Returned from the Kala Ghoda Festival yesterday evening, exhausted and contented. Listened to Lata heavenly rendering of Ghalib followed by Asha, the queen bee, crooning ` Meraj-e- Ghazal’ in her usual seductive and honeyed voice on my return flight. I used to listen her bewitching ` Heraito ke silsile’ when I used to commute to Navasari by the Ahmedabad Passenger on my walkman for years. The song still spoke for me. Has the song changed? Has the listener changed? From thousands of feet above sea level, the megacities of Mumbai, Surat and Vadodara looked like jewels studded necklace on an empress.
I flew after a long time. My earlier experience of flying was in 2000 when I visited the UK for a conference. The trip, of course, was fun and the sight of mountains slouching like herd of dinosaurs was exciting. The hateful venonmous clouds of pollutions hanging over the star studded cities was not exactly a pleasant site.