What’s the next line? Anyone? Try. It should come easy. Look around, get the hint, pick up the clues littered about in all directions. Abke saawan is an extended saawan, we’ve been told on formidable authority, by the Pradhan Mahant himself, no less. So say then: Abke sajan saawan mein kya hoga?
Dimaag laga liya karo kabhi, dimaag aur indicator laganey mein paisa nahin lagta, left indicator, right indicator, it’s for free. Free mein, duddoo!
Abke sajan saawan mein, aag lageygi badan mein. There. Said it. Blanks filled.
Now what?
Extended saawan.
Extended aag. That’s what.
This saawan there is no dearth of fires. Faraway fires and close to home fires. Look around. Can you see the smoke rising? The flames licking at the smoke? Can you hear the clamour? Can you tune in to the crescendo of chaos? Such chaos that it is not possible to make out who is the victim, who the victimiser, who the hunter, who the hunted. Can you even see through all that smoke, and all that smokescreen?
Can you light a torch to knife open the darkness and see what lies there concealed, camouflaged? Are you courageous enough to plunge into it? This extended saawan? Is your body on fire? Are other bodies on fire? Do you know why the bodies are on fire? Do you know who set fire to them? Do you know who erected the fences? Who dug the trenches? Who took fire to the other side? Who brought the fires here from the other side? Do you know?
It is not enough to say this is saawan, an extended saawan, and therefore there are aag lageygi badan mein. This is not a lazy lyric in a runaway romance. There are serious fires ablaze. Wake up, expunge your stupor, answer me. Do you see the fires this saawan? Can you explain the fires this saawan?
Can you, while at it, also explain fires without smoke, those that burn, and burn down, but there is no smoke and seldom any flame to discern. It’s the fire that arrives unseen and unbeknownst, claims its victims and says, sorry, it wasn’t me, it was the madness in my head, I am fine, it’s all the doing of my madness. Have you seen that sort of fire roving around this saawan? Look carefully. The nearest one may be behind you.
Let it rain
It will clear
This pool of pain
Or then, try and shed a tear.
