Being Together

साथ रहते रहते
कई बरस सरक चुके
जो कुछ बच गए
वो भी गुज़र जायेंगे

जब भी मैंने
नटखट सूरज को देखा
नदी को गुदगुदा हंसाते
मैंने भी अपना साथ ढूँढा |

आँसू और अलगाव का
गहरा सम्बन्ध है
हँसी और ठराव भी घनिष्ठ हैं...
जहाज़ सा हो  गया   हूँ मैं
जो नदी पर बह तो रहा है
पर उसकी गहराई नहीं माप सकता,
डूब कर सांस ले रहा हूँ -
खुले में दम घुटने लगा है
विषाद की ऊँगली थाम हँसता हूँ
खुद ही बेकार सा हो चला हूँ |

तुम दूर दिखती हो मुझे
एक धुंधले धुएँ सी
पकड़ लूँ, थाम लूँ
बस यही सोच चुप रह जाता हूँ |

कई बरस बीत चुके
साथ रहते रहते...
और जो बचे हैं
वो भी गुज़र जायेंगे
     

Dotted life

While driving to work today, I was listening to an interesting interview on the radio (FM Rainbow 101.3 in Bangalore). Shivakumar was the name of the gentleman - a very interesting person indeed. He drives an autoriksha for a living and has been growing up in the din of the city, and the din has been constantly rising over the past few years.



He shared some interesting snippets of his life and times; story of someone who has grown in stature with time. I am sure there are many more such people around us, but we hardly get to meet them; they all have amazing resilience and spirit. Ability to laugh is evident in their lives!


He has now been compiling his thoughts into poems and he is about to be published also. Having completed his 9th standard, he started doing various odd jobs as helper, turner, fitter and supervisor. Then a lock-out happened that pushed him to drive his own auto!


There are many ordinary people going around showing exemplary character and extraordinary zeal in their everyday life. Life is a composition of many dotted lines musically detailed in different variants, call it ragas! All these notes tend to completeness but just stop short of reaching that point. Necessarily so, becasue completeness would be the dead end. If a life cannot have many beginnings, then it may not be worth living anyway!


Shiva and such others are playing life to the full - driving an auto, writing poems, singing their own lyrics, taking steps in direction they are not aware of - and tending to completeness, only to take another turn to make a new beginning!