Circle of Life

Bombay. Saturday afternoon. There's a lingering smell of wetness in the air. T and I are back for what could be our last visit for the next 5 months (not exactly but exaggeration is good for health). We're walking down the road to the colony and our apartment. Correction - erstwhile apartment. The young ones are kicking the football around and swinging on the swings in the damp playground. For any lucky individual with no allegiance to time, without a calendar or a watch, this could have been 6 months ago. Same old streets. Same old taxi drivers smoking their beedis. Same old decrepit security guards. Same old us.

There is a comfort in the belief that life repeats itself. What happened yesterday, happens today and will happen all over again in the future. Its the sort of comfort which you get from sleeping under the stars, solving the crossword on a lazy weekend, the simple pleasures in life. But if history indeed repeats itself and the expected always happens, how stupid man must be to never learn from his experiences. Such relief in the intellectual capacities of the human race.

It's the Circle of Life,
And it moves us all,
Through despair and hope,
Through faith and love,
Till we find our place,
On the path unwinding,
In the Circle,
The Circle of Life.
- Elton John, The Circle of Life


Don't be attached to places, T tells me. The first place outside home and insti that we have ever lived in. Now looking mould-infected and squalid partly due to it's personal ineptitude in handling the monsoon rains and partly because we abandoned it for a major portion of the last 3 months. As I went through all the clothes and random paraphernalia, I relived most of the awesome year that had just passed. Enough of that nostalgic rant. But if there was one thing I was most glad to find, it was my dress from the retreat. The blue-green one. Famous one. A less sexy version of a halter top. Yes, you read that right. Ah the joy.

The circle of life has taken over. The next generation has arrived. They go through training. They go through another training. And yet another. And the parties. And from young confused individuals fresh out of college, loving the inherent procrastination of their lives, they mostly turn into heartless money-minded capitalist freaks. Mostly. Else they end up like us. Which in hindsight, is not so bad. Lucky bastards!

Egoism takes over. I... have... to... shut... up... now... else... the... world... cannot... handle... it...

Unstructuredly (I take feedback seriously; --> <--- this seriously)

H