gulab khandelwal selected poems

The grave-yard
By the side of the road;
Although ever surrounded by a multitude;
How neglected |
How forlorn !
I always tremble with vague fears,
When passing by its side.
How slender is the dividing line
Between life and death!
Who can tell
The difference between existence and non-existence |
The question is ever new
Although ever-old;
It is not conceivable
How existence can ever change into non-existence,
How a thing which has no life
Can devour life !
If we exist,
Nothing can annihilate us
And if our existence is only an illusion,
Nothing will save us from extinction;
The people resting in this burial ground
Were also men of flesh and bones once,
They were also engrossed in the problems of life
Without caring for this destiny,
At some point of time;

A mother has come here
Leaving alone her weeping baby,
Some playful girl has liked this place best
For her hiding place,
A wife has forsaken her husband
Half-way on a steep hill,
A cruel husband has turned his head for ever –
From his newly-wed wife;
Some have come here in childhood,
Some in their full youth,
Some are sleeping in marble-canopies
While some are covered by wild grass only.

All the ambitions and potentialities of life
Are exhausted at this place,
All the waves of feelings,
Rising and falling in their hearts