After a long time, and I mean a very long time, I visited the market place. If my memory served me right I was going to that particular market after ten long years, at the least i.e.
After my Mom hassled my continuously for an hour, I finally gave up and reluctantly agreed to go, cursing dad for not being here at the hour of need.
It must be understood that 22 year olds’ of today have almost a genetic revulsion of going to the market place. Maybe that’s because of their lack of knowledge of picking good vegetables (it should be green, a little hard…….etc etc..). But in addition to that you definitely don’t want to bump into your friends and let them find out that you are in the market place buying vegetables like a married husband.
I then calculated the probabilities of bumping into any acquaintance while I would be at the market place. I figured, as it was Diwali holidays, most people whom I knew were on vacation. So the probabilities of meeting your acquaintances were closer to zero than to one. So I hopped into the auto rickshaw and started my journey to the market place wishing it to end sooner rather than later.
The moment I landed into that same old place where I had not gone for over ten years, something odd happened.
A wave of nostalgia hit me. I could not help but compare the present scenario of the market place to the one ten years ago. Now the place had gotten smaller, more dense than before. I could also see advertising banners every hundred feet or so, competing for the highest elevation possible. The place was choking and I started coughing, maybe due to the level of pollution or maybe due to some allergy.
It was as crowded or maybe more as it was ten years ago, but you could tell the difference.
Back then, you could find the good old Bajaj Chetak’s , Vespas and Rajdoots too, scooting away in all its glory in between the congested roads. Now you find Pulsars, Enfields and even four wheelers plying on the same road, which over the years had reduced in width and had not gotten wider !
People used to bargain then too. But that was with, what I would call, a ‘gentle ferocity’, you bargained alright, but you tried to coax and cajole him or her into your grip. But now all I see is bland insults and abuses hurled at the vendors. The element of humanity had gone down drastically in the last ten years. It looked more like an army of robots programmed for certain actions conjesting the market place. Back then even complete strangers used to talk endlessly at front of a vegetable vendor. But now nobody had the time or inclination to get into any conversations.
But amongst all these depressing factors, you still can find some fun. I found to my surprise that a nice young lady in capris and a sexy top jostling amongst the vegetable market. It was obvious that she too had come to the market against her wishes. What I observed was quite remarkable actually, not unexpected totally, but anyways it shocked me. That pretty young thing was inspecting a bunch of tomatoes bending downwards. I was wondering whether the vegetable was looking at the 100 Rupee note or looking down her neck. If I had been him the latter would seem a more interesting proposition.
Although some things will never change but I somehow had a soft corner for the old world charms of the market place which spoke of bygone years.
Some things you wish should never change.
You can just wish. That’s all you can do.
