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"MISUNDERSTOOD MAN" OR A "MYSTERY"?
O thundering clouds!
O threatening lightning!
O you sounds and flashes
Of schemed frightening
My heart fears nothing
For I own nothing
Not even her for whom
I keep longing...
Tired I am and fed up
By the infirmities of this land
Which gives preferences
To things I consider bland.
I want to sleep and wake up refreshed
I want my beloved in my arms
Just as she is in my heart
And dictates the patterns of my mind
Yet I am not at all confined
To frailties of such a kind.
I am more aged and wiser
Than many around me
So said my father and so do the years
Of time's proverbial cycle.
Sadness marks me
Yet I am not insane or abnormal
I am just out of place
In this dimension called modernity
And all its superficiality
And fickle showmanship
Of pure and untainted love and affection
Fondness and gentle passion.
I am convinced as say the soothsayers too
That I do not belong here at all.
It does not matter where I come from
Be it Pluto, Mars, Jupiter or Mercury
Or some undiscovered realm further beyond these.
I am spending my days and nights
After having lost several precious years
Of youth and all the charms it has
To an unwise decision
And my best days of enjoying moments
With my beloved Daphne
Passed away to the frontiers and paradises
Where she happily lives now.
I am just fulfilling the destiny planned for me
By my Creator and Sustainer
Without questioning His Will
Or complaining against anything
That was alloted to me for the time being....
I have to pull myself up every day
And strive with all my subconscious might
To survive with vitality and vigour
And work for the betterment of my loved ones:
My mother, my children and my true friends
And all that makes me parry the nights of unwanted loneliness
Is the love of a woman who saved me from total collapse.
She is God's recompense blessed on me
As if to atone for all the sufferings I have borne so far
From my birth to the day when some self-centred fool
Separarted me from the livelihood I had
Along with the laughter and timely respite
Of men like Adnan Jaffar* and Ruhuddin Khan*
And the timely interludes with wine and saqis
At taverns where broken spirits find some comfort
From the vastness of man-made desolation.
And then I must thank my Maker Divine
For Shazi, my one time-tested truest of human friends
Who stands by me all along
And gives me company via letters and phone calls
And recognizes the fundamental fact
That I am -- as he himself describes quite honestly --
"The most misunderstood man after him."
Or, as I do converse with my conscience at times
When I am beyond myself -- thanks to my saqis
And the lady who reads the stars
And chalks out the past, present and future
Of several like me and feels happy
In doing so
She says: "You O Naveed, are a mystery".
Perhaps we both -- Shazi and I
Are really misunderstood mysteries
Even for the wise ones of this age!
Or maybe we are being made to believe so
As we come from far far away --
From the place created for our first parents
Adam and Eve -- known as Eden...
A totally humane and beautifully loving world
That only God the Greatest is aware of till now....
Bark O you dark forms of the weather
And scowl O you streaks of clashing electric spears!
I care not and you dare not
Intefere in the Will of the One I love most:
My Lord God Allah.
You can no longer impress me
As human love stays just a dream
Shared between me and my beloved woman.
I miss her terribly and my loving God knows it too...
The fact that He does hurts me when I reflect
As to why my Greatest does not alter the fate
Which He himself dictated to His angel.
Why do we true lovers are still so distant
In physical affinity and His charms of passion?
Why? Why? Why?
