Bondage

Culture, religion,tradition
engulf our beings
chains us so
makes it
difficult to breathe..

Yet I make my own path
tread it with
certainty
and I am " me "
in my spaces

In my solitude
I yearn..
To let my inner
caterpillar develop wings
and fly into the
open sky..

The sufi and the grieving mother

Somedays I strive to find myself, and somedays I know not why??? The "why" days have been coming one after the other and that prompts me to post this beautiful poem from the book Conference of the birds by Farid-ud-Din Attar.

Beside her daughter's grave a mother grieved.
A sufi said, " This woman has perceived
The nature of her loss; her heart knows why
She comes to mourn, for whom she has to cry-
She grieves but knowledge makes her fortunate;
Consider now a sufi's wretched state!
What daily, nightly vigils I must keep
And never know for whom it is I weep;
I mourn in lonely darkness,unaware
Whose absence is the cause of my despair.
Since she knows what has caused her agony,
She is a thousand times more blessed than me-
I have no notion of what makes me weep,
What prompts the painful vigils I must keep.
My heart is lost, and here I cannot find
The rope by which men live, the rational mind_
The key to thought is lost; to reach this far
Means to despair of who and what you are.
And yet it is to see within the soul-
And at a stroke- the meaning of the Whole."

The house that built me...

This brought so many memories back to me...

Aes chhe kasher

Aes che kasher ( We are Kashmiris!!). How proud does that make us feel? Are we proud?? Every single day we go through this dilemma of what we are? Are we kashmiris, Indian, hindu, muslim.. We keep flitting between these worlds and fumbling for answers.

It was this predicament that made me a part of ACK. I wanted to be able to define who I am. ACK gave me a platform to know just that. I got in touch with my roots, people; made friends who I cherish and amazingly learnt so much about my homeland which had escaped my eyes all those years that I grew up there.

Kahte Kabir suno bhai sadhoo...

Have been reading a lot of books lately . Fiction, poetry, life histories. A few I just skipped by and a few left an indelible impression on my thought process. One of the books which I found to be really absorbing was about Kabir.
Kabir the poet, came to me when i was a school student and all I gathered that time was that he used to write couplets in Hindi , he was a weaver by profession and he did all that he could to integrate Hinduism and Islam.
As I read through the book i was amazed at how relevant Kabir still is? Nothing much has changed over these years. Caste divisions, religious differences, hatred among people,greed, corruption- everything still exists. It is bewildering that the society Kabir lived in, though separated by centuries, is the same as th one we live in today. Kabir's poems have not lost their relevance also due to the fact that he understood the human psyche so well and that seems to be one thing which hasn't changed over all these years. Sample some of these....

माला तो कर में फिरे,
जीब फिरे मुख माहि ,
मानुहा तो चहू दिशा फिरे,
यह तो सुमिरन नाही .
Translation-rosary rotating by the hand (or) the tongue twisting in the mouth, With the mind wandering everywhere, this isn't meditation (Oh uncouth!)

बोलना का कहिये रे भाई ,
बोलत बोलत तत नमाई
बोलत बोलत बढे बिकारा
बिन बोलिया क्यूँ होई बिचारा।
संत मिले कुछ कहिये कहिये
मिले असंत मुष्टि करी रहिये ।
ज्ञानी सो बोलिया हितकारी,
मुरख सो बोलिया झाख्मारी।
कहते कबीर आधा घट डोले,
भरिया होए तो मूषां न बोले।


Too much talk leads to chaos
Yet without talk how does one discuss
If you must; then talk with saints
With devils it is better to stay mum
Blessing it is to talk with the wise
Talking with stupid is waste of time
Says Kabir, Half full is forever swaying
The fulfilled prefers staying calm

मुझे बड़ा नहीं होना

शाम एक छोटे से घर मैं

किलकारी गूंजी थी

नया मेहमान अभी अभी

गरब की सीडियूं से

माँ की गोद के फर्श पर

लोट रहा था ।

एक आवाज़ कानूं में गूंजी

लड़का है या लड़की??

मेहमान गहरी सोंच में

यह समझने की कोशिश करने लगा

खातिरदारी में फर्क है

किसी ने बताया क्यूँ नहीं ?

वोही बन के आ जाता

जिस का स्वागत हो बालाईयुं से

जिस की एक हंसी पे वार देते सारा जहाँ

जिस के लड़खड़ाते कदम ज़मीन पे पड़ते ही

सारा घर उथल पुथल हो जाता

किसी ने बताया क्यूँ नहीं ????