Sax in a BJ-20 night

The house abuts an intersection of streets on the back-lanes of Bhubaneswar . There is no insurance against street noise in India unless you live in a cozy gated community with rules that are strictly followed. Back-lanes are no exception . They in fact encourage people to honk in a single long refrain as they skip their vehicles across blind alleys . The noise is deafening .

It's like a sea though . The traffic ebbs and flows . I decided to test it with a spot of jazz on the balcony facing the streets.The night was inky and a tad smoky with the monsoon rains having just finished up their job of cleaning up the alleys including the street lights !The strains of sax and doleful piano notes fought to reach higher than the persistent honking , shouting and intermittent howling from the  dogs below . Just when I reached out in exasperation to switch it off it happened ...

Everything went quiet for a moment . The alleyways were no longer home to fireflies of vehicle lights . The dogs went quiet and the people on the streets decided to give their lungs a rest . Magic hour ! Sax reigned supreme for a minute . A soulful tribute to the spirit of the night as the notes rose up into the smoky sky .And for a for a minute the flickering moon was just that bit brighter and the darkness a comfortable velvet shroud to snuggle into and sigh ...