It was 11.30 am, Friday, and the Delhi Metro had a considerably shrunken crowd, which was a little hard to gulp! Frowning at the sight, I scratched my head and tried to recall the date, which was 22nd of July, so it certainly wasn’t a public holiday, nor did any bomb blasts happen in Delhi lately, for I definitely couldn’t have missed it in the news, and the cricket fever too had long rested in peace. Now the big question was that where the bushels of people travelling via metro disappeared. While I was boggling my mind with these options, my blackberry buzzed. It was Guru on the line.
“Kahan hai be sale? Kabhi to time pe pohonch jaya karo!” babbled Guru.
“Abe kamine tu kahan se time pe pohonch gaya aaj?! Finally tere gharwalo ne tuje laat mar di.. hain!”
“han be… unhe pata chal gaya ke main tere bacche ki ma banne wala hun!! Ab to tu hi mera sahara hai prannath. Jaldi aao main apki rah tak raha hun” mocked Guru.
“Abe dhokebaz ! itna kuch pet main hai, ek choti si bat aur nahi rakh sakta tha. Tuje to main a ke batata hun! Chal the train is here and I’ll be there in 20 min. Tab tak mere bacche ka khayal rakhiyo mere bacche ki amma.” Both of us disconnected the call, laughing.
I got inside and, making my way through the people, got to my favorite place, the joining place of the coaches. I had barely settled down when a piercing heel drilled my toe. On top of that, its owner threw a sorry to me the way someone throws alms in a beggar’s saucer! I was left in excruciating pain and a severe abhorrence for heels. Luckily, I got a seat and rested my foot. I switched on my I-pod to switch out of the trance of pain and let go. I had closed my eyes, when I felt a resettlement in my adjacent space. So I had to open my eyes, give my adjoining seat holder a ‘one more push from your elbow and I’ll throw you down’ look, and got back into my pose.
However, it was that last vision that my retina captured, when I straightened my face before shutting my eyes again, which required me to behold the view again.
And that was the first time I saw her.
She was sitting right in front of me engrossed in her mobile when she suddenly lifted her eyelids blinked at me, pursed her lips thoughtfully, nodded as if she approved of something and then returned to her cell. In that short fragment of time she had passed on a part of her confusion to me. I was no longer a stranger for her for she had made me acquainted with a habit of hers!
I kept looking at her, waiting for I don’t what, while my I-pod strung my feelings into a melody, as the song said, “How did you know… I needed someone in my life… that there’s an empty space in my heart… you came at the right time in my life…”
I won’t tell you what happened afterwards. Whether I spoke to her or I didn’t; whether I met her or I lost her; or are we together or not, since it’s not about me or my life or me meeting her. In fact, it’s about those empty spaces that each one of us has in our hearts. The spaces that even we are ignorant of; and which remain so until we come across that one special person, who is like that lost piece of our lives’ puzzle, which when found, completes our existence.
Their departure may be fated but their arrival is pre-destined!
-i_duft
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