Of time and its toil

18 odd days into the New Year and already the freshness seems to be fading away. Thank God for seasons or it would've been such an effort to get through an entire year. Also thank Mankind for months and weeks and days and hours and minutes and seconds. Its always fascinating how much a second starts to mean, when looked at this way. The promise to change for the better. Or if the second and even a minute seem to be too transient, surely the hour is worthy of hanging on to hopeingly (I know that's not a word but hopefully with overuse has become such a hopeless word). A fine balance is struck with the day, I believe. One can live outside of a day and view it objectively, planning and reviewing. And one can live inside a day, soaking and savouring. Those who make the most of a day do both simultaneously, a challenge. 

With weeks and months there could be a tendency to run mildly wild with your imagination. And the year always provides fodder for broken dreams and self-delusions and historic lessons. That's why I guess the proverb "seize the day." Seize the week would sound funny (perhaps something a weekly magazine editor tells his staff over meetings) and Seize the Year starts to yawn even before you've finished saying it. Happy New Year.

Every time a new book comes out with Mumbai as its background, I fondly recall my 9 months in the city. This time it's Kiran Nagarkar who, from the reviews I've read has come out with a sequel to Ravan and Eddie. I realized I wanted to write something on Mumbai as well. Sadly I wrote just one paragraph and then was left groping for ideas. May be some day I will write a complete post. Anyways, this is what I wrote,

“There's Bombay in every Indian. Bombay is the prized piece of the jigsaw puzzle that goes into making the Indian complete. In Bombay you find yourself, and realise – achingly at first and then delightfully – how empty life had been till that point. Everyday, one is surprised at how much Bombay gives of itself to rank strangers, only to keep them forever. It’s not so much loyalty that Bombay seeks but love. Bombay becomes a deranging addiction when you're living in it and an abject craving when you're away. Either way, you lose.”

Which brings me to the question, what about Bangalore? Is there another city so amiable but so difficult to like or indeed hate? Bangalore occupies the space (not a void) between indifference and liking. I suspect this is how people who live outside India feel for that country. There’s a sense of gratitude but that’s that. Gratitude is best experienced in past tense. We live in the present. Seize the Day.