Skip to main content

Morning scenes

The wind blustery

Skies grey blue

A light so muted

Birds are quiet too

We walkers go

Sidestepping

Couple-dancing

No touching

Looking or meeting

Glances…Oh no!

 

Masks dangling

From chins

Below noses

Hanging from one ear

Or sometimes

Fitting so properly

Covering everything

So no one can see

Or know

What we’re really like.

 

Runners running

Soundlessly

Iron determination

Seeping through

So much so 

That dogs being walked

Know they cannot

Wag tails

Or even

Bark a greeting.

 

Two men

Creating content

One breaking into

Hair flipping, body popping

Dance

Faithful friend filming

In fits and starts

As a security guard

Sips his chai

Utterly bemused.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living in Courage

Living in courage is such a beautiful phrase, full of meaning. I know women who live like that. Every day. M, a dear friend, is one of them. She is a firecracker of a girl, pint-sized. Always dressed to kill. Wears the highest heels, favours huge, retro sunnies and rocks animal prints. And yes, she colour coordinates everything--from her eyeliner to her bracelet, her lipstick to her nail polish. M has been working since she finished college. Because one fateful holiday, her father and sister drowned in front of her eyes. They were vacationing in Goa then. M and her sister got caught in a rip tide. Their father jumped in to save them. She ended up breaking the news to her mother. Her mother, like many women who were married off pretty young, is a housewife. Her life revolved around her home, husband and children. She never ventured out on her own. Then everything she was familiar with, collapsed around her. That was nearly 13 years ago. M was a young girl then, on the cusp of w...
3 comments
Read more

Why?

Two times now, I've seen it happen. Twice, I've seen men, ordinary-looking chaps, verbally and physically abuse the women with them. While people around them did nothing. One man was young, he had an identity tag. He wore formal pants, nice stout shoes. I saw him kick the young woman with him, straight in the gut, with those shoes. His companion was in burkha but she seemed young.  The other man was older. He harangued the woman with him loudly and crudely. He spat at her, followed her when she tried to walk away. Shook her by the shoulders, repeatedly. Both men did this at a public park, in full view of dozens of people milling around. Walkers walked, joggers jogged, various men lounged about, sat around. The onlookers watched the two men do these terrible things. And they did nothing. I am not a brave person. In my heart I was terribly afraid--that if I confront them, they could hurt me, find out where I live, hurt my family. But I was ashamed to stand by and watch. S...
4 comments
Read more