Ode to a Legend....."No one Leaves this World in Quite Your Manner...."

I penned this note on FB over two years ago, but every time I read it, a wave of sadness engulfs me...some people do that to us....sigh


Ode to a Legend....."No one Leaves this World in Quite Your Manner...."

Guru Dutt..lives on through Kaizi Azmi s tribute

One of kaifi azmi's poems that moved me deeply in my impressionable years. I thought about the words very often and the words move me even to this day… Azmi had composed this in the wake of legend Guru Dutt’s death (alleged suicide) in October 1964.



"Rahne ko sadaa dahar mein aata nahi koi
Tum jaise gaye aise bhi jaata nahi koi


Ik baar to khud maut bhi ghabra gayi hogi
Yun maut ko seene se lagata nahi koi


Darta hoon kahin khushq na ho jaaye samundar
Raakh apni kabhi aap bahata nahi koi


Saaqi se gila tha tumhe, maikhaane se shikvaa
Ab zahar se bhi pyaas bujhata nahi koi


Maana ki ujaalon ne tumhe daag diye the
Beraat dhale shamma bujhata nahi koi"

And I found a great translation that comes very very close to what the poet wanted to convey….


No one comes to this world to live forever
But no one leaves the world in quite your manner

For once, death, too, must have been disconcerted
For no one has embraced death in quite your manner

I fear lest the ocean may be blotted up
For no one sprinkles their ashes in quite your manner

You bore a grudge against the tavern-keeper
For no one slakes their thirst with poison, in quite your manner

I accept that you were slighted by the light
But no one extinguishes the lamp in quite your manner

No one comes to this world to live forever
But no one leaves the world in quite your manner

Leaves me with a shiver as I ponder over what brings one to the brink....sadness, disappointment, despair??? And what actually drove Guru Dutt to his tragic, untimely end? We shall never know because the people who could possibly fathom or shed light are themselves no more...