So I woke up and found myself on a vast expanse of land. There were no clear boundaries, no human faces, no buildings, no trees…nothing at all. Just me, my thoughts and memories of the life/lives I had lived, the roles I had played and the feeling of distance.
Distance they say is relative to time and space, here there was none. Yet I had come far, there were roads I had travelled and yet I couldn’t see any of those neither could I see one ahead. I knew I had to walk but I didn’t know why or where I was headed.
There were familiar faces around me and yet they seemed so far away, they were…a reflection from the abyss of my mind. I didn’t know whether they were still a part of my present or would I not see them again, yet they were there if only in the realms of my mind.
There were no signboards nor any speed breakers, no direction no speed limits just space…There was so much I wanted to do but that was on known territory where I had an identity, on this ground I wasn’t sure it mattered. I wasn’t sure if anything mattered except memories of the conglomerate me from the life/lives I could recall.
There were flashes of incidents… the happiness, the fear, the pain, the joy all fresh yet as stale as if they never happened. I could have done better, handled them more objectively but I was blinded by the signboards, the speed breakers and the warning signs closing in on me on the territory I used to know. There were things to be done, targets to be achieved and there was a timeline to everything…Time…here it didn’t exist.
I could even recall the perfect family dinner, but of course I didn’t attend the whole thing, I had other responsibilities. There were people sitting around a table, there was peace, these were the people I had set out to achieve everything for or was it really for them? Today all they wanted was my time and I didn’t have it, we never do and we never will for every today will become a yesterday and tomorrow you may wake up in a foreign land.
Distance they say is relative to time and space, here there was none. Yet I had come far, there were roads I had travelled and yet I couldn’t see any of those neither could I see one ahead. I knew I had to walk but I didn’t know why or where I was headed.
There were familiar faces around me and yet they seemed so far away, they were…a reflection from the abyss of my mind. I didn’t know whether they were still a part of my present or would I not see them again, yet they were there if only in the realms of my mind.
There were no signboards nor any speed breakers, no direction no speed limits just space…There was so much I wanted to do but that was on known territory where I had an identity, on this ground I wasn’t sure it mattered. I wasn’t sure if anything mattered except memories of the conglomerate me from the life/lives I could recall.
There were flashes of incidents… the happiness, the fear, the pain, the joy all fresh yet as stale as if they never happened. I could have done better, handled them more objectively but I was blinded by the signboards, the speed breakers and the warning signs closing in on me on the territory I used to know. There were things to be done, targets to be achieved and there was a timeline to everything…Time…here it didn’t exist.
I could even recall the perfect family dinner, but of course I didn’t attend the whole thing, I had other responsibilities. There were people sitting around a table, there was peace, these were the people I had set out to achieve everything for or was it really for them? Today all they wanted was my time and I didn’t have it, we never do and we never will for every today will become a yesterday and tomorrow you may wake up in a foreign land.
Sanchita Johri
Suddenly, I realized that the boat had not moved for the last 2 hours! Been talking to 12 laborers since 4 am, standing at the top of their kachcha hut on top of their boat.
ReplyDeleteThey were mostly from UP, Bihar who have come to Mumbai to earn and send back half of it back their homes, where the parents, wives and kids were spending lives somehow.
They leave every day at midnight, go across the Thane creek and start digging sand ... bring it back and sell for construction purpose.
"kya karte ho maja karne ke liye"
"Sahab, kabhi thoda Chiken bana lete hain"
"Aur kya karte ho"
"Thoda masala kha lete hain"
I took a bit of it but didn't like the taste of it ... my criteria has been nothing else. Having taken the dinner with them, I was already feeling close to them.
"Aur kya karne se maje aate hain"
"Sahab, thoda bahut pee lete hain kabhi kabhi"
"Peene se kya hota hai?"
The 25+ old guy bringing out the bucket of sand from the base, a job which the growing class of techies would not even be aware of let alone having some empathy if not sympathy with it, answers:
"Aise to kuch bhi karne se kya hota hai !"
No further questions.