"Hey people thats my space....!!"

Since my time on this planet I have rubbed shoulders with people and have been left back with many imprints of how we look at eachother..... stupid funny irritating saddening and some down right infuriating moments.But sometimes theconnection lingers and comes back in the most amazing way and at the weirdest time. The difference being that my perspective towards it changes in reflection.Then like a chain reaction it leads to other long forgotten moments in bubbling sucsession...like flippin through the much loved pages of an album with pictures that had comeout all wrong but r stupidly funny.From the snapshots of such an album of mine are stillframes of how i was at odds with mankind......

• We the youth...atleast the more in sync with the social life subscribe as I think to a coffee-culture where conversation,intellectual exchange,matters of heart and mind and soul happen over a cup of coffee and it is the prime site for a person like me to look at people and probe their mind and souls unaware...he he... But fate and the magnetic force of love challenged me that day!! There is this particular spot by the window where I like to settle down with my coffee and a book and consider it my space in the block...but no!!! There they were perched like the pigeons that frequent my balcony ....much like they were in a different world and i was a sad little alien.With eyes looking into the depths of eachother's soul and hands clasped in eternal embrace they wouldnt give much attention if their coffee(which had already gone cold btw !!) would spill all over them.No wonder the 5 mins I spent witnessing their Oh-So-Cute-I-Wanna-Puke romance in indignant stupification did not make them realise that they had encroached my space and violated the sanctity of my reading joint with their still-parked emotions.I walked out angry and irritated fuming to myself but now as I look back, somehow that couple take on a caricatured look of a comicstrip that I am reading on a sunday and just the same I laugh at the deliberate blindness of lovelorn souls.Phew!!.....
• In another such brush with the population i found my space over-run by a testimony of what we keep out of our usual happy life out of our helpnesses to act and our impotency in being able to rid the world of it.Poverty is rampant in India and in my city and it is a plague that affects society corroding its image ,values ,utility and progress.Very much present in our world .That day as I nudged my veichle into the community garage I found my alloted space takenup by a ragpicker and a random toddler that had hung onto her.Distended belly and vacant eyes and disarrayed attire greeted me but remained unmoving and for the period I sat think behind the wheel of that sorry spectacle ....my heart and my helpnesses were the only things that moved.Inconvinienced no doubt for a few days I was more disturbed to find them one day abruptly gone(for i had come into a habit of checking on them) and some how I felt infuriated when informed that they had been driven out in no polite terms.It was my space that was their shelter and temporary though it was,I chose who to share my space with and as the thought of the duo onthe streets with hunger n cold for company unsettled me...I thanked the guard for his unwelcome invasion into my territory.
• Like most other single children I am pampered and spoilt and a part of this extends to having places at home demarcated as mine in bold letters in an abstract pen that Ilove and so so miss when I am far away.There is this particular place at the dining table where I sit with the breeze of that ancient table fan on my face and from where I see everybody else.Used everyday to having my lunch served in my space n tracing the path while thinking something else(as usual..absentminded that I am)I was shaken out of my reverie by the sight of my cousin...a naughty kiddo baring his teeth in a knowing and My-God-Iam-So-Smart smile that made my blood boil.But its the duty of elders to be tolerant and set an example and I had to make a comeback after reaching my boiling point.But as I see it now.... the kiddo has grown up to be a very out-doorsy boy who prefers lunching at college and while I miss the fun of him as a toddler I still fight with him .The encroachment of my space that had made me put up no tresspassing signs all over my room for that kiddo makes me laugh at my stupidity and how much all of us babies have grown up over the years.

Thus there have been funny moments and sad and reflective and thought provoking incidents of how while makin my space in the world I met with resistance but over years I have learnt how to give and share and grow with people and interacting thus with my fellow-men I have learnt much about people..of all sizes shapes colours contrasts etc enriching my data-base about the environment and its denizens. But each one of us needs that space to breathe.....to come to terms with life and all that we know ..to reflect ....to contemplate ....to do what we like best and while guests are welcome , invasions ...sorry thats my space u r treading on.Keep Out!!Some part of me or may be my mind refuses to be over-run by the random.