startling banals

Filling forms
Running around
Getting signs
Out for lunch..
Checking rules
Being polite
Tired satisfaction
Work done
God.. I miss bureaucracy!

deep clouds full of meaning
where does one end
and the other start?
fly up and
watch them hide the city

early jan 2006
me n santo smoking near gate
2 rupaya denge saab?
puts coin in pocket.. happy
takes out bidi bundle.. lights a bidi
aapka naam kya hai?
shankar...
kaha se hai?
gujrat 20 years back.. nadi kinare ghar khet.. floods. everything washed away. son n wife dead.
came to bombay.
starts crying..
tells his life ka intezaam here
eats at dargah at night. some shopkeepers give him lunch.
new year pe beer mila. some drunk seth stopped car and gave him 2 bottles.
sone ki jagah fixed
everyone knows him in area
police friends tell him when gaadi aane wali hai to pick up people living on streets.. shifts to some other area for that time
finishes bidi
shakes hand. walks away

Black tombstones ancient uneven
Scattered in clean white snow

All the clouds
Sleeping
In Amsterdam

Citylights of Europe
Yellow on black
Left behind

Stars
Have ruled
This moonless night

A red line
Gets bolder
All over the horizon

Changing colours
Everywhere
Here comes the sun