By Rahat Indori
buzurg kahte the ik vaqt aaega jis din
jahan pe dubega suraj vahin se niklega

The elders used to say a day would come when the sun would rise again from the very place it had set.

Romanहिन्दीRahat Indori
बुज़ुर्ग कहते थे इक वक़्त आएगा जिस दिन
जहाँ पे डूबेगा सूरज वहीं से निकलेगा

The verse in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.

♪ Hear the coupletA recitation in a synthesized voice.
The Interpretation

Indori reaches for an inherited prophecy — the sun rising from where it set — and lets its strangeness do the work. The image promises a reversal so complete it overturns the natural order, and so a hope held against all evidence. Attributing it to the elders gives the hope the authority of long memory.

For You, Today

Hold on to the possibility of a turnaround even when it seems against nature — what looks like an ending can be the exact site of return.

The verse carries a folk-prophetic charge, making defiant hope feel ancestral rather than merely wishful.
Themes:HopeDefiance
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More from Rahat Indori
The Self
na ham-safar na kisi ham-nashin se niklega
Courage
aankh mein pani rakho honton pe chingari rakho
Defiance
shakhon se tut jaayen vo patte nahin hain ham
All couplets by Rahat Indori

The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →