The Wikly Updet

HIGH DRAMA AS BULLS RUN RAMPAGE ON THE LAL STREET

Bumboo Bajaar, 27^th Distemper

Red Street (commonly called The Lal Street), a famous lane in the bustling Bumboo Bajaar, where the continent’s leading stick brokers meet to exchange blows, was in a tizzy this morning as thirteen well-built bulls, armed with sharp horns, ran amok in the stick market, causing even the stocky brokers to run for cover. Passersby were treated to an unexpected filmy style chase as the brokers, sticks held high above their heads and chanting “danda ooncha rahe hamara” ran like men possessed, followed by the incensed bulls keen on dispossessing them. The bull run continued till late in the evening and ended only when the market’s top hoarder put up a hoarding on top of the street reading “SILENT ZONE – SHARP HORNS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN” and then followed it up by announcing the same over a loudspeaker.

The sher index, which is an indicator of the level of bravery, measured on the Rictus scale, plummeted badly and, when last seen, appeared to be headed Down Under.

Agitated members, many of them nursing bruised limbs and broken egos, called a press conference and announced the formation of a thirteen member committee headed by a retired matador (thirteen seater diesel version) to conduct a thorough investigation into the whole episode.

Defiance

This photograph is one of my personal favourites.

It was taken sometime during the late seventies with my father's Sunflex twin lens reflex camera loaded with 100 ASA black-and-white film. This print was made many years later, on sepia toned paper.

This tree was growing outside my father's bungalow in Deogiri and was a familiar sight when we went there for our summer holidays. One summer, I saw the tree all dried up and seemingly dead. But it refused to go and instead stood there all through my month long sojourn, defiantly braving the elements.

Standing in the garden and looking at it thru the lens of the camera, the barbed wire fence in the foreground somehow seemed to fit quite well into the composition.

I would like to believe that the tree is still standing there, defiant as ever!