The cruelest month...

The concerts don't inspire me. And neither do i have music classes to fill my time. Ideas for T-shirts have dried up. The new-found interest in movie piracy doesn't enthuse me anymore. But I won't hunt for new hobbies. There are enough of them. 

Senseless wandering... Pune seems just a blur, and Rajasthan seems to have happened in another year. Two long weekends came and went, and i was shut up in office, desperately trying to work. The heat saps all my energy - i can't lift my camera. The precious springtime, when the trees of Bangalore bloom to their fullest was lost without a single photograph - thanks to the sweltering heat...breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory with desire, fear in a handful of dust, my cousin's sled, coffee in the Hofgarten, summer coming over the Starnbergersee and dull roots stirring in the spring rain.

Rain? What rain? There's no rain on this scorched earth!

Somebody asked me where ginger was. I woke from the daydream and pointed up the road. And then, I stepped into a Bangalore local Volvo bus for the first time in my life!

Anybody who reads this might roll over with laughter. These things have been in existence for years now...and here i am, never to have stepped into one. Am i a Neanderthal, a lesser life form, or one of those precious creatures who think it below their dignity to step into one of the local transport vehicles? Perhaps the answer might be evident in the fact that i live in a locality that is shunned by Volvo buses. So why bother hunting one down? After all, i have my Vishalu...

Nevertheless, on that Saturday I stepped into one, headed for MG Road. I queried the conductor about the destination, and he gave me a look that asked "are you stupid?" Some of the finely dresses ladies sitting in the front seemed to concur with his opinion. This lesser life form decided to head to the back, and disappear amongst the empty seats. The ride seemed to be just like one of those European bus rides (stop sniggering!) except for the fact that in Europe, you don't get to hear "Aaye ho meri zindagi mein" thrice, "Do dil mil rahe hai" twice and "Dil ne yeh kaha hai dil se" four times. I guess Nadeem-Shravan cassettes still have a sale thanks to the Volvo drivers. Ever since then, i have been listening to songs from the nineties.

T. S. Eliot was right...April is the cruelest month!

Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May. Goonight. Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight. Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night. 

Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.

Shantih...shantih...shantih