a summer evening

Summer evening, the cool air brushing against ready skin, the thrum of the outdoor cinema intersperses with gleeful shrieks from playing children. The slowly setting sun bathes the square in a subtle orange hue. A trio race each other across the intermittent water fountains, one getting caught in the spray as the others burst into laughter. A lazy couple saunters along the concrete vista, eyes locked in step. Tourists with their suitcases glance up at the glass towers.

All of this, I observe from a lone bench in the corner, a voyeur to joy, to reality unfolding, to the myriad tiny stories playing out in front of my eyes. People watching… An art form, a practiced attention that undresses the superficial and riffs on imagined backstories, plots within subplots. The way a smile slips through the half annoyed face of a wife as her husband cracks a sarcastic quip. The way a young couple perform a twirl to the background jazz and fall into each others arms.

I relax into the moment, the ink flowing smoothly, attempting to conduct the orchestra of sound, sight, touch, thought deftly onto the page. A well dressed Nigerian uncle speaks into his phone, likely to relatives on faraway continents. He pauses, and turns the camera round pointing it high up to the glowing sky, his face beaming with delight.

These are the sights and stories unfolding before you - life never stopping for a break.

It’s only in these liminal spaces and places, where one seemingly can step outside of the clock and look in - that the world reveals it’s interiors; it’s fractal, dynamic, moving, alive machinery. A quiet buzz echoes through my bones- one is in this - life- love - death- sorrow - joy. It’s all right, here - pressed up against the camera lens.

I close my eyes and feel, my fingers warm from the scribbled words on the page, my stomach full, ears tuned, nose pointed, a hoover for existence - i suck it all up … and smile.

A mantra to live by, atleast for now (stolen from Venkatesh Rao)

Raise the weirdness till it’s fun

Lower the standards till it’s done