He saw a lot of graffiti on the streets when he was out the other day.
Much of it was political, some of it was not.
R----- loves P----, one said. He was standing next to it for a long time, and he wondered if it was R----- or P----- who had scribbled it on the wall with chalk.
A bus roared across, and it spat out a gout of black smoke, which flirted gracefully with the air into which it dissolved.
***
I saw a woman crying in the street, yesterday. Not out loud; quietly, you couldn’t tell if you weren’t looking very carefully. She wiped away her tears as soon as they appeared at the angles of her eyes with a crumpled handkerchief, which teased her eye-shadow (or was it mascara?) out into a dark stain.
She was walking quickly, with short, hurried steps. There was a worried looking man behind her. When she was waiting to cross the road, he came and stood behind her, and when she started walking again, he almost didn’t follow. He hesitated, I saw it in his face, the desire to walk away. I know that expression. And then he walked off after her.
***
He was walking with her past New Market, when he nodded at the Globe theater, and he said, we shall go in there one day, and I shall kiss you in the friendly darkness, and ten years later, when it is some large, anonymous retail outlet chain, or a sparkling clean McFood, or McCoffee outlet, we will be able to look at it and say that we knew this place when it was big, and crumbling, and dusty, and had a soul.
***
The streets leave their own graffiti on us.
Dark smudges of grime, heavy smoke that lingers in our nostrils.
The loss of our ability to make eye contact.
And the way girls walk in a crowded place, guarding their breasts with their arms.
***
8 comments:
beautiful and very recognisable.
most people walk with their eyes closed in the streets. you can see a lot of things, the graffiti, otherwise. just as you did.
Like in metros, people never make eye contact and when they do it's like they're hiding something.
And yeah, the way girls walk in a crowded place, guarding their breasts with their arms. beautiful.
everytime im on the streets,ive tried walking straight without looking sideways.and eachtime ive failed royally.
more than all this,its the urchins sprawling all across the pavement with faces all grimy and fatigued that i find the most intriguing.
there is a very nice puchkawalaa in new market.
he is an old man.so his son started making puchkas.
@Diviani: Recognisable as what?
@Agarwaen: Thank you. Yeah, have you ever noticed that, too?
@Onnesha: Yeah I know... I watch beggars too.
@Merc: :)
yes. noticed it too. but not lately. times are changing. so are the ways of walking of young girls in crowded places. Or maybe Kolkata is just a safer place for women than, say, Delhi.
Ethereal. :)
Go write a book. NOW!!
I would...
except I have to write exams. Lots of em.
Now what I need is a ghostwriter...
:)
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