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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یہ دوست بھی ہمارے کمال کرتے ہیں یارو؛
ناراض بھی ہوتے ہیں اور جانے بھی نہیں دیتے!
شائد دعا ہے انکی جو آتی ہیں مشکلیں،
آتی ہیں مشکلیں، منزل کی راہ میں مگر،
مشکلیں آنے پر بھی رکاوٹیں نہیں آتے!

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