One day in the future

MumbaiCirca 2020 A.D.
"Come with me Sir .....here.....take a look...this is our Mumbai"
"Shanghai!!!!"
"No sir....Mumbai"
"Mumbai??!!!.....Is this Mumbai" asks the visitor in his racially superior accent, "I've heard it is....."
"No Sir.....No.....It was sir....What you heard was right sir...but not anymore sir", the jubilant litle chivalrous Indian middle man cut his sentence before he completed it with his razor sharp argument,"......It was revamped twelve years ago..."
"Revamped??!!!.....in what sense"
"It is a long story sir..."
"Does it have snake charmers and rope trickers????"
"No sir....more interesting people than them sir.....MMRDA"
"MMRDA???!!!!....Who's they.....did they perform the rope trick????"
"No sir.....they performed a trick that baffled all"
"What trick???""Trick.....Do you really want to know????..."
"Yeah....if it has tigers, elephants, kings...I would love to hear it "
"It has them all"
"Go on then....." And the Indian went loosing his way in his past, his eyes transfixed on they grey above. With watery eyes....he began.
"Many years ago...This city was dirty...filthy...total bakwaas. Garbage everywhere....People...people....
people.....crowds and crowds....wherever u would see...you could see only people.....population blast...people flying in all
directions.....People stacking upon each other.....everything...total disaster!!!!....trains...yes there were local trains
then...were filled with people...people like flies on a dead rotten rats.......everywhere...only people and people. There was a king and there was a tiger. Whatever the king did the tiger opposed and whatevee the tiger did the king
opposed......this city was caught in their fight....and guess what....they were always involved in a fight....because both of them
wanted to rule the city....though it was tigers constituency, King owned the land....and the war continued. King said....the Tiger is dangerous...it ate a lot of people in the GREEN bushes.....and the Tiger said...beware of the
king....he's been fooling you for decades. City also had other animals......amongst them a few elephants who claimed to protect the people in the bushes....as
the tiger wid his party dreamt of finishing the city and getting the city all up to themselves......but that was not possible
logically....beacuse everybody who lived in the city...contributed to it.....and without them...it was difficult even for the tiger
to manage it"
"What crap???....how can a tiger rule a city....and as far as i know...there are no kings left in India....or does Mumbai have
one????" Said the visitor with his firm belief in the backwardness of Indians and their mixing up of real life and religious
mythology.
"It had one sir....and it still has.....a different one...yet....the old kings finished...and new emerged....with new rulers too sir...after the Sahibs left.....and the
tiger....there truly was one who ruled the city...and if u disagree....there r some cubs still who may love to finish you if you
disagree with tiger theory"
"I am sorry.....continue..."
"So once......the king of Mumbai went to Shanghai.....and there he was awestruck by the beauty of that city.....when he came
back......he said......'I will make my city beautiful like this'....he was so obsessed with this idea that he invited experts from all
over...and formed an army....it was called...the MMRDA!!!!....and their job was.....to turn Mumbai into Shanghai!!!!! But Shanghai had no slums....and mumbai had......as they wondered what to do.....one day....a general in MMRDA
shouted....destroy them!!!!!.....the king clapped in appreciation.....a proposal was accepted and the army took over the
city....with a board...'Bear with us for a better Mumbai'.....and people did.....for a better Mumbai......Army had so much to
do.....cover the gutters,widen the roads, buil bridges, build fly overs, construct parks for corporate and IT, build tall towers, sky
scrapers,....so much had to be changed.....but there always was on problem....where was the space for all this.......So army
brought a vehicle called bulldozer and started making space.......they pulled down whatever came in their way of turning Mumbai
to Shanghai.....after all they were king's orders!!! The city was full of people who lived in slums....they were real people.....and slums were there houses......they were
those boring types...who worked all the day...till they dropped down tired....only to manage earning a daily bread.......they
lived in a condition called utter poverty....which is a hypothetical statement as u know since India was a emerging economy in
those days......so....these...as we may put it....'blue collar' people lived in these slums......not that they loved living in the
filth...it was that they couldn't afford a permanent one.....also...the tiger and th king had promised them permanent
houses....but years passed over years....and they did never get their dream houses.... As their houses crumbled....they looked to tiger for help.....but tiger did not roar.....though his associates claimed
that he was thinkin of roaring.....no such sound was heard from his den....intrestingly the flowers which grew in ponds, which
the tiger was fond of.....shook in protest, nothing much happened. One day the people realised that.....the men amongst the
army...looked similar to that of tigers.......and ultimately found out that those were tiger's men themselves......people asked
'Why????'.....they said 'you are illegal occupants'.......and down came their houses...like palace of cards..... Where houses stood once, now only rubble remained.....the ground was levelled with road rollers.........totally
flat.....then dug up.....and foundations were laid....for the new Mumbai.......Everything that was old....was
scrapped....everything that could be called new....was raised....state of art buildings.....officing complexes, towers, roof tops,
roads got widened, gutters dissappeared...and so did ancient rivers renamed as nallaas.......Fly overs flew people over other
people....and bit by bit Shanghai took shape....It was not that easy sir!!!!.....thus....what u see now was made sir...."
"And where did the people go?????"
"People...who people????"
"Those who lived there....."
"Nobody lived there sir!!!"
"But u told me that people lived there......."
"Where???"
"The place where this all was built"
"No sir......it was all kings land"
"but u told me just that there was houses which were brought down n all such stuff"
"what houses???....sir i just told you that it was all kings land"
"Forget it....lets move on......whats on the other side of the bridge???"
"nothing sir it's just the outskirt of the city"
"So filthy.....r those buildings...are are those ruins of them???"
"Dont look there sir.....it's nothing there"
"But I see people there....living in the filth....isn't that a slum of sorts......it's so large"
"dont look at it sir....why dont you understand.....nobody looks at them once on this side of the bridge....and they too don't come here......they aren't allowed to......they have to stay there......dare
they come here"
"But who are they????" The middle man looked at the visitor. Smiled. Slowly mystery seeped into his smile. Hie eyes tinkled with a glint of
superior knowledge. His humble tone turned mystic...and words flowed out of his oral cavity like slow fumes from incense
sticks...

"Some stories have missing links.....which are better left missed"

Colour

I was born
with a colour
like everybody else
the colour...which i did not choose

It came to me
as an inheritance
from the men
born before me
with the similar form
as of me

Then came they
to paint me in it
my body
my soul
every gush of my blood
and every drop of it
saffron
the colour which i did not choose
they painted me in it

Then arose a day
they made me proud
to hold it's layers upon me

more in them came later
some like me
some of their kind
to hurt my pride
and my painters gave me a sword
I had enemies now....

I slayed them all....and sliced them neatly
pierced them, tore themcut them into pieces
chopped them finely
were they a great mass
to slaughter

As I brought back
their deceased heads
to rejoice
the victory

On my way back
the heads turned to heads...
all like me

and a man camethe first marxist
he said he was
and whispered in my ears
"Colour my friend.....is the opium of man"

Bye Bye River

I was born by a confluence of two individuals, whose roots belonged to two small hamlets on the either sides of a river. This was a pure co-incidence that they two met and got married. None of plots or conspiracies were planned to arrange this amalgamation of these two individuals. Now, being born to them, my roots too belong to these hamlets and my inheritance distributed amongst the two ends of the river.
Years have passed after the incident took place. I have grown up to a complete human being (with some inadequencies regarding intelligence of course) and have taken up the responsibility over from my parents of visiting these hamlets at a regular basis, feeling the emotional pull from my origins in these two places, crossing the river each time travelling from one home to other.
I’ve crossed the river over a hundred times from the moment I was able to intake and understand the comings and goings of the world. Each summer the river marked a milestone in my growth. Every time I crossed the river in the scorching heat of summer, realization struck me that I was another year and consequently an academic year older. From dipping my little finger into it’s rippled waters to dipping my entire self in it’s chilled waters along with my drooling sweat streams. It taught me to involve in sensuous affairs with danger, swimming in it’s martial embrace.
On her belly, I learnt that a fish is a life of a fisherman, and that he loves his boat more than his own seeds of new humans. That a boat rowed, talks to u in language of splashes. And that the river, is a passionate lover who likes to drench you in her love. And that the palms, aligning the coasts, are the rivers courtiers. Standing in a line, to welcome each of it’s wave with all the awe and respect. And that the wind is her playmate, whose touch runs shivers through the spines of these tall spinsters.
I’ve seen it swell in anger. I’ve seen it greedily gulping the rain. I’ve seen it knock at our doors, trying to find place in our houses, when mountains are unable to hold happiness in their chest on their summer burns being soothed by blissful rains. I’ve seen it loose it’s levels to let the crabs, frogs and river snakes breathe. I’ve seen it carrying trunks of trees in it’s soiled ferocious being. And I’ve seen her cuddle little swordfishes in it’s motherly arms when they jump overwhelmed by her love for them.
One summer, A four year old me dips a finger into the river and the boatman ‘Bapu’ scolds me.
“Brat, if u fall off the boat….u’ll reach the land of the snakes far below at the bed….only Bhima could survive it…u can’t u fool…..sit straight.”
Another such summer, I look at her stretch and ask my ‘Baba’
“Baba….how deep is it???....can we swim in it”
And Baba replies….”only near the shores my son…..for it is so deep at it’s body, that a thousand knotted rope too can’t measure it’s depth.”
Another summer, I move away from the shore swimming …and then, suddenly I can’t feel the land below my feet …..I rush back to the shore, swimming as fast as I can.
Another summer I cross it swimming, accompanied by my rural playmate ‘Sanjya’. He saves me from drowning once in the middle of the trail. When we reach other shore, we exchange our adolescent love stories. Whilst returning Sanjya says,”I saved u in time…..a moment late and you would’ve reached the depths even I would’ve found it difficult to enter.”, he caught fishes with his father in the river and knew it inside out…but not to the depths I would’ve reached, if he had not saved me.
Summers came. Summers went. Each hotter, than the previous one.
One summer Sanjya’s youngest brother comes to us with oysters in his hand. Places them on the table upon which we are sitting sipping tea.
I ask Sanjya where did he get it from.
His brother replies from the river bed. I look at Sanjya. He looks at me.

Another summer whilst crossing the river, I see a twig rising out of the river. As we ass near it, I see it is attached to something below firmly. Something like a branch of a tree.
Two summers later a mass of land is seen rising out of the river. I ask Bapu…
”Bapu…..what’s this??”
“Maybe an island coming up…..seeing it from last few months….”

Next summer the boat does not leave from the usual wharf. Water goes below it’s last step during low tides they say.
The island has stretched it’s mass furthermore.

Another summer and Bapu’s boat gets stuck in the sand below. People alight from the boat and push it to move it further.

Next summer more land masses are seen.

The summer later, these masses stretch over lengthier patches.

This summer, the boat only ferries when it is high tide. At low tides, they say u can see nearly half of the bed peeping out of the river at the shores.

Bapu said….”I’ll be out of job soon…in next few years people will walk over from one shore to another…..” and laughs cynically.

And with the river will be gone those years.

That day on television they said on the TV…Ganga is drying up due to global warming. It is rapidly loosing it’s level of water. WWF had conducted the survey(World Wildlife Fund…not World Wrestling Federation).

When my son will travel between the two shores, they won’t be shores anymore. There won’t be any river. There won’t be any Bapu. Sanjya and his brothers won’t be fishing. No thousand knotted rope will be needed to count it’s depth. The land of Snakes which Bhima escaped won’t exist anymore.

What do I care???.....I’ll give GRE next year.