કાચના ફૂલશી મૃદુતાજ

કાચના ફૂલશી મૃદુતાજ જુઓ છો મારા ચેહરા માં?
તમે શૂં જાનૂં કેતકેતલી ભટ્ટિયોએ ઑગાલ્યો છે મને?

- મુશ્તાક

Do you only see the delicacy
of glass flowers in my face?
How would you know how many
furnaces have refined me?

- Max

ख़ुशी के आरज़ू में

ख़ुशी के आरज़ू में मुक़द्दर सो गए,
आन्धी ऐसी चली के अपने भी क्हॊ गए,
क्या ख़ूब था उनका अन्दाज़ ए मोहब्बत,
प्यार देने आए थे और पल्कों भिगो गए

- अज्ञात

એક પંખી આવી

એક પંખી આવી ટહુકી ગયૂ,
પંખર ને વસન્ત મા ફેરવી ગયૂ

- મિત્રા પટેલ

A bird came and made a sweet call,
thus converting autumn to spring.

- translation by Max

Incomplete riffs

मिलना और बिछड़ना,
खिलना और बिखरना,
हँसना और निखरना,
फूलना और सँवरना,
मक़सदी हयात गर्च

*

जी और क्या होगा,
उगना और उभरना,
उड़ना और उमटना...

*

वह याराना जिसमें तलब-ए-वस्ल* ना हो,
एक शानदार दस्तरक़्वान** है,
जहाँ सिर्फ़ तस्वीरें परोसी गईं हो
*craving for a tryst
** tablespread

Life

Why should life be unique
to this average planet
hung upon an average star?
Why couldn't there be life elsewhere
when the cosmos clangs
with fearsome upheavals,
colossal gravity
runs amok in blind circles,
the minuscule atom hides Hiroshimas,
the cool breeze ruffling my hair
is a childsized twister,
and awesome tsunamis lurk
beneath a groaning sea?
Why would Homo sapiens
be just an ant colony
on a forgotten island?
Oh where is the sense in this
chirpy kaleidoscope,
fecund and reticent?

- Max

મન ના ઘોડાપુર

મન ના ઘોડાપુર ને આ પરવતોંના ધોવાં

સાથે કઈંક જોડાન હશે?

- મુશ્તાક

Could there be a link between
the raging floods in my heart
and this erosion of the hills?

- Max

Happy Diwali

Some lamps you light will burn through the night,

Many will die with the wind, some won't light at all.

But the flame that you must never let die away,

Is the flame that lets you see your dreams.

Wishing you a happy, hope-filled Diwali.

- Raamesh

TWENTY-NINE LINES TO MAKE YOU SMILE

BLESSED ARE THE CRACKED, FOR THEY LET IN THE LIGHT!

TWENTY-NINE LINES TO MAKE YOU SMILE

1. My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn't.

2. I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.

3. Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.

4. I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.

5. Don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.

6. You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me

7. Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

8. Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.

9. I'm not a complete idiot -- Some parts are just missing.

10. Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.

11. NyQuil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning medicine.

12. God must love stupid people; He made so many.

13. The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

14. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.

15. Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?

16. Being 'over the hill' is much better than being under it!

17. Wrinkled Was Not One of the Things I Wanted to Be When I Grew up.

18. Procrastinate Now!

19. I Have a Degree in Liberal Arts; Do You Want Fries With That?

20. A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

21. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.

22. Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!

23. They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.

24. He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.

25. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.

26 . Ham and eggs... A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig. (how true)

27. The trouble with life is there's no background music.

28. The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.

29. I smile because I don't know what the heck is going on.

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends! Life is too short and friends are too few !

A young cowboy from Oklahoma goes off to college. Half way through the semester, he has foolishly squandered all his money. He calls home. "Dad," he says, "You won't believe what modern education is developing! They actually have a program here in Stillwater that will teach our dog, Ol' Blue, how to talk!" "That's amazing," his dad says. "How do I get Ol' Blue in that program?" "Just send him down here with $1,000," the young cowboy says. "I'll get him in the course." So his father sends the dog and $1,000. About two-thirds of the way through the semester, the money again runs out. The boy calls home. "So how's Ol' Blue doing, son?" his father asks. "Awesome, Dad, he’s talking up a storm," he says, "but you just won't believe this -- OSU has had such good results they have started to teach the animals how to read!" "Read!?" says his father, "no kidding! How do we get Blue in that program?" "Just send $2,500, I'll get him in the class." The money promptly arrives. But our hero has a problem. At the end of the year, his father will find out the dog can neither talk nor read. So he shoots the dog. When he arrives home at the end of the year, his father is all excited. "Where's Ol' Blue? I just can't wait to see him read something and talk!" "Dad," the boy says, "I have some grim news. Yesterday morning, just before we left to drive home, Ol' Blue was in the living room, kicked back in the recliner, reading theWall Street Journal, like he usually does. Then he turned to me and asked, ‘So, is your daddy still messing around with that little redhead who lives down the street?’" The father exclaimed, "I hope you shot that rotten liar before he talks to your mother!" "I sure did, Dad!" "That's my boy!" The kid went on to law school and now serves in Washington D.C. as a congressman

6 Retired Irishmen.

This is why we love the Irish.....

तू ही बता ए ज़िन्दगी

हर दिन खुशी है लोगों के दामन में,
पर एक हँसी के लिए वक़्त नहीं|
दिन रात दौड़ती दुनिया में,
ज़िन्दगी के लिए ही वक़्त नहीं|

माँ की लोरी का अहसास तो है,
पर माँ को माँ कहने का वक़्त नहीं|
सारे रिश्तों को तो हम मार चुके,
अब उन्हें दफ़नाने का भी वक़्त नहीं|

सारे नाम मोबाइल में हैं,
पर दोस्ती के लिए वक़्त नहीं|
ग़ैरों की क्या बात करें,
जब अपनों के लिए ही वक़्त नहीं|

आँखों में है नीन्द बड़ी,
पर सोने का वक़्त नहीं|
दिल है ग़मों से भरा हुआ,
पर रोने का भी वक़्त नहीं|

पैसों की दौड़ में ऐसे दौड़े,
कि थकने का भी वक़्त नहीं|
पराये अहसासों की क्या कद्र करें,
जब अपने सपनों के लिए ही वक़्त नहीं|

तू ही बता ए ज़िन्दगी,
इसज़िन्दगी का क्या होगा,
क हर पल मरने वालों को,
जीने के लिए भी वक़्त नहीं|

- अज्ञात