This happened last week and it took me 7 days to decide if I
should write on this or not. I was standing on the entrance of Kurla railway
station waiting for my colleagues to join me for a weekend bash at a resort
near Mumbai. They told me to wait for half an hour and with my current looks,
there was no way somebody would have missed seeing me guard the entrance of the
railway station.
The train to Panvel arrived and to my left were the
staircases with people gushing on to them in millions, atleast it looked like
that number. Being a claustrophobic, I was trying my best to avoid looking at
the crowd but something caught my eye, I saw a young couple walking hand in
hand wearing sunglasses. Like I normally do, I told myself, these kids really
need to find a better meaning to life than wearing sunglasses and walking hand
in hand. They were measuring each step properly and took sometime to finish the
staircases. They were the only 2 people who were really not bothered about the
crowd, afternoon heat, noise of the train and vendors running with their
products. Also, they were the only 2 people who really didn't bother to give
attention to a giant human king kong standing right in front of them. Even
though, I was staring at them for quite sometime now.
The moment they got to the end of the stairs, they moved to
the extreme left and just before sitting, they checked if they were in the way
of anyone moving up or down on the stairs. However, I couldn't understand that
even after seeing so many people rush towards them on the same side of the
stairs where they were sitting, they didn't move a bit. Gradually the crowd
rush reduced and the couple also got up and took a couple of steps and came
pretty close to me. I was already intrigued with the entire scene that I had seen.
I was listening to the song maine dil de kaha dhoond lana
khushi on repeat for last 1 hour. I removed my headphones and I stood there,
still gazing at them, when suddenly the guy asked to probably anyone who could
hear him, "Where is the ticket window". I was not aware of it as I wasn’t
a regular local train traveller and moreover, they were 2, so I was pretty sure
that they will figure it out. After he asked the same question 3-4 times and
when no one responded, the couple took out 2 small sticks and with a brisk open
up action they opened them. I was shocked. For a moment, I felt as if I was
frozen, as if somebody just hit me hard on my chest with his fist. Those were
not sunglasses; those were not sunglasses... is all I could tell myself. They
were not walking hand in hand; they were just helping each other walk.
Till the time they got lost in the crowd, I stared at them
with the same bedazzled thought that those were not sunglasses. I hung my head
for a moment, cursed myself a bit as I realised it was me who needed to find
better meaning in my own life than just judging people by what I see them
doing. I also wondered if they were real people or I just saw my own
reflection. I slowly took out my earphone from my pocket and pressed the play
button and the same song continued with the perfect verse for that moment...
Kabhi hai ishq ka ujaala Kabhi hai maut ka andhera, Bataao kaun bhes hoga Main
jogi banu ya lutera, Kayi chehre hai is dil ke Na jaane kaunsa mera...
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