हिमालय की गोद में

निकले थे घर से हज़ार उम्‍मीदें लिये

अटल था दिल की कर लेंगे हम,

हाँ! कदम डगमगाए, दिल घबराया

दिमाग़ ने कहा – नही, आगे मुशकिल बहुत है,

पर आँखें बंद किए तो दिखे वे चेहरे

जिनको हम पर था हम से ज़्यादा भरोसा!

खोले तो मिले वो नैन, जिन्होने बोला

आओ, कर लेंगे हम!

सितारों की चादर ओढ़े चाँद ने भी कहा,

छुटना नही चाहिए हमारा साथ इतनी जल्दी|

कहा हम ने, बस! अब और नही होने देंगे विचलित दिल को,

और निकल पड़े हम एक नये होसले के साथ|

रास्ते थे रंगीन, मिले दिलदार साथी भी,

ठंडी फ़िज़ाओं में भी साथ देती

सुंदर वादियाँ और सूरज की रोशनी,

मानो जैसे धरती पर ही जन्नत से रूबरू हो गये!

हाँ! रातों में कंप-कंपाए थे,

और थर-थराए भी!

पर उपर देखा तो फिर से

नटखट चाँद मुस्कुराइ, और हम भी|

धीरे-धीरे बढ़ाया पहाड़ों ने हमें आगे

दिया हौसला उन खूबसूरत बुलंदियों का,

बढ़ते रहे हम, हंसते रहे हम, गिरते रहे हम

फिर संभलते रहे हम, और बढ़ते रहे हम|

फिर चूम ली हम ने वो कामयाबी,

छू लिया हम ने उस पहाड़ का मुकुट!

याद रहेंगी ये चार दिन हमेशा, याद रहेगा वो संघर्ष,

वो जीत, वो खुशियाँ, और वो रिश्ते!

और फिर दिल मे हज़ार यादें लिए,

ज़िंदगी के लए कुछ सिख लेते हुए,

विदा लेते हैं इन वादियों से, मन में एक वादा करते हुए,

की फिर आएँगे एक दिन इन खूबसूरत वादियों में|

-Deepti Zain, PGP 2017-19

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My Little Angel

Wake up little angel, wake up?

I’m here by your side, you look at me, but do you see me?

Yawning and gazing like a month old baby

Will you wake up to be your 21 old self?

You were never 21 though, with childlike excitement

Kiddy, where are you now?

You would have told you story yourself, had you been around

But now it’s my responsibility

Crying in the cradle, still vivid, the first memory of you

Fair as snow white, with brown hair and eyes

Little rascal but you grew up too fast

Taller and stronger, do you remember our fights?

Why are you reeling back your life?

Can’t stand, the irony, seeing you again as a baby

Singing, sketching, playing, acting and coding

You loved your friends, but even more, our parents

Our fights turned into secrets shared

We were just short of turning best friends

Everyone got a taste of your love

We all crave it even now

You were so full of life that it couldn’t be contained within you

You look at us like you’re almost here

But how long do we patiently wait?

Your patience and courage are greater than ours

But my sweet heart, I can’t see you suffer any longer

Absurd it would sound, but I’m glad you are free now

Your pictures make it hard to digest the reality

I don’t have answers, so I stopped questioning

Your energy and love are intangible and eternal

I know you’re around, watching over me, as my angel

Gouthami Banoth, PGP 2017-19

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Clouds and Rain

The dense and dark clouds levitate over the lush green fields

With a malicious storm in the vicinity bracing up to wreck the terrain

It awaits with the entourage of thunder, lightning and hailstorm shields

While the blustery winds dance to the rhythm of the driving rain.

The clamor of the distant crowded street has gone silent

As the clouds and the storm gets ready for the imminent war

To win over the love of their life against the sea’s bewitchment,

For their love for rain was not a clandestine affair.

Cloud was eternally moonstruck by the beauty of the rain

The way she drizzled and danced with the flirty breeze

The way she created hailstorm and cyclone when in pain,

Painted the rainbow and calmed the parched earth and seas.

When the burden got too heavy, the rain left for the seas

And the cloud perished into oblivion with nothing left to live

Yet the benevolent sea creates the cloud again as the rising phoenix

For it knows it’s the clouds that make the rain feel complete.

Madhusmita Sahoo, PGP 2017-19

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Long to Return

Patrolling the front;

No ledger; when its day or night.

Quivering, suffocating, shrieking silently

Touch of mother, earnest plea.

Protecting entire nation, call of duty

Taking the bullet at will, touchdown.

But still when the forlorn aroma fills the hollow

I long to return.

Open restriction haunts

The cold quilt, unbounded rationality.

Close watch like a panopticon.

Who is the enemy, blurred notion.

When desperation subsumes in comrades holding hands

I rise above, I become we.

But still when the heart overflows with joy

I long to return.

When time stops, the mind becomes empty

When fast-forward overpowers reality

Jubilant media, thumping chest

Maneuvers, strategy, at haste?

But when I raise the voice, it suffocates.

Till when the normality will be coated?

Still I go on, still, I fight;

But when the silence is shattered apiece

I long to return.

Pallabi Chakraborty, PGP 2018-20

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Hope

Is it the splendor in your eyes,

Or my naïve heart is to blame,

When I think that someday,

You too will feel the same

Is it just my wishful dreams,

Or the hope your smile unchains,

When I know morning will come,

And I won’t feel that twinge of pain.

Is it your beauty that delights,

Or is it that stubborn love again,

When I believe, wonders do happen,

When I believe, hearts do change.

Vineet Mishra, EPGP 2018

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Our Fabric

In a blissful stillness,

Of a hustling Wednesday afternoon

My glorious flight of rootless vanity

Came crashing down on the porch

Of your cemented credence.

Your foolish confidence on how

The world had pulled each string

To sew together the fabric of our lives;

The universe had dealt a harmonious hand,

By what they call

Chaos of coincidences.

You would say:

Forty-odd winters between me and us,

Yet there I was,

Again,

With the dread of the next one.

Senseless as I stood

But felt all of my feelings

Washing ‘way

To expose the void within

Waiting to be filled

Of you.

Avik Mallick, PGP 2018-20