KarunaIntermediate

माँ की याद

Maa Ki Yaad

1 min read 1 versesMotherhood Memory Evening

1 verses · ~1 min

चींटियाँ अंडे उठाकर जा रही हैं, और चिड़ियाँ नीड़ को चारा दबाए, धान पर बछड़ा रंभाने लग गया है, टकटकी सूने विजन पथ पर लगाए, थाम आँचल,थका बालक रो उठा है, है खड़ी माँ शीश का गट्ठर गिराए, बाँह दो चमकारती–सी बढ़ रही है, साँझ से कह दो बुझे दीपक जलाये। शोर डैनों में छिपाने के लिए अब, शोर माँ की गोद जाने के लिए अब, शोर घर-घर नींद रानी के लिए अब, शोर परियों की कहानी के लिए अब, एक मैं ही हूँ कि मेरी सांझ चुप है, एक मेरे दीप में ही बल नहीं है, एक मेरी खाट का विस्तार नभ सा, क्योंकि मेरे शीश पर आँचल नहीं है।

इति

Rasa: Karuna
Stanzas: 1
Lines: 16
Reading time: ~1 min
Form: Geet (lyric song)
Metre: geet
Rhyme: irregular

The poem evokes a profoundly sorrowful and tender emotional atmosphere steeped in karuna rasa, where the quiet grief of profound loneliness contrasts sharply with the universal comfort of twilight. A visual painting of this scene would capture a desolate, empty path at dusk where homebound ants, nesting birds, and a calling calf signal the end of the day, while a weary child clings to a mother's hem under a heavy bundle, and phantom maternal arms reach out in a ghostly caress. This haunting imagery symbolizes the stark deprivation of maternal shelter, transforming the speaker's bed into an expansive, desolate sky devoid of warmth. The overall artistic tone is tragic and elegiac, capturing the silent, unanchored despair of an adult who remains uncomfortably awake while the rest of the world surrenders to sleep, fairy tales, and maternal embrace.

माँ की याद (Maa Ki Yaad), by Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena runs to 16 lines, set as Two stanzas of eight lines each with a strong lyrical flow.. Its governing rasa is Karuna, shaded by Shanta. The metre is geet. Rhyme falls as irregular.

It belongs to the 1927 · 1983 span of Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena's working life, and keeps the plain, spoken register that period is known for.

Read it for मातृ-वियोग की गहरी वेदना and शाम के समय घर और माँ की याद आना. 3 words in it carry older or regional senses, so the poem rewards a second pass.

The verse is hung beside Gypsies: Bathed in a heavy, contemplative warmth of deep terracotta, russet, and shadowed earth, this academic realist portrait radiates a mood of quiet melancholy and profound maternal tenderness. The composition centers on an…

Words worth pausing on

नीड़: घोंसला
विजन: निर्जन या सुनसान
डैनों: पंखों

Threads

Motherhood Memory Evening Loneliness Grief

The Poet

सर्वेश्वरदयाल सक्सेना

Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena

1927 · 1983

Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena completely rejected the notion that serious poetry required an elitist vocabulary. Born in 1927 in the Basti district of Uttar Pradesh, he became one of the most accessible and beloved voices of the Nayi Kavita movement. As the prominent editor of the children's magazine Parag and a key figure at the literary journal Dinamaan, Saxena possessed an incredibly rare ability to speak directly to the rural heartland while maintaining razor sharp political intelligence. His poetry collections, such as the Sahitya Akademi Award winning Khunti Par Tange Log, confront the disillusionment of post independence India, governmental apathy, and the quiet struggles of the peasantry. He wrote about rivers, forests, and village folk not with romantic nostalgia, but with a fierce and protective realism. Saxena passed away in 1983, but his words remain permanently etched into the consciousness of the Indian middle class. He proved that true literary greatness lies not in speaking above the people, but in walking directly beside them.