Dec 10, 2007

Symphony of the Sea

On a calm salty evening,
I rest my chin
on Her shoulders
the chill of smooth moon curls
caress them aside,
short breath of anticipation
I play with Her words

flows along my skin,
the malleable trickle of emotions
cool, until you delve
part its folds
caress the depth within
and find the warmth,
that envelops me all around
the solace of loneliness

She talks to me, you know
starts with a whisper,
Her secrets building up,
slowly,
reaching to a crescendo
a little too soon,
the crash, cascade
the final sigh
the calm again...

Me and Her.

Dec 9, 2007

Staah-fish

Squared

And like that small story about the difference each of us can make, I tried putting a few back in the water...

Nov 30, 2007

A Shore Afar

Sea Pebble

A shore so far
a distance that long

lights of joy
mellow melancholy

a shroud of uncertainty
cloaks hope for the future

and words unsaid
amidst dreams unforgiven

Nov 29, 2007

And the Tide's coming in...


when you're tired
and when the the waves seem high
when your legs get weary
and the only path leads you down under
when your tears blur the distance
and you can't make out whats straight...

Nov 18, 2007

Stigmata

Hi, and what are you doing?

I’m waiting for the rains to stop so that I can go home and sleep. I’m not feeling well.

What happened, sweetheart?

Oh nothing! I’m just aching all over. I guess it is the strain or work, the change in weather maybe. I need to sleep it off.

I miss you.

But I am here...still talking to you. What did you have that you are now missing?

It began with a verbal duel, an argument for the sake of it. Sparring, only to make up later. She was a strong woman, miles from home, miles from family. In the big bad corporate world, with a few people to call as friends, she knew they were with her in as much as their insecurities as their need for someone who was equally lost. She kept wandering, between groups, between jobs, picking up few people on the way, losing a few.

I wish u weren’t so far away…just one of those days, you know, when the distance does matter.

I wanted to say something to you, but I don’t know if you are up to it.

Go on, please. Say your mind. You know I want to hear every word you think of. Sometimes I wish I was inside your head. Inside you.

Sigh. I don't know where this is going, you and me. I didn’t expect you to call back...after that day. I was ready to accept it that way, the way it ended. I feel it is much wiser to walk away now than later.

He always ends his sentences with three dots. She begins hers with them. They discovered more things that were different. She knew hundreds of English song lyrics by heart. He was more into world music and the rhythm touched him more than the words. She had been a wanderer, studied in half a dozen schools. While, he had had a steady childhood. He told her how they fit those lines by Danielle Steele perfectly well. ‘From opposite ends of the world, they came, trundling their bags, their treasures….’

Right now the feelings are warm. Happy. And I think if we go on this way it’s going to get worse. I’d rather live through the rest of my life with a few good memories than drag it to a point where every thought of you hurts. I really felt like that Sunday, the evening before last. And I don’t think I’ll be able to take it again. It crushes my ego. even though ego is something I can manage...To be told that I am thought of as a dear friend, just a few hours after being told three precious words that mean a lot more.

Ok.

And I really don’t believe in the concept of friends forever...in the sense that I will always feel much more for you.

Seen the future, haven’t you?

She liked the way he spoke, stressing each word out right, as if an accent would be a sacrilege. He liked the way she went off to sleep listening to him ramble about the latest investment deal. She was a morning person, preferring the energy of the rising sun, while he preferred the calm of late nights. She would often wake up with a smile, thinking of the previous night’s conversation and give him a call. She knew he’d be sleeping, but couldn’t resist the temptation of hearing his groggy voice. She felt close to him. His gruff voice felt special, as if it was meant only for her ears. Don’t you have to get up, love?.

Right now our lives have very few things intertwined...like common friends or something, and there aren’t many memories of being together...I think it would be easier to go our separate ways, than later, if we have to.

Isn’t that a big ‘if’?

I’d rather cherish what we had...than fight with you over trivial issues, hurt you and get hurt...

So, this is it then, huh? It ends this way. Just the way it started, over the Internet. Within the confines of a window. I would have preferred being told this to my face. Do you have to hide behind the curtain of this voiceless, faceless interface?

Don’t you have anything to say?

You choose not to notice. I am saying something.

Yes, I know what you mean. I didn’t want it that way. I wanted to talk to you, but I couldn’t wait till that time.

I don’t think anything I say would make a difference; you’ve already made up your mind.

I haven’t. I am thinking aloud. I am not passing a statement that you have to accept. I am being honest in my words. It is the least I expect from you in return. I was hoping you would say something and convince me otherwise.

I don’t show weakness, not even to those I love. Go, if u must. That is all I have to say.

I’d be disappointed if this happens this way. I would have hoped you try and understand why I am doing what I am. Either agree with it, or fight it. You are doing neither.

And thats the way I am...my parting gift to you, to find solace in any way you want. My silence. It simply means that you can deal with it, the way you like best.

You can be harsh, can’t you?

Can I? Well not as much as you at any rate. And I am not being harsh, I am letting u do whatever you want to. How much easier it can get?

I was hoping you would try convincing me otherwise. I am not doing something I want.

You think you are being wise. I think you’re too afraid. You are pushing your insecurities onto the both of us. On this relationship. I won’t say much. But this is going to be your decision. Solely. To leave or to stay. As for me, I am not going anywhere.

And I don’t feel like staying here, like this, halfway between nowhere. I don’t feel peace. Every morning I wake up I think of you. I yearn for what isn’t mine. You ask for me, but you want only a part. I asked you to take the whole of me. As I am, what I am. Perhaps, it is the way I am. I’d rather not have anything that live with bits thrown at me. You think it is ego, I think it as expecting from life, cos everyone deserves it. I deserve living a full life. A full day. I don’t know how long can one go on living half a life.

Well, then I respect you choice. It is not easy, to take the harder path. I don’t hold anything against you for taking the easier choice.

No, I am not doing that. I take risks too, but when I have a goal of reaching somewhere. With you, I will always be behind. Your life, your social circle has no part for me. I will forever end up being only a refuge in times of turmoil. I don’t see anything else happening. We’ve already had the best there could be between us.

That, my love, you will never know.

I don’t have hope, that’s all.

It is a weird place, the future. But it’s sad, what you said about hope. I didn’t know you would give up so easily.

I don’t think I am giving up. I will have what I have with you. Like you did, with him. Or me, earlier, with her. We are part of each others life. Like you used to say, different parts of a jigsaw puzzle, pieces traded once a while, so as to make the picture a whole. No piece the same, opposites fitting each other, remember? And I see this as just preserving that something we had. It is too precious for me to scar that with bad memories which is what it is turning out to be.

Of course, the future is all bad. Seen it with your third eye, haven’t you? Anyway, I don’t want to argue. Like I said, leave, if you must.

I love you. And you will be that special part of me that will be mine. I won’t part with it, I won’t replace it, I will not share it. Now and then, I will think of us and be glad that I met you. Destiny can’t take that away.

I can’t beg and plead. And I am going to say this only once. I don’t know the future. I can’t promise you it will work out. Or that it won’t hurt. But right now, I can’t say goodbye, cos it’s killing me and I love you too much. So I am going to ask you to stay this once, even though I’ll respect whatever you do. And I will love you.

I love you too much and it’s hurting too much to stay.

Nov 7, 2007

Contemplate


hazaaron khwahishein aisi
ki har khwahish pe dum nikle...

Oct 26, 2007

There comes time when one wishes one had a friend or an acquaintance who has a direct hotline to God, and to whom you could request or plead to get on it, make your wish come true. Something that you want more than anything else in the world and with as much conviction that wishing it so hard takes away a large part of your soul, that void, somewhere deep inside.

Oct 8, 2007

Fantasies

Today is official 'Sod off' day. You can tell anybody to sod off and they will. For real.

:D

Oct 1, 2007

There were four of them. Corpses. One was a young girl in a gown, in tatters, barely reaching to her ankles. Her hair was unkempt, face black. And there was the old man. White hair, dark sunglasses covering the eyes. Thankfully enough, perhaps. Or headless, perhaps. There was also the old lady, his aunt. Broken teeth and the glee of a toothing baby. Kept waving her hand, as if enjoying herself. And there was a dark form on the cupboard. Hung over the corner by the lapel of his long overcoat. He was afraid of the door banging into the young girl when he opened it. He knew it was right behind. Perhaps causing any movement would make it come alive. He sneaked in gently, trying to find an as inobtrusive a corner as possible. For he belongs there. People come and go from that room. But he is still there. Sits in a corner, hugging his bare knees, feeling a little cold. Furtive eyes, he sits, in a corner.

Sep 28, 2007

Oscar Mania

I sometimes wonder if one can separate a product from its maker. Like Vidhu Vinod Chopra. 'Parinda', his first directorial feature film, remains one of my all time favourite movies and I remember long drives with someone who I had to keep telling to rewind an audio casette in the car tape. That audio cassette was the soundtrack of the movie WITH dialogues. His second venture, '1942, A Love Story' got killed at the box office for reasons I can't understand still. I liked that movie as I did the two 'Munnabhais' and 'Parineeta' that he made. I didn't have the chance to watch Eklavya though.

But this man, I remember one of his earlier interviews on one of those Shekhar Suman shows when he talked about his achievements as a young man, short documentary, ad film maker something, did seem quite impressive. Even then, he seemed more boastful than modest at that time. The last time around, when Rang deBasanti was chosen over Munnabhai MBBS as India's official entry to the Awards, he decided to go ahead and enter the film as a direct entry for the foreign film category, supposedly after the support he got from viewers across India. That was yesterday and then 'Eklavya' gets nominated this year as an official entry and it creates quite a ruckus for being a box office dud of no repute and yet get the nomination. An elated Vidhu Vinod Chopra, now, says people in India need to grow up.

Sep 18, 2007

City of Djinns

I came across this from here. Some of these photographs also occur in the latest issue of M.

William Dalrymple puts forth an explanation to why Delhi is today what it is. Renowned as a shallow and fake culture, accused of being a heartless city with a soaring crime rate, where weddings are as lavish as common are drunk brawls, William says it is in part due to the fact that Delhi today is a city reborn again and again throughout history. Over the years, the metropolis has been the most powerful seat across the whole of the Indian subcontinent, and therefore, has witnessed more wars, coups, 'power' killings, betrayals than any other city. The current set of 'Dilli-wallas' are a curious mix of people, right from Punjabis who migrated during the Partition to the Jats from Haryana and the 'Bhaiyyas' of UP who came to the city in search of a better living. Therefore, William says, the culture of Delhi has, over the years, been covered by veils over veils of these various cultures, each trying to stamp their authority on what Delhi should be. Who or what does Delhi belong to? I guess that is a question that will remain unanswered till more of history is made.

edit: with fond memories of the place...

Sep 16, 2007

The mind conjures up a Sunday evening. Sitting by the river front, perhaps across the bay, a patio laid with wooden boards, some grass around it and smooth pebbles of cold white marble drawn from a river bed. Watch the boats return from a sojourn, light emanating from the tall glass buildings on the other side. The deep sky a brilliant hue, crimson now, violet then, a spattering of misty clouds streaked across the wide canvas. The air just nippy enough to tingle one's toes as it twirls around bare legs, lying on the crisp cotton bedsheets laid out on the couch. Some Sarah Mclaghlan, Travis, REM, Floyd, Annie Lennox gently crooning inside the amber hued room. Perhaps, a fusion of Talvin Singh, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Michael Brooks could do too...earthy songs, sufi mystic, deep vocals...The world of written words of another time, another city left behind, as one gently returns to the present and lets it seep into one's spirit, like wine that draws strength from the wood of its cask, brought out once in a while to catch the warmth of the setting sun to give it the perfect blend. Time, the fourth dimension overwhelms the other three and yet time, that does not know where else it could belong, but this moment. Here, now, is where you belong, for tomorrow is another worry and it does not matter if you had a fast depleting bank balance, or that people were slowly drifting away, perhaps, on one of those very yatches across the bay, their course set. It does not matter that you are away from where you began this journey, and all that remain are memories that you bracket into something called childhood. And that you are still away from time that calls upon you for a debt that you must pay back and pehaps sell your soul so you could...

Here, now is where you belong....

Sep 15, 2007

Ganpati Bappa Morya!!

We were kids. There used to be times when we did not have the luxury of playing gulli cricket, courtesy, the Patel chap, who with his bald pate and heavy voice would drive us away. Old couple with kids who'd migrated to the States could not bear a few kids making a ruckus every evening. At such times, we used to take refuge on the flat terraces of an unoccupied tenement near our houses. No. 75 and 76 were our favourite terraces for it meant we could run around and jump over the parapet that partitioned the terrace of the adjoining houses, and no parent would bother us. On one end lay an empty plot while the next house was just as empty.

Religion was something that neither of us in the bunch understood quite well. Except that it was a series of rituals that elders followed. Ganpati was no different. Every year, this time would mean a few elder guys from the row house side of the colony would go door to door and ask for contributions. With that they would build up the Ganpati pandal with a blaring music system, daily evening aartis and prasad that drew us to the spectacle. That, and the chance of shouting Ganpati Bappa Morya at the top of our voice. One day, when we were old enough we decided that we could manage a Ganpati pandal of our own. We used to setup our own pandal on one of these terraces with the help of unused slabs of kota stone with jagged edges. The flattest piece formed the floor while the remaining formed the walls and the roof. The back of the one square foot abode was the parapet wall. We spent hours decorating it with colored paper. Someone contributed the motor that had been salvaged out of a broken remote controlled toy car. A circular cardboard piece colored in bright patterns with our sketch pens was stuck onto the shaft of the tiny motor that was connected to a single pencil cell. This formed the chakra behind Ganpati's head. Tiny electric bulbs from someone's electric play set enabled us to light up the tiny pandal. The idol itself was painstakingly carved from blobs of mud rolled and dried and held together by tiny sticks or paper pins. One big mound over which rested a smaller one, a curved rolled up bit of mud formed the trunk and two flattened flaps made up the ears of the great God. Beads stolen from elder sisters' trinket box made up the eyes.

And every evening, just after dusk, when we heard the chant of the 'aarti' over at the colony's bigger organized pandal, we would gather at our little pandal on the terrace, with a small cup of sweets that would make up the prasad for our little Ganpati. A bunch of four five kids, one of us was the wiser kid who knew the aarti by heart and would therefore guide the rituals. We would light a small diya and incense sticks, agarbattis and chant His name over and over again. After the shouts of Ganpati Bappa Morya had died down we'd greedily divide up the prasad amongst ourselves and gulp it down. Cut fruit, sweetmeats, et all.

One year there was a feud and our group was divided into two. Each decided to have their own pandal on the very same terrace and an unspoken competition was set off with the aim of building the better pandal. That event brought about use of actual cement stolen from some construction site in the colony and therefore better constructed pandals where the air could be kept out of God's abode and the flame of the diya would not be at risk from the stiff September draft.

The dipping of Ganpati into waters was a problem every year since none of our parents would let us go by ourselves and carry the Ganpati to the nearest water body for 'immersion'. It would be left up to one of us to find a family who would take our Ganpati with the family one and immerse that too. Sometimes, when that was not possible, we would gently lift Him and place him in the empty plot of land nearby, consoling ourselves that we were returning him to his natural abode. The pandal would be gently dismantled and we would have the use of the terrace again for our daily evening games. Games with large balls held by the knuckles, 'Monkey in the Middle', 'River or Mountains', 'Sattodiyoo', 'Color, color', 'I Spy', and a dozen others.

Kids. We made up our own games, our own religion, our God and our own politics...

Sep 3, 2007

From the drafts in my mail..unedited
The perfect way of pretending to be working while Im actually blogging. Open a word document or a powerpoint, the better if it is the current project you’re working on, start typing somewhere in the middle in the same small font. When you are done, just open blogger, copy paste the post and publish. Whoosh! Important point is of course, not forgetting to delete it from the report / presentation you pretended to be busy with. Or else, it could lead to you being fired and your company sued. Ghastly a thought to imagine our clients reading the melancholic and sometimes downright cribby posts right in the middle of a feasibility study for a multi-crore real estate project. :D But I can’t help it. The new workplace I am seated in is situated right in the way of a busy walkway towards the pantry and the loo beyond, which makes it very easy for bored employees to just have a peek into my comp while on their way to another leak. As was proved by the senior from Bschool I chanced upon and who has since commented more than once on what I am doing. Searching for more seniors on Orkut??, she purrs coyly, while I am flabbergasted as to how did she see what I was doing on Orkut. Yeah, I was checking her out, among others. It was definitely easier in the Delhi office where I simply pretended I was drafting an email to a friend. The only raised eyebrows I had to encounter were those of Tania, who kept grumbling why noone ever wrote her so long mails. I finally had to tell her that it was in fact a post for my blog. That made her curious and she wanted to read me. I politely refused.

By the way, my new maidservant speaks English. Sis did warn me of it when she called to tell me that she’d managed to fix her up to clean the place and wash clothes. Next morning, a Saturday, a groggy me hears the knocking on the door (the doorbell doesn’t work). I get up and peer through the peephole to see a thinly yet cheery woman on the other side of the door. I open it up and I am greeted by a ‘Good Morning’. That drove half my sleep away, my Saturday morning. The next day she took out the newspaper from the latch and handed it to me on the way inside. Bade bade shehero mein aisi chotti chotti baatein hoti rehti hain.

I am enjoying the new house. It is, as written earlier, the first time I have a place to call my own. The cosy one room apartment is something I look forward to at the end of my day. Even as I right now have no means of entertainment, courtesy the broken Thinkpad, I still yearn to get back to it. I have yet to figure out the Internet and the daily newspaper, a fridge to keep milk, water, fruit juice and beer (in that order), a television sometime later this year and a music system. But it has my bed and sky blue bedsheets, the few books Ive managed to keep with myself and a few trinkets. By the next week I shall also have a few potted plants.
And as I stood by the window of my place, watch the rain beating down the tin roofs two floors down, a few words kept looping in my head.

Aazmaale aazmaale aaj khud ko aazmaale
Phirta hai kab se yeh dil sambhaale
Bol ye lab pe ruke hain
tere sajde mein jhuke hain
Pal pal bhikre hain kitne ujaale
Kya karoon kya sochta hai
chain dil ka dhoondta hai
Apni kismat ko jagaale
beech ka parda uthaale aazmaale
Aazmaale aazmaale aaj khud ko aazmaale
Phirta hai kab se yeh dil sambhaale
Bol ye lab pe ruke hain
tere sajde mein jhuke hain
Pal pal bhikre hain kitne ujaale
Apne gham se khelta hai, dard kitne jhelta hai
Sochta tu aur kuch hai, aur kuch tu bolta hai
Apne dil ko tu manaale
beech ka parda uthaale aazmaale
Aazmaale aazmaale aaj khud ko aazmaale
Phirta hai kab se yeh dil sambhaale
Bol ye lab pe ruke hain
tere sajde mein jhuke hain
Pal pal bhikre hain kitne ujaale

Kashmakash ko chhor de tu,
rukh hawa ka mod de tu
Khaali pe maana hai tera,
ho sake to tod de tu
Ek nayi mehfil sajaale
beech ka parda uthaale aazmaale
Aazmaale aazmaale aaj khud ko aazmaale
Phirta hai kab se yeh dil sambhaale
Bol ye lab pe ruke hain tere sajde mein jhuke hain
Pal pal bhikre hain kitne ujaale
Kitne ujaale, kitne ujaale, kitne ujaale

- Taxi 9211

Aug 29, 2007

ps

to add to the comments on the previous post....

This seems adventurous enough...

an ode to the humble auto rickshaw

Aug 26, 2007

Meter Down

Living in Bombay on your own without flatmates and not exactly near to the office, can be expensive. I am considering alternative careers. An auto rickshaw driver for example. The one I drove me to office today lives a much better standard of living. He doesn't have to bother getting wet in the rain on the way to work, while I had to face the ferocious rain today morning while I walked to the main road. His workplace, meanwhile, sits right outside his house. Moreover, it obliges if he decides he needs a change of view from the work desk. He put his legs up and sleeps after a heavy lunch. His work timings are flexible. His workplace has a CD music system (something I don't right now). I might even start liking Himesh. If there is a cricket match, he can take half a day off and relax in front of the idiot box. In any case, he can hear the commentary live on his radio, without worrying about office protocol. He doesn't worry about the Internet being down. When the gas pumps are on strike, its a holiday for him.

Hmm...

I need a HOLIDAY!

Aug 24, 2007

another weekend is here...

but
life
means
a lot more

Aug 17, 2007

This post is in response to Dobereinerr's comment on 'Street Tales'. It got me thinking. Long years back, one of my uncles told us a humorous incident from life. On one of his training sessions in the city, he was with a bunch of colleagues traveling from one point to another. Most of this group wanted to get to a different side of the railway line. For those who are not familiar to the city, it is divided along the North South axis by the local suburban railway lines and therefore you have an Andheri East and an Andheri West. There are overbridges at each railway station to get to either side and to the platforms. These can only be used by commuters and for the rest of the public, there are separate overbridges / underpasses at a distance from the railway station. Getting back to the incident, one of the members of the group was not really a commuter and was merely crossing over from one side to the other side. As luck would have it, he was caught by one of the ticket checking staff and fined for using the overbridge without a ticket. The only genuine explanation this person could come up was that he didn't realize when he just got caught in the tide of people along with him and didn't remember using the bridge for non-commuters.

Anyways, the point being, I wrote earlier about people being everywhere. It can be disconcerting for a lot of people and takes time to get used to. At no point in time, be it early morning or late night will you find tip toe silence in Mumbai. There is always movement and there is always some sound, the trains, the flights, the cabs, autos. People are always in a rush. To get someplace. Get back home, get to the office, to the shopping mall, not be late for the movie or a rendezvous with friends. A friend here told me recently that people don't smile here. Even if you happen to get into a longish eye contact with someone, you merely look away. Scowl, at the worst. There simply isn't time to pause, smell the flowers, as they say. It is a daily fight, from hunger, for a shelter, for power, for money...and for affection, perhaps. Sometimes, you just wish that you could get away from the maddening rush. The crash and squeal as dreams mesh and collide with each other...the city of dreams.

I chose to be here. I chose Mumbai.

If You Were A Song

I don't get to watch so much of television. When friends talk about Southpark, Frasier, Scrubs and more, I only say 'hmmm'. When I did get to watch television, I didn't like sitcoms and soaps because I didn't have the patience to remember what happened in the last episode or remember the show times. Hell, I don't even know who is who in Friends. Yah! Hang me for it! But I love the ads. They've changed a lot since the times of 'roshni deta bajaj'. Not that they were any less memorable.

I love this one. If you were a song....



I could even float a meme on this.

ps. I'm sure each of the captions are songs. I can name a few. How about you?

Aug 16, 2007

Street Tales

In another curious incident today, a little kid with bunny teeth walked up to me as I stood waiting by the roadside for my transport and mumbled something pointing to the other side of the busy road. After asking him twice, I gathered that he needed assistance to cross the road. I agreed and started towards the other side. Without a word, he grabbed my hand and we scurried across, a worried look on his face. I felt his small hand tightening every time some vehicle honked in protest at us. He did mumble some gratitude at the other end as I dropped him and made my way back to the other side.

Last year in Delhi, something similar happened outside the office. That time I helped a blind man cross the street. Then, a couple of cars actually stopped when they saw me, my colleague and the man crossing the road. I could not help but compare that no one even thought of that, here in Mumbai. So much for prejudices.

They are everywhere. On the streets, in supermarkets, at tea stalls, in local trains, on top of them, in subways, on flyovers, on overbridges hawking plastic toys, on the beach, on the higway, on the sea front sidewalks, on red BEST buses, walking across roads, in black and yellow FIAT cabs, on two wheelers, in expensive Beamers, in shopping malls, at the theater, in pubs, in cafes, in video game parlors, at the hair saloon, in the atrium to the office, on the road to Baskin Robbins, around the banana vendor, standing in queues at the ticket window, and at those outside a sale store, making out at Bandstand, begging at traffic signals, jogging in public parks, working away furiously at desktops in AC offices, shouting inside the financial bourses and in non-financial ones, hounding firangs at Colaba, inviting people at ice gola stalls, jumbo vada pavs at the malad station, in blue plastic sheet covered jhuggies along the railway tracks, at Shivaji Park playing a Sunday afternoon game of cricket, at the gym, at night, noon or dawn, long, short, black, white, fresh, stinky, callous, tender...

In sight, smell, throb and crash...human...

People.
Everywhere.

Aug 9, 2007

Earlier, I thought I could forgive but never forget.
I think now I can forget, I can never forgive.

Like Janis said...Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...

Balls.
:)

Aug 1, 2007

Classic

Life throws up turns at you often. A few of them appear to be blind turns away from the straight path that appears thorny and difficult but with a view of the distant dream. The turn you contemplate is into a blind alley that might take you to the same or an even better but distant and hazy dream. That turn also is about survival. For you and for a few more others.

Jul 3, 2007

Noise

The light is a brazen red. He guns his bike, but the engine is disengaged from the wheel. Like reality playing catch up with thoughts. With a flick of his heel, he unhinges the rest stand and lets the bike lean on to it. Ambient noise from a traffic signal along the Western Express Highway. A few steps to the left, he walks up to the leper, who has his stub of a leg wrapped up in a polythene bag to prevent the water from seeping in, and hands him a few coins. 40 year old man in the red car behind is impatient. He honks loudly.

The light is still red.
He will give him a glare.

Jul 2, 2007

No. 1 is a Delhiite. No.2 is a Goan. No.3 is a Parsi Bava. No.4 is a Kannadiga. No.5 is a guy from remote interior Vidarbha.

Thats Mumbai.

Disclaimer

Every photograph on this blog (except the title background) has been taken by me. . . To view more, click on any of them to go to my Flickr page (link on sidebar too). Feel free to use them the way you like, no issues, though I wouldn't like it if someone passes them off as original work. Ta!