Kindly Adjust

Ten years ago… India performed miserably at the Cricket World Cup... Ten years ago… The Dot-com Bubble finally burst… Ten years ago… An Indian plane was hijacked with the help of Taliban, on the Christmas Eve… And ten years ago… He had lost his brother forever to an accident… An accident… He walked down the building, through the foyer, across the street and reached the signal crossing in about ten minutes. But he had no recollection whatsoever of those ten minutes. As a matter of fact, he didn’t knew that he had eaten French toast for his morning breakfast, had two full glasses of orange juice and had watched TV news for half an hour since the time he had woken up. He didn’t knew that the sidewalk he was standing on, was covered with huts of varied assortment, and children having similar blackened, soot-laden faces, and women with half the clothes to cover their shame. He didn’t realize that a big fire wagon had blazed past in front of his eyes, which was followed by an equally noisy ...

He was walking down the street, to his regular-boring-unbearable job. As usual he was not in best of his tempers and thus was visibly upset when a roadside crone gave him a shove and ran away.   The nearby urchins; to his displeasure started howling and jeering for no apparent reason! Yet he could discern some connection between the two events. He decided he should check his belongings, and there! He was aghast when he found that the wallet was missing from the side pocket of his double-breasted jacket. When he looked up, both the urchins and the crone were out of the sight. In utter fury, he threw away his coat, which crashed with a garbage bin, and made its contents to fall down. Well not so much so as contents, but streams of newspapers tumbled off it.   On closer observation, he realized that the whole street, in fact all the streets had been strewn with similar bits of papers. It was as if they were some pre-independence pamphlets, which were thrown off randomly to declare open re...

The darkness was unfolding, Like spiraling coils of smoke, Of untouched vagueness in unseen.   There was no light on the street, Neither in the heart of the traveler, He was, but, Alone, desolate and lost.   Not in the sense of direction, Not in the way of destination, Lost; without any purpose or a goal.   He fell down on his knees His head prostrated, Not to the god he was searching, Not the solace he was seeking.   Stars twinkled from the diamond studded sky, Winking, as if mocking His failure, his frustration In naughtiness, they exposed that harsh truth   He sighed, and exhaled, A deep sonorous breath Which resounded deeply in his ears.   He was shocked, By the hollowness in it!!! Is this what faith had reduced him to?   He was tracing, the footsteps taught, wasn’t he? Will the promises be retracted, now? Did this road never lead to that ultimate destiny?   He was exhausted… and consumed, By fear of failure… of purposelessness He sighed again, not out of pity for self, But for rem...