Dec 7, 2010

EK SHE'R

Ek She’r
Agarche qatra-e-shabnam na paayad bar sar-e-khaarey
Manam  aan qatra-e-shabnam banok-e-khaar mi raqsam
Khaliqur Rahman

We were in CIEFL Hyderabad. CIEFL is Central Institute of English & Foreign Languages. On Saturdays and Sundays the day-and-night residents wouldn’t get dinner in the Refectory. Some of us who needed to work to meet the deadlines would decide to stay back. Most others would prefer to eat out and enjoy themselves.
We would eat fruits and biscuits at dinner time and perhaps make tea. On one of those Saturday evenings we did the same and settled to work. By about 10 or 10:30 every one of us – five – became victims of self-denial which chased us to a point of restlessness that pushed us out of our different rooms and we met surprisingly all at the same time in the corridor to make a confession that everyone of us needed dinner without which perhaps work was not possible. So, we decided to go to a nearby Iranian apology of a restaurant in Taarnaka – a 15 to 20 minute walk from the campus.
When we reached there it was beginning to close down. I was then pushed to speak to the Manager at the counter. A tall and fat Iranian looked tough from the very appearance of his. I went up to him and said we’d like to have biryaani for five. No chance he said as there were only two biryanis left and the kaarigar was just about to leave. I pleaded three times. Three times,he said No. He wouldn’t budge an inch.
OK… listen to a Persian couplet, will you? I said. I noticed the lines on his face were beginning to change as his expectant eyes grilled into mine. I recited the couplet: agarchey…
Aisa she’r to zindagi men naheen suna he said as all of his big fat body ballooned a few inches from and against the gravity of that obstinate managerial chair!
He called the kaarigar and asked him to make five biryaanis.
A drop of dew cannot stay on the point-head of a thorn.( If it does, it loses its existence.) But that dew drop I am that keeps dancing on the point-head of a thorn.
Life is like that!

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