सुलगते से अंगार में बस हवा की दरकार है ,

लपटें बन सफ़र करते हैं और ख्वाब सी रफ़्तार है |

बुझती सांस की देहलीज़ पर इक दिया बे-खौफ जलता है ,

मिसालें होंसलों की रख ये जिंदा कैसा पहरेदार है |

रोके कब रुके हैं दौर दुनिया के सवालों के ,

उठेंगे जो, रुकेंगे क्यों, जो थामी खुद हमने पतवार है |

तेरी है राह, तेरी मंजिल, तू खुद जो जिम्मेवार है ,

जले जिंदा, जले मुर्दा, तय कर क्या तेरा किरदार है ||

है बस्ती ख्वाब में घर मेरा |

तुझे मुझसे क्या, मुझे तुझसे क्या ||

में बस जज़्बात पे हस्ता हूँ |

फिर दर्द क्या, और घाव क्या ||

राही मन , तर हो लगन |

चलता बस अपनी धुन मगन ||

मुझे धूपं क्या और छाँव क्या |

फिर अब रुकने का चाव क्या ||

बज़्म-ऐ-इश्क में तान मेरी |

मेरे गीत क्या, मेरे भाव क्या ||

में बस मुस्कान पे मरता हूँ |

अब भीड़ क्या, पथराव क्या ||

मशक्कत अब नहीं होती , दीवार-ओ-दर सलाखों से |

ब्यान-ऐ-आम होता है , हाले-ऐ-दिल का आँखों से ||

तेरी रंगत से सजते रंग, ये तेरी खासियत है |

रफूगर तू मेरी महरम , क्या मेरी शख्सियत है ||

चर्चे रोज़ होते हैं , ख्यालों में तू आने से |

खर्चे रोज़ होते हैं , मेरे दिल के खजाने से ||

क्या है ना , क्या है ना , क्या कहूँ क्या है ना |

गुलरुख जहाँ मेरा, तेरी क़ैद-ऐ-रजा है ना ||

(1)................................................................................................................
सूरज ढलता नही आंधी तूफानो के चलने से | 
मौसम बदलता नही खुद का हिजाब बदलने से ||

(2).................................................................................................................

ज़िन्दगी खूब बीती, कुछ हसरतों के पैमाने में डूब कर |

हँसता है दिल अब, यादों से खुद को मनसूब कर ||

मुस्कान भी गिरफ्ते दर्द से छूट कर, आसमां का रुख करती है |

मानो, गुज़रे वक़्त की झोली को हसीन तोहफे से भरती है ||

(3).............................................................................................

अपने खालीपन की क्या मिसाल दें , हर लम्हा गुजरते वक़्त एहसान करता है |

हम भी फुरसतों के पहाड़ फ़तेह कर चुके , अब भला खाली रहने से कोन  डरता है ||

(4)............................................................................................

ए ज़िन्दगी बस इतना सा करम कर |

थाम ले हाथ मुझे बेफिक्री का भरम कर ||

या खुद से इतना कर दे पराया |

के हर फ़िक्र से साथ छोड़ जाये मेरा साया ||

(5).............................................................................................

इक जाम भर का साथ है तेरा मेरा ज़िन्दगी |

कभी तू मुझ को पीये, कभी मै तुझ को पियूँ  ||

रिश्ता उलझे जज़्बात है तेरा मेरा ज़िन्दगी |

कभी तू मुझ से जीये, कभी मै तुझ से जियूं ||

(6).........................................................................................

बंधी जुबां पे चुप्पी सी, कहीं रेशम से सजता साज़ है |

गलियों की हलचल है, कहीं बंद महलों का राज़ है ||

बेकाबू है मनचली है, बहते सपनो की धार है |

तू जैसी भी है ज़िन्दगी तेरी अदा से मुझको प्यार है ||

(7).........................................................................................

ज़िन्दगी जल्द बसर करने की होड़ में इंसानी ज़ात क्यूँ है ,

किसी चाह से पहले , अंजामे-ए-चाहत की बात क्यूँ है ,

बाज़ारी हों तो ज़िन्दगी भी बिकने लगे बाजारों में ,

अमीरी की इस दौड़ में, इतने सस्ते जज़्बात क्यूँ है !

इश्क बाजारों में कहीं खरीदार तलाशता है ,

ना अश्क ना लहू से कुछ उसका वास्ता है ,

थमने दे सांस फिर अपने भी कद्रदान से मुलाक़ात हो ,

की कब्र से हो कर गुज़रता मेरे आशिक रब के घर का रास्ता है !!

(8).....................................................................................

सोने दे ऐ नई सुबह के सूरज तू मुझे सोने दे |

बारिश सी मौजों सा मुझको हर सूखा पार भिगोने दे ||

अभी पलक है कुछ मेरी वजनी सी अभी रात है बाकी आँखों में |

तू एक बार तो सो के देख क्या मज़ा है वक़्त को खोने में ||

तू कैसा राजा बनता है, हर वक़्त गुलामी करता है |

दिन में रोब दिखाता है और रात को चाँद से डरता है ||

आ बैठ मेरी सोहबत में कभी और देख मेरी सपना नगरी |

यहाँ चाँद भी देर से उठता है और सूरज पानी भरता है ||

(9).......................................................................................

इस सबब का हाल क्या बताएं दोस्तों ... के अब होश-बेहोशी में रहते हैं !

हमे तो ज़िन्दगी का नशा है ... सच कहते है जो भी मदहोशी में कहते हैं !!

(10).....................................................................................

यूँ नहीं के आदत है जीने की ...

    ना ये कोई नुखते हैं !

कातिल मिले तो सही ...

    मरने के शौंक हम भी रखते हैं !!

(11).....................................................................................

फितरतन काफिर इन्सान..

  ऐतबार किस का करें ऐ खुदा !

कहते सुना कहीं ..

  के तेरा ही अक्स हर शख्स में है !!

(12)..................................................................................

इश्क की बात क्या कीजे...

  चाल इसकी कौन कर सकेगा बेहतर दर्ज हमसे !

फ़तेह कर सारा जहाँ...

   दीदार भर से दम तोड़ गये थे खुदगर्ज़ हमसे !!

छोटी सी जिंदगानी , अरमान निकले भी तो कम |
कई बार जिंदा हुए, कई बार दफन हुए हम ||

कोई शिकवा भी नहीं तुझसे ऐ खुदाया |
तेरी कुदरत में जियें हैं , कभी सूखे कभी नम्म ||

उसपे वो करें , खुश रहने की दुआ |
ये कैसी अदा है मेरे अज़ीज़ मेरे सनम ||

रज़ा में तेरी, रज़ा है सब की |
ना मांगूं कुछ ज्यादा, ना चाहूं कुछ कम ||

In Pursuit of Balance

In a chase to decipher the nature of Mother Nature, i inferred that ultimate driving force behind any natural phenomenon is “Balance”. It’s the start and the end of everything. Nature’s law are analogous to a Pendulum, the very nature of Mother Nature is to stand at equilibrium, any force disturbing the balance of this pendulum is called “destruction”, the pursuit of balance is called “innovation” and the ultimate end is again a balance. Likewise, every destruction is followed by innovation until the balance prevails. Our each activity or sentiment is governed by this simple law, we can find numerous parallels in our daily lives running in harmony to this.

Our Love or Hatred towards anybody is an act of unbalance; it’s called destruction of something balanced known as “indifference”. After being in love or hatred, we learn a lot about ourselves, we tend to change our very basic nature and this all process is called innovation or also termed as adjustment. Well, adjustment is also an innovation, though it is intangible. The ultimate end of this is again indifference; the tenure however depends on numerous factors. The more you love or hate anybody, the more time the pendulum takes to come at rest (state of indifference or Balance). Don’t be afraid, this does not mean that love dies, you love your partners daily and the unbalance will continue but you need to put that disturbing force always to keep it moving.

The laws of physics are also ruled by nature’s balancing funda. Even the charge repels similar charge until it gets its other half i.e. the opposite charge and reaches a balance termed as Neutral. It should be viewed in a positive manner, the disturbances are also essential since they paves way for innovations and hence evolution. The disturbances are what make us superior living species, what makes us lively. Even a minute thought generated in mind is a kind of disturbance (effort applied), which leads to series of thoughts (free movement) and hence modification of our behavior (innovation). Our life is also a constant swing of this pendulum, it is an un-ending quest to reach balance disturbed by either our activities or by other’s. We destroy, we create, and we live.

If we understand this basic thing then we can all stay happy forever, not being panicked by life’s unbalancing situations, knowing the fact that ultimately they are to bring some positive change, evolution and return to beginning is the ultimate end. Happiness or sadness is merely a disturbance from tranquillity (balance), they bring with them certain evolution in us, and ultimately it is the tranquillity that will prevail. Every nonconformity or extreme is temporal, only the balance is eternal. Change of state is part of life’s cycle and should always be cherished because; neither good is permanent nor bad is. Everything will come to rest one day. The pursuit of balance is what Life is!!

A Budweisered Day

Four hardy soldiers standing resolutely against the vast forces, it was a show day.

Ansin (the fearless), Abhimanyu (the invulnerable), Kobir (the immovable) and ofcourse I (the legen’dary’) were out there to create history at the sandy battle field of chowpatkshetra the previous day. Ok, let me alert you it is not simple and trivial. Blessed with a futuristic vision, we all carried our armaments despite that there was no sign of assail ... apart from petty drizzle I admit. We had nothing except corns to feed us since past thhhirtttyyy minutes and were somehow dragging our bodies on miniaturely-Huge sand dunes. Guess what! ... Suddenly we were totally skirted by Nimbus, whose numbers outweighed us by thousands, well prepared to bang us with pointed spears. It was dead silence all over, the moments resisted to pass by, but i had to make a decision for my men and our glory, either to bow down and beg for life or to fight until martyrdom... my hands trembled for a moment, the shield went heavy and the spear fell down... and after a pause, my fists clenched rock hard... shield clutched to hands as if it were part of me and the four of us, exactly in same fashion as in movie “300”, screamed the shibboleth “WE ARE SPARTANS” and took positions close to each other and guarded ourselves up with the umbrellas ... OK yeah am talking about getting struck in a rain, but this wasn’t any other simple rain ..It was THE RAIN.

It was the most ferocious rain i ever seen and truly, we enjoyed out being there on the chowpaty beach. The sea water was so desperate to break the borders and so were we to stand firm against the raging tides. We did this activity for fifteen/twenty minutes until one huge tide misbehaved and... wet my cell phone right there in my jeans’ pocket. But everything comes at a cost and so did that terrific experience of facing the high tides with friends... in rain and on beach, annddd being followed by unblinkingly curious eyes of pretty girls (well, i am not stressing the last part though).

After having both salty and sweet shower (in sea followed by rain), we moved on to grab some beer. Few minutes of maundering on streets, rain still singing its shower, and we holding our folded/packed umbrellas in hand (actually we four were having only three umbrellas so we thought why to leave odd one out... let’s all get odd and get wet), reached a beer shop. We were greeted by dubious gaze of red coats, also known as waiters. Oh! Come on have you never seen “aquatic creatures”? we’re just extra wet, so what? Our leaking clothes do not disqualify us from having beer here dude...this was what I would have said if they did not allow us in, but nothing of that sort happened and infact we were offered one beer free on purchase of three (rainy discount).

It was a perfect wet day, we were completely wet both from outside and inside. As the time passed, the equation became inversely proportional, the more our clothes run dry the more we run wet. As the saying goes, “if the rate of change outside exceeds the rate of change inside, the end is in sight”, we truly believed it so we consumed faster than our clothes dried up. Have you ever felt this flaky tendency of sticking to multiple of a certain number and if that multiple crosses by even marginally, you just rush through all other numbers to reach the next multiple, as mostly happens in the morning while leaving bed that you watch time clock and commit yourself to wake up at exact multiple of fifteen. So, after having four, Abhimanyu called for the fifth one and hey... the wheel could only stop at multiple of four in this case (3 + 1 free), so we ended up at eight. The faces at our nearby tables kept changing every half hour but we stayed there for long until we could not take any more hit on our pockets... yeah the bill also went in multiple of four and in four digits... what an irony!

The beach, the rain, the beer all are mundane until friends are around, may be because friends pretend/prove to be good listeners when you are drunk. That’s why i came back to room all happy and empty headed that day, am sure I dumped all my cheesy thoughts in front of three good listeners... and apparently, SO DID THEY. But who bothers, this is what friendship is.

Friends ON THE ROCKS.