Tadpoles In A Swimming Pool

I had two ways to deal with my frozen shoulders, work less or workout more. I chose the second option and got myself a membership in an Olympic size swimming pool run by the Town. I have at best been an unwilling swimmer. There was a pool at school aeons ago, and I remember drinking most of its water the first time I tried my hands at swimming. I knew it was time to drink some municipal water as well and I was game. It has been over a month since I have been swimming. I drink less of water these days and keep observing the people splashing around. There are the kids, most less that 7 or 8 years of age and they streak through the pool like tadpoles, they are all around, and had our mouths been a little more accommodative, us adults would have actually swallowed a couple of them accidentally and no one would have known, they are so small and all over!

Then there are the frogs, the experienced swimmers who keep their head down in the water most of the time and float around like large toads. Every once in a while I would see strange eyes behind diving gogs staring at me, before they vanished under water again.

Finally, there are the hippos, the healthy (seriously healthy I would say) swimmers who wade around the water in slow motion. Every time one dived into the water, the tadpoles, the frogs and Rajesh Kumar would make way for them. It was surreal, majestic, until the tadpoles re-infested lost space.

I love the time I spend at the pool, the camaraderie, the bonhomie and of course loads of water to drink is all part of the little dose of community that I get in my life. The hot looking moms add to the general chaos as well!

Weeds In My Garden

It feels like yesterday when you were with me. The clear skin glowing through your sleeveless green churidar was a sight for sore eyes. The silken spread of your hair would let through glitters of sunshine from the window sills, you smelled of fresh jasmines on a warm winter night. It was only yesterday that I breathed you in, only yesterday, it seems, that I could bathe in your nearness, your presence. I wish I had told you, when there was still time, how much you brightened up my dreary life, how you used to slow down time for me, how you used to fill more of life, in every second you were with me.

Its has been a long time since I went out on a walk, long time since I have looked out of window sills and longer still since I have seen a sunrise. Everything, reminds me of you.

Pushing Out The Poor

When I came to live in the suburbs of Secunderabad 6 years ago, the place used to have all the old world charms of a very small town. Traffic was scanty and people had loads of time. "My Family Cafe" was round the corner and there used to be an old waiter who I fondly called Kaka who used to work during the day and live in a small room nearby. Kaka vanished some two years ago. There used to be a cobbler who used to run his business out of a one room shop quite close to my apartment. The shop is now a Air conditioned beauty parlor. The cobbler too disappeared a year ago. So did the cycle repair shop, the tiffin outlet and the ladies tailor. 

The small suburb is now a congested city with bike showrooms and super markets. The rentals have gone up and so has the cost of just about everything. The cities do not sustain the poor anymore. The poor fight for survival and then they disappear. Its almost Kafkaesque!. I have survived, but the poorer in my community have disappeared. If this is growth, I am not sure who is growing. If this is development, I sure don't want to know the cost. 

Some days, I remember Kaka, other days, I miss the cobbler.