Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Late last night, we walked the bylanes of this city

Do you know, I love late nights? Walking past the lonely traces of crowds that thronged and buffaloed over these streets in the day. The silence that envelopes the footpaths, the rolled-down shutters of familiar shops; and then one tends to look above the twinkling lights of their hoardings; a whole new world is revealed. People actually  live above PNG and Kajree. Through the spaces between the worn out windows of their old and tiny homes I can see activity - the blur shadows of a television, occasionally a head will pop out from above the bars of these windows and it feels like such delight to a passer-by; almost like a new discovery. The city comes alive in a new spirit; the spirit of those who haven't yet gone to bed, the spirit of those who merely stroll these streets aimlessly, the spirit of those who are basking in this silence. And was I not glad to be part of this. Late nights during Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali and New Years - the world has not slept, but yet it has. The feeling of being neither here nor there is similar to when we are drowned in the tale of a  book. You are part here in reality and part there as an audience to the story. 
The feeling, I can tell you, is unbeatable.

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