Ghalib

Na tha kuchh to khuda tha,                                                When there was nothing there was God,              

kuchch na hota to khuda hota,                                          if there’d been nothing there’d have been God,

Duboya mujhko hone ne,                                                     Being has ruined me,

na hota main to kya hota?                                                   if I did not exist what would have been?

 

Months of journey

                        on bullock-cart, palki, boat

tonga, ekka and whatnot

                    Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow,

Allahabad, Banaras, Banda,

                     Patna, Murshidabad,

finally Calcutta, then endless wait

                          to petition Lord Amherst—
‘double my paltry pension of rupees sixty two’
I returned to Shahjahanabad

                                        scorned, derided

my family debt-ridden

                                   my dignity robbed

my brother died in my arms

                          none of my sons survived

                                     I turned into a stone wrapped in human skin

then came the worst

                         the massacre of Delhi

                                        my friends were butchered

I alone survived

                          to take down their corpses hanging

                                                  from the trees, the lamp-posts

to usher them into their graves

                           to lament my destiny.

~ Abhay K.

 

Abhay K. (Abhay Kumar) is an Indian poet. Winner of the SAARC Literary Award 2013, he is the author of five collections of poems and two memoirs. His forthcoming collection of poems ‘Seduction of Delhi’ has received widespread critical acclaim.