On The Train Back Home

The best thing that this trip gave to me was a perspective about human behavior. Meeting people, seeing people, reading people…not like books, but like an intricate piece of art, imperfect art pieces, allowed to be presented…

I see browns and greens passing my train window. And now I see rain beating itself against the window, like rivers on a vertical see through land, I wish I could take pictures. As I watch people around me I register the fact that we humans are instinctively distrusting…maybe we have become so with the growth of time. People we see on roads, trains, shops, wherever…we instinctively distrust them, thinking that they are out to harm us…no one else, just us…

I met this flower girl outside Sidhi Vinayak; her name was Kanchan, married to a shop boy, married at 17, selling flowers… She came to me, urging me to buy flowers and even though I showed disinterest, she stood there unabashed, not there to sell anymore but to just talk. And talk she did… she talked to me about me, about her, where I am from… hearing that I was from Delhi, she said “That’s good, its good there.” I asked her what she meant, to which she said the thing I had heard about Mumbai so often; “If anything happens here, no one cares…” Coming from a flower girl, for the first time I realized what this sentence had come to mean. She introduced me to little sister, Priyanka, shy, sweet, innocent…I told her my best friend’s name was Priyanka and she smiled…

Before I left…I bough the flowers, not for the God, but for myself…

It’s raining still.

I remember getting drenched in Mumbai, and how refreshing (and cold) it was. I have always had this connection with Water. That’s one of the reasons I love Mumbai. Though I really wish they would tend to their beaches. Marine Drive is a different story altogether…I can stay at Marine Drive for hours without any botheration in the world and the world can pass by… The wind, the water lashing, the peace, the calm; thats a moment made right there! Its inspiring, soul touching and a haven, to all those worn out souls, ignited people in love, people who just move inwards into themselves…

I remember the moment I landed in Pune. I remember the song playing in my iPod (it just started playing again). I was so nervous, tired, scared, excited…all of this for the land I thought I could refer to as “Somewhere over the Rainbow”…

Pune is , again, a different story, almost an antithesis to Mumbai. Pune is calmer, Pune has a homely charm to it; the rain drenched streets are not muddy, they shine in the gray light that brings out the beautiful color of the city. There is wind there, inside the houses, and if you keep those sliding bedside windows open while to sleep, you will dream of rain drizzle caressing your face all night long…

And now I am homebound…after two months of “somewhere over the rainbow”, I am going back home…To people I have missed for two months, to the craziness, to new excitements…Homebound.

The rain has stopped now, or to be exact we have passed that patch. It’s a blur now…all a blur…