सपनों की इमारत टूट पड़ी,
सड़कों पर छा गए: सपने।
फिर भी कोई आया नहीं सपनों को लूटने,
सब भागे ज़िन्दगी बचाने।
सपनों की कमी तो है नहीं,
फिर भी हम अधूरी सी जी रहे।
समुन्दर की गहराई से उछलती हैं लहरें,
पर हम तो सिर्फ दो घूँट ही पी रहे।
Thank you: Prateek, Archana, and Kuhu, for the corrections to my unpolished Hindi. Means a lot.
Transliteration (dictionary):
sapnē
sapnōⁿ kī imārat ṭūṭ paḓī,
saḓkōⁿ par chā gaē: sapnē.
phir bhī kōi āyā nahīⁿ sapnōⁿ kō lūtnē,
sab bhāgē zindagī bacānē.
sapnōⁿ kī kamī tō hai nahīⁿ,
phir bhī ham adhūrī sī jī rahē.
samundar kī gehrāi sē uchaltī haiⁿ lahrēⁿ,
par ham tō sirf dō ghⁿūt hī pī rahē.
Translation:
Dreams
The high-rise of dreams shattered,
and scattered across the streets: were dreams.
Still no one came scampering to collect them,
Everyone ran to save lives, it seems.
There is no shortage of dreams, true?
Still we are living such half-lives.
Waves arise from the depths of the seas,
Still we are happy drinking a drop or two.
Background: While walking out of the newly renamed and now-infamous ‘Prabhadevi’ railway station here in Mumbai, this is the view that awaits one. Tall buildings, in the ‘city of dreams’. The quality of life immediately around, though, is very poor. It made me wonder: are we not dreaming high enough?
Debdutta Paul 
Everyone has dreams and everyone wants them to be fulfilled. “To be fulfilled.”
People wait for something good to happen in their life or career, and cluelessly wait for that day to come. They wait for their dreams to come true on their own.
But they do not understand that it’s them who have to change things, change their routine, change their status themselves to fulfil the dreams. No one from outside will come and make that happen.
It’s me who has to bring upon the change in my life, career if I ever want to live my dream.
And it’s a risky business. It may be leaving your job, it may be changing your workplace, it may be getting up two hours early and workout, it may be doing something that always dreads you and puts you out of the safety net you presume.
But you have to somehow get there. Being in a safety net will not fulfill the dreams you have.
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You are absolutely right and I fully agree with you.
However I think we do not dream high enough. We are not ambitious enough. We are afraid to dream. Precisely because of the fear that turning them into reality may be hard. So we get satisfied with mediocrity.
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Love the last two lines… I see you have put up the translations!
Great job. 🙂
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