Bangalore traffic! You zig and zag, You create a drag. Sometimes You flow like river rushing downhill revving engines sub for melting snow, and there’s no dam to hold you in, not even the traffic light. At other times, you’re a machine with revolting parts, each with its own brain, each talking, no one listening, … Continue reading Ode to Bangalore Traffic
Bangalore traffic! You zig and zag, You create a drag. Sometimes You flow like river rushing downhill revving engines sub for melting snow, and there’s no dam to hold you in, not even the traffic light. At other times, you’re a machine with revolting parts, each with its own brain, each talking, no one listening, … Continue reading Ode to Bangalore Traffic
Two worlds collide.Your left,his right.It's a big battlefor elbow roomon an economy class flight.
You stand at a distance they've asked you to keep.You look at the people in front of you in the queueand smile to yourself,noticing how everyone's disciplined hereunlike at the metro station or at the airport.You see the man behind the glass screen,the one who will decide how close to your dream you can get. … Continue reading Evaluation time
There was a crab named TimAWho with his daddy MoNaCordoned off the oceanFor all but crustaceans‘You outsiders find a new home, ah!’ If you think that’s random babbleLook around and see the bubblesOf bigotry and hateThe currency they tradeAnd they tell you ‘Don’t stir up any trouble.’
Extension On the morning of day 21, the man on television arrives at ten, and begins his speech. Listening to it, I feel like I’m uncoiling a ball of wool in slow motion until I get to the core. The man on television makes me wait for long enough that I have to heat my … Continue reading Extension
Day 13 of the lockdown. I only know days by numbers now. Weeks have merged into each other and I don’t remember what happened when. When did I last hear the soft thud of the shuttle as the kids played badminton on the street below? When did I last see the balding portly man on … Continue reading Volatile
Nine more days of this lockdown to go. At least nine more. When this curtain is lifted, would the sights and the sounds that we have added collectively have been enough to beat the virus out of the planet? Would the demon have understood the language of beating drums and plates and claps, and incandescent … Continue reading What’s Next?
Last night I dreamed I was riding my bicycle. In my dream, the bicycle had no handlebar, and I do not remember what I did with my hands, Also, I was relearning to ride the bike on a highway. I had forgotten to balance, and yet I did not need to. The bike could stay … Continue reading Highway Hostility
We may survive this virus, but you know we have greater afflictions if we ask squatting children and parents to close their eyes while they are sprayed with sodium hypochlorite, a compound so corrosive, that when the BBMP sprayed it in our streets last week, we all stayed indoors in our cocoons as the liquid … Continue reading Herd Immunity
Grains of thought 