Time is a great sadist. It flees when friends are near And crawls when mates are apart.
Disproving Arudra* for once Friend, your train comes on time And takes you away leaving me behind' At the foot of the granite night-hill to hammer it out.
Sitting on a platform bench, I await my train. I start that profoundly foolish act of drilling time With my needle thin patience Which sparks off...only seconds by seconds.
Childhood runs on rails. Hooked like days, empty and heavy cargo wagons Haul each other. I count up to forty five When a super fast train from the opposite direction Obscures my vision. Just as the curtain falls at the end of each Act, Silence rules the roost after each train passes But for the occasional snore, The sleeping pond returns to its inertia.
I finish counting the number of chairs, fans, Pillars, and square slabs Watch politics boil at the cafeteria Read the Time Table in the three languages thrice Measure in steps, the length and breadth of the platform Fidget with my sweater buttons; yawn And clean my already-clean eyeglasses once again'
My cherished dream gets announced coming in ten minutes. People stretch themselves in blanket-cold And spring to their feet from temporary beds.
I get into the train without much ado - as in a polling booth. But, stand in suspension, like the fate of the contestants. Proceedings being held in camera I will be shut out to the world.
At last' My destination arrives Like a whiff of fresh air into a choked compartment.
But the famished night stares at me Still licking its lips in want. Exhausted, I throw her the brawn Rising from the orient sky And walk down to my destiny' Dozing from its hangover.
*Arudra is a famous Telugu poet who said: 'The train you await Always runs a lifetime late.'
