‘Desire’

Rook ja raatt
thehar jare chanda
Bitae na milan ki bela

Aaj chandni ki nagri mein
Armano ka mela
Rook ja raatt – thehar jare chanda …..   

Stop oh night
wait a while oh moon
let not the sweet fragrance
of our meeting  pass just yet ….                        

For today in this moonlit land
A melae of desires are rejoicing
Stop oh night – wait a while oh moon       

March 2017

Weeks after the event, I was still basking in the ‘sweet fragrance’ of getting together with loved ones in Sydney, for my daughter’s wedding celebration.  And as I hung the clothes out to dry very early one morning, those feelings took shape and formed an age-old song in my heart – ‘Rook ja raatt – thehar ja re chanda ….’

A classic song seared in our hearts and minds by the then iconic figure of Meena Kumari and Raaj Kumar, in an equally iconic movie of the 1960’s  ‘Dil Ek Mandir Hai’.                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7iPVStwS2k

In February 2017, many of our family members had had the desire to meet up with us for the celebrations, in spite of the fact that each one had to travel in – some from as far as England and Germany, – even my daughter and her husband themselves travelled in from Los Angeles for this occasion (!!).   Yes, a very international wedding, reflecting the times of this age.  My husband and I were truly humbled and our hearts swelled with joy as we greeted each one.

Desire and the circumstance …. the only currency of our distance-rigged, fast-paced, spread-out-across-the-seven-seas lives ….

‘Desire’  left a sweet fragrance for many many days and weeks and even months after each had departed back into their lives and the separations and distances had started setting in – yet again.

Please stop oh night – wait a while oh moon – let me savour those moments and those desires for a little longer – were the yearnings of my heart today as I went about my household tasks. Hanging clothes under the searing hot sun of Brisbane, my mind wandered all over the world, clinging on to the sweet fragrance of my loved ones.

Rook ja raatt – thehar ja re chanda ….

I look forward to one day being in Heaven, of being together with loved ones for ever, where there will be no more sorrow of separations, and where distances will no longer be bound by the law of physics known on earth.

Rook ja raatt ….

But for the here and now, the desire to meet up wherever and whenever, remains our legacy as we get on with our life commitments.  And the cry of our hearts through these nights of separation will ever be – wait a while oh moon – let not the sweet fragrance of our meeting pass just yet ….

Today in this moonlit land ….

Image for this blog taken from Google Images