gulab khandelwal selected poems

How can your kindness be praised,
Through my halting words!
O merciful father!

Whenever I wished,
Like a truant child,
I made you run on vain errands.
Sometimes the beautiful wings of the butterfly
And sometimes the songs of the cuckoo attracted me
And instead of being annoyed,
You brought forth the entire garden for my pleasure.

Oh! how many nights you have kept awake
Sitting by my pillow!
I have always been making wrong moves
And still you made me win each game.

Though you still write something
With a white chalk
On the black-board of the sky,
Why don’t you appear to me as affectionate
As in my childhood?

O father!
Whenever I recollect my childish pranks
And think of your kindness,
An arrow pierces my heart.