DESERT BLOOMS

Embarrassed and aghast

two foreign tourists

either a couple or two love-birds

got stranded at

the bus station for one or two hours.

They saw a few passengers

with their baggage wearing worried looks.

Patience has its limits.

The stranded foreign tourists

walked towards

the passengers stranded at the bus station

and with pleading eyes

inquired one of them

who couldn’t make out head or tail of

what they were talking looking askance.

On listening to their inquiry

one among the passengers

came forward and explained to them:

‘It is strike today across the State, friends

vehicles are kept off the roads

banks, hotels, business establishments

all not functioning’.

‘What for the strike?’ both were asking in a chorus.

Their eyes widened

with question marks flashing across their faces.

Looking at each other

looking alarmed

they stood like statues.

‘Strange are the ways of our land.

If the leader of a party or union

calls for a strike

even for a minor reason

their supporters get ready

and order the establishments

to down their shutters, otherwise face

the consequences,

and force the vehicles not to ply’.

-He was laughing behind the façade of sadness.

After hours both of them got down

and walked down the

lengthy road reminding one of a desert.

The ‘abandoned’ street lay melting

under the fire-spitting sun.

‘Athithi Devo Bhava’ (treat your guests as gods) –

-each one roared into a

laughter behind which was pain and sorrow.

‘I feel my stomach

has evolved into a furnace’ -

though laughing,

one was seen breaking out

into a roar of laughter.

‘Mine too’ – the other

one responded

that too burst out laughing loudly…