Sunday 30 January 2011

TRAVEL LIGHT IF YOU MUST

The man waited at the platform
With a suitcase full of ideas
And a small bag for the journey
Waiting for the train of humanity to arrive.
In the night before, he was barely able to close
The suitcase, so full was it
He had to squeeze and force down
And even sit over it to close
There were simply too many things
For a small sized suitcase.

He had planted himself
Where he thought the ‘General’
Compartment would arrive.
But there were simply too many people
There generally are in ‘unreserved’ compartments.
He had to jostle his way through
Pushing, fretting, fuming
Finding room for himself
And for his suitcase full of ideas;
It was almost a losing battle.

He would have given up
But the dynamics of ‘General’ compartments
Are well suited for going with the flow
As anyone would know
Who’s been in Mumbai ‘locals’.
So eventually he found room for himself
And a little overhead space for his suitcase
But he just couldn’t open it
There was simply not enough space
The train started; the journey began.

It gathered speed
The suitcase, not on firm footing
Fell, but the man scarcely missed it
He was busy sharing goodies from his bag
That he carried for the journey
Others shared too and he found
It wasn’t a bad journey after all.
At the destination, he got down with his bag
That was all that belonged to him
That was all that was needed for the journey.

6 comments:

  1. excellent analogy --i enjoyed reading it.

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  2. Very apt poem for travellers of life. :-)
    I am sharing it my readers.

    P.S.- Ooops. Can you pls enable the Name/URL option for commenting ? This blogger id doesn't suit me.
    Below is my URL.

    Nisha - Le Monde-A Poetic Travail

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Nisha. I shall be shortly changing over to wordpress. That would be welcome, I hope

      Delete
  3. That was brilliantly penned. Multilayered, deep and thought provoking. You described the journey called life through poetic brilliance.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for being so supportive of my efforts

      Delete

I welcome all your comments as long as these are not vituperative, use obscene language and are communal