..Bend in the road...!!!

Every moment is pre-destined...The turn on the road you take...the speeding car that you just short of bumped into....the screeching halt of the car...the fierce exchange of glances...suddenly turning into pleasant awes...Long lost acquaintance...What separates you both are the years in between...and your individual choices...But for the turn and the bend in the road...!!!

At Dhobighaat...

Far, far away from the pandemonium of urban life, there lie a topsy-turvy world oblivion to the city folks...You need not make an effort to reach there...You will be called for, when your time comes...Your feet will walk you there...Your eyes will find the direction...Don't even bother to ask "How far" or "Which way"...Your heart will tell you when you have reached there...One night, I was called there and since then I have returned there many a times, though not in person...

In the midst of all the mayhems of city life, lie a poignant place by itself, which people call "Dhobi Ghaat"...A rectangular blockade of water, surrounded by a stretch of concrete which in turn is surrounded by creepers and plants half grown, half neglected...The place itself is stingy, unkept, devoid of any brightness...But that's what exactly make it so serene, so calm...The only brightness that you might see is the flickering shadows of light floating in symphonic reflections from the surrounding apartments...On a lucky day you will see the moon smiling at you...

You park yourself on one of the benches alongside and you will see life unfolding in front of your eyes....Towards your right, sits a lone soul, motionless, deep in thought....so deep that his thoughts seem to float on the surface...his unkempt hair, his half-open book on his lap, his untied shoe string, all speaks about a life half-lived...Is he reflecting on his past or is he mulling over his future....you would never know....His eyes searches for some answers, the questions staring stark naked on his face....

If you look a little farther from there, your eyes will hold the beatific sight of an old couple...Their silence speak volumes, their eyes tell a story of life lived completely ... Their meloncholy of thoughts play itself in the look of their eyes...You feel profound and proud having shared few moments with the benign couple....

Move your head on your left and there you will see them...Two friends engrossed in the nostalgia of their past, each, describing their journey and how the chain of events has brought them together again - after ten years of separation...both of them having held themselves on a ray of promise to meet at this place...Can't you notice the small aura of celebration in the air surrounding them!!...

On a bench exactly opposite to you, a father helps his disabled young one to take little steps in what would be a long journey...the young one too terrified to take that small step, too innocent to understand the meaning of fall and pain...You cannot but help yourself send a little prayer for the toddler.....

As you gather your belongings and walk towards the gate...you take along with you, the search of the solitary soul, the bliss of the young couple, the love of the friends, the helplessness of the young father and... last but not the least, the innocence of the child....

Life would play itself again with the same emotions on another day with another characters...A part of you would remain there forever on the concretised path of "Dhobighaat" to watch it for one more time...

Your thought..

As the wheels of time take their turns....And the daily pandemonium wanes....The sky changes it's attire...I withdraw myself in my shell...And YOU come to my mind like a pole star....Directing me unto you...I am resurrected...A new me is born...Just by your thought!!!

..And the road in-between...

Down there, on the other side of the road, it laid there ....wrapped up in a rugged piece...it's body, pale, worn out, numb, cold....From this side of the road, he observed the sight for long, from the corner of his eyes, between the fragments of time snatched away from his nagging girlfriend sitting across his table...

Many a bodies-in-motion passed by that cold body....Many sighs, gnaws, pities, indifferences were left behind - to be lost, perhaps in the pandemonium of maddening clanking of wheels, the posterous pomping of the horns....Oblivious of all these,the body laid there, motionless....

First it was a feeling of restlessness in him....a little later awkwardness crept in....then something tore him apart from within, leaving his soul to bleed...he had long before forgotten the existence of any other human being in his vicinity, save that cold body and himself and the road that separated them...his thoughts hammered his soul, his conscience pricked him......he fought his conscience bravely, at first resisting himself to find something about that motionless body, seconds later finding an excuse to save himself the effort of putting self to any unforseeable trouble...

He had already lost the fight before it all began....

As his comfort zone gave away all the little that was saved of in him, in a split second, he made a decision that would, what would be the final blow - to his petulant conscience and to that still body on the other side of the road....in that one defining moment, he had sealed their fate....Hadn't he long before known the priceless wisdom of ignorance being bliss!!!....

A transient war was won...knowing well, that he had just committed the greatest crime against humanity....his soul, buried in the dark dungeons, finally laid to rest....he began sipping the hot chocolate coffee....smiling to the lass just accross his table.....

He was sure of one thing though....he would never be able to cross that road, ever again...

Has YOUR invitation arrived as yet???

Mortals forget. But they don’t. As we traverse through the multitudes of births and deaths embracing every form and shape, we carry forward our unbundled baggages. An act of kindness left unreciprocated manifests itself at some other time and space and in some other dimension traversing itself through the realms of this boundless infinity. A thought left blank does not ever get lost. It searches for it’s rightful place to be etched in some definite form. Every single event that happens and every single person that we meet aren’t from this life time alone. They all wander infinitely – through us, around us – until “the moment” arrives. We all meet at a pre-destined time zone, thanks to the universal conspiration of coincidence. “Nothing is a coincidence”. We all come into each other’s lives, the invitations for which have been delivered by Time many life times ago!!!

Knock! Knock!! Knock!!! …….Another invitation, ofcourse!!!!!

Morning dew...

Her face smiled at me as a fresh drop of early morning dew on a bright sunflower, radiating sunshine of my life. It instantly brought a smile on my face. Hers was the most pretty face I’ve ever seen. I wondered how she could be – there!!! Had she been here, I would have told her my dil-ki-baat!!! But THAT would never happen in this life-time. Her face smiled at me from the obit column of Page 4 of …..

(Dedicated to someone special, whose path I would not cross in this lifetime)

.......

Twenty seven years have passed by. The elemental forces have continued to act at it’s constant pace. Many seasons have come and gone. Bringing forth it’s moments of pain and pleasure. Deep down somewhere, I have remained the same.

Every person that touched upon my life was nothing short of a season. I say season, because, they come and go. I remember every one of them. Can we ever forget anything or anyone in this cosmic cycle? At certain points in time, I wished, they stayed back. With me. Or atleast - around me. But they had their own promises to keep and certain more lives to be touched upon. And so they went. Others have religiously filled in the vacuum created by the earlier. But nothing much the same.

I would not name any person or place here. Because those who will read this would know, when and where do I refer to them and would instantly connect with the same. Others, need not know their names. Either way, it does not matter.

I sit besides my window and see. The fluttering leaf has mellowed down. The clouds have given up their morning fight and now seem to make a pact with the soothing moonlight . The paper bits have traveled beyond my sight. A little farther away, the smoke has begun to rise.

Time for me to turn the page. And begin.

Here I come...

The start is always mystical. The end is ever unknown. Between the two lies the forces that connect the mystical with the unknown.

I see outside my window. A few leaves flutter from their twigs on the tree. Are they trying to hold on or to set themselves free? The dust rises, slowly gathering momentum. Bits of paper try to make their way on the dusty street. The clouds seem to juxtapose their position in a battle to hide the sun - the mighty - in the effort, losing a bit of itself.

The motion has been set in.

Here I come.