traffic

There is a lot of pollution in this country, undoubtedly and a lot of traffic too. Everyone drives hugging each other, inching closer and closer by seconds slowly. We were waiting at the signal. I was on my way to meet Mr. A at his place in bandra. I heard a firecracker go boom loudly at a distant, startled by the loud noise; my shiver rattled the halting rick on a slope. The rick guy looked up instantly stared at me in the rear view mirror accusingly, I pretended as if nothing had happened and looked away at a distance suppressing a smirk in the farthest corner of my lips. The signal went green and we drove off. Loud siren could be heard from behind for quite some time. Nobody budged or even bothered to see. They never did. This was India. I looked at the people sitting in the car and wondered if they had heard it. Did they think about the urgency of the situation? Somebody could be severe labour pain inside an ambulance perhaps even dying… relatives howling, praying, and begging. After a while the siren stopped. Possibly, the patient was dead by now or a child born, dead or alive. Not so patient of them! But it was a cop car… somebody was at a gunpoint probably, being looted, being raped… but nobody cared. It most certainly was none of their business. And yes, very likely the cops just wanted get pass the traffic! I guess, still nobody cared.

an alien perspective!

While taking a ride home after paying my LIC premium due for a long time, I happened to pass by this square c shaped jewelers with its owners and employees sitting idly, staring at the road perhaps waiting for the customers on such a hot lazy afternoon. It somehow struck me as an odd vision. Wasn’t the whole scenario a little strange? Here were a bunch of people sitting in a constricted constructed place among furniture that took large number of hours and manual labor to be made, trying to sell yellow color shiny metal turned into different intricate shapes! It was this alien perspective, removed from the ordinary that gives a surprise every now and then. We are so settled in our lives, taking concepts and ideas for granted which are handed down to us from generations. But this alien perspective strikes me often n often it gets neglected. Many a times at home, while the bed sheets will be laundered and folded and handed over to me to take it upstairs to my room by mom, I would be astonished to see the pattern of flowers or otherwise! It’s the same bed sheet I have used over the period of time and yet I fail to recognize the pattern. You are likely to find astonishing facts by this alien perspective, let me tell you that! I fell in love more than once. And I failed each time. Blaming it on the circumstances, the lack of dedication of the other person or even God. At times I realized my mistake, at times I refused to compromise, more than once I got fooled and most times I felt betrayed and let down. And this made me wonder if deep down there was another reason for it. It was time to look at it from a different dimension which made me wonder if the fact of matter lied in the idea that I was incapable of love. Is it possible? Is it ever possible that a person cannot love? Is it possible that someone who grew up waiting for ‘the one’, someone who held hands, kissed gently, caressed, made love, whispered sweet nothings, gave surprises, bought gifts, walked the moon lit beach, danced in public without music, repeated those three magical words, exchanged flowers, exchanged juices, felt the heartbeat, engaged in embraces, fought over silly things, made up with fierce love, talked till dawn about nothing, cared for, cajoled every time, pampered, gazed into eyes, dreamt of a wonderful life together, made promises, mourned death when it was over, could this someone be incapable of love? Could people be incapable of love?