दुनिया की विशालता देख, मैं बहुत परेशान हुआ
थोड़ा हैरान, थोड़ा निर्बाध हुआ

प्रकृति ने तभी एक छोटा उपाय दिया
थोड़े और ज़्यादा का भेद दिया
जीवन की महानता का नन्हा-सा एक मान दिया

उन्होंने कहा कि एक छोटा सा उपाय करना
स्वस्थ रहने के लिए छोटा एक माप रखना
अपने आप को व्यक्त करने के लिए छोटे मीठे शब्द रखना

मन प्रसन्न हो, मैंने भी खुद के चित से कहा
चलो आज एक छोटा कदम लेते हैं
परिणाम से हटकर एक कदम बाएं और फिर दाएं लेते हैं

यह एक अद्भुत बात बना देगा
लय और ताल का जादू यह
गीत और नृत्य के साथ सब कुछ सही राह पर ला देगा

मुझे माप की सुंदरता का एहसास हुआ
मानो खुद को मैं तभी प्राप्त हुआ
मैंने पक्षियों को कुछ करीब से देखा
बिना किसी नाप से, दृश्य की विशिष्टता को देखा

देखा खुद का छोटा रूप
जब दिख रहा था प्रकृति का विश्व-स्वरुप
अपने कर्त्तव्य को पूर्ण करने से पहले
लगने लगा मुझे यह अनुमान अनूप

मुझे बराबर भ्रम हुआ
इस मान, इस माप का मुझ पर ऐसा रहम हुआ
परिणाम की इच्छा भूल, सीमाओं को त्याग
उपाय को अपनाया मैंने | सारे माप छोड़ कर फिर जीवन की डोर को फिर बढ़ाया मैंने

अब न विलम्ब करो, सामान्य लक्ष्य नहीं यह
गाना और नृत्य करने के लिए एक उपाय ले आओ
यदि सूर्य आज अस्त और कल फिर से आता है
कल की अनिश्चितता में खुशी और नृत्य की सुगमता लाओ

आओ इस संसारिक धारणा के पुराने उपाय को भूल जाते हैं
और शुद्ध भावनाओं के अनोखे सागर में गोता लगाते हैं
मानवीय माप को आज छोड़ कर
विश्वरूप ग्रहण कर लेते है

इस दुनिया की अस्थायीता सीखकर
आध्यात्मिक दुनिया के अनोखे सौंदर्य को पीकर
इस क्षण का आनंद लेने के उपाय को ले आओ


ऐसे उपाय के बिना जीवन क्या है
जहा माप का कोई खेल न हो
चिरंजीवी हो या हो एक दिन के योद्धा
माप बिना उस सत्य परिणाम को ले आओ




Writtten by Avinash

Lot of editing and correction by Rini

Photos by Rini





अजीब, मुझे अक्सर लगता है कि मैं यात्री बन गया हूँ ।

अपनी पसंद से नहीं, बल्कि किसी के खेल से

एक कठपुतली, जिसके पास कहने के लिए कुछ नहीं है

मेरा मालिक धागे चलाता और मैं चलता रहता हूँ।

कभी-कभी पूर्वानुमान गति में, कभी-कभी मैं दौड़ने लगा हूँ ।


ऐसे ही एक दिन मुझे लगा कि मैं स्वतंत्र हूँ क्योंकि कुछ धागे मेरे पास हैं।

फिर भी मुझे पता है कि वे संभवतः गति को नियंत्रित करते हैं।

मैंने सोच-विचार किया कि क्यों मुझे इन धागे को काटने की जल्दी है

लेकिन फिर प्रकृति ने मुझे आपकी योजना के बारे में बताया

क्यों ये चलना फिरना मुझे नियंत्रित लगता है ?

क्या यह महज मेरी धारणा है

या मेरी संकीर्ण सोच मुझे ऐसा महसूस कराती है


क्या मैं गुलाम हूँ?



इस तरह के एक पल में मैंने खुद को समर्पित कर दिया

न आवेश में किया, न ही मैंने कोई त्याग किया

लेकिन अपने विश्वास में, मैंने यह अभ्यर्पण किया।

अब मुझे लगता है कि मैं सभी आयामों में आगे बढ़ता हूँ ।

मैं इस दुनिया में स्वतंत्र हूँ, हालांकि लोग कह रहे हैं कि धागे अब भी हैं

मैं कहता हूँ कि धागे तो केवल खेलने के लिए होते हैं


अब मेरा दिल पृथ्वी, आकाश और समुद्र पर घूम रहा

घाटियों में गहरी, जहां कोई भी नहीं देख सकता था

कि मेरी भूमिका में, मैंने आपका पालन करने के लिए

आत्मसमर्पण किया है, मैंने अपने सभी प्रयासों में।



Written by Avinash

Edited and translated in Hindi by Rini

Photos by Avinash

Guide to a labyrinth



If walls could speak, they won’t stop talking about the glorious days, which they have witnessed. I recently visited Bara Imambara in Lucknow, which was build by Asaf-ud-Daula, Nawab of Awadh, in 1784. The walls are designed in such way that if someone just whispers in one corner, it is heard in other corners and galleries. These walls, literally, have ears here.


Sun saluting the Majestic Asfi mosque

Beautiful arches are the result of the amazing engineering, which distribues the weight of building to the outer structure. Imambara has Asfi Mosque, three halls (Chinese hall, Persian hall and Indian hall), a labyrinth and a stepwell (Shahi Bowli). The place a strategic design, which made the soldiers spot the enemy as they enter the premises. There are many ways, which are blocked now. Legends has that these were secret passageways to Faizabad, Agra and other far distant places.



Rini, showing me the way in the labyrinth


Other attraction of this place was Labyrinth and Shahi Baoli (stepwell).


Shahi Bowli



A setting in the evening


A short fiction story

Once a family came to visit a labyrinth. There were four adults and two kids in the family. They hired a guide to show them around. Guide warned them that seven of us will enter but only six will come out. Everyone laughed as the guide was making everything mysterious to make it interesting. He gave a tour around. One of the kid was very chirpy and was teasing the guide, ‘Are you guiding us or yourself?’

In a span of more than two hours, everyone experienced the puzzles of the labyrinth to their heart and now it was time to get out. Guide challenged the tourists to find their way out in next fifteen minutes and claimed that the right way will take just 30 seconds. They never came out and guide was taken away by the police.


In few days, a man came and got the guide out of police station.


A boy of nine is asking another guide if he is guiding the boy or himself and then runs to his mother, who is cooking meal. She shushes him as she takes another child to show her home in a tunnel.


Written by Rini

Photos by Avinash

Old and withered



Old and withered,

yet there remains something unfigured

Losing all notions

what is left of my emotions

Is it time to go ?

It is already ‘a long time ago’?

Why I am stunned?

For me, there is no pension fund

Is it the fear

to not be remembered?

Questioning my existence

I am feeling this resistance.

When lived as a unique identity

now why this attachment of terrenity?

No legacy, not even a name,

No one to make a claim.

May be it is the end of the game

but here, it all remains the same.

So why do I still stand here?

Am I waiting for a Shakespeare,

who will write on the stages of my life?

Look at that purple loosestrife

to whom I provide a shelter

hoping this purity can melt her.

I am to my mother, the nature

A little tree in her portraiture.


[ A random thought that occurred to me last weekend, while taking a stroll. Thanks to Rini, for she helps me express my emotions in poetic form sometimes.]



(Picture Credits: Avinash Kumar)


Up in the air, in the fairy lands

I can see the pictures made by beautiful hands.

Some familiar, some undrawn; changing like the black swan.

Whites and grey, paint them if I may

So beautiful to gaze, some swirls, some in a maze

On a blue canvas with wonderful whitewash

Some close to me, some close to sky

From girl’s locks to the cumulus, it varies.

Hopes and emotions that it carries.

They make me float, in feet and in my senses

when I call up, just then it condenses.

And if that wasn’t enough, it changes the color of green too,

the trees which were glowing in yellow of sun, now shining in the dew.

It plays with the soil, somewhere plain, other coyle.

Puddles where she jumps, and I swim in my trunks.

Continue reading “Clouds”


Look! How has it changed from polluted to pure,

Sometimes milky white, sometimes dirty more

Never has occured to it – take rest

Doesn’t it think for its best ?

Dropping from the heights, making all sorts of noise

While coming down the valley, it plays the musical notes

I do not know who pulls such chords !

At one moment, I listen to its meditative tone

While at others, engulfed by its larger form

Standing there; I was enchanted

Ready to lose all, which I ever wanted.




Photo credits: Avinash

Edited by Rini


It has been almost 12 years, a long time, since he has not visited his home even once. Rather it will be the inconvenient truth to say that in these 12 years, he did not visit the place where he knows lies comfort for him. No matter what time it will be, his favorite food will be cooked and people will always be happy to have him around. Yes, it was his home town. After his college, he does not visit his home as often and every time he was in panic he will call them, be it day or night. On the opposite side of the scale, when he got selected in his dream college  and subsequently landed his dream job, he was so excited that he called them in the night. There is nothing bad about it. Family as an organization plays a vital role to cope up with sudden changes in life, be it intended or unintended.

He even ensured that there were regular family reunions. Reaching there was three hours by flight and by bus, it was a 10 hours journey, which was not so difficult for anyone in the family. Maid was given special instructions to cook what the family used to eat in his childhood days, so as to refresh the memories. Lately since his parents were working and sometimes they didn’t get leave to go to him. Even he was busy, so in last couple of years, there was no such reunion.

In any society, a lot of value and importance is given to family gatherings, as it revives the bond and brings unity. Finally, it is the kinship which takes care of its members in hard times. In Indian society, the vastness of this kinship is vocal identity for one’s influence in society. So it is expected from everyone that they attend crucial events. Living in big cities and chasing dreams has taken a large chunk of our time. But at what cost? Some people might be willing to have the discomfort of giving it a thought and out of those, only few will come to a conclusion. After all who wants to waste time, thinking such things when every thing seems so right!

But in last decade, even these 5 hours journey has become a hectic procedure. A distance of mere few hundreds of kilometers is referred to as a remote place by people living in the metros. People think not only about the distance, but time and also the crowd that they have to bear with for the hours of journey. Mostly people avoid journey, which they feel might push them out of their comfort zone. But if we ask ourselves, nothing is as beautiful and comforting as seeing happiness in the eyes of family members, the people you love.

Yes, it is true that he worked hard in office and in his leisure time, he used to develop avenues of future prospects. But as any human being on earth, he was also full of emotions. There were sinusoidal moments of joy and sadness in his life also. This was probably a break from his linear mechanical life. And the irony is that, these moments of high and low were the ones when he took up his phone and dialed his home.


Photo by: Avinash Kumar

But sometimes even people who become habitual of living a fast track life, want a place of peace, and what could be better than the home town where clock ticks at its usual pace, without any pressure attached to it. It was surprising that this time he thought he will go to his home with his mind free and not occupied by either the office or complexities of his life. On the other hand, he was excited to visit his home, to see those playground, friends where he lived and with whom he has one of his his memory.

And finally the day came, he felt that he was again a child and with those childlike keen eyes, which are forever interested and curious to ask questions and prepared to grasp things which come in their way, he stepped out of station. But to his surprise, he was total stranger in his own native place. He felt uncomfortable. He rushed to his home and knocked the door. His parents were happy to see him and blessed him. He inquired about how things have changed. With a childish smile, he asked why was he not informed about the changes in the garden and in the city. It was then that he saw those lines on the faces of his parents. They have developed wrinkles on their face and have spectacles on their eyes.

Those faces which were like sky and earth for him, have grown old but still their zeal to make him happy was not even a bit less. He asked to himself, when it happened, how suddenly all things have changed and all these times, he was acting as if he was the center of the whole world for his family, like in his childhood. How his world has changed without him being aware of it. How his perceptions have become stiff.

This time he was so calm that he could listen to the voice within him, which he had not given much attention after joining the race. It was his conscience which reminded all that he has missed, ‘…the period to love, understand his own family, the race of the world, the continuous effort to be happy…’.

He realized how much self-centered he has become. He has left the ever cheerful nature of a child and the importance of family, far behind. His mind started pondering upon the thought that it’s only family where he can always remain a child.


Photo by: Avinash Kumar

With heavy heart and a sense of gratitude, he remembered a silly discussion with his friend, ‘the river which flows is lively, but when it becomes static, the same water give foul smell’. His thoughts broke by the smell of paranthas (fried Indian bread), as he sees his mother approaching him with the tray. He jumped to the dining table, and became a child once again.