From "Ice Candy Man"/"Cracking India"
“India is going to be broken. Can one break a country ? And what happens if they break it where our house is ?”
”The path to virtue is strewn with broken people and shattered china..”
“And the vision of a torn Punjab. Will the earth bleed ? And what about the sundered rivers ? Won’t their water drain into jagged cracks ? Not satisfied by breaking India, they now want to tear the Punjab.”
“Now I know surely. One man’s religion is another man’s poison.”
“Tum aye ho na shab-e-intezar guzri hai---
Talash main hai seher baar baar guzri hai!
You never came...The waitful night never passed--
Though many dawns have passed in the waiting.”
“She lives to dance! And I to toast her dancer’s grace!
Princes pledge their lives to celebrate her celebrated face!”
“Kiya mujh ishq ne zalim ko aab ahista ahista
Ke aatish gul ko karti hai gulab ahista ahista.
Slowly, my love compelled her slowly--
The way the sun touches open the rosebud, slowly.”
“The confrontation of Ice-candy-man and Godmother opened my eyes to the wisdom of righteous indignation over compassion. To the demands of gratification---and the unscrupulous nature of desire.
To the pitiless face of love.”
“I have never cried this way before. It is how grown-ups cry when their hearts are breaking.”
“’Tis a miracle wondrous that you have come:
Marvelling, I look from you to the walls of my house...” --- Translated from Ghalib
“Hai ashiqi ke beech sitam dekhna hi lutf
Mar jana ankhe moond ke kuch hunar nahin.
‘Tis nothing...to roll up one’s eyes and die.
I endure my lover’s tyranny wide-eyed.”
“Give me the (mystic) wine that burns all veils,
The wine by which life’s secret is revealed,
The wine whose essence is eternity,
The wine which opens mysteries concealed.
Lift up the curtain, give me power to talk.
And make the sparrow struggle with the hawk.”
--Iqbal
“Why did you make house in my heart?
Inhabit it. Both the house and I are desolate.
Am I a thief that your watchman stops me?
Tell him, I know this man. He is my fate.”
“There are other wounds besides the wounds of love--
Other nights besides passionate nights of love---.”
“My passion has brought me to your street--
Where can I now find the strength to take me back?”
“Don’t berate me, beloved, I’m God-intoxicated!
I’ll wrap myself about you; I’m mystically mad.”
“Bewitching faces don’t remain buried
They reappear in the shapes of flowers.”
