Light Elements

In the course of my travel for work, I was once required to stay in a small town in interiors of Maharashtra. I was staying for a couple of days and my schedule as usual was jam packed. Too many things to be completed by meeting various people who were least serious about time! For professionals from Mumbai, this is rather difficult to tolerate but one has to live with it.

I started from my hotel room in the morning and as the monsoons were about to start, it was unbearably humid. Suddenly, there was a brief shower but enough to fill the potholes with water. The road was very narrow and the traffic of rickshaws, scooters and tangas was affected. I stopped to shelter at a roadside shop. I had carried limited clothes and did not want to get wet in the drizzle. I was observing and enjoying peoples’ reactions and overall life of the local people. All of a sudden, I heard the sound of ‘zaanj’ (a traditional musical instrument used for side rhythm). Gradually, I could hear people singing bhajans of ‘Shree Ram Jay Ram, Jay Jay Ram’. I could make out that it was a funeral. Slowly it passed by the road where I was stranded in the rains.

There were quite a few people in the funeral. Around me, people were trying to guess who had died. Somebody said the person who died was not a resident of that village. He was a guest from a distant city. Anothe