A friend I once knew.

She did ring a dim bell,
tucked away in some forgotten
corner of my heart,
summoning up a faint memory
from my adolescence,
before we drifted apart.

She stood there transfixed.
Her gaze, somewhere between
contempt and indifference.
Conjuring up a forceful grin,
I whizzed past her, because now
all that remained between us, was
a dignified silence.

Is too much selfless giving,
a virtue or a sin?? I ask myself.
But, no matter how much I put my
cerebral matter through its paces.
I never came up with a plausible
answer myself.

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मेरे दोस्त कह रहे हैं
जबसे बना तू कवि है,
हो गया थोड़ा मतलबी है,
पहले तो था हमेशा मिलता
अब मिलता कभी-कभी है...

(Full poem is in caption)

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