I thought, I thought of never going back
to those silhouettes of chimneyed polluted air
And skyscrapers that ate up the mangroves
and streets going somewhere, only to block the drainage
with so much garbage that there is a perennial
deluge when it rains. I am trapped in the sphere
above a metropolis of 25 million, almost the
demographic size of entire Australia! How beautiful were
seven islands once; now heaped upon each other in
over-extended landfills! It’s a good idea to tell the sea to get out!
But how do you tell so many slumdwellers that?!
And the illegal hawkers busy with tax-free incomes,
scurrying like mice at the council trucks raiding in to
confiscate! How can you blame anyone for the chaos
on the streets, and yet somehow all functions; like the
trains that don’t fall off the tracks through spilling over with
heads and hands and feet! I am just withdrawn to believe
that I may not find an old self there! Did I altogether forget that absent-
minded tread through the suburban streets! Or that lost childhood
in the old school, now in gaudier colours, still annexed to the Old
Stone Church that was frequented for its architectural beauty,
but never empathised with (by me). Could I be seeking once again for a handful
of handsome truths that got me thus far! And would I find mother
there, quietly inhabiting a home to make everything fall in place with
tireless energy and sacrifice, when Bombay was still more rustically beautiful.
And Dad who never spoiled himself because he wanted to devote all he had
to his children, treating himself to the cheapest treats – peanuts, as he walked
slowly home with his leather bag, and in it, some delectable afternoon snacks for his children!
Or me and siblings playing…playing…much too happy…carefree of the pains that
adulthood would bring. I think of it all in old sepia colours, regretting now that the city
has lost much of its simple past soul to materialism. Yet, it is a metropolis of dreams
for a few, and despair for most others! Fate discriminates, as I’ve learnt in my own
poverty! Mumbai discriminates heavily! But I can say it is forgiven as I wander in its tiny
oyster homes feeling the pearls of Karma-religiosity draw me to their souls. And I think,
how brave these folk are in their too many day-to-day inconveniences and discomforts!
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