Tuesday, March 11, 2014

A New Day



Today as the sun comes up, it would be because sleep was slow and at the supposed right time
It wouldn’t be to the last moment hassle to resume slumber in the lectures
It wouldn’t be to kick you out of the bed or to scream at you that your class starts in 5 minutes
It wouldn’t be to the ritualistic coffee and toast or to the loudest room in the corridor.
A new day to an unfamiliar silence, the sounds of life that you weren’t wont to for quite some time.
Today as the freshly mowed grass is bathed in the blistering heat, it wouldn’t be to that open window overlooking the campus and the best view in it
Wouldn’t be to the best room in the hostel, with that just right cool breeze and a built in natural thermostat
Not to the road to the endless diet journey, and yet that led to the hostel mess.
A new day with timely meals and not four hands in one tiny lunch box.
There wouldn’t be that din of life, of happiness and sorrows wrapped in the waft of good food and Coke Studio
Nor the need to hide my tears in solitude for the fear of being caught by the too attentive roommates
There wouldn’t be the dread of the days ahead, of the incessant calls and the gravest discussions in the dingiest room.
A new day with lesser worries and even lesser people to grumble or laugh about it with
You have run out of excuses for food binge, will not have ethical dilemmas over Chinese or North Indian
Who would tickle those creative feathers for further demolishing the walls?
You wouldn’t run around booking rooms and sending mails, all through complaining about the lack of infrastructure
Yet loving that alcove nestled beside the lake with music from the otherwise silent smartphones
The new day has a promise of the grown up world – of morphing relations and sleepless nights of materialism
This new day heralds for everyone, brings in hope for some and perhaps fear for others.
But somewhere that insolent child demands that time stops just this once, let this moment freeze for a while
In a room of 3 beds, speakers, the multi-hued crowded walls and those ever present souls
In the laughter and nonchalant bitching, in the shared food and fears, in what felt like a happy fraction of life tucked in a safe corner
In the classes with those drowsy faces, even in those DCPs with their hands up, always
In the rush of local trains, in that mellifluous walk by the Marine Drive in the wee hours of dawn
Let those moments reel back to where it all began
The journey we embarked to carve out our niche, to make a mark on the sands of the slippery mistress called time
I know not if the destination ever arrived, but I remember your laughs, your music, your dance, your dinners,
I recall that idli, and the bhel, the beaches, the late night series, and the not bothering about exams
And I smile.
I smile at fortune’s favour, I sigh at the speed of the time
And I wonder where the diverging roads might meet again.
Surely we will, the insolent child pouts
He cares not of the tempestuous treachery of time and fate, he doesn’t look at what life brings to each.
He holds on to those gossamer threads of memories filled with sunshine and peace
He sleeps to the music of silence under his friends’ loving gaze
He learns to try and hope for the better as he looks back at his tears and joys, sublime and real.
He runs barefoot on the sun kissed sands and hugs you for the reprieve from life
He cracks jokes on you thanking you for never giving up on him, even when he did
And he sings along, high pitched and noisy, to the tune that bound us all together.
As we aged a little more than yesterday, as we set in to lose ourselves a bit more to the world
I hope that the child finds his home by the sea, of azure waves, white clouds and golden memories
And that someday, one new day, we all would find our way back to it too.