Another morning...not quite though

The auto's winding over Kurla's potholes. The whole of Mumbai's headed to work on this nippy, chiming morning. Thank god for winter, even if it's a Mumbai winter. But today is one of those days when every step I take gives me goosebumps. It's a day for songs, and a day for verse. Deep into Bandra Kurla Complex, where glassy corporate facades rise and array, the words of a man from a hundred and fifty years ago are gripping my mind:

'I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees...'

My polished black shoes tap on smooth marble, I wade through the streams of strangers, all with their hearts beating, their eyes headed somewhere. 'Door. opening', says the smart elevator, and we stand with the extraordinary relationship that people share in elevators, side by side, just staring into nowhere. 'Please. Press. The number. Of your. Floor.'

'and vile it were/ For some three suns to store and hoard myself'

The ties here have come to build a career, stiff ties, ironed shirts and bulging laptop bags. It's still just 8:30 a.m. Later, the floor will be a frenzy of salesmen closing deals as the end of a quarter approaches. You're working against, time, you need to deliver results. And if you do this consistently for some years, you will get the benefits, and a solid foundation, you can even head the country! It's good for your career.

'There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail: There gloom the dark broad seas.'

Tennyson, a bearded Englishman in the mid-19th century. Me, a south Indian in 2005. And words that he scrawled on paper with a crude leaking pen are spreading all over my mind like iron creepers, slow and certain, with a hold firmer than a multinational giant's.

'The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.'

'Door. Opening'. '4th. Floor'. 'Door . Closing'. The lady whose voice they selected and recorded for this- I wonder what she looks like, where her political sympathies lie, and what she likes for breafkfast. It's time to raise bids, check tender documents and send clarifications. People are trickling in, phones are ringing.

'Tho' much is taken, much abides'

Just a while longer, my dear, a little while longer, before cables snap one by one, upto the very last.