It was one of those perfect evenings. An evening comprised of those moments when, without any reason you suddenly feel very happy. You forget all your despair, anguish for being struck in those mundane chores. Those stinking remarks passed by those scoundrels fail to lay any impact. Somehow miraculously you can manage to get into a shuttle car, avoiding those fearfully overcrowded buses. You nod at the kid who’s sitting by your side & don’t feel like cursing or slapping her nagging brother. You don’t even rush to thrust the earphone against your ear; rather you look out of the window to the pale auburn miasma...they seem to be the curtain of some divine arena...even from the other side of the blind you could listen to the orchestra...the ceaselessly blowing horns of those private red buses, there even redder foul mouthed drivers, the undecipherable cants of the hawkers, the sundry clamours of the crowd...They all seem to be resonating with that veiled concert...the fractious traffic sergeant with his red laser stick seems to be organizing this earthly concert in accordance with its cherubic counterparts... & without any reason you suddenly feel that you’ve ceased to exist & started to LIVE!

Well, that’s exactly what happened to me yesterday. & this suddenly developed euphoria resulted into an wide grin & an irresistible aspiration to hug everyone & to shout, “I love ya all my countrymen”. I guess this wild desire was traceable in my feature. ‘Cause everyone, in between wiping off their sweats & cursing U.S for causing the hike in food price & temperature, was looking at me in suspicious eyes. Probably they thought that the heat has probably corrupted my nervous system & has unhinged my brain. Otherwise there won’t be an outline of smile in this epoch of (inter)national despondency. Many opinions were formed regarding the origin of my smile. The corpulent lady sitting at the front row surmised that it was a smirk aimed at her...the moustache cladded man sitting beside her thought it to be coquetry & suddenly, being enthused, burst into a bizarre & dire Bollywood no; much to the utter surprise & annoyance of the co-passengers.

Now, I mentioned this just to demonstrate how tough it is to sustain any personal subtle emotion. After decades, for the 1st time I really felt like smiling & that too driven by a very delicate & private impetus. But, everyone was pretty sure that they had their own share in it. My mood was completely destroyed after that coarse song & when, after reaching home, I discovered that the electricity was gone; I was back to my pathetic, petulant, cantankerous self...the old Sisyphus was touched by the joie de vivre of the global spirit for a moment; but the same spirit has reminded him who he is & so he is leaning again to pick up the same old stone!