That is it. A road, people, products, nothing matters.
I was waiting to cross and on an impulse took the picture. This is Linking Road, Bandra, Mumbai.
I was here yesterday, another mundane day, doing mundane things.
You want something important? You think everyday in the life of a human has something significant happening? You imagine them.
I imagined the story of the road. How many times I have passed it, walked along it. It used to be narrow with kiosks lining it. Illegal structures. They have given way to stores. People shop in airconditioned comfort. I went to one of these. Wanted a few T-shirts. The boy must have been in his mid-teens. He showed me nice things and kept piling them on his shoulder; they slipped. I noticed his arm. It was not there. I noticed an armless arm.
From then on I started holding what I wanted…he said he did this everyday. So I handed the pile to him. I did not want him to feel today was any different. I was any different.
I paid him the money. His sleeve was shaking limply.
It isn’t a story. It is his life. Mundane life. Like mine.
We walk the same roads. Some on our feet, some on wheels.
I was here yesterday. Nothing would have changed there today.
6 comments:
Humans are becoming more resistive to antibiotics because they are having loads of them right from childhood....and we are becoming less emotional and less sensitive....may be because emotional trauma around us is rising ....we watch bomb blasts as "news" and switch to a yash chopra movie the next second...relish the honey glazed romance for ten minutes ....then move to a NDTV discussion on extra marital affairs, taste the discussion....relate to it momentarily and then move to watch a reality show on who sounds the worst....switch off and sleep as if nothing happened....nothing has changed...you are right ....we are making a backward journey from being humans to being connected ...yet unsocial animals .....thoughts ???
Manish:
That was a passionate expose of urban lifestyle.
I don't know about 'backward journey'...going back happens more often than we think. Maybe we can them reclaim roots.
Oh, I read your comment on 'Ab ke hum bichchde', tribute to Faraz. You might like taking a look at my take-off from the first line here:
http://farzana-versey.blogspot.com/2008/09/death-of-forever-hamesha-ka-janaaza.html
You want something important? You think everyday in the life of a human has something significant happening? You imagine them.
...and so you make them happen.
“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry. “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”
Dumbledore beamed at him,“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
I was here yesterday. Nothing would have changed there today.
Perhaps not, but between now and the next time you go there, you may have changed. The place will then be 'changed' for you.
On a different note- snapping picures of strangers, that's not a very good habit!
Oh, the quote was from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last in the series.
Mask:
I clicked them when their faces could not be seen. Usually, I click pictures of strange objects.
"... between now and the next time you go there, you may have changed. The place will then be 'changed' for you."
I take time changing...don't look!
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