“This seat is empty.
Aap yahan baith sakti hai”, I said to her. With a beaming smile, she came & sat next
to me. “Aap poona ki ho?” under the pretext of being able to
make friends easily, I replied “Haan,
main yahan pichle 12 saalon se reh rahi hun”.
In the next 3 minutes, I had come to know about her brief profile….her job, her
college, her qualifications, where she stayed, how she traveled within the city
and why she was heading to the same destination as mine. A lot of information
to process in 3 minutes, but I seemed to keep pace :p
Exactly 3 minutes earlier, in the fear of missing the bus,
this 5 feet figure came bustling in through the door. Little had I known,
that the next 3 hours of my journey, were going to be quite ‘ironically’ entertaining.
Panting slightly she scanned every seat (probably finding a ‘lady’ passenger)…..and
finally found me…..sitting there defenseless....unaware of the torment I had
invited unto myself. It seemed karmic,
like there was a purpose as to why this seemingly inconsequential journey of
mine was meant to be spent with HER……………………….
As we began our journey, I came to know that she was going
to get married very soon. The glow was pretty evident (she showed me the
wedding ‘footwear’ which her fiancée had bought for her just a few hours back…her
diamond studded engagement ring….and most importantly because the word fiancée kept repeating after every 5
words). She kept rambling about her would be family. She was copiously pouring
her heart out. Most of it was incomprehensible to my already tired mind. But
she was outlandishly putting her faith in me. Her incessant chatter,
had an uncanny confidence, which said ‘what
I speak might sound insignificant and extraneous to you, but it’s important to
me. Too bad, you have to listen’. After discerning that there was no
escape from the situation, I made feeble attempts of feigning sleep. But alas
! instead I was victimized yet again, with a more powerful weapon this
time….pictures…..!
For the next 15-20 mins, with minimalistic interest, I kept
appreciating her photographs (obviously each one had her fiancée in it). But oblivious to all of this, her unfailing
perseverance was something I could not overlook. Her insistence on inviting me
to her wedding was the pinnacle of it all…...I mean who invites a person to your
wedding, whom you’ve known only for the past 1 hour??
The rest of the journey was pretty much a similar story,
with bouts of irritation and boredom mixed with wonder and surprise from my
end…she ridiculously kept divulging information that was distinctly
insignificant to me, and I kept ridiculously listening to it (with occasional
‘hmmms’ and a few philosophical inputs here and there). And then she said,
“Aapke saath safar kaisa raha, pata hi nahi chala. Aap hamari shaadi mein
jaroor aaiye”. What??The ‘safaring’ was over for me? Was I free from her
clutches? As I got down the bus, she waved me a radiant goodbye….and then it
came pouncing on me….like a blow in the face….an apparent realization of
sorts…...the guilty pang….!
Why a stranger seems so familiar sometimes, that you would
not mind sharing your life’s story with them…why people who wear their
heart on their sleeve, are always ridiculed….why couldn’t I be as welcoming as she
was….I felt sorry for being mean to her (even as I write this post) :-p
Embarrassed with that thought, I said goodbye too…and
genuinely wished her a Happy Married Life…I might not meet her ever again…we’ve
gotten along with our respective lives….but it seems her memory will be etched
in my mind forever…It is said every person that comes in our life has some
purpose….you learn from every experience you have with people….the truism
continues with every new day……but what exactly was HER purpose in my life? why does this incident seem momentous? Will
I have the answer to that? Or should I just find out by attending her wedding
:-p
PS : All of the above is one hundred percent TRUE STORY. Any
resemblance to any character (definitely alive), is purely intentional. This
girl does exist in true life. In fact there are many like her :-) fortunately I have
only 1 wedding to attend for now :-p
