EXCERPT FROM THE POEM " MY JOURNEY " BY ALI SARDAR JAFRI
The day will come
The hand-lotuses wilt,
And the butterfly of speech forever fly
The flower of toungue.
All faces, blossoming like buds,
Laughing like flowers,
Will one day, dissapear
To the shadowy depths of the sea.
All pulsing blood, all beating hearts,
All melodies will be hushed.
On the velvet of blue sky,
This shining gem,
This heaven, this earth of ours,
Without knowing, understanding,
Will weep tears of dew
On the handful dust that is man.
Every single thing will have gone.
Then no one will ask:
Where is Sardar?
But, I'll come here again,
Speak through children's voices,
Sing in the call of birds.
When seeds smile under the earth,
And seedlings, with their nimble fingers
Caress the layers of soil,
I'll open my eyes
Through every bud,
On my green palm,
I'll balance the droplets of dew.
I'll become the glow of cheeks,
The beat of melodies.
Like the blush of a modest bride,
I'll sparkle through every veil.
When the wintry winds blow
And the autumn leaves fall,
Under the lively feet of travelers,
My laughter will sound
In the crunching of dry leaves.
All the golden streams of the earth,
All the blue lakes of the sky
Will be filled with my being.
And the world will see
That every tale is my tale,
Every lover Sardar here,
And every beloved Sultana.
( Ali sardar Jafri )
Sultana is late poet's wife
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Some time i think,it is better not to roll down you collection of pictures of the Dal Lake or any part of kashmir that you have posted on chinar shade.The reason being that i get hurt with this recollection and curse the people who forced us to leave our native land where i have passed the best days of my life.And rethink,whether i will be able to go back to my land in this very life or i have to wait for rebirth.You are posting such pictures which have lot of romanticism
ReplyDeleteLooked over your latest collection of Dal Lake pictures. It reminds me about my teenage period when 2 schools of Srinagar namely Mission School Fateh Kadal and D.A.V School, Rainawari organised a joint swimming meet from Nehru Park to Nishat bridge three and half a mile distance during summer days. It was called Dal cross.The students were given Dal cross certificate which they would proudly display before their parents, relations and friends as their achievement.
ReplyDeleteThe training in swimming was introduced by Late C.E.Tyndale Biscoe when he started first missionary school in 1881 at Srinagar.(Refer - A book Sunlight and Shade by C.E.Tyndale Biscoe. That time common talk was that Biscoe would appoint such teachers in the school who would have been Dal cross, Wular cross but no pass. That means he gave importance to extra curricular activities than to course books but that does not mean his school teachers were not qualified. He had that time graduate teachers among whom Late Shri Shankar Pandit, the Headmaster of the school was the best.Biscoe remarked about him "what Shankara doesn't know about Kashmir is not worth knowing".
Late Shri Bakshi Gulam Mohmd, Former Prime Minister of J & K state, was the student of Mission school who popularised aquatic sports in Dal Lake and Jashn Kashmir at polo ground and Badamvari(Hari Parvat).Late Bakshi was greatly influenced by Biscoe's dimension of education. So as a Kashmiri we are indited to Late Biscoe.
Koul sahib Thanx . i fully share what you say . please visit kashmir once .
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