Outside the main gate

As part of an assignment in the non-narrative storytelling course, we were all told to do something we always wanted to, but never found the time for. I picked photography. Before I could issue a DSLR and venture out, my teacher (Prof Mohanty) stopped me and told me to discover pictures, not look for them.

He asked me how many times I had gone out of main gate of IIT-B and gone into the market on the opposite side. 

I replied, "several times, sir".

"How long have you spent there?"

"I dont know, about 10 minutes or so.."

"You go there with a task in hand. Now just go out there and spend at least an hour roaming in those streets. Dont take your camera, dont go with an agenda. Just go and be."

I did that, and for the first time, actually saw the place. It was quite amazing what all I had missed all this time. This poem describes what I discovered there.

I don’t have a name
I have nothing to proclaim
I hide from the eyes that roam
I am a home

I talk like you do
I listen like you do
But when I have nothing to offer
I disappear

I worry and I care
I am the heart that beats here
With love I hold all together
When you come, I disappear

Playful I am filled with hope
It’s just this end of the rope
You sometimes smile at me
You look but do you see me?

I have flesh, blood and veins
I am the one that sustains
Feelings, action, peace, strife
A stranger to you, I am life

I have always been
But you have never seen
You come with a question
I am only the solution

You function driven by necessity
So you never see me
Although here I will always be
I ll never be in your reality

Your reality is hours and seconds
Shops, boards, goods, and funds
Needs, objectives and a list
So am I the one that does not exist?