Many Lives, Many Masters

Shivaji Park in the afternoon is really peaceful. The hot blazing sun showing off on its last leg before the onset of monsoons. My favorite temples where Gods are having siesta with the steady drone of traffic. The trees providing what no sunscreen or sunglasses can provide- breeze and shade. As I walk to the temple and then for a cab, I see couples sitting on the low parapet. This is the low seating which runs all around the park. Shivaji Park has two walkways one the broad pavement and the other is the walkway parallel to the footpath. The seating parapet divides the two. Couples are sitting pretty close to other couples.Some young and some not so young. Definitely no one looked like husband and wife to my rose tinted sunglasses. The boyfriends girlfriends were joking , giggling. The intense ones had the woman crying and man wondering now what. One was explaing his life fundas to her and she was besotted. I was wondering will he leave his wife for her. The young ones who had a fight were walking with a gap of two feet between them. The walk will surely cool them off. An old man laid down with his head on his bag and his wife at his head. He put his sweat filled shirt to dry. His leather belt brought tears to my eyes. It was old tattered, the leather gone and I could see the inside skin or rexin. That for me was abject poverty. We dont even let our belt fade before we buy a new one. He must be wearing this for years. They looked completely content as a man and wife.
The temple was getting its tarpaulin covering to protect devotees in the rain. The flower seller was getting ready with prasad thaalis for the tuesday evening rush. Some sales people were writing their accounts and sales call reports.College kids were laughing away. Some having kala khatta golas.I was wondering what happens to all of these people at Shivaji Park in the eveining. Each one of us accountable for so many things and answerable to so many people. Leave the peace of the park and go back to the humdrum of our lives or take a piece of the park when we go?????????

Comments

  1. Awesome....so real....one of your best....
    Wish i ould give that old man my belt

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very touching, Parul Di. I agree with Jaideep Bhai's comment..
    my heart reaches out to the old man you've described.. God bless him and give him all the happiness and luxuries ..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Too Good! Vinay always tells that if we want to count our blessings we must look at down troddens. How true!
    Keep up the Good work.
    Love

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nange Paon in Navratri

Antakshari

Shraddh period in Hinduism