter Yet on occasion You're caught unaware Drenched and lashed Soaked in muddy despair Washed green leaves Pitter and Patter Bring a song to your lip And a spring in your step Then there are gloomy dark days Not a ray breaking through Every droplet weighing you down Drowning you each passing minute Memories are like the rain A little, leaves you wanting for more A lot, and your only friend is regret!
Alive
I remember my first outing as a child Vivid memories of riding pony on my father's back I remember getting caught with my hand in the cookie jar Or how I howled on my first day at school And getting a whack for my constant chatter My bloodied lips and black eye My victory marks from a back alley fight Pining to sit next to the prettiest girl Shared lunches and shattered crushes The first kiss and the heart break Being lost when asked to make a career choice The pain of failing to make the cut Not giving up despite the hurt Dusting myself to fight again Finding love and a friend for life Losing buddies along the way The twinkle in my first-born's eye The littlest tightest grip of my second one Barely a score in a four decade life Picture frames on my memory wall Good and bad bitter and sweet Fleeting moments frozen till eternity Each one telling me life is alive Now I can worry about what's in store Or just step out today and create one more
Remember
Remember the time when we were WE Remember when would be together and could just BE Times when doing nothing together meant EVERYTHING Times when arguing was just a way of TALKING Remember saying what we meant and meaning what we SAID Remember never wishing for a lifetime but always FOREVER Times when making out meant way more than LOVEMAKING Times when we gave it all but nothing was really worth TAKING Remember when we could hear every thought without SAYING Remember feeling the pain without anyone HURTING Times of living in the moment and every moment worth a MEMORY Times of breathing easy around each other and making it easy to BREATHE Wonder why life feels like all of it was a LIFETIME AGO Wonder what came over us where did all the time GO Time perhaps to count our blessings and making the blessing COUNT Time to stop changing what we had and remembering to make that CHANGE
Past Continuous
It’s September again The great healer has ground on It’s passage though hasn’t erased pain Life meanwhile has been persistent and gone on But thoughts and questions they never cease The why and what if keep meshing new tales Indulging the heart, dancing the tease Memories coming to life in great detail Some things perhaps are just too good to be Breezy lives that leave happiness for your lifetime to last Angels passing by, meant for another world maybe Our present and future unfolding from their continuing past
Unforgettable
Have you ever felt guilty for having forgotten something? Something that in normal course would never ever have escaped you.
Perhaps forgotten is not the apt word, perhaps not even the right word but in a strange sort of a way it is the word that you’ll use to chide yourself.
It is an uncanny feeling when you know that there is something brimming underneath the surface but its not front and centre as far as your conscious mind is concerned. All day, you try figuring it out but you can’t.
And then, like a bolt from the blue it hits you; BAD!! The realisation is like a ton of bricks crashing down on you.
Question is; what is your reality?
The fact that you knew something was coming, you thought about it, yet when it actually came you were not even conscious to it.
So does that mean that our conscious mind builds these memorials and in a foolish sort of a way holds on to feelings of pain and angst whilst our sub-conscious mind takes a more practical approach and treats these occasions more matter-of-factly?
I reckon there is merit to the argument that if time is the best healer of wounds and if, with passage of time you reach a stage where the only memories that remain are the happy ones, then, not remembering an occasion in effect is a part of the healing since the reason you primarily wanted to remember the occasion was an unhappy one.
There is no point building memorials, they never are happy places. Sometimes its just good to forget. Its our minds way of telling us that we have indeed moved on.
All that is required is perhaps a remembrance and it comes in that fleeting moment of quiet acknowledgement. The real deal is mustering up courage to embrace reality.
So here’s to our sub-conscious mind doing its bit for keeping our “Happiness Quotient” up.
Fact of the matter, there are somethings you don’t need to remember, invariably they are also the things you cannot forget.
To end, in good old fashion a few lines from a song made popular by Nat King Cole
Unforgettable, that’s what you are
Unforgettable though near or far
Like a song of love that clings to me
How the thought of you does things to me
Never before has someone been more
……Unforgettable in every way
And forever more, that’s how you’ll stay…
The Elixir
The memories of my past are fast fading Idols of my childhood years are disappearing Takes a moment for me to realise age has caught up Decades have passed since, that mid-life has struck The question I ask, is it living in denial? Some persistent experimentation or obstinate trial Or an inexplicable belief that there’s time left on the clock That the ship of life is setting sail not readying to dock Such is and fortunately so, the journey of life We hang on to the joys to help us tide the strife What better time than youth, times of unfettered existence High on life, dreams in our eyes, oh! that exuberance Wish one could order some of those days “to go” Our little perk up snack when life hits a low Then you look up and find that helping hand The party pack you did carry, your friend!