The life of a lift operator – An analogy(to what?)

Ups and downs are a part of life.
For every up, there is a down.
Ups are slower,
Downs are faster
Empty or full

Downs seem like with a purpose(of passengers) always
But then each time one goes down,
There comes an up ,
Sooner or later.

Emergency always means down
But repair always means checking the ‘up’.

Boring as it may seem to you
I get paid for just sitting there
And then I know more
About more people
Than you do

Lifes of several cross my day
Some in awe
Some in pity
Some with amusement
Some with an empty thought
Some with a thought I cant comprehend

I have a window to the outside world
Every time the doors of the lift open
But until then
It is me in my shell
And of note,
Fewer times I open it
Often others open it
For themselves

I am at their service
Beck and call
Press 0 or the car – bay
As they say

When the power fails
They curse the service
And cast me disapproving looks
As though I am to blame
For free time on duty

Though I never fail to turn up
For its my bread and butter
For worse or better!

Home, Sweet home

Recently back from a trip home(Chennai)..the place does not cease to amaze..at its sheer adherence to age old culture, tradition, practices, smells and sounds. Every 6 months when I go back, the smell of kaapi(coffee) and dosai molagai podi(dosas with red chutney powder) is as enticing as ever. Neighbourhood is always buzzing with news of who did what, rather than what they themselves did.(U didn’t understand? U r not supposed to anyways). Nobody seems to want to laze beyond 9 am, even on a weekend. Evening outings begin at 6pm and end by 10.45pm even by ‘late’ standards. School kids lug their same old school bags and lunch boxes, men to office carry their same small pack lunch box cum wallet, women still undecided about the salwar suits they wear. Even the news on the tv is always about the ongoing spats between the politically motivated rival channels. But in all this, there is the pride of living in one of the metros, which probably has the best living standards and facilities amongst all the metros; there is the joy of managing a nuclear family yet close knit kith and kin relationship; there is the satiated feeling of having a good work life balance…sigh…maybe, it is just that home-sweet-home feeling and will pass.

Vagaries of Indian Cricket

I was glad a few days back that I did not post the below…now I am not so glad!! Reason being India lost yet another ODI to Australia, so badly, so shamefully, that the seniors in the team hung their heads low much before the match actually started. One so called Bengal tiger decided to stay away from any ignominy that might visit the team.

Anyways, what I wanted to say before India qualified for the T20 finals…

The tradition continues. India may lose several series, its coach and its captain, the public angst does not last even beyond the crispness of the morning paper. Every ball bowled by the opposition is skilfully driven to the boundaries-in the viewer’s enthusiasm. It is a different story that the ball is left alone until the wicket keeper collects it; an over full of rugby strikes! One counts the number of batsmen in the pavilion before every ball is bowled; the umpire is there to count the number of balls that remain to be bowled in the over-of course, he brushes his counting skills beyond six, over after over, when India comes to bowl.
The Indian voices scream out in unison as ever, the crackers are ready to be lit; never mind if they have languished in the cupboard in the last two seasons. The mega serials take a break the day the matches are played, for once again the brawn-less Indian men dominate the women with their full throated war cries, while all the while the clever Indian women know that the heroine in the mega melodrama has shed/made others around her shed one more bucketful of tears and the story has not moved beyond that even a bit.
Amidst all this, the career and retirement plans of several are discussed-including those of the eleven men in blue.
Thank God for the T-20 version, all this lasts only for a couple of hours before we return to the humdrum of our lives.