A Safar(suffer) to remember....!

“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