The Mad lady at Kurla station

I was at Kurla Station, had to go somewhere. As I made my way from the first platform to the fifth..she caught my eye. She sat there, hair unkempt,clothes astray, her pallu falling off and the two buttons of her blouse missing. Two naked kids slept at her feet. Her dirty nails combed her long, even dirtier hair and at times she would hit her self and her children. Now it was an attempt in keeping the mosquitoes away or some thing habitual due to her mental condition is something I am not aware of. she was mentally imbalanced, sitting in a corner begging for money, even grabbing the hem of people's clothes for the sake of money. But all they retorted by was shooing her away, as done with a filthy roadside mongrel. I wonder how can people be so heartless.

She was looking around as if waiting for someone to give her some treasure and suddenly she saw me staring at her from a distance. First she extended her hand asking for money and when I didn't reply to her action she started making faces at me. All I could do was look at her and be mesmerized by the innocence on her face and yet was sure she has seen a lot.

The title says "the mad lady on Kurla station", it doesn't refer to her. but me who was transfixed there looking at her and wondering about the miseries and the miracles of life. The portrait she formed was too beautiful and at the same time filled with sad feelings.She was deranged and yet was fighting for her life and her two kids. Who can be saner than that?

All i could do was admire her and click some pictures of her..

There stood the mad lady at Kurla station staring at the sane one..

My CHOCOLATE man

I was hungry. Noticing a monginis near by me headed towards it. My eyes looked greedily at those gooey chocolate pastries and those great blue berry cakes. Salivating I ordered a big pastry and even asked the girl behind the counter to warm it. All the jumping rats inside my stomach could imagine was the warm melting chocolate they were about to taste in a while. The smell was intoxicating and I was about to order another pastry when I noticed him. He was standing just behind me. The place was not that crowded that he had to be so close, but I just ignored the fact as he was cute. He was not that I-am-a-chocolate-boy-and-gooey-types cute but the-geek-outside-and-the-hunk-inside-cute. He wore those geeky specs. My rats suddenly transformed into butterflies and they started flying around. Our eyes met and were locked for a long time. Suddenly flashes of us together started clouding my mind. I was thinking about all those “awws”.”Ooh”, “so cute” and “wow that’s so romantic” I would get when years later I would tell my kids and their kids how I met their father or grand father. How we were both hungry and bumped into each other and fell in love and how it was love at first sight? and how hungry I was??

Arrgg!! My rats were back at it again, jumping around. He turned around, ordered a paneer patty and was back to coyly staring at me. I tried to behave like a decent girl by not returning his state and started studying my pumps, my nails, my hair, and my mobile, basically everything except him instead.

The girl behind the desk at last kept the big dollop of chocolate in front of me. It was huge, melty, soft and very inviting but suddenly I was filled with horror. He will see me eating so much!! OMG!! What will he think? He will surely won’t even look at me again!! These thoughts scared me, shattering my awws and oohs and the love at first sight stories.

I suddenly behaved as if the female had made a mistake and told her.”I never asked for it, all I want is a bottle of water and a paneer patty. (Yes my order was just what he had ordered too).lucky for me the female didn’t argue and cordially handed us both our respective patties.

I looked towards him and he was staring at me too. He smiled a sheepish smile and oh boy! I was taken. I didn’t know what to do further and then he suddenly as if scared moved away from me.

The door opened and a fat old lady with a big frown on her face, entered and slapped him on his back saying “tu maine chad k aa gaya khote” (you left me alone and are here, you ass!), and I stood there shocked as how she kept on scolding him and he kept on listening with a feared expression on his face. After that he didn’t even dare look towards me. The scared little puppy was just too scared.

My heart sobbed. I had left my cute little faithful, tasty piece of chocolate for that momma’s boy, and then I realized that leaving chocolate for a man is never worth it.

The man and the boy (part 1)

There were no more holes in his soles, but the hole in his soul was getting bigger, his clothes were no more moth eaten, but his heart was being gnawed at. Yes he had money today, everything he willed at his footstep, but what he didn’t have was love, anyone to trust. Anyone to believe in, anyone to just be yourself with. He was a different man with everyone. He himself didn’t remember when was the last time he was just himself, the real man that he really was. He didn’t believe in real anymore nor did he believe in love. He didn’t believe in honesty. Hell! He didn’t believe in himself too.
Today he sat on his favourite leather finishing chair, with a glass of bourbon in his hand, Mozart playing in the background. The ideal evening setting for him. It was his evening ritual after office every day. The whole atmosphere helped him think. But today of all days he was not happy with the whole feel of the room. He never felt alone in that huge room with carved wooden panels into the walls and the floors furnished with the most expensive of the Turkish rugs, but today something was different.
It was his 38th birthday. Was he really that old? He asked himself and then suddenly reclined on the plush soft cushioned chair, feeling the age creeping in.
He had achieved everything he had promised himself the day his mother had abandoned him. Well abandoned was a term he used for what had happened. She had died is a road accident when he was only 15, but he still blamed her for just leaving him. She was the only human being on this earth he had actually loved and when she died, it was like his innocence was robbed of him and the boy was forced to become a man overnight. Since then the boy was never came out and the brutal man just lived.
After his mother died, he had seen the worst of days, he had no pennies to rub together and no roof to call his own, and the foster homes he was sent to were more interested in making him slave for his stay than to give him a bit of love or affection.
The music stopped abruptly, and he was jolted back to reality. No he was not living in some shabby house any more with his stomach churning out of hunger. He was in his mansion, his huge mansion, but he was still lonely today.
The day she died, he was all alone and till today that feeling was there. He was still the wet rat standing under the rain scurrying around for shelter.
Will he ever get the umbrella?

Whatever

The lonely souls beckon me at last,
I run to them, reach their fast,
I sing to them all night long,
The beautiful eternal love song
But when I am lonely,
there is no one to sing,
Even my bells don’t chime,
Ha! Such a lousy writer I have become,
Now even my poems don’t rhyme...