Wednesday, June 04, 2008

vanity on a saturday morning

it was morning on saturday and i was sweating away on the treadmill. like in most gyms the machines face outwards towards the windows and during my 15 minutes walking my reflection had turned into a silhouette as the sun came up and lit the street outside. my t-shirt and fabindia trousers to a fading outline through which i could see the street below and a truck collecting the debris of the demolished beauty parlor on the ground floor. as i moved from the treadmill to the stepper climbing artificial floors for my ‘lower body’, a young man’s muscles rippled in the morning light as he carried concrete and brick debris and piled it into the waiting truck. as he sifted through the garbage he found a fragment of a mirror that stayed the rhythm of his work. he dropped the pickaxe and picked the mirror and preened in front of his reflection- the smile, the profile, the biceps. and i kept climbing stairs to nowhere.

1 comment:

Mampi said...

Beautiful expression and an amazing reflection you put up. Your other posts (yes I went thru some) went over my head cos they had more to do with your profession. However, this one was closer to my life too.