Pause

-
I was walking in the rain. Some days, I walk because there is no cab in sight. Mahim by-lanes were all green and with newly paved footpaths. No water logging near the pavements or the drains. I was admiring the greenery and the lack of people on the roads. It was sheer bliss, the sound of incessant rain, no strong winds and the dark clouds hiding the afternoon sun. The cars were not splashing any water as the roads had no potholes. This was nature and BMC together at its best. I had had a lovely lunch with my child's school Mommies. The banter was more fun than the food. A friend dropped me across the Arabian sea. I mean we crossed the Mahim causeway from Bandra. I take the Mumbai sea for granted so many times. Then something makes me pause and start admiring its beauty. That moment of pause is when I am awestruck, one more time. Its glorious all the time as we all go about our daily chores but I don't even see it.

In a few moments, I realised I was not enjoying my walk in the rains, as I used to. My new footwear was getting soaked and I was scared it will loose its shape and comfort, the next time I wear it. The footwear brand is not available in India and I find them most easy to wear and walk. I noticed a tear in my dress which may be due to the hot iron by the Dhobi cum Istri waala ( the laundry guy). I was glad the print hid the tear on my almost new dress. Then I saw my steel and gold watch getting wet. I immediately removed it and slid it in the purse hoping the sapphire glass does not scratch with all the keys in my bag. I am sounding so materialistic or brand obsessed but this was all so real for me. I hardly ever wear heels and I treasure the comfortable flats I have as I don't get them often. I never knew I was such a fuss pot. Gone was the carefree girl who did not mind splashing in the rains.

At one point, I was the only one walking in a quiet lane. All of us were one... The fallen branches, the crushed orange flowers, the small Sev puri stall covered in plastic, the cabbie taking an afternoon nap with all windows rolled up, the abandoned hand cart, the maroon curtain flying out of a window which was forgotten to be shut, the empty coffins lying on the pavement outside the shop waiting for someone to die, the constant hum of the rains and the silence of the breeze. The pause has happened. Can you hear it?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nange Paon in Navratri

-
When I was working and staying in the hostel, I kind of stopped believing in most festivals and rituals. I thought all this was some weird things which people did, it had no scientific base and why should I follow anyone. In the college hostel, vacations were time to go home and not connected with any festival except Diwali. Sophia College hostel was a cocoon in the heart of South Mumbai. The campus with an old palace building was a quiet oasis with trees and birds, in the mayhem of Mumbai. No festival touched it unless the college celebrated it. The Polytechnic had rock shows and one Dandiya night every year, which it soon stopped having by 1988. Only celebration was the Vegetable Biryani in lunch on Sundays. The Polytechnic hostel did not even believe in pampering the children with food. Memories of bread being there round the clock for breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. For them, while the non vegetarians ate eggs for breakfast, the vegetarian had bread. And then when non vegetaria...
Read more

Shraddh period in Hinduism

-
According to the Hindu calendar, this is the shraddh period going on.  For fifteen days in a year, the ancestors are remembered and prayed to. No auspicious events / ceremonies take place in this time. People use the tithi/date of death to invite a Pandit and feed the departed soul. It means you remember the person passed away, give food to the Pandit and the crows. People keep a cooked meal on the terrace. They try to make the favourite food of the departed person. My memories are of my Grandma mixing and crushing all the savouries with her hands and when it was in form of  a paste, my Uncle would go to the terrace and throw the food for the crows. Crows in Hinduism are considered messengers of the departed souls. A lot of people feed Gathiyas to the crows for the full year. If your ancestors are happy, then your life goes well ,is the general belief amongst Hindus. The shraddh period falls exactly between Ganpati and Navratri. One does not buy a house or have...
Read more

Antakshari

-
Today we were playing antakshari at the Holi get together. We did not know any new songs so naturally only the golden melodies were being sung. The whole generation playing antakshari was singing the similar era songs on the alphabets they got. I realised a couple of things. In English language there is no game like Antakshari. How many sentences end with I or The? How can you sing when most songs start with I, The, Once, When and How?I cannot resist explaining the game, we all grow up with, in India. Antakshari means Ant : end , Akshar: alphabet ie last letter of the word. Akshar also means God. It also means God has the last word. Its a game with two teams and we call the teams as  'party'.  We say "Baithey baithey kya karein, karna hai kuchh kaam, shuru karo antakshari , le ka Hari ka naam." Translated from Hindi, We are sitting idle, lets do some work, lets start antakshari, starting with God's name. In Indian games, there is a lot of religion or belief in Go...
Read more