Many years ago, I used to regularly
go for long walks in the morning. I used
to do this for almost 9 months in a year and during monsoon, took a break and
started again by mid-December. This was
my routine for many years. I used to
walk through many residential colonies and in the route were many cinema
studios, which had a glorious past, but at that period, were shut, abandoned
with wild growth of plants and trees.
My dad had built our house in a
farmland that literally had no roads or electricity at the time of
construction. The colony developed as we
grew up and we celebrated every first in the locality. The first tar-road, the first milk booth, the
first bus route, the first phone, the first television in the neighbourhood,
the first bank, the first clinic, the first medical store, the first fancy
store etc. The list is endless.
I don’t remember the year. May be, it was some time in the early 2000’s. On one December morning, when the roads were
dry and there was no indication of rain, I resumed my morning walk. Everyday, I took a different route and it was
always a circle route. On that day,
while I was nearing my house after I walked for almost 3 kms, in the vacant
land of an erstwhile studio, amidst the wild growth, I saw many tombs. Not only that, I also saw a huge gate and a
faded hoarding indicating that it’s a crematorium maintained by Chennai
Corporation. I was shocked. For a while, I thought I was dreaming. But then, I was walking. Generally, in all my dreams, I am mostly
lying down or at the most, sitting.
Also, the sun was shining bright and people around were already busy
with their works. While I celebrated
every first in the locality, I could not celebrate this. Tears started rolling down my cheeks. I imagined my own death and funeral. I always feel sad for my pallbearers, as I am
very heavy and feel guilty that I would be a heavy burden on their shoulders.
Then I imagined funeral of other known persons.
“Lousy thoughts”. I cursed myself
and entered home and rushed to have a shower.
I didn’t discuss with anyone at home.
I took a break again for my morning walks and when I resumed it after a
week, I had a shock again when the graveyard vanished completely. The whole experience was surreal. This time I decided to speak to my family
about this and when I did, my sister informed that it was a set built for a
film shooting and shut my mouth. I could
never imagine that possibility. It was
looking so real. The board was rusted
and the paint faded with traces of ash and having all details like ward number
etc. There was no way I could find the
film for which this setting was built and who that great art-director was. Ever since, every time I see a graveyard
scene in films, I try to observe whether it has any resemblance of the one I had
seen. Unfortunately, I could not.
But why am I recollecting this
episode?
Recently, our office shifted to
a remote locality and the landmark is a graveyard. We have to walk past the graveyard to reach
our office. Many of my colleagues are
disturbed about this. But I have evolved.
I experience no emotions. Even
when its dark and I have to walk alone, I am not scared too. With regard to the odour everyone is complaining
about, whether it’s a bird’s flesh or animal’s or a human’s, its all the same
for me. I just close my nose.
P.S. The setting of the graveyard was built
exactly in the same piece of land in which Jain’s West Minister that was in
news recently is built.
