In Limbo 2

  1. Someone nudged. I turned around and screamed. Her calm eyes caressed my confusion. "Back off," I shouted, despair ringing in my voice. She refused to budge.  "Please take her away from me," I pleaded with the dhaba-wala, who seemed rather amused by my reaction.  "It's almost done," he said without looking up. I thought he was announcing my order was nearly ready, even though at that moment, with  her   breathing fire down my neck, food was the least of my concerns. But, before I could say anything, he was next to the enormous creature with kohled eyes and flared up nostrils. While one hand gently rested on her back, the other sweetly fed her freshly-made soft chapathis smeared in ghee. Overwhelmed by this gesture of spontaneous bonding, the trauma that had gripped my being earlier, quietly departed. Feast over, he patted the beast and then folding his hands in reverence backed away. She snorted with contentment and joined the evening traffic on th

The early morning light pulls me off the bed, ushering me outside to have a tête-à-tête with myself and with the little black cat called Maya. Maya and I enjoy a moment of simple camaraderie which involves looking at and through each other, simultaneously. Quiet, furtive and observant, both of us cherish our status as shadow beings... We stand in deep contemplation, in sync with the cashew tree and the path which winds by it. But, a deeper perception of silence coerces the eyes skyward. And, there they are, flying south, a whole colony of them. Gulls. And lo, in a flash the shadows metamorphose into light and are up There, part of the seabirds' flurried whiteness and partaking in its voyage across dreamtime.  In the unveiling of the memory, the ears catch the sound of my own heart fluttering delightfully, reminiscing the cool autumn days splashed with blotches of gold and rust. It was against such panoramic change that all winged movement took a southing tendency and the quivering