Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Time, please
Filtered sunshine is the color of a reprieve. Elbow past crowds at the station. Watch the Bikaner- Bandra Ranakpur Express clatter by, what terrains it must have flashed past. Gaze at the clips on a hawker’s stand in the local train compartment, they shimmer and dance as the train moves, a fifty, hundred designs to go for five and ten rupees. Reach a landmark that everyone knows, ask for directions like an idiot. Wander through winding lanes with huddled shops and quaint parsi names on the boards, cycles and two wheelers parked any which way, children at gully cricket, bruns and toast on sale on a holiday morning. Look at some of the impeccably preserved facades, one townhouse-like building in particular in pink and white trim, Nariman villa, established 1924, the nameplate proudly says. Some buildings rundown, an arch and alley that looks like a British Raj–relic in burnished grey. “No parking. Tyres will be deflated”,reads a sign on a collapsible gate. Finally ask for instructions at a shop selling silver picture frames, the shopowner is relaxing, newspaper in hand, his feet on the glass counter. Reach the building, debate how exactly to put in an order for a pair of specs with a rosy view of the world, please. Climb up the grand balustrade-lined wooden staircase to find the door LOCKED. Closed Sundays, the sign reads. Turn around and go home, whistling.Then you remind yourself, its only time-out, just a reprieve.
(from Sunday, to catch up by and by, will add pic later)

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

*sigh* such moondrops of paradise still exist madam? Pliss to add pics.!

austere said...

"Moondrops of paradise" ? That's a rather unusual term for dhobi talao. thanks

Anonymous said...

Well this is an unusually quaint post!

Anonymous said...

Will you have some Badam milk on my behalf please? I do miss it so!

Looking forward to pictures.
-P

sanguine said...

not cherie's fault , austy ...your writing does make dhobi talao sound like "Moondrops of paradise" .... you have a knack of romanticizing and adding colour to the most mundane objects / activity …
and how !! love the post ..
Turn around and go home, whistling. - :)

Prerona said...

beautiful - look forward to the pic :)

austere said...

aww cherie, a bit of an overdo, perhaps, isn't it? whattodo..

proxima- can we barter? the first lot of alphonso mangoes is in, @ a king's ransom-just a teeny slice, maybe?

sanguine- siiiiiiigh. hay kyaa karen.color hee color. yes I went home singing songs in my head, no grumble mumble.

ricer- ty, chile

manuscrypts said...

yeah, those tints are hard to get...

Anonymous said...

I start to feel ? to your writing.

?inclined?
I will tell You when i find the word. "inclined" came to my mind, but from inclinatio, the latin origin and what it means in German (Neigung / geneigt) - and that is not "inclined". Aah WORDS - all we have! How insufficient!
You paint with words. At least there is a canvas in my head on which You evoke colours, pictures, imagines, ideas ...

I want to thank you for that.

austere said...

Manu- they are? Where dyou get them, but? you know?

mago- I am honored. Thank YOU for saying this.Anything more is insufficient.

GhostOfTomJoad said...

Glad you got something out of the trip :-) Nariman Villa, hmm...must look out for it.

Does a trip to Dhobi Talao also mean a slight detour to Parsi Dairy? Or, a slightly bigger detour to Badshah's? Makes the time out just a wee bit sweeter, I tell you :-)

austere said...

HEY Mr Ghost!
SO GLAD to see you back. Shoot, edit, post-p all done? good good.

nah. Badhah next time.Good excuse, haan?

Anonymous said...

I think I will take printouts of your posts, bind them and read a random page everytime I'm out of inspiration...

manuscrypts said...

you have to find your own..thats the catch, like the martrix :)

austere said...

driftwood- ah. ahem. well. hmm. bas na! go no you gal.


manu-hmm. how do you KNOW?