Friday, February 6, 2009

Indian Roads.

Indian Roads. A fascination...

...the speedometer ticking the 120-mark...the scorching sun...the mirage created...the mirage lost...till you find a lonesome tea-stall...if any at all...amidst a sea of sand...dryness...cactus leaves...The Road To Jaisalmer.

..."Saab-ji...sherbet?! Rooh-afza?"...Three to four glasses... "Aap log Kalkatta se aye hon?".."Punjab achha laaga?"....In the summer months...with the loo in your face...and severe dehydration...anything but....!! Still, The Road To Chandigarh.

...curious faces...urchins..looking at you "amazed"...as if you belong to a different world.. but you try to approach him...he darts away...running after a tyre..."playing his game"..a stick in one hand...

..and of faces that say "I am tired..i want to run away..and i WILL run away to Mumbai"... serving tea, roti and dal-makhani to truck-drivers...morning, day and night. No sleep. Ragged clothes. and wretched lives!

and they become 'helpers'...sitting day-and-night beside "one of the most frustrated sections of Indian society"( as reports say )...the truck-drivers! nothing to live for. a home that perhaps existed. a family that could have seen the light of day....if only his wife would be spared of her humiliation by the storks and the ravens!

From a life of entertaining drunkards by midnight and tourists by day....

...to a life behind the 'windshield'...of meeting faces that run races past him on a brand new Scorpio. 'Helpers' do they actually become...;-) Just give him the steering-wheel once. preceding with a bottle of country liqour. and he'll know how to be sucksesfull in life..."..not really giving a damn as to what you mean by success..and how you spell it."

An accidental birth. no name.

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an unwilling child-labourer by day. a dreamer by night.

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Mumbai. I know not how. I know not why.

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Getting high on the highway. And finishing lives..just like that.

You integrate the picture over a thousand faces. And you know what life on Indian Roads is. all along it. A fascination?

What a fucking joke!

2 comments:

The Dark Side Of The Moon said...

I guess you should put the last line within quotes!That's Adiga's catch-phrase! :P

Expectations Be..nd said...

Copywright to a slang?! Is that what you are trying to imply..girl? ;-)