Writers Bloc

Our romance begins in winter; Between I and the only city I know. Empty and clean. The never ending circles. I realize I love the roads. I love gazing at them. I realize I love the sky. Between the sky and the skies, I wonder, how much there is to know? Strong and Silent. I realize I love the elegance ...

“If dust had an alphabet, I would learn.” — Aga Shahid Ali Erelong, descrying a golden blush When soft orange rays Of an evening sun Melding with gentle twilight blue Bathed the distant creek Into a crimson hue And we gathered the smearing sun As one In our solemn eyes Yet today, in a scornful guise Akin to a weary ...

Through how many such ray less nights While scratching corroded wounds Have I been writing to You In obscure, blurry ink By the shade of an onerous yellow moon That hangs by my window Like an antique vapory lamp While air crinkles into paper And oceans cleave Transpiring One colossal roll of undeciphered whispers Then, axe these epochs, O Companion ...

Past a night of Cimmerian gloom In one early winter Twilight Coming from myriad minarets of the city, I heard One euphonious call; “As salatu Khayrum minan nawm”  (Prayer is better than sleep). Ah, the melodious invitation That voice, enrapturing Threw wide open the locked dormitory door Defying the frozen ghostly winds Tiptoeing; to escape the sight of my dormitory’s ...

Once upon a time there was a dreamer He was loved. Love become his mirror and made him see himself as prince. He never use to talk much, Neither he was rich. The joyful warmth of love causes me to sing, of a self-created kingdom i am the King.* When he was young, His mother and father Had faith on ...

The unknown Indian follows an uneven course, Always gets into doubt and remorse, For the ethnic wish to come true, It’s me but not you… Life at the valleys or backwaters at discourse, One still and another in a silent pose, Turbulent rays withstand the hope, Say either you or me or say, It is me but not you… The ...

The breeze unbuttoned the tiredness of the day As I sat on the park bench, watching our children play Their eyes glistered just like the rays of the sun on the evening clouds A certain joy disturbed my heart, something that I had never allowed The morning begun with my thoughts of you Brushed aside by the sky so blue ...

[Following is a satirical take on the government’s incompetence in dealing with the culture of sexual violence against women in India. This is a work of fiction.] The Indian State has come up with a never tried before path-breaking formula, what it calls a “sure-shot way to produce a rapist.” In fact, for the first time ever, there seems to ...

Last November in 2011, my classmate Irshad, who is an alumnus of Aligarh University,  told me of his plan to go for the annual day celebrations, also called Sir Syed Day, at Aligarh University. He asked if I wanted to come along, to which  I readily agreed. We decided to go to Aligarh in the morning of November 8th. I ...

What if things didn’t fall in their right place? What if every reason for love I have fails What if future promises nothing? My hand holds truths and lies Believing one will deny other Choosing lie is how I choose you Picking truth will send you away. Living the battle of emotions, Confused, my heart questions Will you pick me ...