With a sip of coffee...

I took the seat in the same corner table

And delighted I was to look at the colourful label

While the music was both retro and pop

I glanced across those seated in the coffee shop

As I flipped through the pages of “Atlas Shrugged”

A seemingly happy couple kissed and hugged

The oldies stared in horror and may be jealousy

As if what they saw was too sassy or classy

Right in the centre was a businessman

Drinking his 5^th cup of coffee in some anticipation

To my right were a bunch of rich spoilt teens

Who seemed to be absorbed in their own grandeur

Every single table had its own unique story in making

Which somewhere amidst all the music and commotion

Were knitted and interwoven into a common thread

Waiting for the moment to be set in motion

As I sipped my hot coffee now cold

I felt the thoughts mature and grow old

To realize the dreams and lives I want to mould

I guess, it’s time to take a step; both strong and bold

---Sriram

Delhi Metro vs the Mumbai Locals

I had been hearing about the so called rapid changes in the infrastructure of New Delhi for quite some time now. Finally I got to spend my last weekend in the city which made me fall in love with it on the very first day that dates back to 14th July 2005. I have always been in love with this city and I still don’t really know the precise reason, nor do I have any idea for my disinterest in a city like Mumbai which attracts a huge population in the country.

Well I don’t intend to start comparing the two cities because I have my own biases. However, right now while I sit in the Rajdhani express with 5 more people who are in their late 70s enjoying their game of cards and with having made quite a lot of commuting in the Delhi Metro, I couldn’t help contrasting it with the Mumbai Locals.

First thing to notice in the Delhi Metro would be the usage of a popular electronic equipment, which basically lowers the overall temperature and avoids unwanted sweating (People call it AC). Life there does look beyond a “Vada Paav.” Earlier, when i used to travel by metro back in my graduation days, I hated all those people who seemed professional with their clothing, but pushed like maniacs to enter the evening train to Kashmiri gate. Well, this time all those people seemed so much friendlier and with heightened civic sense. After being pushed and crushed in the Mumabi locals, any damn fellow traveller in trains in any part of India would seem friendly. Even the ones in Gaya and some interior parts of Bihar, where somehow 8 people manage to sit in a place meant for a maximum of 4 people. Infact, I just remembered that the Delhi Metro doesn’t even discriminate like here in Mumbai. There’s no first or a second class. At some level, I highly appreciate that, especially after seeing how rude and arrogant people can get here in the locals if a person with an appearance of the so called second class accidentally enters the first class.

But my personal favourite about the Delhi metro is that the worst which can happen is to be forced to smell the mixture of different deodorants. Compare it to a heterogeneous mixture of the body odour which one has to experience in the Mumabi locals. And not to forget the pretty sight of beautiful creations of the almighty which you get to see in the metro and which is almost next to impossible in the locals.

No offence to the Kolkata Metro. I have travelled just once when I was a small kid. I have no memories except that the highest fare of Kolkata is lower than the lowest fare in Delhi. Anyways, Kolkata is better suited when we talk about the Bandhs, the Indian culture and the related stuff. Infrastructure is a far cry.

But I guess, now that I am back to Mumbai, life is back on the speed tracks of the locals. In Mumbai, it sometimes takes an entire lifetime for people to move to the fast tracks from the slow ones. (Copied from some bollywood flick). Hopefully I will be able to take it to a track which will take me to places I dream to reach...

---Sriram

Silent Echoes

I wonder, what is it that

Is driving me nuts?

I ponder, what is it that

Is undermining my guts?

I see all around with eyes so hollow

Searching for that missing glow

I tumble down amidst the unknown

Still looking for things; long gone

I stare at the white screen

And look at the cursor blinking

I feel a huge void; and blankness within

As if my entire soul is slowly sinking

I try to chuck those images and thoughts

But they just won’t leave me and go

The silence still hurts and loudly echoes

Once up high; the feeling now is so low

---Sriram

Hopes and Tears

While he lay still, wide awake

And kept thinking for the old times’ sake;

he floated in his own world of beauty

When the alarm gave a call of duty

While the days are so bright with a song

The nights are dark and long

Like a circle without a start or an end

he found himself back to where it all begun

As the days come closer and the moment near

He is gripped with uncertainty and a deep fear

Disappointment and dejection is what it holds for him

Yet, it gives a comfort to him and his whims

With every sunrise he lived up with new hopes

No matter what, he knew, who he loved

But, days turned into months into years

The only remains left were his dried up tears

---Sriram