Well you may not agree' But in retrospect, I am sure that All of us rued someday For not possessing a simple thing, Yes, a simple thing We really wanted to have it for long, Well within our reach, Yet, never possessed it for any worthwhile reason. Just that!
Time rolls on' The desire to possess stays on And so does the neglect And the idea of having not possessed Hangs on to us without fanning Any further desire to possess it. And slowly The thing we so long yearned to possess Begins to enter the list of 'dispensables'
Then, just then, comes a fleeting moment An irreversible moment at that, That bangs you on your forehead And the lack of the cherished thing at hand Mountains the guilt to Himalayan heights. No matter the world lies at your feet after that, All bliss is engulfed in that moment's want.
That was a hot summer afternoon On Chennai platform. Sun was blazing at his best And thirst was ruling the roost. As mercury scaled upwards Tongues were put on fire. Every soul ran for water From every possible source. Suddenly the train started, and People hurried tumbling towards the train.
Then I saw a thirsty crow, One different from my story book, Scaling down a cable wire Perched on the head of a tap Doing 'Commineccian' acrobatics To catch the water droplets Dripping one by one.
I can never come over the guilt Of not possessing a camera by me that day.
Decades passed. That was Vizianagaram bus station. I got into an empty bus And settled into a window-seat. Surveying the surroundings My looks fell on a little girl Could be hardly four Running after a one-plus hyperactive brother. Catching him, and imitating her mother, She censured him endearingly Putting the index to her nose. And by the next wink, When he waltzed to the other end Deftly caught him, embraced And sitting him on her waist While the uneasy boy was wailing loud, She took him around the shops Laboring to balancing him And herself, Telling him in her own little childy jargon Things that pacified him. A la mother!
Looking at that little girl Her endearments to her kin I would have traded my faith For a camera if somebody had offered.
