Mushtaque B Barq

‘Silent Steps’

‘Silent Steps’

Poetry makes the most of quintessence from what is being translated to the poet through symbols and dictated through images.  The eye of the poet can hear the echoes of pathos and his ears can see what otherwise is imperceptible.  The spirit of the poet knows the art to disclose privacy of the psalms, intricacies […]

 Mushtaque B Barq

The plastered wall

The plastered wall

It was a dazzling daybreak; clouds had long been engulfed by azure sky, leaving the upside down bowl of majestic vastness appear like a master piece.  All was set. We were a bit early out there to water the back wall of our old house that was to be plastered that morning. There was a […]

 Mushtaque B Barq

From Aysha’s Diary

From Aysha’s Diary

How this stripped precision actually and factually has been scripted in the style of a Fairytale, presenting a scene sugar coated by ambiguities and rhetorically terse verses.  Now that we are double-crossed, Ah! How our rights are wronged. The one in the chair hires historians and the one in the open deserts preserve this fallacious […]

 Mushtaque B Barq

Bulbul in Vulture’s nest

Bulbul in Vulture’s nest

Everything emerges unruffled when a new idea gets audience.  When the Bulbul of my vale was invited to make its nest on grafted branch of pomegranate tree, its song lured many new listeners. But matured and connoisseurs raised their voice which unfortunately was ignored owing to the reason that in Vulture’s nest the bulbul may […]

 Mushtaque B Barq

NO REASON TO HATE

NO REASON TO HATE

Hatred wipes out what love can determine

The gloom of momentous stillness, venomous monsters, those unaddressed and unfathomed fears, lethal and low in mirth, a few exhausted wrinkles, weird and broken worried faces carved out of human touch, delicate and decent in texture and within these deep down  ruthless lines of life, few  untrodden caves, those hollow gigantic fissures, those lively edges […]

 Mushtaque B Barq

Sense the Presence

Sense the Presence

Look underneath the carved brow of yore, a whole constellation of things shall greet you. Learn of them. A rivulet will certainly guide you to a river where it has been derived. Settle on the bank of this river to understand its purpose and follow its course. It may escort you to its origin if […]

 Mushtaque B Barq

State of gloom

State of gloom

Hope is a gateway to contentment

From the clouds who shall come to life you up, waiting for the shadow better than breaking it. Nothing was apt to create excitement, no innovative joke, no thrill to surprise, no gesture to lure, nothing at all was working to make my colleagues to laugh, even lifeless chairs and boring tables couldn’t help to […]

 Mushtaque B Barq

Embellished Coffin

Embellished Coffin

From the terrace, Nisheta was gazing at the two boys who were trying to stitch up a ragged blanket. Asgar, the elder one was keenly plugging up the blanket and Angat, the younger one was threading the needle on demand, besides reeling the threads on the tin box. Occasionally, they would inspect the blanket and […]

 Mushtaque B Barq

POSTSCRIPTS

POSTSCRIPTS

Encouraging the afterthought at least for the sake of reconciliation is not just buttoned-down glamour, but a strong desire to bring down cross moods to tables of discussion.  A smile at times dissolve unsolvable, prolonged and delayed debates which with time otherwise settle down as barrier for ages. Smile is commendable; it just passes a […]

 Mushtaque B Barq

Five days

Five days

Translated version of Saadat Hasan Manto’s Panch Din

On the way to Kashmir through Jammu Tawi, subsequent to Kud is a small hilly village Batwota.  The place is fighting fit and flourished.  Here is a modest sanatorium for chronic fever patients.  By chance some eight years ago I had been in Batwota for three months and a green romantic anecdote of my formative […]