I was returning from a typical day at office, which means I was in a terrible mood. Even today, like always, I left office at 11PM even though I had planned to leave around 6.30PM which is our usual office EOD ( End of Day). Only difference today was that I was heading to the railway station than home. Here I am speeding through the highway, concentrating on the time on my wrist and the road at the same. The train is due any minute and I still am around 10km away from the station. Taking into account the stories you hear these days, its not safe to leave girls at railway station even for a min. My sister is on her way back from her college trip from ..hmm..cant remember the places. Damn ,all I can think of is the last call I had at office. I often think how people manage to keep the office related thoughts back at office. Now I should say I am concentrating on the road, the time and the work! Crap!..I should say this is so not advisable since I nearly ran into an old woman, two dogs, a chat wala and a thing or person, couldn’t really see what , considering the speed I was going. Well so as I was saying, my lil sis is returning from her trip and I so wanted to be there to receive her. After it seemed like hours I finally reached the station, only to find out that the stupid train was an hour late. Yeah why didn’t I realize that Indian Railways always keep up our expections!.. In my past “venture” with railways, I have never come across any train that has either come early or on time! Should really appreciate the great work the Indian Railways is doing to make our lives simpler!
So Here I am at the railway station in the waiting lobby, all annoyed and frustrated, did I say hungry? Yeah that too . The fact that jaundice is spreading at a high rate, I didn’t trust myself eating from the local shops here. So I waited. Meanwhile, I had rang my sis, who said she was fine and was still having fun ( I assumed this from the noise I could hear in the background). Sigh! Now what do I do the next one hour!? Well I started my usual hobby when I am sitting idle in a public place. I usually start scanning the people around and try figuring out how their life would be. Yeah yeah..i know how stupid it sounds, well try it once you never know how fast the time flies!
So the first person I focused on , I should say my first victim, was a foreigner who had her eyes closed and had huge headphones covering her ears. From my perspective she looked like a typical foreigner who would spend all they have in their homeland and come to India to explore life. She was wearing the “Om” T Shirt which said “Peace is You”. Ha ha..yeah right Peace is me! Hmm Coming back to the lady, lets call her Michelle for now. Michelle had her eyes closed and from her expression I could see that she was very well enjoying what she was listening to. She had a pleasant, “atlast found nirvana” smile on her. Usually I keep a person in focus only for 5minutes maximum. But this time I so couldn’t help looking at her not cause of the way she was looking but for that amazing smile. I mean, to tell you the truth, you could say no one will look at her twice, but that smile made all the difference. Sigh! I wish I could smile like that, the smile that comes from deep within, the smile that says peace is you! (ha ha yeah ..I cant imagine, I am actually saying that quote!) For a moment I had this huge urge to go ask her what she exactly was listening to, cause she seemed so engrossed in whatever it was. I knew she wasn’t asleep since she kept moving her head as though moving to the beat of the song. Being a main railway station of the city, it had trains coming and going every minute or so. I wondered if she could hear above all these annoying train whistles or sirens..what do you call them?! Oh there I go again, I cant remember this too..or I should just admit that I don’t know. :D he he.. Well I need to tell you this or I am guessing you already must have figured out, there are two things I keep doing often one that I keep going out of the topic , two I keep forgetting what I need to remember. Hmm ..well so back to point “Michelle”. I realized that she had stopped moving her head and was slowing opening her eyes. Well I should say she had awesome blue eyes which suddenly were looking at me. Without thinking twice I looked away, not wanting to let her know I was staring at her. At that moment I realized that one train had already pulled into the station, and people were rushing out to the Railway entrance. Michelle too started to get up and something caught my eye, which even now I really find it hard to believe, the headphones she had in her ears was not connected to any device!! I couldn’t help staring at her again because at that time a train was passing by and she had the same old smile and her head started to move like it did earlier! Right..just like what your thinking I thought she was one of those poor foreigners who lost mind by losing all their money by “exploring” the streets of india! Hmm now here is the twist, our “ michelle” was talking to a cute looking guy whom I will call Kevin :D ..I should say she wasn’t exactly talking but enacting something to “Kevin”. And he does the same back! :O I cant believe this is happening, I just happen to find one cute guy in the whole of the station to look at and he is enacting in the centre of a public place!! Ha ha “Nice” ( sarcastic one!) I said to myself! Have I mentioned it to you that I am lil slow on things when I have too many things in my head? Well.. I am saying it now.. When I have too many things in my head ( which is like always) I tend to overlook things which are right in front of me. It just struck me that michelle, the lady whom I was trying to figure out , was “hearing impaired” or in more simpler words deaf ! :O I couldn’t make out whether “Kevin” was too, but michelle definetly was..and the music she was listening to ,wasn’t any hip hop or nirvana mantra! It was the vibrations the trains made as it moved!! I just stood there staring at the couple, and I would have done for a long time if my sis hadn’t pulled my hand then! As I walked back to the car, millions of thoughts rushed by me and i definitely couldn’t forget that god sent smile she had on her face. There she was ,not able to hear the world around her and yet smiles as if she could hear things beyond this world! A while back I had spoken about her sanity! I should say its our sanity that’s being questioned here since its people like us who forces people like her to hide behind the headphones. In our world if person out of nowhere did what she was doing (without the headphones) we would really wonder if she was out of her mind!
So in the end of it all if you asked me what I learned from this incident..I know you would probably expect me to say stuffs like, she opened my mind to a greater reality, or that I should be counting my blessings! But I Would rather say “Nothing”! I just went back to my normal life and my typical day of work the next day. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sensitive alright! It’s just that as long as I keep hearing our annoying real world (that’s filled with more negative energy than positive), I seriously don’t think I can get Michelle’s smile on me! :)
And someday if I ever do, you could definitely conclude that I found the peace is me ! lol!
So Here I am at the railway station in the waiting lobby, all annoyed and frustrated, did I say hungry? Yeah that too . The fact that jaundice is spreading at a high rate, I didn’t trust myself eating from the local shops here. So I waited. Meanwhile, I had rang my sis, who said she was fine and was still having fun ( I assumed this from the noise I could hear in the background). Sigh! Now what do I do the next one hour!? Well I started my usual hobby when I am sitting idle in a public place. I usually start scanning the people around and try figuring out how their life would be. Yeah yeah..i know how stupid it sounds, well try it once you never know how fast the time flies!
So the first person I focused on , I should say my first victim, was a foreigner who had her eyes closed and had huge headphones covering her ears. From my perspective she looked like a typical foreigner who would spend all they have in their homeland and come to India to explore life. She was wearing the “Om” T Shirt which said “Peace is You”. Ha ha..yeah right Peace is me! Hmm Coming back to the lady, lets call her Michelle for now. Michelle had her eyes closed and from her expression I could see that she was very well enjoying what she was listening to. She had a pleasant, “atlast found nirvana” smile on her. Usually I keep a person in focus only for 5minutes maximum. But this time I so couldn’t help looking at her not cause of the way she was looking but for that amazing smile. I mean, to tell you the truth, you could say no one will look at her twice, but that smile made all the difference. Sigh! I wish I could smile like that, the smile that comes from deep within, the smile that says peace is you! (ha ha yeah ..I cant imagine, I am actually saying that quote!) For a moment I had this huge urge to go ask her what she exactly was listening to, cause she seemed so engrossed in whatever it was. I knew she wasn’t asleep since she kept moving her head as though moving to the beat of the song. Being a main railway station of the city, it had trains coming and going every minute or so. I wondered if she could hear above all these annoying train whistles or sirens..what do you call them?! Oh there I go again, I cant remember this too..or I should just admit that I don’t know. :D he he.. Well I need to tell you this or I am guessing you already must have figured out, there are two things I keep doing often one that I keep going out of the topic , two I keep forgetting what I need to remember. Hmm ..well so back to point “Michelle”. I realized that she had stopped moving her head and was slowing opening her eyes. Well I should say she had awesome blue eyes which suddenly were looking at me. Without thinking twice I looked away, not wanting to let her know I was staring at her. At that moment I realized that one train had already pulled into the station, and people were rushing out to the Railway entrance. Michelle too started to get up and something caught my eye, which even now I really find it hard to believe, the headphones she had in her ears was not connected to any device!! I couldn’t help staring at her again because at that time a train was passing by and she had the same old smile and her head started to move like it did earlier! Right..just like what your thinking I thought she was one of those poor foreigners who lost mind by losing all their money by “exploring” the streets of india! Hmm now here is the twist, our “ michelle” was talking to a cute looking guy whom I will call Kevin :D ..I should say she wasn’t exactly talking but enacting something to “Kevin”. And he does the same back! :O I cant believe this is happening, I just happen to find one cute guy in the whole of the station to look at and he is enacting in the centre of a public place!! Ha ha “Nice” ( sarcastic one!) I said to myself! Have I mentioned it to you that I am lil slow on things when I have too many things in my head? Well.. I am saying it now.. When I have too many things in my head ( which is like always) I tend to overlook things which are right in front of me. It just struck me that michelle, the lady whom I was trying to figure out , was “hearing impaired” or in more simpler words deaf ! :O I couldn’t make out whether “Kevin” was too, but michelle definetly was..and the music she was listening to ,wasn’t any hip hop or nirvana mantra! It was the vibrations the trains made as it moved!! I just stood there staring at the couple, and I would have done for a long time if my sis hadn’t pulled my hand then! As I walked back to the car, millions of thoughts rushed by me and i definitely couldn’t forget that god sent smile she had on her face. There she was ,not able to hear the world around her and yet smiles as if she could hear things beyond this world! A while back I had spoken about her sanity! I should say its our sanity that’s being questioned here since its people like us who forces people like her to hide behind the headphones. In our world if person out of nowhere did what she was doing (without the headphones) we would really wonder if she was out of her mind!
So in the end of it all if you asked me what I learned from this incident..I know you would probably expect me to say stuffs like, she opened my mind to a greater reality, or that I should be counting my blessings! But I Would rather say “Nothing”! I just went back to my normal life and my typical day of work the next day. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sensitive alright! It’s just that as long as I keep hearing our annoying real world (that’s filled with more negative energy than positive), I seriously don’t think I can get Michelle’s smile on me! :)
And someday if I ever do, you could definitely conclude that I found the peace is me ! lol!
Note: Thanks to the Soundtrack (hindi) movie for the inspiration to write this! :)
