have you forgotten the steps

have you forgotten the steps
that we walked together
but you stumble now
off and on
may be the rhythm of walk
has changed
dance may not be posisble
but lyrics of your moods
still reverberate in my ears
i can rewind the time
dont worry
walk
walk, walk

when the cold nights linger and warmth of morning seeps in

it is not every day
that a winter night refuses to freeze the dreams
that we saw many times
some times sparkling the stars studded in the pathway
on which you walked
and some times like hairs entangled
and knotted
in the comb that you have used sparingly of late
will you wait
for the dew to evaporate
so that i can smell
the aroma
that has permeated all the pores
of the bark
of a tree
aged and yet upright
refusing to fall down
now, dont give way
to let it fall down

when we fell down

when we fell down
not knowing what was the trigger

spects which were misplaced
or the path
which had more curves than we planned
now the road is plain, and spects are ion place
but we dont fall down
why dont we fall down

will the valley view recall

reading emily dickinson
over dinner table
and waiting for you to lift spoon
at lunch
was not so uncommon
but then
deep gazes could map the
depth of respect one could have for
unknown, stranger who i never talked to,
in summer of 1974

i will think of this as a suitable passage

when you asked my advice, i did not always
offer it
i tried to help you figure it out
but there were times when
i gave a lot of unsolicited advice
you did not like some,
liked the rest
but i am not sure whether you chose the right ones,
but does it matter,
what matters is the pause
you gave
every time
i thought you will speak

to u , before u go

to you, before you go,
i gave whatever i had, some knowledge,
some whispers, some obstructions
what else did i have
which was worth giving
and i did not give?

when the missions melted and the wax got frozen

when the missions melted and the wax got frozen
the rains stopped but sun could not care less
the wind was blowing
but the leaves had fallen
the branches swayed
but the lights did not scatter
you may think,
if this is the time to call truce,
the shots were fired
but target kept shifting, now the goal post has been changed,
you can throw the ball, but there is no body to protect the goal post

why do i wait for dreams to cross the boundaries

why do i wait for all the dreams to cross the boundaries
but not all boundaries, they should sparkle only in my sky
dark as it is,
but not await the reflection from
a fractured moon
that has lost a small part
which i gifted
top you
near a sufi’s grave
the other day

bin bandhano ke jeeney ko aatur

bin bandhano ke jeeney ko aatur
ek geet aaj bandh gaya
koi sur jo gehra tha, bheetar se ubhra tha
behney se rah gaya
chalo usee bandanwar ko phir se taangey
jisney badhaon ko roka
lekin bandhano ko na toka

One Idea You Need To Know in 2011: The Floating Bicycle ::: nicole in Forbes

One Idea You Need To Know in 2011: The Floating Bicycle
Nov. 5 2010 – 4:20 pm | 127 views | 0 recommendations | 0 comments

This post is part of an ambitious project at Forbes Magazine to crowd source the cover of our January issue with “Names You Need To Know in 2011. Click here to submit your ideas for names and ideas that have potential to shake things up in the coming year. The best suggestions will run in the magazine.

In the wake of this year’s devastating floods in Pakistan, I’ve become personally intrigued with a name few have heard of, Mohammad Saidullah, and his simple, yet potentially life-saving idea: the floating bicycle.

I learned of Saidullah and his amphibious bicycle through the Honeybee Network, the organization created by Indian business professor Anil Gupta that aims to track innovation in India’s rural villages. Since 1988, Gupta has been traversing India in search of inventions that are changing the lives of the country’s rural poor. The network now boasts 13,000 inventions, from a foot-pedal operated washing machine to a mobile phone-activated irrigation pump that saves farmers the time and hassle of manually turning on/off water in their fields. More recently, Gupta worked with the Indian government to establish the National Innovation Foundation, which helps scale grassroots innovations, formalizes their intellectual property rights and is ultimately helping transition India’s rural masses into self-sustaining entrepreneurs.

In the process, the Honeybee Network is drawing attention to entrepreneurs like Mohammad Saidullah, who developed a simple contraption out of necessity that now has the power to save thousands of lives.

Saidullah arrived at the idea for a floating bicycle during one particularly grisly flood season in his home state of Bihar, India. Like many in his town, Saidullah used a bicycle to get around and a boat to cross a river to procure basic flood provisions in a nearby city. He thought if only he could make his bicycle float on water, he could save the cost of hiring a boat to cross the river and catching a bus once he arrived on the other side.

It took Saidullah three days and just over $130 dollars to create his amphibious bicycle. He named it the NOOR Bicycle (after his wife), and claims he can now assemble a model for half that much.

Such a simple invention with the power to transform the lives of so many should be a shoe-in for our cover. I’m interested to hear what you think? Does this simple contraption have the potential to scale in 2011? Are there similar innovations worth highlighting on our cover?

Click here to view the main page of this project.

Click here to read a longer explanation of our crowd-sourcing idea.