Bashir Badr - IV

Meri in aankho.n ne aksar gham ke dono pahloo dekhe
Thahar gaya to patthar aansoo bah nikla to dariya aansoo

My eyes have frequently seen both the sides of grief
If it stops, the tear can be a stone; if it flows, the tear can be a stream

Beautfiul! Comparing a tear with a stone and a stream in the same vein!

*** *** ***

Na koii khushi na malaal hai ki sabhi ka ek sa haal hai
Tere sukh ke din bhi kaT gaye, meri gham ki raat bhi guzar gayee

There is no joy, no sorrow, everyone is in the same state
Your days of happiness also got over, my night of grief passed away too

Ah! What a perspective!!

*** *** ***

Na jane kab tere dil par nayee dastak ho
Makaan khali hua hai to koii aayega

Mai.n apni raah mei.n diivaar ban ke baitha hoo.n
Agar who aayaa to kis raaste se aayega

There may be a new knock on your heart anytime
The house has become vacant, so someone will come for sure

I stand like a wall in my own way
If she comes, what path will she take

*** *** ***

Ujaale apni yaado.n ke hamaare saath rahne do
Na jaane kis galii mei.n zindagi ki shaam ho jaye

Let the light of your memories be with me always
The dusk of my life may arrive in any street

Now, this is THE BEST couplet of Badr. Very well known, and rightly so!

*** *** ***

Us moD pe ham dono kuch der bahut roye
Jis moD se duniya ko ik raastaa jaataa hai

Dono se chalo poochei.n usko kahii.n dekha hai
Ik kaafilaa aataa hai, ik kaafilaa jaataa hai

Duniya mei.n inki kahii.n taaliim nahi.n hoti
Do chaar kitaabo.n ko ghar mei.n padha jaataa hai

Both of us cried a lot for some time at the corner
From which a road goes towards the world

Let me ask them both if they have seen her somewhere
A carvan arrives, and a carvan departs

In this world, these are not taught anywhere
There are a few books that have to be read at home

Orkut vs. Facebook - The survey result

Sometime back, I mentioned that I was invited to join the networking site Facebook by two of my friends, MHP and AD (both of whom were already on Orkut, to which I was also subscribed). Since I was not convinced about maintaining yet another site, I tried [yes, tried would be the right word rather than conducted, given the small number of respondents :-)] a survey of the popularity of Facebook. I sent it to all my "friends" on Orkut, and posted it on my blog as well.

As soon as I sent a mail to the Orkut junta, one of the friends [MHP] who had recommended Facebook, got back to me, rolling with laughter, "dont believe u r taking a popularity poll on this one..."
A few days later, when he asked me for the results, I had to reply with a certain disappointment:
"What poll results?! Out of the 100+ friends I have on Orkut, only 5 bothered to reply. I am wondering if there is any point of any of these networking sites at all!"

The summary of responses from Orkut and Blogger (along with the most interesting responses):

Do not use Facebook (5)
- Have no idea(4)
- Have heard of it(1)
don't use facebook, never heard of it and to be honest am tired of so many sites inviting friends etc. i guess there more sites than i have friends :D

Use both (5)
- Prefer Orkut (2)
- Prefer Facebook (3)
I use facebook a lot and it is much cooler than Orkut and has got good interface and a very addictive "update your status" field. In my opinion Facebook is lot better than Orkut and given a choice, I will go for Facebook. But for some reason facebook is only popular with foreign people while Orkut is full of Indians e.g. I have only one Indian friend on Facebook. This is the only reason why I am still using Orkut.

Neither (2)
- Never signed up (1)
- Got disillusioned (1)
I've an Orkut account - and have stopped using it now...
Though we can find good old friends, it's total time-waster...


The conclusion:

If I assume that ~100 Orkut friends who didn't reply to my message are unaware of anything called Facebook, I can safely conclude that Facebook is not popular amongst my friends. The general feedback I received echos this - people who tried out Facebook, find that it has nice features compared to Orkut, but since they are much more likely to find [Indian] friends on Orkut, they maintain the account there. This is working as a cycle - since there are already so many people on Orkut, newcomers prefer Orkut. It appears that Orkut is more popular in India, Facebook in Europe, and Myspace in US.

I ended up creating an account on Facebook, specially since I wanted to see the large number of photos MHP had uploaded on Facebook. There seemed to be a lot of "fun" things there, but I felt out of my depth, since there was too much to do, and the interface was not easy to use. I remember that I found Orkut very easy and intuitive to use when I first joined it about two years back (when it had not yet been bought by Google). Ironically, at that time, there were not too many people on the network, so after few months I got bored and deleted my account.

And this is what AD said a couple of days back:
I don't get much time for facebook either and now that the initial excitement of the innumerable applications has subsided, I don't log on all that much.

The bottomline is, since my sole purpose to enlist on a social networking site is to get back in touch with lost friends, and I am more likely to find them on Orkut, and I find it easy to use [I dont bother with fancy applications], I stand by Orkut.

Bashir Badr - III

Most of the visitors to my blog are not into poetry, and some are not versed with hindi/urdu. But I love poetry, and when I come across lines that make me stop, think and admire them, I like to record it, for myself, and for any others who share my enthusiasm.

So, some more selections, from Bashir Badr ...

Yeh dil ki raakh kured mat, use muskura ke hava na de
Yeh chiraag phir bhi chiraag hai kahi.n tera haath jala ne de

Mai.n ghazal ki shabnami aankh se, yeh dukh ke phool chuna karoo,n
Meri saltanat mera fan rahe mujhe taajo-takht khuda na de

Do not prod the ashes of my heart, do not fan it with a smile
The lamp is still a lamp, it might burn your hand!

With the dewy eyes of my poem, let me pick the flowers of sorrow
Let my art be my kingdom, I do not pray for crown and a throne

Again, this is so tender – yeh chiraag phir bhi chiraag hai.n – but it is not utter despair – there is a sense of hurt, but along with a pride – kahii.n tera haath jala na de.

BaDe shauk se mera ghar jala koii aanch tujhpe na aayegi
Yeh zabaa.n kisi ne khariid li, yeh kalam kisii ka ghulaam hai

Yahaa.n ek bacche ke khoon se jo likha hua hai use paDho
Tera kiirtan mahapaap hai, mera sajda karna haraam hai

Set my house on fire, with pleasure, you will not be in the least risk
My voice has been bought out, my pen has become a slave

Read here what is written in a child’s blood
Your singing hymns is a grave sin, my bending in prayer is illegal

These are the lines that I found most powerful and moving, and impressed me most. They are very unfortunately still true, or perhaps truer, decades after they were originally written. The goriest of crimes go unpunished, since the witnesses are bought out, or wiped away, by money or power. There are so many crimes against children, the innocent beings, on whom we rest our hopes of a better future – of what use is the religion, any one them, if we cannot protect their childhood from such trauma.

Khuda hamko aisee khudaaii na de
Ki apne siva kuch dikhaaii na de

Ghulaami ko barqat samajhne lagei.n
Asiiro.n ko aisee rihaaii na de
[asiir = bandi]

May the Lord not reward me with such greatness
That I am unable to see anything but myself

That they consider slavery a blessing
May He not give such a release to prisoners

Ab kise chaahei.n kise dhoondha karei.n
Wo bhi aakhir mil gaya ab kya karei.n

Dil, muhabbat, diin, duniya, shayari
Har dariiche se use dekha karei.n

Now who should I want, who should I seek
I’ve found her [/it/him] at last, now what do I do

Heart, love, religion, world, poetry
Let me look at her [/it/him] through every window

I think here again, the two couplets say two very different things, though it is not a stark contrast. But I loved them both. In the first one, the poet conveys that the longing is better than achieving – it keeps you motivated. In the second, he talks about looking at his beloved from every window[way of looking at things] he has.

Taking back my due from Flickr

A few months back, I ranted about the issues with Flickr, after I migrated my photos from Yahoo Photos, which was closing down. On my free account on Flickr, I was limited to:
- uploading 100 MB worth of photos in a month
- displaying a maximum of 200 photos at any given time
- having three sets at maximum [sets are equivalent to albums]
- if the account remains inactive for 90 days, it will be deleted

The last two of these bothered me most. I decided to move to picasaweb, but not finding a way to do so, I sought help from the visitors to this blog. I received ample sympathy, and a lot of helpful advice too.

The suggestions were as follows:
http://manishrjain.googlepages.com/flickrfs
http://greggman.com/pages/flickrdown.htm
http://www.flickrleech.net/
http://sunkencity.org/flickrbackup/

I went to the flickrfspage first. A quick scan through it made it look rather difficult to do, so I decided to check out the others. I might have been mistaken in my perception, but I decided to revisit this option after evaluating others.

Next, I tried flickrleech. It seemed pretty easy to use - it could find photos on the basis of username, userid, etc. Though it made me rather sceptical too - since if it worked, it also meant that anyone could download anybody's photographs, in full size too. Quite a violation of copyrights! Still, since was no harm in trying it, so I provided the required inputs. Result - nothing, nil, zero. Perhaps because my photos were private.

On to Greggman's flickrdown. It seemed somewhat promising, but the caveat was, it was available only for Windows and Mac. I was trying out this thing from office [hey! dont tell my boss!!], and I have a UNIX based workstation. So this was out, though I could always try it from home later.

Down to my last choice, I opened the sunkencity flickrbackup page with a sinking heart. A little bit of good news, at last. It was an open source software, hosted at sourceforge.net [which is quite a respectable, I mean reliable, source - I do not want to download viruses along with software!] Btw, inspite of all the disadvantages, there is one advantage of UNIX systems - you have no fear of viruses :-) Further, the software was in Java, so it was platform independent. I downloaded the s/w, unzipped and untarred, and was greeted with some jar files. I have had only a little programming experience with Java, and that was way back in college, so I wasn't sure what to do with the Java files. I wondered that even if I did manage to execute the correct binary, how would it interact with the browser. I tried to search the page for the documentation, or even two lines of "how to", but no help there. After asking around in vain, and some trial and error, I found the key:
java -jar FlickrBackup.jar
Simple, eh? [I also needed to include firefox in my path.] It opened a dialog box, and flickr page in the browser, and required me to authorize it to access my data. It was then I learnt that Flickr has provided hooks that one can use and write programs to customize Flickr! [though don't ask me how.]

To end the story, I did get my photos back, though I got multiple copies of some, and with strange names. But of course, they didn't bother me too much :-)

Down the Memory Lane - VIII

Try this for Fiction!


Yesterday, I was talking to a senior colleague R, who pulls my leg quite often. During the conversation, he kidded me about demanding a piece of office equipment ...

R: Go and tell GD that the only thing you need in life is a US-connect+caller-id extension phone, rest everything in this world is going great!

Me: I have no great wish for one [and added as a good measure] Only few days back N concluded that I do not crave for any materialistic thing in this world.

R: [laughs] N must be really happy.

Me: Well, I don't about happy, but yes, it is true, that I am not crazy about anything. Perhaps the only thing I am really fond of is books.

R: [dramatically brightened up] Is this really so? [looks around at the technical documentation lying around] I will give all you these conference proceedings, this techinical literature, these publications, when I leave. You can read them with pleasure!

Me: Hold on! Let me clarify! When I meant I like books, I meant FICTION.

R: So?? Who said all of this stuff is for real? They say, do it in this manner, this works great in this way - it is all actually Fiction!

Me: [straightfaced] It is not fiction. It is FANTASY.

Bashir Badr - II

As I have said many times earlier, one of the things I admire about ghazal (as a form of poetry) is that it does not restrict itself to one single theme – different couplets may express different ideas. One couplet may be sufficient to express one idea, so it is very concise and powerful.

Many of Badr’s ghazals provide beautiful examples of these characterstics. To post here, I have selected one or more couplets from many ghazals, the ones that I found best. [If someone wants to read a complete ghazal, going by the couplet(s) I have posted, do let me know. I’ll send you the complete version, and in hindi fonts, if possible/preferred.]

Akhlaak wafa, chaahat sab kimti kapDe hai.n
Har roz na oDha kar in reshmi shaalo.n ko
[Akhlaak = Naitikta]

Maula mujhe paani de, maine nahi.n maangaa tha
Chaandi ki surahi ko, sone ke pyaalo.n ko

Ethics, loyalty, affection – all are expensive garments
Do not wear these silken shawls everday

Lord, give me just water
I didn’t beg for silver jug or golden cups

It’s beautiful the way the second couplet presents a simple [though not easily understood, or rather followed, idea] – that riches may not be sufficient to fulfil one’s needs!

Yahaa.n libaas ki kimat hai aadmi ki nahi.n
Mujhe gilaas baDe de, sharaab kam de

The dress [appearance] is valued more than the person
Give me a larger glass, even if you give me less wine

And this one presents quite a contradictary view to the previous one!

Muhabbat se inaayat se wafa se chot lagti hai
Bikharta phool hoo.n mujhko hawa se chot lagti hai

Meri aankho.n mei.n aansoo ki tarah ik raat aa jaao
Takalluf se, banavaT se, ada se chot lagti hai

Love, benevolence, loyalty – they hurt me
I’m a shedding flower, the wind hurts me

Come into my eyes like a teardrop one night
Formality, superficiality, style, hurt me

I specially liked the second of these couplets. It is so tender, so vunerable – only a tear can represent the true emotion, even if it is brought about by grief, rest of the feelings and expressions can’t be so pure.

Wo farishte aap talaash kariye kahaaniyo.n ki kitaab mei.n
Jo bura kahei.n na bura sunei.n, koii shakhs unse khafa na ho

Wo firaak ho ki visaal ho teri aag mehkegi ek din
Wo gulaab banke khilega kya, jo chiraag banke jala na ho

For those angels, search in the fairy tales
Who do not hear or speak evil, noone is angry with them

Whether it is separation or confluence, your fire will be fruitful some day
How will he bloom like a rose, he who has not burnt like a lamp

How true! It is only angels who can be so ideal! A normal, mortal cannot hope to please everyone in this world!

Wanted : A Versatile Author

On my last post, Maverick asked me if I know of an author who is truly versatile. I started composing a reply, but it turned out quite long [Books is the only subject I can talk endlessly on ;-) ], so that it converted into this post.

Frankly speaking, I have never wondered, or perhaps cared, about the versatility of authors. With some of the authors it feels that if you have read one or two of his books, you've read them all [the strongest case in point being Robin Cook]. But usually, find that even though there is a "specialization" in an author's domain, the content is significantly different. For example, works of Agatha Christie (murder mysteries), Erle Stanley Gardner (murder mysteries + courtroom dramas), and Jeffery Archer (stories of personal triumphs) follow one theme, but most of them are significantly different to keep one interested. Similar is the case with Suspense thriller writers like Alistair MacLean, Fredrick Forsyth and Ken Follet. But even amongst thriller writers, there are some who have chosen a wide range of subjects, for eg,
o Arthur Hailey - Airport (air traffic control), Detective (espionage), In High Places (international politics), Moneychangers (stock market), Wheels (automobile industry)
o Desmond Bagley - Bahamas Crisis (politics/espionage), Spoilers (drug trafficking), Vivero Letter (treasure hunt)
Perhaps I'll call them versatile, because their works are very well researched in the concerned domain, and provides you an insight into the working of a field you know little about. Then there are fiction writers, whose work I find difficult to put in a particular genre:
Eric Segal - Acts of Faith, Love Story, Class
Nevil Shute - On The Beach, A Town Like Alice, Requiem for a Wren
Perhaps I can call them versatile, even though these are mostly human interest stories. But primarily it will perhaps depend on what we call as versatile.

As for myself, for most part, I have a few favorite genres, and few favorite authors in each of them, and grab unread works by them :-)) And time to time, I read books that are highly recommended by friends or media. :-)

Angels and Demons

Angels and Demons finally moved from my "next in my reading list" to "book review" section, many months after I acquired an intention to read it. It must be a rare few who would not have heard of 'Da Vinci Code', the book that took the world by storm, and propelled Dan Brown into fame. Frankly, I had not heard of Dan Brown (or his earlier works) before 'Da Vinci Code' arrived on the scene. When I read it, I adored it [even though there were certain things that were beyond my comprehension because of the context and the culture I am not familiar with] for the ingenious plot, as well as the well done research that tends to diffuse the line between the fact and fiction. Later on, I read his first book, 'Digital Fortress' as well [which made more sense to me, since codes and computers I am quite familiar with!] Earlier, and also then, I was recommended to read 'Angels and Demons'. Some of the people claimed that it was far better than 'Da Vinci Code'!

When a book captures my interest, I do not take long to finish it. So, one day on weekend was enough for me to complete 'Angels and Demons'. It was fortunate that I didn't have much else to do [or else I might have ended up reading half-way through the night ;-) ]. Yes, I liked the book, quite a lot, in fact. It was fast paced, with ample twists and turns [and the inevitable double cross]. It was also well researched, on facts of science as well as the church, as his other books. And it did not require as much understanding of Christian history as the 'Da Vinci Code'. However, to say it was better than 'Da vinci Code' would be quite a stretch. For one, there were a lot of similarities between the two, so it seemed somewhat repetitive. And secondly, the profiles of the murder victims - a Pope and four Cardinals, stretched the imagination too far. Perhaps my bias is in favour of 'Da Vinci Code' since I read that one first. And similarly, it is possibile that people who liked 'Angels and Demons' better, would have read that one before the other.

Seen on a T-shirt

I took the road less traveled ...
.. and now, where the heck I am?

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

This novel by Mark Haddon won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year, and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book.

The story is written in the first-person narrative of Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy living in Swindon, Wiltshire. Though it can be easily deduced from the content that the narrator suffers from an autistic condition, it is never stated within the story, but the summary on the book's inside cover states it to be Asperger syndrome. This is wonderfully developed and depicted through the narrator's thoughts and the events that take place in his life.

Christopher is brilliant at mathematics, has a photographic memory, and exceptional observation powers. However, he has difficulty understanding fellow human beings - he is baffled by human emotions, gestures and relationships. He is unable to comprehend facial expressions [for example when represented by emoticons] besides 'happy' and 'sad' and has difficulty in understanding metaphors and jokes. He does not tell lies, because he cannot - he cannot imagine things that are untrue or infeasible. He likes lists and facts, but cannot deal with un-quantitative statements. He loves numbers and puzzles - that is he way of calming down when he is disturbed. He loves playing with numbers so much, that he has numbered the chapters of the book in prime number sequence [2, 3, 5, 7 ...]. But interaction with other human beings, specially strangers, completely overwhelms him. He is oversensitive to more than a little amount of information, due to which he reacts violently - by screaming or groaning, when he has to deal with new people or places.

The title is taken from a remark made by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in the short story "Silver Blaze". Late one night, Christopher finds that Wellington, the dog owned by his neighbour, Mrs Shears, has been killed with a garden fork. He is extremely sad to see it, and picks up the dog. Mrs Shears sees him then, and thinking that he had killed the dog, gets him arrested. Christopher's father gets him free, but Christopher resolves, against his father's advice, to find the killer, and embarks on an investigation, like Sherlock Holmes. He believes that since the dog didn't bark, he must have been killed by someone known to him. [That the dog didn't bark, is the curious thing mentioned in the title - this is the similarity with Conan Doyle's story.] He is encouraged by his teacher at the special school he attends, to write a book about himself, and this is "The Curious Incident ...". In the course of the investigation, and the events that follow, he learns more about the world [though barely understanding it], himself and his family.

Well, so much about the book. I'll refrain from describing the story, as usual, to avoid spoiling the pleasure of those who might intend to read it. I really liked the book - I initially intended to read a few pages before going to sleep, but kept on reading late night, till I finished it. The story was good, and very well presented, with subtle humour, and an underlying irony. It gives the perception of the world and "normal" human beings, from the perspective of a person with cognitive disabilities. There are so many things we take for granted, but which are not so easily understood by someone who cannot comprehend the complexities of human nature. It also depicts how stressful it can be for the parents of a child with such disabilities, and how it can transform their lives. It makes one deeply empathise with Christopher, and still more with his father. Extremely touching, and eminently readable.

Nida Fazli

In my last post, in which I posted poetry by Bashir Badr, I mentioned the introduction of the collection had been done by Nida Fazli. Its a good time to introduce some poetry by this well-known poet too! I have come across some very beautiful ghazals by him, and quite a few of his ghazals have been sung by Jagjit Singh. I admire his poetry for two main reasons - the philosophical bend usually conveyed through everyday objects, and the rhythm.

Right now, I am posting two of his ghazals, that I like most. Will post more in time to come.

*** *** ***

dhuup meN niklo, ghaTaao meN nahaa kar dekho,
ziNdagii kyaa hai, kitaabo ko haTaa kar dekho,

wo sitaaraa hai, chamakne do yuuNhii aaNkho meN,
kyaa zaruurii hai usey jism banaa kar dekho,

pattharo kii bhii zubaaN hotii hai, dil hotaa hai,
apne ghar ke dar-o-deewaar sajaa kar dekho,

faaslaa nazro kaa dhokhaa bhii to ho saktaa hai,
wo mile yaa na mile, haath baDhaa kar dekho.

*** *** ***

Go out in the sun, take a shower in the rains
Put away the books, and see what is life

It is a star, let it shine in your eyes
Is it necessary to see it having a body [to know it]

The stones can also have a voice, a heart
See it - adorn the doors and walls of your home

The distance can be just a perception
You may find it [him/her] or not, spread your arms to find it

*** *** ***

duniyaa jise kahate hai.n jaaduu kaa khilonaa hai
mil jaaye to miTTii hai kho jaaye to sonaa hai

achchhaa-saa ko_ii mausam tanhaa-saa ko_ii aalam
har vaqt kaa ronaa to bekaar kaa ronaa hai

barasaat kaa baadal to diivaanaa hai kyaa jaane
kis raah se bachanaa hai kis chhat ko bhigonaa hai

Gam ho ki Khushii dono.n kuchh der ke saathii hai.n
phir rastaa hii rastaa hai ha.Nsanaa hai na ronaa hai

aavaaraa_mizaajii ne phailaa diyaa aa.Ngaan ko
aakaash kii chaadaar hai dharatii kaa bichhonaa hai

[aavaaraa_mizaajii = wanderlust/habit of wandering about]
[chaadar = sheet; bichhonaa = bed]

*** *** ***

That what is called world, is like a magic toy
If you get it, it's dirt, if you lose it, it's gold
[dirt => worthless, gold => valuable]

A beautiful weather, a solitary moment
Crying all the time is useless crying

The rain cloud is crazy, it does not know
Which path to avoid, which roof to wet

My wanderlust has extended my courtyard
I have the sky for a sheet, and the earth for a bed

*** *** ***

Bashir Badr

As I mentioned earlier, I bought two collections of ghazals by Bashir Badr. One of them had an introduction by Nida Fazli, another very famous name in urdu poetry. He does not seem of have a very fantastic opinion of Badr - he thinks that most of Badr's greatness as a poet is only accepted by Badr himself, and he has expressed this opinion in quite an amusing and witty way.
"apni kitaab mei.n unhone kamzor shayari ki pehchaan ke saath tandurust ghazal ki bhi kuch nishaniya.n ginaayee hai.n. Kamzor shero.n ki misaalo.n ke liye unhe taqriban 700 barso.n ke itihaas ki khaak chhaan-ni paDi, lekin tandurust shero.n ki talaash mei.n unhe jyada waqt nahin kharch karna paDa. Ghar me allah ka diya sab kuch tha, ji khol kar apne shero.n ka istemaal kiya"
[In his book, apart from identifying characterstics of weak poetry, he has also enumerated the traits of good poetry. For examples of weak couplets, he had to search through 700 years of history, but he didn't have to spend much time in search of good poetry. The lord had given everything at home, he used his own couplets whole-heartedly.]

Fazli opines that Badr is more famous for being part of 'Mushairas' [Poetry recitals] than actually the quality of his poems. Even so, he agrees that Badr's poetry showed more maturity, and finally deviated from the conventional symbolisms, with time, and concludes that Badr is a wonderful poet of the post-independence urdu ghazal.

The introduction was amusing, due to the humorous style Fazli had written it in (even if it was at the expense of Badr). But what was interesting to note was that unlike the usual introductions, which unquestioningly felicitate the author/poet, Fazli expressed his honest opinion.

I am a novice, as far as the history of urdu/hindi ghazal goes, and I am not well versed with individual poets' styles, but I have read quite a few poems by many writers, and have found favorite ones from all poets' works. I have come across some beautiful ghazals by Badr as well, and I was glad to find them in this collection.

*** *** ***

Kabhi yu.n bhi aa meri aankh mei.n ki meri nazar ko khabar na ho
Mujhe ek raat nawaaz de magar iske baad sahar na ho

Come into my eyes some time that my sight is not aware of it
Allow me just a single night, but let not the dawn arise after it

*** *** ***

Mai.n tamaam din ka thakaa hua, tu tamaam shab ka jagaa hua
Zara thahar ja isi moD par, tere saath shaam guzaar loon

I am tired after the entire day, you have stayed awake the entire night
Pause at this very corner, and let me spend an evening with you

*** *** ***

Charaago.n ko aankho.n mei.n mehfooz rakhna
Badi door tak raat hi raat hogi
Musafir hain ham bhi musafir ho tum bhi
Kisi moD pe phir mulaaqaat hogi

Keep the lamps safe in your eyes
The night (darkness) will spread far and beyond
I am a traveller, you are also a traveller
We shall meet again at some corner

*** *** ***

Ajeeb shakhs hai naaraaz hoke hansta hai
Mai.n chahta hoo.n khafa ho to woh khafa hi lage

He is a strange person - he laughs when offended
I wish that if he is angry, he should look so

*** *** ***

Kisi ki raah mein dehleej par diye na rakho
Kivad sookhi hui lakdiyo.n ke hote hai.n

Kadeem kasbo.n mei.n kaisa sukoon hota hai
Thake thakaye hamare bujurg sote hain


Do not light lamps at the doorstep in someone's wait
The doors are made of dry wood

There is such a comfort in old towns
Our weary forefathers rest out there

*** *** ***

Koii haath bhi na milayega jo gale miloge tapaak se
Yeh naye mijaaz ka shahar hai zara faasle se mila karo

No one will even shake hands, if you eagerly hug them
This city has a new mindset, here, meet people at a distance

*** *** ***

Jis din se chala hoon meri manzil pe nazar hai
Meri aankh ne kabhi miil ka pathar nahin dekha

Yeh phool koii mujhe viraasat mei.n mile hai.n
Tumne mera kaanto.n bhara bistar nahin dekha


Since the day I started, I have my sight on the destination
My eyes have never watched out for milestones

Do you think I inherited these flowers
You have not seen my bed of thorns