Just another girl on the bus

Everyday at 7.45 I take a bus to work. Its winding way through the maze of Mumbai streets is just as convoluted as my life and for that I am grateful. We pass by dabbawallas, phoolwallas, paanwallas, cyclewallas, mochis, plumberwallas and all those little kick knack stores that form the nervous system of this city.
I watch the hustle bustle of the city as it wakes up to yet another day. This city which was once a small collection of seven islands ..now a world in itself. The shop owners dusting floor mats outside streets, the chai walla's running with cups of tea ready to energize the sleeping giants of mumbai and in the midst of it all, the booksellers at the signals, the little boys who dust car windows, the ladies who sell mogra flowers sewn in precise garlands and between it all a million shiny cars.
And in that daily two hour window stuck in a moment in rush hour traffic is a sea of dreamers. Big dreamers, small dreamers, ambitious dreamers, cautious dreamers, candid dreamers, superstitious dreamers. But dreamers - all of us. Sitting there - in traffic jams. Looking outside at the patterns rain drops and dust particles marry to make on our window sills, brooding over the dark cloud cover, listening to radio mirchi, news, ipods, jhankar beats or some other music, reading papers, talking on phones, cursing beeping blackberry's but nonetheless ..Dreaming.

Dreaming of how the city will be without madness, dreaming of things that are yet to come, dreaming of owning our own two feet in this absurd real estate market, dreaming of buying cars, dreaming of working thrice as hard to make life twice as good for ones around us. Dreaming of meeting love around some nook and corner, dreaming of growing old together, dreaming of reaching home in time to cook that special meal. Dreaming.
As I look around - I realise that in the past decade- I've lived in two continents, in five different cities, met fascinating people from all over the world, seen many days and battles..some tougher than others, met my worst nightmares head on, seen some dreams come true as others have collapsed, held on to the threads of optimism and hope that sew my scars and somehow - ended up......Here in this corner of the world where I am just another girl on the bus.

Just another girl on the bus.
And I know as I look outside my window that in the sea of dreamers that surrounds me...I am not alone ....neither in my misgivings nor in my heart songs and that there are thousands of people from all walks of life exactly like me.
But the truth is that no matter how logical and predictable everything seems and no matter how ordinary my life is - As I sit there on that bus gazing out out of my window contemplating the long road ahead and looking back at the years -
I just cant help it...... that even though I am just another girl on the bus.....

I am also overwhelmed, amazed and utterly thankful.
Amen.