कहीं कुछ और

हम तो युहीं सोच चले थे!
वो जो कल का टूटा था
कब वो बिखरे को जोड़ पाया है,
कुछ पहेलियाँ तो बुझाने वाला
भी ना सुलझा पाया है.

हम तो युहीं चादर में समेटने निकले,
रद्दी की चादर कब क्या बटोर लाया है.
क्यों सोच लेता है यूँ ये दिल ;
की ख़ुशी के दो पल मूँद ले किसी और के लिए,
जो अपने लिए ना ढूंढ पाया,
वो किसी और का संवारने चला है!

एहसास

काश  आज साये को बोल देता

तू अक्स बन पीछा न कर

अन्जाने तो युहीं  में ,

तू भी अन्जान बन, अक्स न बन.

समझ मैं बहुत आता है ,

जो परे है उससे , तू वो वास्ता न बन,

छोड़ चार दिवारी , मस्त मौला बन.

ना बन पाये तू साकी, ना सही,

हर झूट का एहसास तो मत बन!

In another's memories

You watch as she runs oblivious to the shore. There is nothing holding her but what she has inside of her. What she loved and what she was. The parts of her that was hers and hers only. She stands there at the crossroads of twilight looking deep into the sea. What she searches for is for her to know. All you can do is walk soft steps for naught else can be done.

You do not fill any emptiness. A shadow is all but that. It stands behind. Watches and feels but watches only. For it can never be the support she needs. It cannot cocoon her in its arms for its arms point another way. A shadow was made and a shadow it remains.

She holds the sands in her hands. Sands have a weird way of making it back to where it came from. You cannot stay. You want to tell her that. But she will not listen. She is somewhere else. Somewhere between that place where the sea ends and the waves begin. Somewhere between where the sun sets and the moon begins. You look at the sun. You cannot set with it. The sun will never be your companion.

The moon rises over. The moon can never be yours, She opens with a mind of her own. The waves do not belong to you either. They left you a long time ago. Even the shore you stand on is in her memories. You intrude. You cannot go back elsewhere because there is no where else to go. You tried to go but the part of you that was you stayed back. It always stayed back

You want to tell her! The sands will never stay in her hands. It is not in the nature of the sands. She can let the waves take it. They can wash it clean. But harder she holds. Those sands slip, a grain at a time. She holds harder and all she can feel is her hand and the sands slipping away.

She will realize when her hands are empty. She will feel her hands again. When she does, she will move on. She would never realize.

You stand there. Left at crossroads in a twilight that's not yours. You stand alone in a world not yours. It never was. You followed for it is the nature of a shadow. And shadows someday will be shed. For the night she walks off to, a shadow has no meaning.

The shadow remains. This sunset was not yours. This sun will never rise. Some places you can walk out of. Some places you stay alone. Alone with the other shadows of the night.