On the road

I sqeeze into the bus and was relieved to find out one window seat unoccupied. I spot a familiar face sitting nearby. Some small talk. Bitching about work,boss etc. We both cribbed for a while. VISA processing got stalled. No hike.No promotion. No scope for growth. Worries.Grief.Distress.Desires.

I turn back and open the window.

Men in bicycles. Men in bikes. And their tiffin boxes.

Kids in uniforms.Lunch bags.School bags.

Working women. With their files, hugged to their chests.Their hand bags. Faces blotched with talcum powder.

Engineering College kids with their drafters.And lab coats. With that uncertain look on their face. Standing in a queque and boarding their bus. An year back, I was standing there awing at those huge cushioned IT company buses and hoping to find a seat in there.

Sales reps. With their leather bags. And tie.

Beggars.And their crotch.

Clumps and clumps of people waiting in the bus stand.

Fellow comrades. With their ID cards and T1 mobiles and laptops and iPODS. With that unwarranted chesty look.

I sink back. Close my eyes. I feel the movement. Of the bus. Of everything. Of its rhythm. that symphony. the giant orchestration.

I open my eyes. I see Bright bright blue sky. And its reflection on the puddle.

I see Sunlight hugging the streets.Sunlight dancing in the lake.

Red red soil.Blood red. Footprints. Tyre marks.

It Drizzled. A tiny droplet of rain dribbled on the lens of my spectacles. I took my hanky and cleaned it. Another drop fell right onto the center of the lens. I smile and I give up.

And then,watch the sky.And wait for the rainbow to happen.

Soil smell.Rain smell.It skreiked into my nostrils and bumped with my brain.Like Cocaine.

I fade out.

Urchins screaming in joy and jumping into the pond. One even tried jumping over the buffalo.And their chasing mother's. That bare chested guy ,brushing his teeth, laughing at all this, with foam dripping down the corner of his mouth reflecting the intensity of happiness.

Life booming on the streets.

In another 5 minutes, I will be getting down from the bus and stepping into the litters of my everyday corporate life.

I wish the bus moves on. on and on and on.

Eternizing this very moment.