On this day,


01.
The four walls which once formed a place of mental peace have started to close in, suffocating me. I need to get out. I decide to travel twenty kilometres south, to afford mental space and calm.


02.
Today evening I walked up to the ticket clerk at Borivali station and asked for a monthly First Class pass. It reads, “BORIVALI TO MUMBAI CST CHURCHGATE VIA 2RT>>VDR.”
I feel empowered. The city is now within arm’s length. Have I become larger or has the city shrunk?
As I step once again into the arteries to be transported south, I don’t feel alone anymore. I am one with the city again.


03.
I am learning to deal with new emotions/feelings these days.
Head feels heavy.
Neck feels burdened.
Heart sinks.
Chest seems vacant.
Lump in the throat.
Larynx does not produce my voice.
Eye is moist in the corners.
Silence.


04.
This feels liberating.
Cold wind blowing in to the face, caressing the body as it enters through every available space where fabric meets fabric and body.
The wind relaxes the nerves and the arteries which have been carrying with it the systolic pressure to the head for the past 36 hours.
The lungs are filled with fresh air.
Calm takes over for the time I sit with back turned to civilisation.
I am startled as I write, by a cat that walks below my cantilevered foot on the tetra pods that line the sea.
Twice I feel the presence of some body who wants to occupy the empty space on either side of me, but I turn to find no one.


05.
I am alone in the first class compartment of a Borivali bound slow train.
This is a first!
Is this the same city?


06.
Train(song).