स्वयम संतुलन.....

वृहद् से भी वृहद्, चरम से भी चरम,

जीवन की पराकाष्ठाओं से क्रीडा करता मैं,

सत्य से विरक्त हो कर भी सत्य के अधीन,

सम्मान से विरक्त हो कर भी सम्मान के अधीन,

हस्तरेखाओं का विन्यास, घटनाओ का अट्टहास,

प्रचंड परिस्थितियों का संसर्ग,

नेत्रों के पटल में विध्वंस का चित्र,

जघन्य से भी जघन्यता का दृष्टा,

आरम्भ से अंत तक स्वयं को ढूंढ़ता,

विभिन्न रूपों का एक योग मैं,

आकाश के मस्तक पर, धरती के वक्षस्थल पर,

प्रेम के अधीन परन्तु वैराग्य से सम्पूर्ण,

कर्म में लीन, पाप पुण्य से विहीन,

जीवन के पराकाष्ठाओं से क्रीडा करता मैं. 

The Pink Lemonade..

In the heat of the world your love is lemonade,
Sweet and sour but refreshing as ever,
Drained with the struggle I need it forever,

In the bright heat you're my pink shade,
Your love is what i call the pink lemonade,

Pink is the colour of your love,
A shade of pink I had never seen,
My eyes see your love, so does my heart,
The colour of pink in your eyes so green,

Shining like a pink star in your eyes like jade,
Your love is what I call the pink lemonade.

Sometime you are sugar sweet,
Sometime sour like lime,
Like the touch of ice in burning hot,
And like the feel of breeze so sublime,

Please give me more I want this trade,
Your love is what I call the pink lemonade. 

Aazaad Parindey...

Rokoge kaise falak tak pahunchne se mujhe, 
Katroge mere par ya baandhoge tum mere paer, 
Pinjare ki salakhein rokengi na mujhe, 
Jaunga main un aasmano mein,
Jahan bharte hain parwaaz, 
Mere jaise hi kuch aazaad parindey. 


Neele aasmaan mein main bharunga udaan duur tumhari iiss qaid se, 
Tez hawaon ka karunga saamna ladunga apne har ek khauf se,
Baarishon mein bheegunga aur tapoonga jalti dhoop mein, 
Rok sako toh rok lo main chala uss or, 
Jahan bharte hain parwaaz, 
Mere jaise hi kuch aur aazaad parindey. 

The Real Valentine…..

‘Sasha, do you have money?’, Anushka asked Shashank.

‘How much’, Shashank asked her taking out his wallet.

‘Around 600 bucks’, Anushka said calculating in her mind.

‘Here! And can I ask for what?’, Shashank inquired.

‘I gotta buy Rajat a present for this valentine’, Anushka said snatching the money from his hands.

Shashank and Anushka had been neighbours and best of the friends since pre-school. Shashank blindly believed in Anushka in everything. Each word of Anushka was like a word from bible for him. He never raised any questions on Anushka’s choices except for the case of Rajat. He did not like Rajat. Not that Rajat was a bad guy or something but since he came in Anushka’s life Shashank had started feeling sidelined. But Anushka was trying hard to find someone for Shashank.

‘Sasha how is that one?’, Anushka would say pointing at a girl going on the road which would make Shashank frown. When Rajat came in Anushka’s life Shashank busied himself in other things like sports and painting. Anushka tried her best to manage time for Shashank. They had made a pact in class four that Anushka will do homework for both and Shashank will manage everything else. At that time he thought that he had fooled Anushka but now he had realized that girls have special power to foresee the future. With time the ‘everything else’ had increased multiple times the amount of homework.

‘Sasha can you drop me at the mall on 14^th please?’, Anushka asked him.

‘OK then 11’o clock’, She replied herself without waiting for an answer.

Sometimes Shashank wondered that what kind of a guy Rajat was. How could a guy not be bothered about a boy having so close friendship with his own girlfriend? But then he knew who Anushka was. She could convince a dog that it’s a lion and vice versa. He started planning what he would do on Valentine ’s Day. And then he realized that it would be same as any other day. He will sit with some of his other lonely friends and have smokes or two listening to some music or may be the best he would do was going for a movie.

On 14^th February Shashank dropped Anushka and came back. He was sitting and watching television when the cell phone rang.

“Hello Sasha, Come and take me home”, Anushka spoke in a very low voice.

“Why? I just dropped you there!”

“Are you coming or not?”, Suddenly there was anger in her voice.

“Ok ok”, Shashank got up picking up the bike key from the table.

When he reached the mall He saw Anushka running towards him with tears in her eyes.

‘Let’s go.’, She said to him as soon as she reached near the bike.

‘But what happened?’

‘Nothing, let’s go”.

“Unless you tell me we are not leaving”.

Anushka broke into sobs. “I will never see that bastards face again, he was lying to me all the way since start.”

“OK, But I mean what happened exactly?”,

“His real girlfriend came with Emotional Attyachar team”, Her sobs became even more violent.

“What? That TV show in which they catch cheating partners on camera?”.

Anushka did not reply.

“Hey don’t worry about that. My friend’s father is in the production team of that show. I will try to stop that show from being aired. Or otherwise I can get your face blurred in that episode at least so that nobody could recognize you.’

‘You dog! My problem is not that. He cheated on me”. Anushka cried.

‘Ok then let it be aired’.

Anushka knew that Shashank won’t let the show get aired anyhow. She did not speak further.

She silently sat on the bike.

‘By the way Emotional Attyachar was one of your favourite shows”, Shashank tried to lighten the mood only to get a heavy punch in his kidney from behind.

‘Shut up doggy”, Anushka cried.

Just then Shashank had to apply breaks. There was some Anti-valentine protest thing going on. He tried to turn the bike but the protestors already surrounded them.

‘Who is she?’, One of the protestors asked Shashank.

Shashank could feel Anushka’s finger clutching his waist tightly from behind. He knew that she was afraid.

‘Is she your sister?’, Another guy asked from the crowd.

Shashank did not know what to do.

‘Who is she?’, The same guy asked again.

‘Why would you care?’, Shashank tried to stop himself but words slipped from his mouth.

‘Ok so you are celebrating valentine’s day?’, the guy said with a sarcastic smile.

‘Now we will make your valentine’s day special’, the second guy spoke again.

‘Now speak that this girl is my sister loudly’, the first guy ordered Shashank taking out a rakhee from his pocket.

‘Today we will celebrate rakshabandhan’, the other guy spoke laughing.

‘I won’t’, Shashank said firmly.

SLAP! Shashank got a tight slap on his face from the first guy.

‘I said I won’t.’, Shashank spoke getting even more obstinate.

The first guy raised his hand again.

‘Stop or I’ll show you who I am!’, Shouted Anushka.

The hand of the first guy stopped in the air.

‘The Superintendent of police is my uncle, so slap him again and see what happens’, Anushka spoke showing a number in her phone’s contact list to the mob in front.

‘Oh! Then prime minister is my grandfather’, said the guy rolling his eyes.

Within no time Anushka dialed the call and handed it over to the first guy. He took the phone. The jaw of the 

first guy dropped within seconds he brought the phone closer to his ear.

‘Let them go’, He told the crowd, backing off.

On the way home Shashank inquired Anushka about the phone call.

‘What do you think, only you have contacts or what?’

He was looking on the road but he knew the exact expression Anushka had while speaking this sentence.

Later at home Anushka was sitting in Shashanks room tending his slapped blue-black cheek with a hot bag.

‘Bastard was like a bear’, she abused the guy who had slapped him.

‘You need coffee?’ She asked shashank.

‘Desperately’

She went to the kitchen to make coffee and came back with two mugs. Sitting in the room, sipping the coffee both of them watched the orange sun setting. Now the both of them were sure who their real valentine was.

The target and the sniper..

One eye closed and looking in the scope,
This thing for me is just like dope.

Addictive and exciting that is what it feels,
I will choose this over best of the deals.

I see the bulls-eye teasing me again,
One shot one kill is not a bad bargain.

I clutch the rifle and take a deep breath,
It's for me a matter of life and death.

Cardboard target and humans are not the same,
It's a tough job but I still call it a game.

Either you die or I die is the game called,
My mind is a computer and it's preinstalled.

I do it for nation and I do it for fun,
I am a sniper and I live by my gun.

The Longing...

I yearn for you each day each minute,
It feels like a burning all over my body and inside.

I thought it will die off with time,
But it is getting severe with each day passing.

It is getting severe and milder,
How can something severe be mild?

There was a time when I thought I would need nothing if I got you,
And I begged God for you each day.

But God kindest as he is,
Sometimes chooses not to be that kind.

I believe it happened for my own good,
And yet I don't know how not getting you can  be good to me.

The longing has gone so intense,
Now even getting you won't fulfill it anymore,

It seems like I long for something that doesn't even exists,
Something which is unattainable.

It all started with you,
But one thing I can promise that it will never end with you.

Sacrifice....

All of his fellow soldiers were dead. He looked around and observed carefully. Trees were moving along with the wind. He was feeling strange walking alone in an unknown area but there were no other options.

He was somewhere in the punjab province of Pakistan. He and his fellow men were dropped there to destroy an important enemy base. They were successful in the mission but among all of his fellow men he was the only one who was successful in saving his life. He knew that he has to move from there before enemy reinforcements or Indian Jets arrive because both can be fatal.

He looked at his watch. 0200 hours. Indian jets roared in the sky. It was time for final showdown. He was outside the perimeter of the area to be bombed as it was briefed. He looked the light flashes and smoke from far away, feeling relieved about the mission.

He looked at his watch again. 0245 hours. He had reached the spot where he was to be picked up. He waited there for long but there were no signs of any help. The scheduled chopper did not arrive. He understood that either something has gone terribly wrong or he has been abandoned. In any case he was now on his own in this unknown area.

This mission was classified and they had an idea that it was going to be a suicidal one too. He had talked this to his mates just before the drop. Picking up from an enemy area just after a strike and that too air strike was not a very practical plan.

‘I knew that’, he mumbled to himself. ‘They aren’t going to come. The mission was suicidal indeed.’

If the mission was suicidal then he was the only one who failed in it.

0400 hours. It is winter and he is still hiding at the spot. With each minute approaching the morning his hope was diminishing.

‘The rays of hope are inversely proportional to the rays of light...huh’. Hiding in the bushes he joked to himself. ‘Shit... it’s not funny’, and definitely it was not. With this thought despair struck him like lightening. He was sure by now that he was stranded.

‘So what am I going to do?’, He started thinking. The whole world reeled in his mind. His family, his friends, his school, the National Defense Academy, his NSG training days, every event played like recap of a daily soap opera.

‘This is bad.’ He thought to himself. ‘Why they lied?’, But he was the only one alive to think upon this question.

His mind was racing. Reaching the base on foot was an impossible option. Only options he had were either killing self or getting captured or killed by the enemy. After much reflection he selected the former possibility. 

He took a breath and fixed the nozzle of his rifle below his chin and pulled the trigger. Clack! The AK didn't fire. AK never fails. His mind raced. There was a purpose to this.

After fifteen years.... 

A man in Karachi prison was cutting stones. The jailer came. 

"783 you are lucky. We have chosen you for exchange", the jailer said to him.

The man showed no expression as if it does not matter to him. But he had a purpose and this exchange was absolutely necessary for the purpose he had. 

Next morning 15 war prisoners were released on both sides and this was the first step.

Five years later, he had won the MLA elections. Standing in a parliament he was thinking how much he had waited for this day. He thanked the almighty for making it possible. A member of parliament has the power to change the nation and he definitely will do this.

The session started. The members were discussing over the president's rule over some naxal affected state. It was his turn to speak.

"Honourable Speaker and respected members of parliament. India as a country needs a reform in everything but most importantly it needs reform in our political skeleton. I not only support president's rule over these states but over the nation until our system is reformed and I will make sure today that this happens."

After his speech he opened his bag. After five minutes president's rule was declared all over the country. The explosion had killed all the members of parliament in the hall.

The pieces of his body were scattered all over the hall and with one of those indistinguishable pieces there was a badge lying. A red badge with swords and wings. A red badge with the word 'BALIDAAN' imprinted on it.