City Lights

As a part of my “duty”, I have to go to each girl’s room in my hostel and take attendance. When I do that every week, I spend the longest time on the 11th floor.  That’s because I can see the lights of the city from that floor.

I love city lights. I love standing on over head bridges and looking at cars with bright headlights coming towards me and going away from me. I love looking at far away buildings that are matchbox-like HDB buildings by the day but turn into what look like a thousand chandeliers by the night. Everything looks different. Just different.

Sometimes when I am up late rushing a report or a proposal for the next day, I stop for a few minutes, stand next to my window and watch the traffic lights go red from green and back to red. Perfectly on time, unaffected by the absence of any traffic on the road. Sometimes I try to find a melody in the relentless switching of traffic lights, I try to imagine a certain song that the world might be trying to set itself to.

I like that silence. That is one moment when my brain switches off and forgets all the pending lab reports and tutorials, proposals and student testimonials, tickets to sell and next rehearsal dates. I think it’s good to blank out your brain sometimes. It brings me calm and makes me realize the value of silence in my otherwise chaotic and over-worked life.