Reached at 6am
After breaking our fast with a big masala dosa,
We were clueless about spending our time
Our next train was scheduled at 1:35pm
And no sooner did we realised that we were jobless till then
The trains came and went, the announcer kept announcing with
her tone sounding like the one suffering from loose motions
One hour passed
And we were still clueless
We tried to think hard
And were happy to
find out that we had an important thing which is extremely vital for our
survival, brain…yes we had brains…
So we thought of exploring the “city of joy” in our own
crazy way
In the month of late October, one can still find Kolkata to
be hot although the humidity was a
little lesser in comparison to the summer months
We walked
And walked
And kept walking
Then we found the ubiquitous bus stand
Which was suggested by the moochhad waale rickshaw uncle who
answered our query with a gentle and reassuring smile that “BADA
BAZAR” was the nearest shopping zone and for us the nearest time pass zone…
It was 8am
and we were again clueless
we reached BADA BAZAR
actually the bazaar was seriously sooo bada that there were
chances of us getting lost…
and the most funniest part of it was that we really did
wanted to GET LOST…
the shops were closed
people were busy with the upcoming puja preparations
songs of bhajans were played in a loud voice
And infront of those closed shops, were found the sitting
kinda thing which we considered as our privately owned SOFA SET..made of
cement…it was fun…real fun..
We kept sitting
And sitting
And still sitting
Kept observing the increasing hustle bustle of the place
Each and every passerby stared at us as if we were the
people from Mars
We too gave them the same look(as we believed in the policy
of tit for tat)
It was 9:30am
We saw a number of
trams
And evrytime I saw a tram passing
I shouted “eeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh” with excitement
As I have always wanted to travel in a tram
They were slow, steady, with only a handful of people
travelling in it
I liked it
I like those things which are slow, which take their own
time, understanding and feeling the moments with joy and simplicity
I hate the hsutle bustle life which I have in my institution
The robotic life
Tram was not a robot
It was slow, simple and full of anticipation
Waiting for people to travel in it
It gives time, it takes time in her own way
I fell in love with the tram
It was much like me..maybe..
Yes so it was 9:30am…
There were a mother-son duo sitting on the ground in front
of the shop
With brooms and a heap of garbage bag in their hands
The adolescent son had a shining cell phone in his hands
A movie clip was being played
With the dialogues it was clear that the movie must have
starred Johny Lever and the likes of Kadar Khan
But the expressions and emotions and happiness visible on
the faces of the mother-son duo was equal to be watching an Oscar winning
movie!
Ofcourse having a cell phone in hands, with an interesting and funny kinda movie in it was no less than
an Oscar selection…
We sat in the tram
It was fun..real fun..
Sitting in a tram isn’t a big thing..but it gave me immense
pleasure…
An unknown happiness
We got down on the next stoppage..
The name of the street was unknown to us
The names of the shops were also unknown to us
The name of the next street was also unknown to us
The only thing which we knew was that we were still jobless
We wanted to enjoy our “No rat race day”..we took a dayoff
from that irksome ratrace where humans become robots, emotionless, with no time
to think about anything except winning the rat race..
We wandered in that unknown street
We felt like nomads who did not have any destination
The unknown street was crowded again
City of joy loved to be crowded
It was 10:00am
We returned to the station….
As we were extremely exhausted
Although the desire of being jobless for some more time in
this way did not end…
We were back to square one..
But this time we had some clue
The announcer still had her loose motions
We sat in our train
And kept sitting..
This time we had a destination to reach….jobs to be done and
clues to understand…
