A new metro station is about to be constructed in my area, just near my child's kindergarten. I get to see the construction workers toiling in the hot sun every day while dropping my kid in school. I feel some strange affinity with them as some belong to my country and others to a neighboring country. Some days, I see them being shouted at by their boss in a foreign language. Apparently, they are not able to understand the language as their boss is an immigrant too, from another country. But, their faces shrivel as they look around. A few days later, I see them spreading their lunch boxes in the ground. Their boss is eating too, some distance away, with a faraway look on his eyes. All of a sudden, there is a drizzle and a fresh fragrance of wet mud. All of us look up with a smile. Perhaps, there is hope in life after all.

 

Partially constructed

an immigrant panting

behind each brick