Portrait Of A City

 The angled January sun was warm enough to make me sweat a little in the late morning. The city, however, snuggled under a thick layer of dust and light haze, slowly stretching its arms and legs and torso to come to life. There was honking. A lot of it. And the occasional ambulance was sandwiched between people who were obviously super busy. After all, a family going out to watch their afternoon movie, or ladies on scooters en route to their kitty parties, and the auto rickshaw sans passengers had more right of passage than a poor fellow counting his last minutes surrounded by a worried family. Driving by some roads, you could witness an argument here, a brawl there. Some were fighting-what a manly activity-while others watched, and a handful of them had their phones out. Again, a peak example of positive masculinity. If this is how January feels like, I shudder to think about March, April, May and June. Surely, many more would lose their minds.
Amidst all this activity, the one thing I never fail to notice is people. People. Of all shapes and sizes, colours, religions, rich and poor, good-looking and those who believe that the real beauty is inside, people on bikes, autos, cars, buses, trucks and the few who walk. Those who cannot drive and those who pretend to do so, traffic police officials gossiping among themselves, a poor hawker who's treated badly by everyone and the occasional VIP convoy passing through who thinks little of all the others I've described.

I too was one among the crowd that day. The only pleasant thing about winters is not having to use fans as much, and the cool morning and evening weather in Bhubaneswar. Otherwise, the dry and dusty city gives me a headache each time I step out. Especially in the area around the KIIT Campus. However, this time, that was the last thing I focused on. Having booked a Rapido bike to travel from the Fire Station Square to the KIIT Square, I waited for the Rapido captain to arrive. The middle-aged, soft-spoken man didn't keep me waiting too long and didn't follow the ritual that every other cab driver/bike rider does these days. He didn't haggle on the price and didn't ask for any extra amount. I walked up to him, as the local autos are known to beat up the app-based taxi, auto and bike riders in their 'zones', and made way for the destination. Midway, he stopped all of a sudden and asked politely if I could get out of the seat, as he was having issues with his phone charger. I didn't mind, and he took no time to fix it. Just as soon as he'd done that, he took out a packet of Marie biscuits from his bag and made a dash for the taps installed by the government near the CRPF Square bus stop. He tore up the packet(slightly), filled some water into it, and drained out the rest. Then he looked at me, pointing to the packet in his hand, probably his only meal for the morning or afternoon. His eyes and emotions didn't betray anything. It was part permission, part 'hope you don't mind,' part 'just give me a minute,' and one part 'sorry to keep you waiting.' I just gave him an empathetic assurance by raising my palm, hoping to signal, 'it's okay, I understand.' What more could I do? I knew that the image of that man was now stuck with me for the entire day. He finished soon, just as he'd promised, and we were on the way again. For someone like me who feels deeply about such things, the incident kept playing repeatedly in my mind. With that happening, I reached the KIIT square soon. As dusty, crowded, loud and chaotic as I had seen it last year. I paid him the fare, and before I could pull out some change I could spare to pay the man who definitely deserved a tip, he'd already crossed onto the other side. 
A bit disturbed, I started to walk to my destination when I encountered a 65+ year old guy who was scolding some poor young chap outside the fish shop, probably a daily wager, for not having moved his cycle fast enough and that his cycle tyres had left a wee little mark on his white i10. People are mad at the silliest and most trivial things these days. Anyway, as I moved away from the little crowd that had gathered, I could hear the words 'aukaat', 'paisa', '@#$@'  before they drowned out in the noise of the city. 

The return journey wasn't remarkable. The markets were full of people haggling over Rs 10, someone was painting the road red with his spit, and some people were working to clean the mess left by others on the road. A pretty Sisyphean task, if you ask me. So is our life to some extent. That's for another blog, but forgive me for digressing.

My point with this wasn't to highlight privilege, class divide, social problems, etc at all. It's just anytime a thinking man steps out into any city and tries to observe, it comes naturally to him; he'll find these instances that find their place on both sides of the social scale-balance. Somewhere, he'll observe the gutter mentality of our people, and at other places, he'll see something that'll make him trust in human virtues once more. Although this has become increasingly hard to come by. I don't know whether it's money, or power, or the fact that we are just venal by design, that leads to such bad treatment of others. I had a very interesting conversation regarding this with Suvro Sir on New Year's Eve, and then saw it happen right in front of me a few days later. The call was probably the best discussion I've had with someone in a very long time.

I hope more of us behave better, treat others better and show a little bit of kindness. 
I'll end this post here.

Now, recommendations!

Book: The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
Song: Donna by Ritchie Valens
Movie: Jalsaghar by Satyajit Ray


P.S. Another thing that doesn't cost a lot of money or fortune is commenting on blogs. Hope to see more of my readers share their views openly. You don't have to agree with what I say. In fact, I'd very much like counterarguments and a spirited discussion!

Also, the weather is much clearer in my part of the town now. The fog and haze are gone. The days are clear, and at night too. I can see the shimmering city lights from my balcony much better these days. Living next to a forest has its perks.