Rahul Verma: My Petty Bits

I wrote poetry after a long time and it is inspired by recent discussions and observations I had in the sphere of LLMs. This poetry form is called “Tappa” or “Maahiya”. This was recently seen in the Bollywood movie Animal, interestingly choreographed with a fight sequence 🙂. But it’s more of a folk form from Punjab and lends itself to quick “tukbandi” although it has a fixed meter. The closest form of poetry to it is Haiku with a similar 3 line structure (although a different meter). Each block of 3 lines is a complete unit in itself. This is my first attempt in writing in this form in Hindi.

इक शब्दों का जादूगर,
चाहे कुछ मर्ज़ी कहे
बंद आँखें सुनें अक्सर

बस खेल-तमाशा है,
कुछ शोर है, कुछ डर है
और झूठा दिलासा है

सब खेल है मा’नी का
जितना दिखा गहरा
वही नक़्शा है पानी का

अब ऐसे में क्या ही मिले,
या तो हम ख़ुश तनहा
या पूरा ख़ुदा ही मिले

कुछ पेड़ कटेंगे ही,
कुछ जुड़ने की ठानेंगे
कुछ रस्ते बंटेंगे ही

A loose translation using ChatGPT, which captures some of the thoughts partially:

A magician of words,
Says whatever he pleases
Closed eyes often listen

It’s all just a play and spectacle,
Some noise, some fear
And a false reassurance

Everything is a play of meanings
The deeper it is seen
A different pattern is of water

Now what can we accomplish like this,
Either we (only want to) stay happy alone
Or we (only want to) get the complete divine

Some trees will indeed be cut,
Some will resolve to unite
Some paths will indeed diverge