Mohabbat wagaira..

Faizan Shaikh

Some feelings arrive as a couplet.
Some need a little more room.

Pehle teen bayaan muft. No signup.

Muddaton baad uss ne haal-e-dil likha hai,

Aur woh bhi yeh — “kya likhein?” — bas yahi likha hai.

Bayaan 14, Khaali Panna. Yeh bayaan kitaab mein hai. Kitaab dekhiye

Har bayaan, teen darwaze.

Ghazal
The poem comes first, couplet by couplet.
Ek rooh ka sauda hua, ek jism fida ho gaya,
Seedha Matlab
Then a plain walk through every sher.
Do cheezein biki ek sher mein.
Afsana
Then a story that lives inside the poem.
Qabristan ki mitti abhi gili thi.

Read the first three chapters in full, here, before you decide.

Every star in this sky is one chapter. The three lit ones are yours to read now; the rest are waiting in the book.

Point at a star to see its name.

Bees ghazalein, har sher ka seedha matlab, bees afsane.

Written in Roman Urdu, the language we use to message a friend at three in the morning.

Close readings of single couplets, one week at a time.