The Last Leaf

Inquirer: The responses have by and large been very kind and appreciative, and as such it has been a pleasure to read them and to respond to them. It is very interesting to read about your personal account of Nehru`s appreciation of the lines from Frost - it is things like this show the human aspect of historical figures. Here is another one: before partition, my father visited mahatama Gandhi in his ashram. Gandhi would take early morning walks, and my father said he still remembers being surprised at how briskly he walked for a man his age.

mannyd: What can I say in return for your ill wishes except wish you a long and happy life, free from whatever it is that is making you so miserable.

Leaves become one with the sky after summer? So is your father alive or did he become one with the sky? I can figure out that he outlived his friends and probably his enemies too. Does it make you feel morbid? If it does, here is wishing you a rapid departure before your friends. Do not take up poetry writing while between jobs yet.

Re: # 32
tahmed32: Now I am able to read the responses also. The types of responses that one gets to one`s submittals are a measure ones projection to the group. The quality of response is totally consistent with your projected personality.
Thanks for recounting the four lines from Frost in Nehru`s Office. I had heard about them as his favourites before he died. He was visiting to inaugurate the Winter School for the foreign students run by father at Allahabad University in 1960. When his liking for Frost`s poem was mentioned, he smiled approvingly.

Ansari/Inquirer/Dost Mittar: Thanks all for writing. While this was no doubt written with reference to my father, the comment is more broadly directed to the passing of the generations. I was thinking of the many relations of the older generations, many friends of my parents, who are all gone now. As Inquirer says, we too are ``leaves in the tree`` - sharing our time on earth together. Another 100 years and virtually every one of us will also be gone. And no problems, dostmitterjee - always a pleasure to see you writing on chowk.

tahmed:
Until I read some comments, I had missed the personal aspect of your poem. Hence my insensitive comments. Sorry!

tauheed:
Please accept my consolation. Because what else can I offer? You had told me a little about your father`s thoughts. May God give him peace.

Yaade raftagaan to tadpayengii, kyaa kare koi.

Let us also not forget our leafy positions and do what we can do for each other.

PS.
From what has passed between us you are luckier than you. You had him more and probably you did more for him than I did for my father.

You know, Tauheed sahab, no matter how much time you spend with your parents, it`s never enough. They are wonderful people, no matter who they are.

Samankhan #26 Glad you liked it. There are certain universal things that almost everyone experiences, and I think one of them is the realization that comes at some point in our life that our parents wont live for ever. That is the time to start taking time off to call them, or write to them, or (best of all) visit them and spend some quality time with them without being distracted by one`s own friends and preoccupations. Parents in their old age value such attention from their children, who also benefit. Thus, while I have wonderful memories of my late father and of many other fine people from his generation, I also have an inner peace and satisfaction knowing that I did not take his presence for granted and spent time with him. As a result, memories of their lives on earth, of the things they said or did, are now a source of joy and no longer of sadness.

I wish your father many happy, healthy years ahead.

rozaiba #22 Thanks for the comments. I see this passing of the generations to be sad and uplifting at the same time, and as such your comments reflect almost exactly what I felt when reflecting on how people of my father`s generation are now alomost all gone.

dost mittar #24 I think the economist in you also caused you to economise on the seasons and cut out summer from your post - the time between spring and fall when a given generation is in its prime (even Ottawa must have some kind of a summer I would think). :-)

Shehlah #25 Thanks for your appreciation. I had these images stuck in my head for a few months now, ever since I saw this one leaf on a tree and started relating it to my late father who outlived many of his lifelong friends and indeed that entire generation that has almost faded away by now. So, it was nice to be able to put them in writing and share them with my chowk friends.

Very beautiful and poignant indeed,Tauheed sb.
The second stanza is so true...
When my qalu passed away, my father just shook his head and said, `sab sath chor ja rahe hain`.
I fear he would be the next........
He knows it too and says so ruefully `I won`t be there for Mimi`s (my daughter) marriage......` Or, `How long for her marriage?`
Sigh........

Wow! Old school feel and charm, yet so fresh! Very Frost. Very Brilliant!

tahmed32:

Arre yaar, baat ye hai ke aaj bahaar ki shuroo-aat hai. When I look outside my window, I am eagerly awaiting for the first leave to show up on my maple tree. On the other hand (always the economist!), this is Ottawa; if spring is here, can fall be far behind?

Good slightly depressing slightly uplifting poem.

Good slightly depressing slightly uplifting poem.

shahid #15 Thanks.

delhiwala: #16 I havent been to NH in a long time, but visit it once courtesy of a fellow student at the UofM (that we were chatting about on unplugged) who was from NH and invited me over to her farm there over holidays. She also happened to be distantly related to Robert Frost, and according to her, the standard joke among people in that area was that while Frost may have been a great poet, he was a lousy farmer. :-)

btw, you are probably aware that their state landmark (the rock formation known as the Old Man of the Mountain) crumbled and disappeared in 2003 - another testament to how even the mountains themselves that seem timeless to us are here for a brief period only.

dost mittar: Sirjee, there is no specified time of the year in which to contemplate the human condition - so there is nothing bemausami about what I wrote. Also I am not sure what ``exalted ranks`` you refer to, but I would request to be spared whatever honor you are bestowing on me. Thanks for writing.

echoboom: It was indeed a pleasure to listen early morning to these beautiful verses by Faiz so gently sung by Tina Sani. Thanks. And today being the first day of spring, it does bring mixed feelings - of rejuvenation as well as of remembrance.

Hoash O havaas, taab O tavaa--Daagh! jaa chuukay
Ubb hUm bhhee jaanay valay haiN, samaan tO gaya

tahmed, Others.

Please listen to this Faiz by Tina Sani-- The subject is the same as this.
Click on Bahar aaee

``In springtime all the memories unlock , and this is what I see in the album in my mind``--is the theme of this nazm [it is NOt a ghazal]

---

Bahar aayee...
to jaisey yak baar laut aaye.. hain phir adUm se
woh khaab sarey, shabaab sarey
jo terey honton pe mar mittey thhey
jo mit ke har baar phir jiye they

nikher gaye.... hain
gulaaab sarey
jo teri yadon se mushk boo hain
jo terey ushaak ka lahoo hain
bahaar aayee.....

ubal parey hain azaab sarey
malaal-e-ihbay-e-doastaan bhi
tumharey aaghosh-e-mehvashaan vsh
ghubar-e-khatir k baab sarey
tirey humarey sawaal sarey .. jawaab sarey
.....

bahaar aayee

tO khul gaye hain
neye sirrey se hisaab sarey
neye sirrey se hisaab sarey
bahaar aayee....
bahaar aayee

Good to see you join the company of the exalted ones.

Pur yeh be-mausami nazm kyon?

Re: # 14
Tahmed Saheb, Aap tou Chuppey Rustam nikley.

Kuch Punjabi which ve likhya karo.

PS: Each time I move around in NH mountains, I think of Frost and his poem. It is true that surroundings change minds.

Soul-food...very nice...

NHK, huma mir, delhiwala, gill sahib and Umer Murtaza: Thanks friends for your warm and kind compliments, and am glad you enjoyed reading it.

NHK: I must admit to going sentimental at times. :-)

Huma: That is indeed something to wonder about isnt it - that even as we become one with the earth, we become part of the vastness of creation (a glimpse of which is provided by the vastness of the sky) at the same time. Also, I figured that ``sky`` ryhmes better that ``ground`` with ``enjoy``. :-)

Delhiwala: That is indeed a beautiful poem. btw, you may be interested in knowing that when Jawaharlal Nehru died, they found the last four lines (cut and paste below) written on a piece of paper in his office desk (I remember reading this in a newsmagazine at the time).
``The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. ``

Gill Sahib: Glad you liked it. Thanks for the urdu version. So, now I can do a ``Mr. t`` (who provides the same thought in urdu and in english).

Umer: I should have known you were lurking around. :-) And appreciate your kind words about my father. It is indeed sad to see the passing of the generations. The incredibly brief time we - and everyone we know - has on earth becomes more and more obvious with each passing year as (to iterate what my father once said when recalling his long-dead friends - ``koi idhar gira, koi oodhar gira``). You mention the DNA which of course is at the center of advancements in human knowledge: the interesting thing is that (as many scientists involved in human genome believe is the case) we may be one of the last few generations before mankind finds its long sought ``fountain of youth`` (by finding a way to keep cells rejuvenating themselves indefinitely, growing new hearts and other body parts using stem cells or even ordinary cells). And that is a matter for another day. Thanks for writing.

Tehmed32

Short, simple, meaningful, effective and moving.

Et Brutus. You too are into poetry.

nhk

Very flowing style, and very moving. I hope your father sees this poem too, and smiles. Very well done.

Although my poetry credentials are shaky at best, I was wondering perhaps in the verse ``That last leaf....Is now one with the sky`` could have been more pointed and natural if you could have used ``earth`` or ``dust`` instead of ``sky``. The leaves fall to earth and become one with it, just like the human body.

Great job!!!

Good One,
Reminds me of Robert Frost`s

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound`s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Good One,
Reminds me of Robert Frost`s

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound`s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

tahmed:

Poetry is infectious. I showed your poem to a friend of mine. He gave me the following Urdu version:

Bahut hee buland, ikk shaakh-e-shajar peh
Thaa ikk barg-e-tanha larza`an saba sey
Kaha meray Waalid ney ikk alahsubah
Keh ahabab meray hein sab chal bassay
Woh ikk barg-e-tanha bhee rukhsat hua
Keh garma kee mohalat bahut mukhtsar haiy

Wishing you well,

Mohammad Gill

Hey there Tauheed,

That was really nice. Beuatiful, yet easy for a poetry simpleton like myself. As long as you`re alive, a part of your father will always be alive and nourished. You carry half of his DNA code, some of his looks, some of his mannerisms. I`m sure you also reflect some of his teachings. Next time you look at yourself in the mirror, you`ll come to see that you`re keeping him alive in more ways than one.

But as for seeing the older generations go, I know what you mean. It is saddening.

Umer M.

Ansari, Romair: Thanks, glad you liked it.

Echoboom: Thanks for the appreciation. It is indeed true that ``sitaaroN say aagay jehaaN aur bhi haiN``. There is also a richness in our earthly existence that is given to us to enjoy, brief and humble though it is in light of the magnificence of the known cosmos (which in itself a mere sliver of creation.

Mr t: it is true, that we leave behind hardly a trace. memories last only as long as those carrying the memories are themselves around. all that is left of our existence, as you say, is whatever little we have been able to do in this life. my father, as with all those people who have departed, does indeed remain sorely missed by his near and dear ones despite the passage of time, so thanks for your kind words. also missed is that entire generation (the leaves of last summer, so to speak) of people.

tauheed:

moving!

when we go we leave behind two things...memories and deeds...he must be a fine gentleman

rgds

t

tauheed Ahmed

That was really elegant and moving.


The Place to which
such Leaves flutter off
knows neither summer nor winter.
Year round, there is
only Spring.

Nice.........

Malik: I am glad that you were touched by this piece of literary effort on my part. It came from the heart, and I still remember the words of my late father about he friends being all gone. And I too recall the large number of people of my father`s generation, some very fine and unique personalities among them, who have now virtually all died and with so few of them now left. Thanks for the appreciation.

Beautiful. Thank you.

This is just so heart-wrenchingly beautiful!! Simple enough for a poetically challenged person like me. But the meanings and message are clear and ... it welled up my emotions.