Dastaan-e-Do Lamhe

2016 (Ek Deedaar Ka Sukoon)

A childhood memory returned tonight,

And softly wrapped my heart in light.

After years, when her face appeared,

The weight of centuries disappeared.

My eyes drew portraits, a thousand frames,

Each look, each move — my heart reclaims.

Tears shimmered quietly within her gaze,

My heart broke… yet found new ways.

Her love belonged to someone new,

Still, my soul found peace in view.

I stood there — silent, unseen, small,

Yet her presence filled my soul with all.

I don’t know if it was love or fate,

But when she was near… my world stood straight.

2016.. continuation ....

(Kuch pal)

Her eyes were wet with the sorrow of an old love,

and the unfinished wave of that story reached all the way to me.

Every day I walked through the lanes of her village,

and somewhere between the distances, love began to drift toward us.

Slowly, gently, my words soothed the wounds she carried,

and the fog of her past memories lifted softly from her face.

Our nights drowned quietly in endless conversations,

even our silent heartbeats began speaking to each other.

Then came a moment my heart could no longer hold in,

and what I had wanted to say for years… I finally said that night.

In the trembling of her tears, a faint smile appeared,

and when she kissed my forehead and whispered, “I accept”… my soul trembled.

That night was nothing less than a blessing for my heart,

and even when morning came, that moment refused to fade.

But my heart still knew that somewhere ahead, our paths must separate,

for this love was a fragile light… destined, someday, to quietly burn out.

Those four days of radiance carved themselves into my soul,

those moments, those talks — all of them settled deep inside my heart.

Even today my heart says — those moments were life itself,

and everything else… simply disappeared into the dust of time.

2017   (Aakhri deedar)

That day arrived — the one I had never prepared my heart for,

Aching with the fear: will love walk beside me, or leave forevermore?

Fate passed its harsh judgement in a single, merciless breath,

Her wedding to another… the news tore my heart beyond death.

When the truth reached me, a cold silence spread through my soul,

It felt like something mine — only mine — slipped from my hold.

I tried to gather myself, but the wounds refused to hide,

How could I change destiny, when destiny itself stood beside?

She came to me carrying the message of her marriage that day,

And even my heartbeat paused — unsure what to feel, what to say.

My eyes wouldn’t rise… my tears stood trembling at the brink,

All I feared was breaking down — more than my heart could think.

Her eyes spoke softly of a pain her lips could never claim,

As if she, too, had sacrificed her heart in duty’s silent name.

When the word ‘nikaah’ hovered between us, our souls quietly cried,

Two paths that once met… suddenly drifted to opposite sides.

My heart longed to stop her… to pull her into one last embrace,

But what power did we have against fate’s unforgiving pace?

She turned away without a word, slowly fading from sight,

And our shared silence… spoke louder than anything we could write.

2017

(Dastaan-e-Majboori)

After she left, loneliness slowly sat beside my heart again,

and the heart learned to breathe by hiding every memory deep within its chest.

Just a day before her wedding,

an unsettling restlessness took over my soul—

Today, in her bridal red,

her friends must have adorned her with care…

On those fair, delicate hands of my beloved,

they must have painted mehendi with soft laughter…

How deep that mehendi must have appeared—

and beneath that darkening color,

she must have hidden my name…

When she looked at herself in the mirror,

I’m sure somewhere in her reflection,

she must have seen a glimpse of me…

Her tears must have fallen again and again,

whenever a thought of me passed through her heart…

She must have looked like a beautiful fairy today,

even the moon, seeing her, must have blushed…

She must have been so helpless…

I keep wondering how she convinced her heart,

how she silenced her pain…

With her own hands,

she must have burned our love letter—

and as those pages turned to ash,

her heart must have scorched too…

Forcing herself, she must have turned to stone,

and erased my memories from her heart…

I know she didn’t eat anything today—

that silly girl must have stayed hungry,

swallowing her pain with her tears…

How did she hold herself together,

when they made her say “Qubool Hai” against her will?

Her body must have trembled

when another man’s hand

was placed in hers…

And she must have broken inside completely

when the moment of her farewell arrived—

crying endlessly, her breath trembling…

Today she strangled her own happiness

just to protect her parents’ honor…

Today my beloved saved her family’s dignity,

fulfilling the difficult duty of being a daughter.