St. Petersburg Road

There it stands, with its chimneys pointing due heaven

With the Russian flag amast.

With its sailors looking upon those on the pier

Uncertain of their future and yet, holding tight to their past.

It begins its journey with a bellow of certainty and valour

With all its crew aboard

And as the ship vanishes into the freezing fog

I walk back down St. Petersburg road.

I was sitting one fine winter evening on the big fat living room couch, all snuggled up, surfing TV channels. I happened to stumble across a movie called ‘Holiday’ (the Hindi remake of the Tamil and Telugu ‘Thupakki’) and a show on History channel about something related to Russia. Odd combination, though. Anyway, the movie was ending and I caught the scene where Akshay Kumar was bidding farewell to his family from the train as were many other army men. I won’t go into the main cast’s acting (and with good intention!). But what caught my eye was the precise depiction of the pain and sense of nostalgia that our soldiers and their families go through once in every 4 to 6 months. That’s why I penned down this poem.

Most of us take certain things for granted- as day scholars, we see our parents every day, and we fight with our siblings every day. We sometimes take our mom’s food for granted- there are times, when we are brave enough to let her effort go to garbage. I’m not saying we all do that; I’m sure that we aren’t the kids we once were and that we don’t waste food now. But we aren’t perfect. In fact, we are far from it. It struck me that as people, we need to be more appreciative of what we have, than what we don’t. If we compare ourselves with those who have everything in life, then things always seem sunny side down. But one look at soldiers and sailors, like those in the poem- “uncertain of their future, holding tight to their past”- our day seems so much brighter. My point is that everyone gets everything in life. In the end, what matters isn’t what we don’t get- it’s how we see what we have gotten. Be positive, people! We could all do with a bit more of that! Cheers!