This is something I wrote while on an excruciatingly long train journey. I generally enjoy traveling by trains – there’s something about the rhythmic chug-chug-chug motion that always lulls me into a pleasant contemplative state of dreaminess. It’s always refreshing to catch up on some ‘me’ time … entire chunks of the day where you can just sit and ponder, look at the hills and trees and tunnels swoosh (or crawl, depending upon the speed of the train) past you. Those are the moments when you’re glad to just be by yourself. You can observe your fellow-passengers and get glimpses into a different culture, a different way of living. It can be quite fascinating. You might encounter really cute babies, or a couple of impish kids, who’ll keep you entertained whenever they aren’t napping. Put on your favorite music, settle down comfortably in a window seat and you’re good to go.
Of course, that’s the scenario for a normal train journey … for about 5 to 6 hours. If it’s longer than that, you can always sleep off. Eighteen hours, as this train was, is pushing it slightly. At the end of that you’re quite relieved to reach your destination. But that’s more or less the maximum duration of a journey you can get through contentedly. My train got delayed by an extra fourteen hours. Yup, fourteen. Which makes it a grand total of 32 hours in the same train, the same compartment, the same everything. You’d be bored to tears by the same bunch of random passengers around you talking at the top of their voices in languages you may or may not understand. The kids’ plaintive wails and screams get on your nerves, and it’s all you can do to prevent yourself from wailing alongside. And there’s just so long you can listen to songs. I mean, honestly. There’s just no change, no stimulus, no excitement. You’re in this weird transition zone when you’re not in any one place, you’re all over the place, you feel as if you’ve been uprooted … you’d rather be anywhere but in the train. Forget wanting to reach … you’d start wishing you had never ever left.
Anyway, so this is something I wrote when I was bordering on despair, yet had decided to be a little productive:
Surrender
Moonlight glitters a burnished silver
Capping every rushing wave
As they crash and break upon the shore
The wet sand gleams and sparkles
Outlines a dainty footprint
and then another.
As she patters towards the edge
Holds her breath, tethering on
the brink of the unknown.
A tiny wave approaches
Black and silver softness
engulfs her feet.
She closes her eyes, hesitates
almost a moonlit statue
The perfection beckons her
Comfort zone calls her back
How can she reach out to the horizon
From the safety of the caves?
For a long moment, it’s terror
Repercussions and fear
Better safe than sorry.
But all of a sudden, the scales tip over
Excitement, the newness wins
She takes one definite step, and moves
Forward.
The water pools around her
and embraces
her graceful surrender.
Sunlit Prism 