The Marwari Horse

At one o’clock Sushmita picked up her sandwich box and headed out of her office for lunch with the rest of London. It was overcast but the temperature was pleasant - like a mid-winter’s day in Mumbai.

She had been in London for almost a year now and had never been to Marble Arch. The guide book which now sat under a pile of tee-shirts in her one bedroom apartment, had said it was a ‘must see.’ But standing under the smoke stained archway the original entrance to Buckingham Palace did not look as spectacular as she had imagined.  A flicker of green caught her eye as she gazed through the archway. Sushmita walked towards it.  

She instantly recognised the twisted ears of the Marwari horse. ‘To keep the desert sand out’ she whispered under her breath. Sushmita smiled as she walked around the sculpture. Reaching out to feel the cool bronze under her fingers she then sat on the grass beside it.

Taking out the sandwiches from her bag, she looked up at the six tonne Marwari horse. It reminded her of home; of her days in school and her study of the Moghuls, Maharajas and warriors of feudal India. A little piece of Indian heritage in London she thought as she closed her eyes and took her first bite. In that moment she was home. 

But the thing about remembering is that you don't forget.
~ Tim O'Brien

About the photo: You know when you have spent the night awake, chatting and laughing, and the next morning when you are half awake, half asleep, and the sun is streaming down on a crisp winter's morning...everything seems to inspire you. This was one such occasion at Marble Arch in January.