Saturday, December 12, 2020

Space 'n Time ... 2020

 

(Sketch inspired by the "Love Is" girl and "Amul Butter" commercials)

Space 'n Time


An old skit said,

“The bus is here, the bus is here”

“It’s not our bus, it’s not our bus”


Will a bus stop for me?

Will the bus take me there?

Am I awaiting a train at a bus stop?


Has the bus left?

Or, is it yet to come?

Will I ever know?


Will (s)he join me on my bus ride?

Has (s)he left on another bus?

Is (s)he waiting at another stop?


It’s not just the space, it’s not just the time!

It’s the simultaneity of space ‘n time

Is for the two of us, the rendezvous


Context: Upon re-reading the poem, I realize that are many subtleties in the poem that may warrant contextualization; though I believe that having to explain a poem speaks to its deficiency, as beautifully brought out by the Urdu verse:


Izhar-e-tamanna hee tauheen-e-tamanna hai
tum khud hee samajh jao, main naam naheen loonga


इज़हार-ए-तमन्ना ही तौहीन-ए-तमन्ना है,
तुम खुद ही समझ जाओ मैं नाम नहीं लूँगा।

The enunciation of my desire is itself an insult of my desire
(Beloved) - you figure it out yourself, I shall not elaborate it

In 1960s-70s Bombay, way before mobile phones, or even well functioning land lines were common, courtship in the middle-class society involved the lovebirds to meet out-of-sight of family and acquaintances, at locations like bus stops and involved long waits for the other person to arrive.


The sketch brings together the lovelorn girl from Love Is comic-strip awaiting ..a bus or her boyfriend or ... at a bus stop that sports the Amul Butter ad - another iconic hoarding in Bombay popularized by the Amul girl.


The poem then extrapolates to the concept of the "waiting for her/him" to an elusive life opportunity. The setting is the same - the bus stop - but the situation is that you see a bus coming in, get elated that it may be your route, and then get disappointed that it is not - a common phenomenon from those days!


Finally, the poem resorts to the physics concept to time and space, the simultaneity of both being necessary for a rendezvous to occur.




1 comment:

Unknown said...

Nice!! The earnest desire to travel together to a common destination with a loved companion comes out so subtly! Loved this!