A Day- A story

I was on my way by train to the Bangalore City. The day was fine. Eagerly awaiting my arrival at home and bringing home pictures in my mid. At last I was free from the cage….I was alone post Bangalore Cantonment. Reached for the subway and arrived at the bus station. My throat was dry. It would be a log journey. Pleasantly a couple attracted my attention in the BIAL bus.Ashish Rai … I saw the name on the file on his lap. He was talking to a lady who probably thought that she was the prettiest woman in the world. Dressed in a pink kurta Patiala she wore matching ornaments to give her that pinkish effect which men secretly crave for.The man, Ashish went to the front of the bus and secretly watched the girl on the rear view mirror. What chemistry!!! Each one trying to impress the other by their outlook. How much of genuine interaction worked under the veneer of their best outfits, I wonder.A model or so thought was the next inmate. She had fat but she had stylishly covered it with her comely outfit and her dark hair. Sidney Sheldon initially could not attract her attention initially, but later succeeded, courtesy Ashish and the other lady.I had a notion that all airhostesses crave to be a zero-size Mallaika or a Kareena but the one who came and sat beside the unfortunate me was a Tuntun, A Premnath or you can say a Lady Hippo. She eyed-the other with a dispassionate look as if she is fed up controlling her diet. But the other seemed to be unconcerned. Half the way a lady – fair dignified and well-to-do boarded the bus with her pretty daughter a replica of her, probably in her teens who immediately got glued to the Ashish couple.I was deeply impressed by the calmness, the serenity that spread across the girl’s face. She was like an angel (who knows).After I left the bus and headed towards the airport once again the thought that it was a long journey, gripped me. My stomach begged for food when the security check begged for the blades I had despised to handover. My nails are attached to the skin and the nail-cutter bites. I had no way to explain and tried my attention on a savory pulihora that a lady was meticulously relishing. Waiting is a test created by God to help man take His name at least once desperately. And waiting also creates the passion to go to a different plane where there is no time and distance.When I boarded the flight I secretly craved for food. On request after 45 minutes or so I found myself cold samosas with mushroom cashew and kishmish, cookies and a can of Pineapple Orange Juice.The lady next to me appeared to be a one-month bride dressed in a cardigan and sari and I felt good looking at a Bengali. I was so starved caged imprisoned aloofer cut-out from my home that I little realized that my choice had actually cut me out from my soil and my people.Jobs can be so hard on you eh!!!When I alighted on the Kolkata soil, I felt a terrible urge to go home. God’s test saw my patience winning over the traffic jam, the rain, the strangeness everywhere amongst familiarity, amidst aloofness of the conductor but a cordial approach from the bus driver, amidst waiting in the line despite mass disgust among the others over the two ladies seated at the counter deliberately delaying our tickets for the sake of passengers who had to board the last bus to Asansol.By 8:10 I arrived at the bus stand only to see that my sister had not arrived and in the fertile soil of my mother’s approach, her glance, hr touch, her look and everything that a mother can mean, I came up with a casual outburst. All the time feeling good that I was at home, back to my mother. My anger held no emotion but restlessness piled up for the last 4 months and the uncountable seconds of anguish for deliberately pushing me into the cage and not being able to come out. It ventilated in a different way when my sister approached.

Never did I feel that loneliness devoid of certain comforts can make me face the other side of me. Me who love solitude so so much. Me, who love space and have it. It’s only on thing—Nature that I miss and it’s touch ……