Click here for background and on any passage for word meanings and explanatory discussion. rajesh reDDii (1952-living), was born in nagpur and lives in mumbai. All I could get from radio interview recording that he fell in love with urdu and particularly Ghazal during his college days. He worked for All India Radio and retired from there. He has published three collections of his verse.
1
kaTh-putliyoN¹ ka khel hai har baar ki tarah
jiina kisi kahaani ke kirdaar² ki tarah    1.marionette, puppet 2.character
This reminds me of William Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage and the men and women, merely players”. And of Ghalib …
baazeecha-e atfaal hai duniya mere aage
hota hai shab o roz tamaasha mere aage
Like every other time, this time too, it is a game of marionettes. Life is like a character in a story (written by someone else). Who is the writer – it could be god, political powers that control from behind the scene. You are free to imagine.
2
hoNge naye khilone, Khariidaar kal naye
duniya saji rahegi ye baazaar ki tarah    There will be new toys, and new buyers tomorrow, but this world will go on like the same old bazaar i.e. our lives are fleeting and not of great consequence. The world will go on after us.
3
ek aur hi jahaaN¹ ki thi hum ko to justaju²
sansaar³ ko na jii sake sansaar ki tarah    1.world 2.search, effort 3.world
We were trying to reach a whole different world. We could not lead a fitting life in this world. The implication could be that we were in search of a spiritual world and did not fit in, in the material world. At a different level of interpretation this could imply our ideal vs what is actual.
4
raavan ke zulm¹ sah² ke adaalat³ meN raam ki
sita khaRi hui hai gunahgaar ki tarah    1.cruelty, oppression 2.bear 3.court of justice
This has reference to the story of ramayan. The demon king raavan kidnaps sita. raam defeats and kills raavan and rescues sita. She goes through ‘agni pariksha’, trial by fire to prove her virtue. Even after that, after accepting her and returning to his kingdom, upon hearing unsubstantiated rumours, raam banishes a pregnant sita to the forest. Thus, after bearing the cruelty of raavan, sita stands accused like a sinner in the court of raam.
5
hum ko jahaaN jahaaN bhi naii soch le gaii
duniya vahaaN vahaaN mili diivaar ki tarah   ‘diivaar’ is used here to mean obstruction. Wherever new thinking took us, there we found the whole world standing as an obstruction.
6
dil to nahiN thaa ho liye phir bhi jahaaN ke saath
inkaar¹ bhi na kar sake inkaar ki tarah    1.refuse
Even though I really did not have my heart in it, I went along with others. I could not even refuse like an authentic refusal should be.
7
maiN kab unheN bulaata huN aate haiN Khud ba Khud
Gham¹ bhi haiN mehrbaaN² mere ash’aar³ ki tarah   1.pain, sorrow 2.kind, generous 3.couplets of verse
This reminds me of Ghalib’s …
aate haiN Ghaib se ye mazaamiN Khayaal meN
Ghalib sariir-e Khaama navaa-e sarosh hai (please see post for intepretation)
The ‘unheN’ refers to ‘Gham’ – pain/sorrow. The poet says that his “ash’aar” come to him without asking, like an inspiration. They are generous. He says that pain/sorrow is just like that. He gets it without asking for them.