One day…

Suddenly one day

In down town,

Gunshots were heard

There was a shoot out

We heard a politician was shot

School going kids

Men & women walking to work

Suddenly confused, scared

Running for cover, hiding

Here and there

To escape from the unseen

It happened close by

But you could see nothing.

Next day,

City shut itself

All shops, trains buses taxis

Appeared a procession of white Khadi shirts,

Sweaty Gandhi-caps

Tobacco-red tongues

Lashing slogans…

Enquiry commission, enquiry commission

We want enquiry commission

A formality – all this

Broken glass, plastic water bottles were

Swept off the road…

And soon, the city was back on track.

The life, chugged along

Suddenly again,

Briskly walking crowd

Heard a deafening blast…

Ever-ready, omni-present photographers were shooting videos

Capturing tall flames, shattered glass, toppled cars

Mugging, snatching, shoving

It seemed that

This time

It was the turn of the ‘others’

As if on cue,

Buses, trains, taxis, vanished

Yet once again

Only the huge mass of common man was

Left on barren streets

To fend for themselves,

Slowly,

City’s reaction to blood and gore

To mind numbing, heart wrenching stories

Became lesser, lower and duller

As if bored…

Sensitivity of the city

Had started fading out,

And soon enough,

Faded out

This is how I guess, a city matures

Or perhaps,

Graduates.