There is something about September that always makes me say “Don’t come, September, please don’t come”. As August ends, apprehension sets in and it’s always those lines from an U2 song that come to mind:
September... streets capsizing...
spilling over down the drain
...shards of glass splinters like rain
But you could only feel your own pain...
It’s a flyover in the heart of Hyderabad meant to ease the traffic and make your life free of the snarls. Tell that to the ones trapped under it one Sunday September evening as the colossal beams and pillars crushed life out of them. You prayed that people you loved were not around it, but the unknown lifeless faces you saw under the rubble are ones you have got to know now and can’t forget. You survived.
Pain of losing whatever you valued. No, it was not perfect what you had. Yes, it was already on fragile foundations…but you held it up, and you held on tight and one September it was swept away. You survived.
Lord Ganesh is setting off to his watery end and your flowering plant has finally bloomed on a sunny September day. You delightedly examine the white little star like flowers that are stretching out to say hello to the morning sun and then suddenly you get a call about a car crash. A loss of a cherished guardian…you weep, you grieve, and years pass. You survived.
Another bright September morning in Santa Clara, the TV beamed pictures of the Twin Towers collapsing. Death, anguish, destruction and those who watched also began breaking into pieces becoming one with the bricks, mortar, and melted steel. You survived.
For those who survive, what survives along with them is the pain. However much you tell yourself and others that what counts are the happy memories, along with the happy memories come the sad, bad and mean ones too. Forgetting is what you can add as the 13th labor for Hercules—cleaning out the Augean Stables was probably easier.
You survived so that you may see many more Septembers—all sides of it—the birthdays, the world cup, the end of term fun after one finally gets over the report card, and the fact that it heralds the arrival of October—the Devi's time to be celebrated. Here's to life! Here's to how it must go on...for those of us who are its survivors!
