Black & White

I guess up to a certain point in my life (not that I've lived too much of it) I thought I had people, in general, all figured out - they were either good or bad. I thought a person's behaviour and manner could easily be explained by his being either of these two things. It wasn't until much later that I realised that people, most of them anyway, have a complex, convoluted psyche - its each layer added by a real, human experience. Not every murderer has a stone-cold heart and not every seemingly happy person is bubbling with happiness underneath. We are what we are made of. It is difficult to put a label on someone simply because they had done something at a point of time. And it is also possible to love and hate someone at the same time. Then again, someone may say that people don't change - they are what they always have been. But what is it that they have been? Can a person's entire life be defined by a word?

But people actually aren't that simple. Take yourself for example. If you hadn't met a certain person, would you still be the same one today? Or if you had made different choices?  Or if a particular instance in your life hadn't (or had) occurred? You cannot just paint someone black or white without imagining yourself standing in their shoes and asking yourself what you would have done. I'm just trying to say that everyone has a story. And  a complicated one at that. Even today, when I find myself being too judgmental about somebody, I try to stop myself and be more.. understanding. I guess its because I read a lot of fiction that makes it an even more challenging task than it should be. In most books the characters have pre-defined attributes - they act a certain way and in a typical act of poetic justice, they get an ending they "deserve". But life is different. Its not just black and white. Neither do we have pre-defined attributes nor is the end predictable. And thats actually a good thing - one just has to realise that even if we ruined it and can't start over again, there's room for second and many more chances.

The Magic of Train Journeys

"Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by"...

- 'From a Railway Carriage' by R.L. Stevenson

I'd never been in a train till I was 11. Now I'm a regular passenger, taking a 24 hour ride to my home in the south every summer and winter for the vacations... and while on board, there's no better pastime than looking out of the window and watching the world pass by...

Temples atop hills, vast open green fields interspersed with canals and streams, rivers and waterfalls, black drongos hanging on the power lines...and when it rains, the clouds hanging low hiding the hilltops..these are regular sights I look out for on every trip. But the things I love watching most are - ponds...small ones under the shade of trees or large ones between fields..and full of white and pink lotuses; rivers...making leaps over rocky terrain or coursing along sandy banks...not to miss the dhobis busy at work on a few jutting rocks...

Forests...Jharkhand is full of them, or atleast the rail route I come by is...sunshine falling through the canopy of leaves...the occasional stream and small patches of fields with one or two huts close by; kids in villages playing football...and I never miss the River Damodar...there's no mistaking it for any other river - it's the only one that's got more rocks than water and is about an hour away from Dhanbad.

As diverse as the landscapes outside, are the fellow travellers themselves - the channa wallah with an assortment of spicy stuff...the little kid who sweeps the floor of the compartment hoping for a few coins in return for his service...the beggar with a beautiful voice but no eyes to see,  singing a song of yore...a huge family with noisy children and many aunts making a long journey to see the rest of the family in another part of the country...there was even a woman selling eggs once - of course, nobody was buying them but it was interesting to watch her move around with a big basket full of eggs even as a few cracked, spilling the yolk.

All these..and more sights..await me on my next journey home...and I'm so eagerly looking forward to it!!!