The perfect life.......

Brother and I..
Used to be sent to junior school...
In a hand-pulled rickshaw.....

As we went over the first big bridge in Chetpet...
We would see...

A man wearing a hat...
Sitting on a bench...
Under the shade of a tree....
On the island.....
In the middle of Chetpet lake....
Angling for fish...
And watching the world go by.....

He was...
Insulated from the hustle and bustle...
Of everyday routine...
Free of the fear of going to school...
With homework half done...
To face an irate school teacher!!!

Free of office!!!
Free of all forms of organizational slavery!!!!

I envied him so much!!!
This lone angler...
Who seemed to be living the perfect life!!!
Hey!...I could aspire to be something like this!!!

I was therefore pleasantly surprised when Surrogate Mother's spouse..
Said he too had envied someone...
In almost the same manner!!

Years ago..
He would drop Surrogate Mother off at her clinic...
A middle-aged man lived opposite...
He would sit at his doorway...
On his easy-chair....
Reading a newspaper and glancing up at the world going by....
Much to the envy of SM's spouse...
Who had to trudge off to an office job he never really cared about!!!

I wonder if all of us have someone...
Whom we saw..
As leading a charmed existence!!!
The Huck Finns of the world....
Who had opted out...
And watched as a crazy world ....
Rushed by!!!!

Cheers then!!!