TARANNUM RIYAZ (India)

Tarannum Riyaz is a Delhi-based well-known fiction writer, poet, critic and columnist. She has more than 12 books to her credit including two novels, four short story collections, two books on criticism and a collection of poetry, besides some translated works of writers like Anita Desai, Shishendu Mukhopadhyay and Vishnu Prabhakar. She has been awarded the Urdu Fiction Award three times by Urdu Academy, Delhi, awards from Cultural Academy, Srinagar, Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy, and Adeeb International Award, Sahir Ludhiyanwi Academy etc. She is member of Birla Foundation for Saraswati Samman for Urdu, and in the Governing Council of Sahitya Academy and a member of Urdu Advisory Board. She works with Electronic Media,.

All Yours

Let me preserve you like memories, in my heart
Let me string you like pearls, in my eyelashes
Let me give you a place like tears, in my eyes
Let me keep you like the pain of separation, in my soul
Let me hand over my whole being to you now,Scents, Moonlight, Sleep, Children, Laughter
‘Cause none of this can amuse me anymore
Let me get through all of this quickly then,
Come to me, my sadness, let me entertain you now.

Attainment

All these people say
That this life is a very rare thing
Every second, priceless
Every moment is kismet
It’s not something to be lost

But every lost thing
Is so complete in itself
That it never knows it’s lost
This is its completion

So how is the attainment of something
Any less than its loss?

Evening Rain

Today the sun, has taken shelter somewhere in the mountains,
The clouds have attacked from every direction,
Slowly moving, dark, black clouds,
And flying fast, white cloudlets,
In flashes, the dancing lightning,
Shadows in a bunch of leaves, blackish, waving,
Flowers bowed with humbleness, buds seeming shy
Boundless birds, flying in the rain,