By Raj Lalwani, TwoCircles.net
I was walking along the road outside Andheri station, when I saw Mustafa, a young man who has secured his first job, I later learnt, as a door-to-door salesperson. He was standing on the train platform in this odd, characteristic manner and for an entire minute, while I waited for cars to go past before I could cross over to his side, he seemed to hold the pose. An exchanged glance told me that he didn’t mind being photographed, and curiously enough, was almost like a willing model—holding the pose for a lot longer. As I went over to show him the picture, he sighed and said that he was tired and bored, waiting for the time he could break his fast. A long one and a half hour journey from Panvel, a distant suburb in Navi Mumbai, had brought him to Andheri and he wanted to observe iftar before he would take to a forty-five minute bus ride, to meet his next client. Surviving in this city is a lot about waiting, he told me, and that’s when time seems to be at its slowest.