A Day In The Life

One day I am going to record the sounds that start and end my day. Beginning with sometimes birds twittering in the tree next to my bedroom window. The sounds of a radio being tuned by the dhobi who's positioned himself next to our building. People jostling near the water hydrant. The swish-swish of my maid doing a quick sweep and mop. The gentle whizz of the juicer. The sounds of breakfast being cooked. The rustling of the newspaper. The pitter-patter of the shower. The slamming of car doors. The cacophony of traffic. Phonecalls, pagers, intercoms, people, gentle clickety-clack of keyboards (sometimes), droning of voices, hum of airconditioners, the whooshes of coffee machines, punctuated twice or thrice by the azaan. Traffic again but this time a little gentler. The jangling strident calls of my cellphone. Television. Then, silence again.

And through it all, what I long to hear is this - the gentle lapping of tiny waves and the slap-slap of the water in the canals as vaparetto(s?) speed through or gondolas cut through. The sometimes raucous laughs of loud, Italian women, tourists for who this is the vacation of a lifetime (Who am I to say a thing? I keep posting these sorry pics on my blog) and the laughs, the fights and talk of people, who they say contribute in sinking this city a little more each year.