Two lines

Once in a while, when it becomes too swollen to put it in my back pocket, I have to unburden my wallet of all the junk that are periodically deposited in it -- odd bills, old ATM slips, visiting cards of people whom I have forgotten, papers with indecipherable numbers, photocopies of once important documents and things suchlike. Yesterday, having nothing better to do, I thought of cleaning up my wallet.

While I was digging out worn out, unnecessary bits of paper, a particular piece of paper caught my attention. It was a yellow piece of paper from a stick pad that are so common in offices. This piece of paper was all empty but a couple of lines scribbled in Hindi. As I read it I found out that it was an Urdu couplet, popularly known as shaayari .

I tried hard to remember where I had picked it up. Raking up my memory cells I finally found out that I had picked it up in my last office, where one fine morning I had found this solitary piece of paper lying on my desk. I had no idea who had put it there but something about the written words must have struck me and I had slipped it in my wallet and had carried it since then.

Well, if you are by now a little curious to know what was written on it, I reproduce it below for your benefit.

"Kaif bardosh baadlon ko na dekh
Bekhabar tu kuchal na jaaye kahin"

P.S. These lines must have struck me because I also have this premonition -- like Kaif, the author of this couplet -- that I might get trampled someday while watching the clouds above.

P.P.S. I still don't know whose couplet is this. Googling the lines didn't help. Is it Kaifi Azmi's? Have anyone of you come across this couplet before?

Coming back to life

To those who thought my blog has died a natural death, this post must be disappointing. Yes, this blog is alive - it's trying to mutter a few feeble words again.

I have no reason to defend this long hiatus. Agreed, I was a bit busy travelling - first, to McLeodganj; then, to my hometown Dhubri in Assam; and finally, to Pune (where I'm stationed now and hope to be here for quite some time). Meanwhile, I have also quit my last job and landed up in a new one. But despite all these, I had ample amount of time in my hand. The excuse for not writing is, therefore, nothing but my legendary lazyness.

Anyways, there were a lot of things which I wanted to write and failed - My last few days in Delhi when winter was setting in; The last meetings with friends whom I knew there; The loneliness I felt when I landed in Pune Airport; The few acquaintances I made in a new city. For the kind of nondescript life I am used to, these were all too alien. Moreover, things were happening so fast that by the time something registered in my head, it was already over. In short, I struggled in my new environment, as always.

Now, as I am writing this, things are a little better. I have devised means to keep myself busy. I read to kill time, spend long hours in the office to surf the net, and resort to daydreaming when I am bored. So, you can say I'm gradually getting back to normal life.

Okay, as I close this post, I'm leaving you with these few lines from a Vasko Popa poem, which for some unknown reason had been sitting in my head for the last few days.

"From every pain
We do not mention
Grows a chestnut tree
That stays mysterious behind us

From every hope
We cherish
Sprouts a star
That moves unreachable before us"

- from "Far Within Us # 1"