See you!
Rapid footsteps fall all around me. Heat in the middle of winter and I sniff a moist air that feels so familiar. An elderly woman is sweeping the corridor. Her nose ring is brilliant in the afternoon sun. I am measuring my shadow as I go past her. Red Letters on the white washed walls - "This is your Airport. Please Don't Spit." I am dragging the luggage cart (free! didn't pay a penny for it) towards the conveyor belt at the Customs.
Madam ji. Chhod do, main daal dunga. Oh, this is too big a suitcase for a female! For that matter, a bag of any size is too big for women here. I love it! I feebly thank him as I collect my bag at the other end and walk to the exit. Happy faces waiting for someone of their own, salwar kurtas, Gandhi's face on 100 rupees note and a faint smell of Pond's talcum powder.... I am wondering why was I away.
O didi, flower le lo. BeauTifoool flower. Aapke like very beauTiful flower didi! Bees rupees main lagayega aapko. Please take didi. She wore a deep blue dress. Her hazel brown eyes were squinted in the high sun. She was still speaking to me in her broken English as she placed a bunch of yellow daisies in my hands. I bought those flowers.
I left the airport in one of those black and yellow taxis with my suitcase jutting out of the trunk at the back and held in place by rope. A bill board in front of me had an Indian bride in her complete attire saying " Kaas mere saath aisa na hota" - promo of a new TV soap opera. Behind me, the same blue dressed girl was now talking to a couple under the sign of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
Sir beauTiful flower, Sir ji. Aapke galfriend ke liye Sir. Please take.....
[[Some moments are so fluid that I can't hold them and frame a picture. But they brush past so effortlessly without the slightest gung-ho and I stumble upon snatches of my identity. Adequate in their impact on me, such moments drift away from the memory board like the image I see every morning in the mirror when I stand before it. I do not shriek in joy, not even a customary nod. But there is a comfort in meeting yourself; a plain unawaited chance meeting and everything in my world oddly seems to be alright.]]
About Me
- Barnali Biswal
- One smart-ass that thinks most of the world is too dumb for her to waste time over and manages to get away with the attitude while dealing with few existing sensible ones that either 1. agree or 2.fail to debate. I am someone who thinks Howard Roark lacks the sex appeal that Elsworth Toohey has, believes that hobbits exist and feels feminine when she listens to beethovan.
4 comments:
You very well know why you left all this and went all the way out there.
It's your own 'pursuit of happYness'.
Will see you seen.
@ Moderator - Awareness isn't necessarily a hinderance to "having a moment" ;-)
Thanks for the visit though!
There it is. A wink. And can imagine the familiar naughty laugh playing on your face.
All this when I was beginning to dread that you have grown old (read morose) with the weight and wisdom of years on your shoulders.
But who was I kidding?
Great to have you back :-)
And keep up the writing - looking forward to more of it.
I agree with moderator - yet, at some level, I still wonder - why did you leave all this and go? This is a part of you - I have not known too many people who can embody India as well as you have done in the past.
Post a Comment