The building next door

I’d noticed the name before

on the building next door

though only in passing.

Do you pause anymore

when you come across a building

named after a popular icon?

Neither do I.

And this one was inside Police Officers’ Colony!

And so it came to be

that here I’ve been living

without a clue.

Until last week when I visited someone who lives in it.

At the entrance

I found a bust

bearing his name!

So I asked.

Oh yes, said she.

This plot of land belonged to him,

as did the building.

When he died,

his family distributed the apartments

among his crew.

This one belonged to his still photographer.

There it was then.

He died before the building was even finished,

and he certainly never lived in it.

But if he owned it, surely he must have come here,

walked the same earth?

That thought was enough to fill my heart

with a child like glee!

I glided home,

imagining that time in the long lost past

when Guru Dutt may have walked the same path.