Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Bits and pieces

During rush hour the carriage is packed tighter than my holiday suitcase. Stragglers are shoved in to tiny crevices while the lucky ones sit neatly folded in their seats. I am a chiffon blouse after thought pressed up against a pinstriped suit in a similar predicament. Strangers savouring the intimate details of each other’s lives. Close enough to smell perfumes and aftershaves, smirk at love bites and count pimples.In the evening I study the council houses and apartment blocks of suburbia from my window. So close, like J.J flyover where flowered balconies and sagging clotheslines seem close enough to touch. Here, I cannot touch. So I see. Red walls, kitchen dramas, glowing televisions. Scenes of domestic bliss. Or so they seem from afar. Do they look out as I look in?

11 comments:

Zette Remi said...

Don't you just love that - being squished between so many people :-S Fortunately for me, mine was always the first and the last station - so I almost always got a nice seat. Love your tube stories :-)

Anonymous said...

Heh, there might actually be some truth to the Indians-love-crowds statement.

I certainly could use some crowd and noise in the lonely hum-drum of life now.

Anonymous said...

Ooh, I liek the post by the way, short and sweet, and nostalgia-inducing. Purrrfect !

Anindita Sengupta said...

Reminded me of Bombay's buses...

apu said...

Commuting seems to bring out the best in you...

LAK said...

So how many pimples did you count? Ha ha!Commuting makes you all philosophical, no?

Someone Somewhere Out There said...

So cool.. :) You're one of the very few people who'se blogs I read and I can see they're completely un-self conscious about their writing. Thank you for providing us with thoughts like this. And not feeling pressurized to come up with something to write, just because you have to :)
Sincerely,
Someone somewhere, out there

Anonymous said...

very nice...
now i no wat u mean by short n sweet...;)

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

Keya - lucky you! and thanks


sfk - yes I think we desi's do thrive in crowds... see as much as I complain I can't but help write about them

ash - thanks... and i know what u mean about wanting some noise in life every now and then

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

anindita - i've never travelled by bus in bombay... and the only time i took a local train was at 10 pm so hardly any crowds :)

apu - thanks!

lak - ugh! more than i care to remember! pseudo - philosopher i think

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

someone - thanks so much... that's really made my day. hugs!

1£st - :) now your turn