ke ne ham ko
“With what face could we have fought him over land — the brother who raised us after our parents were gone?”
के ने हम को
The verse in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
A whole family drama refused in two lines. After the parents die, property turns brothers into litigants; the couplet halts at the very edge of that fight by recalling one fact — this brother is the one who raised me. Gratitude is set directly against greed, and the question 'with what face?' leaves no room for the lawsuit. It is the moral arithmetic most inheritance quarrels never stop to do.
Before you fight family over what was left behind, count what they already gave you. Some debts of care should make the quarrel over money unaffordable to your conscience.
The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →