Mundane promises

Ever wondered how the not-so-privileged families manage to stick together inside an 8x8feet room? Calling this kind of accommodation inconvenient is actually an understatement. Such little houses include the kitchen as well as the bathroom with no question of a bedroom. Everybody inside the house sleeps on the floor. And there’s no dearth of similar style—for lack of a more suitable word—of habitation in Mumbai. Of course, it’s a matter of choice for an individual whether s/he wants to stay back and fight for their space in the city or go back to where they hail from. But still, everybody has a relatable story to share. Like the family in the picture above. Here, the husband runs a laundry service—with considerable help from his housekeeping wife—while his two sons attend nearby school. They all stay inside a room that’s barely 64 sq feet in area. But the man of the family hopes to see better days ahead as he is ensuring his kids get what he or his spouse couldn’t: education.

PS: Happy Universal Children's Day to you, too.

Dance like the wind ain't watching

At a gurukul in the sprawling shade of trees, a disciple interrupted the gathering by asking his master a rather inane question: “Are the leaves moving the wind or is it vice versa?” The master, without even gazing at the branches above him, replied, “Neither. It’s your mind that seems distracted. Pay attention in class.”

If i were the master, i’d have paid attention to a theory my friend proposed recently. Things move because of intention. Science may have its share of endless corollaries on momentum, acceleration and velocity but they all fall short when it comes to the movement of stuff inside our head. What makes our thoughts move? Anyway, the point being there’s no uniformity in place. Chaos rules. For instance, when somebody is dancing to a song, who’s moving whom? Is it the music that is making the body groove or vice versa? I mean, if you push two individuals to the dance floor and hit the play button, wouldn’t they be dancing differently—considering they haven’t practised steps before—despite hearing the same piece of music? Is this true to nature too?

Which brings us to another inane question: “Which leaf is moving which way and how does the wind feel about this discord in choreography?”