Salim Reshamwala

Unlike proper bridges, tuins are much more fragile and riskier.

You have to literally hang in a wire to get across.

Your chances of making it across are equal to the chances of you falling down into the river.

It is an immensely risky journey.

But being aware of death, being close to it as you move through a commute or a journey, for Mukharun, that doesn't need to lead to a life of fear or cynicism.

It exists in that great uncertainty.

One needs to get across that uncertain journey of life.

It is a poem about uncertainty, not about fatalism.

If I reach across, I will see the world.

So aside from the danger, why are these crossings filled with so much emotion?

The crossing of the bridge marks an episode of sadness and tragedy.

As the person leaves far abroad, he leaves behind sadness and uncertainty to their beloved, their kins, and their neighbors.

They might die in the distant land and never come back.

They might forget the homeland and make families in the strange land.

Had there been no bridges and the villages remained isolated, maybe the person would never have left.

On the other side, some person returns back after working abroad for a long time and also crosses the bridge.

In this, the bridge becomes a symbol of his journey, of that full circle.

The bridge would be the final thing to support the person complete his long journey back home.

Here's Gaurav Subba to help keep that scale in perspective.

This suspension will not take you from Long Beach to Manhattan, but it might, if you take a step, take you from your past to what's happening.