Just Passing By

Esperanca – where I live – is fronted by a motley strip of green which passes for a garden in the concrete jungle (a stale metaphor which has yet to find an apt replacement!). In the hurried scurrying to and fro each day, this strip is granted a mere passing glance. The roadside view is not pretty as the grille and plants are always festooned with discarded paper and plastic donated by passers-by and the customers of the paan-bidi stall and bhelpuriwala. Reaction is a resigned grimace, acknowledging the fact that, in Mumbai, garbage is public property.

Out unexpectedly early in the day, I spied a neighbour sitting on the sun-lit garden bench, engrossed in a book, in calm contrast to the bustle beyond the grille. Intrigued, I decided to join him, and what a difference the change in perspective provided: we were suddenly enclosed in a green and peaceful world. Watching the passersby was like viewing a TV screen. The ‘actors’ were in touching distance and yet apart. The plants from this side seemed happier. Looking up, I realised that we were shaded by a spreading canopy of freshly minted, spring-green feathery leaves, which filtered the sunlight. I had passed under that tree a million times (no exaggeration!) and had never noticed! A couple of cats rolled up in their daydream snoozes and a family of chirpy sparrows completed the scene. And it took a man with his nose in a book to make me see all this!

Various vicissitudes have made us take potshots, over the years, at our building moniker. Now I realise how appropriate it really is. Because this early morning encounter made me see how waiting for each new dawn is a four-letter word: HOPE .