Friday, September 30, 2011

Going Local

Of late, I step out from home around 7pm, do all shopping nearby. Fresh vegetables, fresh bread. The kids accompany me on their cycles - some time V rides doubles with S. Its a wonderful feeling to run into to familiar people and shopkeepers. Its really been a long time since I moved here. A little over 5 years.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Faces from journeys

Oftentimes faces persist like snapshots. Usually happens when I travel alone and care to take in more than just the people I chaperon. Oftentimes I want to know why, what, how, but dare not walk up and ask. I view myself as an intruder. Here's a list from a trip to Chennai yesterday.

- 8:30 PM: Electric Train @St. Thomas Mt.: A little girl, around 8 yrs, in school uniform - white salwar, blue kameez, white dupatta. With school backpack. Seemed to have had a long day, but eyes still shining bright. Boarding the train holding her little sister, 5 year old perhaps. They try various empty seats and finally decide to sit by the entrance. Enjoying the wind. So happy. So 'for-the-moment' life of childhood.

- 10 30PM: Central Station: A man of 30 lying on a bed sheet near the Higginbothams stall, sleeping. Just like hundreds of others lying on bedsheets/card boards/floor. Some alone, some in groups. Some happy to be going to some place, some sad at having left place. This man was well dressed, head cleanshaven. Initially put him down as a Tirupati return. A few moments later I found another man kneeling next to him and fanning him with an tattered towel. It was then that I noticed the two catheters on the sleeping man's hands. Perhaps he is a General Hospital return.

- 11:00PM: Platform 4, Yercaud express preparing to leave the station. Important looking person dressed all in white, standing by the AC compartment. A dozen people jostling around him, giving him what looked like petitions. He gave the impression that he was there to solve all their problems.