All is Dust

Sometimes i still pretend that you are somewhere around me. It just gives me the strength to endure the cycle of mundane chores. Sometimes when the going gets tough....i hear those little words that you used to whisper in my ears to cheer me up. They still do, just like they did back then. Although, I'm not as efficient or as ambitious as i was back then. It's weird how everything that was so enticing once seems so meaningless now. I'm just an aimless wanderer now. A wanderer looking for a purpose to life. A vagabond, whom the world shuns and the average human, so engrossed in worldly pleasures, fails to fathom. Nothing matters as nothing is eternal. As the renowned  poet Percy Bysshe Shelley has rightly surmised:

"First our pleasures die - 

and then our hopes, and then our fears -

and when these are dead, 

the debt is due 

dust claims dust - and we die too.."

         

She dwells with Beauty – Beauty that must die;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:
Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veil’d Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
Can burst Joy’s grape against his palate fine;
His soul shall taste the sadness of her might,
And be among her cloudy trophies hung.

                                                         - By: John Keats

Normans saw on English Oak,
On English neck a Norman yoke;
Norman spoon on English dish,
and England ruled as Normans wish;
Blithe world in England will never be more
Till England's rid of all the four

                                     - Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe,Ch.xxvii)

Raining cats and dogs...

             Yesterday was one of those days....those days in Mumbai......when the India Meteorological Department (IMD)predicts no rains..... and it rains heavily.  I don't blame them. I mean...really...Mumbai needs to be awarded for the most unpredictable climate........and for the most unpredictable people.

             Rains, of course, disrupted the already disrupted lives of "Mumbaikars" which increased the level of frustration in them. The roads turned into rivers  but sadly....we couldn't turn our cars into boats like batman. I was astounded....seeing the central railway working...i mean actually working. The trains were moving....and reaching to their predetermined destination. That moment...i started believing in the existence of God. 

             I was brave enough to get into one of the trains. I didn't really have an option...the roads were blocked. Everyone around me was drenched top to bottom but that didn't stop them from complaining when occasionally a few drops of water fell on them through the windows. Seriously....like that's gonna make any difference. People took out their frustrations on each other, yelling constantly.  On every station hoards of people got into the train, pushing and screaming, but nobody got out. That made the people already inside the train start praying to every God they knew to help them survive the imminent death by suffocation but there were also people who enjoyed the rains and laughed and joked around. I admired them.

              Finally, the train reached my stop, panting and huffing, and with a last prayer, i tried to get down. I didn't really have to make an effort, the others pushed me out.  Standing on the railway platform, i witnessed the train reluctantly start moving again. It still had miles to go. 'Dear train...you have my sympathies', i thought and exited the station.I saw people scrambling for autorickshaws or cabs or some form of metal vehicle that moves and would take him to their homes. I decided not to push my luck and walk my way home. I rewinded my entire journey in my head, smiled to myself and closed my umbrella. What was the point of holding it open. It really was raining cats and dogs in Mumbai or, like someone rightly said to me yesterday, it was raining hippos and rhinos! My umbrella couldn't stand the weight.

It's a Canon click!!

It's a Canon click!!

Its a Canon Click!

If only...

It was a rainy day...
You were standing on the sea wall at marine drive

watching the sea afar..

Your hands in your pocket, your windblown hair
falling casually on your forehead
you notice me looking at you instead of the sea
and with a smile you hold out your hand
I take it and i stand next to you
we both talk nothing...we didn't need to...

Today's a rainy day
I'm standing on the sea wall at marine drive...
living in the past
If only I could.