Once mighty river

The water had to flow
Where man wanted
Exactly how he wanted
Having lost its freedom
It lies like an animal
A wounded one
In the corner of the den!
Oh! Will it lie forever?
Can it be contained,
In a smaller space
Of cement and mortar
The once mighty river?
It will rise again
Just like the sun at dawn
At an unknown time
In an unannounced day
Maybe on a casual date,
It will throw its mighty waves!
And send crashing
The carefully built houses,
And carry away everything
That stands in its once boundary.
What will man do then?
Issue a flood warning??

The Insanity of a bus travel

A lot can happen over a journey.
27H en route Pattabiram
Via Avadi
My sincere gratitude to Abi who accompany me everyday through the tedious journey.

          (To begin with, I would like you to know that my sole companion in the journey was absent that day.)

          To be born in a highly populated country can get extremely complicated at times. As the sun shone brightly at 3pm I was standing at the gates of my office. Even the roads seemed to glitter and sparkle in the hot sun of October. Well, monsoon failure once again! Now, I had to walk in the scorching sun for more than half an hour through the ''no bus'' streets of Bluestar (I would say Sun-star would have been a better name). At present, my mind wandered in the etymology of the name ''Bluestar''. How come, it is always Bluestar? And never a green-star or a red-star or a yellow-star? I recalled vaguely the number of shops I have seen till date with the same name.
          By this time, I reached the ''nuts n' spices'' store with the sole thought that I can stay in the air-conditioned shop for a few minutes before waiting for my bus. With the illusion of the unseen air-condition I walked as if I was walking on the Red carpet of the Rashtra Pathi Bhavan. It seemed like I was seeing mirages of the closed shop. Oh no! Now what would I do?
          As if some Angel himself came and showed me, I saw with delight the ATM machine nearby. Praying that no one should come, I went inside and pretended as if I was withdrawing some money(I didn't want the watchman to find it), thankfully he was completely drowned in his midday nap. After breathing in some cold air, my mind began to work better. Now, I began to think of the pros and cons of bringing an umbrella to the class.
         By the time I reached the bus stop, a Avadi bus moved past me like the unpredictable Angel at Bethesda. The over crowded bus stop, made me feel dizzy. All the arts college students were streaming at the stop. Now, I have to stand once again as if walking in the hot sun for the past half an hour was not enough!
         After 10 minutes came another Avadi bus which was already crowded and was made more crowded by the college girls. I decided not to get into the bus. A seat became empty in the bus stop. I rushed to sit on it, as if it was the golden crown that was about to disappear very soon.
         I decided now to let go of the upcoming three Avadi.
That was theory 1
    Never get into the first three buses. Let the college girls go, and wait for the bus stop to become empty.
         So, I let the first bus go. The next bus was the Pattabiram bus. Now, let me give an introduction about the bus. The thing was, if I get into the Pattabiram bus, I can get down at the beginning of my street, but the arrival of that bus coinciding the time in which I come occurred only once in a bluemoon. Now, it was the bluemoon day. If I get into the bus, the advantage was that, I needn't pay Rs.5 to the ''share-auto wallah'' to take me home.
Theory 2
  Never get into a Pattabiram bus. As it usually contains long distance passengers who don't get down more frequently thus resulting in the ''standing journey''
          But the idea of not having to get down at Avadi and search for an auto made me fill the ecstatic desire to get into the bus.
Theory 3
  Always stand in the front as people usually don't stand there and the competition for the seat is lessened.
          So, I got into the bus and pushed and squeezed my way to the front. I passed on the money for the ticket with the happy thought that I had saved a 5rupee.
Theory 4
   Have a watchful eye on the passengers so that the seat is not occupied by other ''standing passengers''.
          Everyone standing on the bus looked at me as a competitor in the arena of ''who will sit?'' The 2 hours journey began.
Theory 5
   Make a boundary and see that the boundary covers atleast 5 seats with 10 passengers in total.
          Now as per as the theory, I covered 5 seats, in which 6 persons were sleeping.
Theory 6
    Never count the sleepy heads. They all go long distance.
          Now I was left with 4 passengers. One was busy with the mobile, and another one was looking out of the window.
Theory 7
    The position of the person looking out of the window speaks a lot. If they look anxiously, then they are going to get down. If they are too relaxed, then they'll get down only later.
Theory 8
     The ones busy with the mobile will get down only when they pack their mobiles into their purses or pant pockets.
           Only two were left. One was about forty years old, barefooted, with a simple cloth bag. The plus point was that he was sitting at the edge of the seat. Hurray! He is going to get down soon. And the other was constantly checking his bag and the way and the door. He looked like a government employee. The journey was a two hour journey. I had to stand for about 1hr 50minutes. None moved. My legs were paining so badly. Just 10minutes before my stop, almost 4 of them got down. Now I was feeling the unfilled void which swallowed the infinite happiness and emitted incessantly the sorrow of standing so long. By that time, my stop came. As I got down, I formulated the last two theories.
Theory 9
     Never depend on the ''rural looking fellows''. They are new to Chennai so they sit at the edge anxiously.
Theory 10
    The government employee was (It is my belief, which may or may not be true) carrying something precious and was afraid that someone may steal it.
               As soon as I got down, I felt extremely hungry and I ended up buying a big bar of chocolate!
               Traveling in a busy bus on a sunny day can induce many queer thoughts for sure!

Monsoon failure

The North east monsoon failed again!
Three years in a row it failed
Nobody seemed to care for the rains.
The entire town was geared up,
For the festive season of rain.
The celebrations began without rain;
The skies rained out crackers,
Accompanied by the deafening sound!
Everyone was busy cause it was festival.
Lamps were lit in the place of lightning
Drums sounded in the stead of thunder;
It was the festival season of the city!
But lo! The poor farmer sat at the corner
With his head hung low and empty.
He had waited for monsoon for months.
The sky had turned into a plate of brass,
And the fertile land became barren.
Meteorologists spoke about el Nino,
Something the illiterate never knew of!
Three years in a row, debts mounted up.
The unknown enemy of fear gripped him,
The next day, lenders would come!
The lender promised his daughter
A golden yellow retriever doe eyed!
With the very money of the farmer.
The daughter slept with doggy dreams.
The few hundreds would have never mattered,
But the lender was tightfisted;
The farmer could not sleep in his roofless hut,
The lender snored on his golden rupee notes.
The next morning, the lender's daughter
Refused to eat without the retriever;
The orphaned farmer's son cried bitterly
Over the lifeless body of his father!