Mumbai diaries

An ode marking my recent trips to Mumbai...

Sitting in a chair in a locality where nothing changes

At least nothing that meets the eye

The past few days colored the same as another few distant days

Everything is the same

In contrast to the hustle and bustle of a city that consumed me 

Head to toe

All of my senses

Aamchi Mumbai - a city as vibrant and colorful as chaos itself

The city is always alive with the constant chatter of its people and livestock...

Even the desolate ant is busy climbing a mountain

The ant that is me and the mountain that is the forever consuming schedule 

Tending to one errand after the other

And to top it - even in this chaotic madness, nature and life - 

find a way to survive, to prosper -

To build a livelihood that is self sustaining...

A proof of the fact that even in the extremities - nature and life thrive

The more you push yourself the greater you become

Because it's not really you - it is the law of survival at all odds 

And I am sure while I am consumed by thinking and jotting all of this down, 

Mumbai must still be dancing in its rhythm to the tunes of a zillion hearts that keep the city alive, and an ecosystem that forever thrives...

The reader

A tribute to the reader in each one of us...

Meet the reader -

In a small corner of the busy room

Absorbed in his new muse - a new book, turning every page meticulously 

Furrowing his brow - 

At every turn of event the story unfolds

Trying to put sense to every word the author has written

Oblivious to what is happening around him - 

The natural scheme of things

To him, the book is the divine Lord, he must perceive to understand through the tale the author - his disciple narrates.

And the journey of reading no less than seeking the divine - 

equivalent to no more, no less than his life

I have signed a silent pact with this reader

To try and understand him -

And, dare say 

Become him -

In the time that follows 

By succumbing to the silent devotion,

The reader partakes to seek the one.