Chupke-Chupke Raat Din

Last night, as usual I was listening to my MP3 player with all lights turned-off and Ghazal maestro “Ghulam Ali” humming the irrestible song – “Chupke-Chupke Raat Din” in my ears. I have listened and enjoyed this ghazal countless times but yesterday somehow I felt some urge to write a few shers myself. I am not a shayar or poet, so I can’t found some base to start. Hence I picked the ghazal itself as the base and wrote some lines on my own. It is more of a 'tuk-bandi' [trying to rhyme words] kind of effort, so it’s not very good. But since it’s my first effort, I can’t stop myself from publishing it.

Unfortunately, this post contains matter which is more relevant to people who understand Hindi and a slight amount of Urdu as well (cannot be called 'Urdu' exactly, its mostly 'Hindi' only). I thought of translating it into “English” as well but I found that it loses its vigour and magic if done so. Hence all non-hindi readers are requested to take help of their other friends who can translate this for them. Else, you can send me special request for translation, I will try to do it. :-)

Before starting with my lines, let’s just revise the first stanza of the ghazal:-

Chupke-Chupke Raat Din, Aansoon bahana yaad hai,
Hum ko ab tak aashiqui ka woh zamana yaad hai.

And here is the disclaimer to all my “Leg pulling friends”- These few lines are written just like that and are not a result of anything real or imaginary which you all are planning to cook :-)

Now here are few lines written my me:-

Ishq ki be-imaniyon ka alam, to tha kuch aur bhi,
Unka sabse hans ke milna, humse nazrein churana yaad hai.

Ja rahe thay, raaste pe, hanste gaate ek din,
Un ko aata dekh-kar, dhadkon ka ruk jana yaad hai.

Din mein unko dekhna, raaton mein unko sochna,
Aanthon pahar unko, khayalon mein basana yaad hai.

Unka humse poochna, ki kyun hai yeh dil udaas,
Muskurakar apne hal-e-dil ko, unse chupana yaad hai.

Jab kiya tha humne unse, apne dil ka haale bayan,
Unki woh naarazgi, aur moonh firana yaad hai.

Woh hanse to hum hansein, woh roye to hum bhi roye,
Un ki khushi aur un ke ghamon ko, apna banana yaad hai.

Please use the comments section generously for the benefit of the author... :-)

~Mayank

Moving to Green...

I have read somewhere :-

The only constant thing in this world is 'Change'. No one has escaped from that, no one ever can.

My blog is also "no-one" and has undergone this change in look and feel. Finally, I was able to find and tweak a new template for my blog. The initial template (shown above) was very dull and boring. So somehow I came out of my procrastination and played with some HTML and CSS to create a new face for my blog. [If you are some lucky person not from software background, ignore these two words – ‘HTML’ and ‘CSS’, they are some software crap which is part and parcel of unlucky software professional like me ;-) ].

Coming to the new template, I found it having better aesthetics and more pleasing to eyes (atleast to me). Light green is one of my favourite colours and hence the reason for the new layout being so greenish in colour.

Do let me know, how do you find the new look and feel of my blog. The comments section is waiting for you…

~Mayank