Moments in Time

Monday, March 30, 2009

RainMan

My red side-bag didn't have an umbrella. To tell you the truth, even my red side-bag shouldn't have been there. It doesn't at all go with my pinstriped trousers and my formal shirt; even no more with the corporate sewage that I carry home, as my extra baggage, everyday. Looks more like a weathered artifact stolen away from its more carefree times.

So I went into the rain. Thinking, semi-consciously, what might be the consequences if I cannot make it to office due to a violent bout of sneezing, and a sore throat. It was a gentle rainy breeze now, with the occasional flashes of lightening, like Someone up there with a 80-200 tele lens, trying to capture the throngs of scampering people, in a single frame. Luckily, got hold of a cab(Omni), moments after I stepped out of the IT park(its also called a park, nomenclaturally equivalent to the one where little happy children gleefully chuckle when they smudge ice-cream on each others' faces). Plugged on the hands-free, and stuffed the ear-phones to shut out the world(Using the hands-free and incessantly listening to the radio while transit, is one rampant disease that WHO will fail to eradicate from the IT brethren). Windows were shut, probably since the girl opposite to me, blissfully crooning loudly whatever was being played on her radio station, feared the wind would mess up her hair, or spoil her mascara, or something.

I whacked the window-seat as a fellow passenger stepped out at Ruby. That's when I finally managed to slide open a window, carefully watching if no one gets irritated by my sacrilegious act. The first spray of the brewing Kaalboisaakhi fogged my Crizals with microscopic droplets of rain, through which the bright headlamps and street lights blurred out; and I looked to see a Wong Kar Wai-ish motion blur of colours, in the otherwise garish, familiar parts of the City.


...

Carefully maneuvering the Alur chop in the murir thonga in one hand, I lighted a GF(regular) and headed for home. The roads were still blurry with my rain-smeared compound vision, and the man-holes, opened up just before the elections, made it no easier to walk. The ciggy cinder was also having a tough time fighting the big droplets with full momentum, as it tried to douse the flame. Yet, it felt good. Like a surprise break from my regular, complacent sinusoidal world of Office-home-sleep-office. As I reached home, I could hear it. The storm brewing, both in and out. It took me a few moments to comprehend which would be more dangerous to bear. A fateful droplet won at last; as it extinguished the last attempts of the flame to burn it all. Spitting it out, I stepped in.

10 comments:

Dhruva said...

Such comfort some defeats are, such victories. Visual poetry that overwhelms the senses is one such. Wong Kar Wai, indeed.

Lara Baggins said...

hmmm.
At least it lets you think.. your home-office-home routine
:)

Sthito said...

@D:I was even humming "All the leaves are brown;And the sky is grey" :)
@Lara:I think, therefore I am...(a chauvinistic pig :P)

Shubhajit said...

Red side-bag?!? Sounds more like a Gucci male model... ;)

Anyway, jokes apart, a really terrific piece. Terse yet inclusive. Sort of the same sordid story of every IT 'professional'. Sinusoidal curve it indeed is - the same mundane routine without respite. There's only a glimmer of hope.

Enough of downbeat nihilism for one day. A smoke anyone?

And yeah, those damn f*****s just can't stop digging... returned home in muddy shoes last night...

Sthito said...

@Shubho: Thanks man, you made my day(whatever is left of it) :)
The rains are really cool and refreshing after a hectic day at office; and only if Ms Khamta's goons didn't do their two-bit before the elections, it could have been a nice walk too!

Unknown said...

hmmm...it contains all your signature remarks and descriptions- 1>A description of YOU (i.e. your clothes, your "crizal" lenses, your phone and your health!!!) 2> a snide remark about a girl being obsessed with her looks...as if you are so negligent!!! 3> Food (ofcourse...that's a MUST). But, all in all I liked it...especially the colours,the mundane life-picture drawn with the perks provided by weather descriptions and the analogy between lightening and tele-lenses.

Sthito said...

@Sis: Nice comment. Soon you'll be criticizing like the big-daddys'(and mommas'!) above you!

Amritorupa Kanjilal said...

I love the way you write. first time here. hope to keep coming back...

Amritorupa Kanjilal said...

peace to you too man. if you really mean that you liked my blog, please do become a follower, apart from forcing you to read whatever tripe i write and whenever, this will have the added advantage of further inflating my ego. thanks :)
and yes, I will be watching you.

Amritorupa Kanjilal said...

and it felt really good that you could identify the van gogh. many blog visitors tell me 'my' painting is awesome and i must be brilliantly talented. i don't correct them, worm that i am.
van gogh is my favourite artist.