I met a freshman from a local college

on the way to a corporate office,
where I was supposed to submit
a report on a study about durables.
My report had all the dull statistics:
pie charts, histograms and dumb numbers
which I was supposed to animate
in a few hours in front of experts.
I got introduced to this kid,

partly to overcome the tension,
and partly to know how much
the days have changed in ten years.

The boy greeted me with a smile,
and proudly mentioned that he is
in his first year bachelors, and that
he hasn’t yet decided upon his specialization.
Soon he unzipped his bag, which smelled
of ladies perfume and deodorants, and felt
velvety soft, when touched.
He opened Kafka’s “collection of short stories”,
and showed me the concise notes he made on the preface,
which read like W. H. Auden’s translations of Faust.
I had to encourage the kid so I said, “you have
a brilliant brain dude!” before getting down. 

I was tired and weary, while coming back,
same bus number, and by coincidence
same boy was seated in the front seat.
After the meeting with the experts
I changed my clothes,

my hair flared like charged polymers.

Understandably this guy couldn’t

recognize me, while I was seated
right behind. He was bragging
about his new found interests for poetry,
and was reading out a few lines
from a famous e.e.cummings poem
which he later on claimed to have
written three years back, at McDonalds.

His friend, who appeared to be more concerned

about his new jacket, jeans and girlfriend gossips,

was getting bored. He took out his classnotes,

a pencil and a pack of cigarettes,

though it was a no smoking zone,

the conductor allowed them to smoke.

Now it was his turn, he started reading

Faust, Goethe’s original version!

Copyright© 2005, Debashish Haar, All Rights Reserved