Stories At Uninteresting Places

The most interesting stories are found at the most uninteresting places. I have experienced some stirring stories at places, anybody would least expect for. Obviously, the stories I call interesting is rather a taste of personal choice, a choice of terms that defines the word “interesting”. For most people, however, these stories can just be another thing, but I find a great recipe of inspiration and motivation; if not anything else, at least I come to know of a different aspect that coexists with us and is, to a certain extent, veiled from us.

Every time I try not to think anything serious, I discover myself thinking “actual” serious stuff. Well, the stuff I refer as serious is sometimes termed as philosophical by some. I do not know what that is exactly but if small pretty things are thought of as philosophy, yes, I would call myself a philosopher. But, as I understand, philosophers are people who just think. I mean their only job is to think. On the contrary, thinking is not my job; nor do I have the leisure to do so. But, I would not deny the fact that I do think sometimes, not because I want to, but it just comes. Such thinking landed me on two such stories that I least thought of. Here go the stories in a nutshell.

Story 1

In one of the busy roads that I know of, there stands a little temple of a goddess. It’s a pretty small temple. I have, till date, never seen anybody opening the doors of that temple and offering prayers, but, every day the temple receives fresh flowers. The goddess is festooned with fresh flowers as well. Just outside the small temple, sits an old lady who sells flowers. I doubt if anybody would have noticed her there and if anybody would have given some attention in that direction, it could have been because of the beautiful flowers she sells. Be it any weather, any part of the day, she would sit there unperturbed by everything but just her flowers. I daresay she perhaps has never bothered to see what happens on the busy junctions and roads around the place she has stationed herself. She just keeps her eyes on the flowers, for that is the only reason, perhaps, she sits there. It was almost a routine for me to see her near that temple. It was just like a part of a chore for me. I perhaps could never have imagined that place sans her presence. But, a day came when I had to.

When I couldn’t see her that day, I thought maybe she’s camouflaged herself with the temple. After some moments of intense gazing, I made myself believe that she is actually not there today. I wondered what could have happened but in the due course of the day, the thought faded away. She wasn't there the next day either, and the next day too and some more days following them. Every day, I just hoped she would show up again but she did not. Every time I passed that part of the temple, I missed her presence. The first week of her absence made me apprehensive but as the days of her absence rolled to over a week, the apprehensions changed to concerns and slowly into worries. Yes, I was worried about her, but she wasn't even an acquaintance for me, still there was a kind of connection that made me bother of her absence.

After some 14-15 days, she suddenly appeared in that place outside the temple. I saw her again. Her presence after so many days had almost the same effect as her sudden disappearance had on me; I couldn't easily believe she was there. I was happy, well, not exactly happy; I was more of relieved and was at ease. I wanted to ask her if she was alright but, was that sort of question expected from a stranger to another. Of all the things, she was a stranger to me and so was I to her. I decided not to go there and went on for my day’s work. But for some part of the day, I kept wondering what could have happened. Why was she not there for almost a fortnight and if everything is at place? 

That day, when returning from work, I went near her. I had never thought of it but as a reflex sort of action, I went and asked her the cost of a flower she had. She looked up, smiled and quoted the price. Her smile was a gesture of greeting a customer who has come to buy the flowers she sold, but her smile was actually more than that. It conveyed a sense of happiness, a sense of elation with glimpses and hints of some unspoken things that stayed hidden in her eyes. I do not know, nor did I try, to decrypt the emotion that was beneath that smile. I, at that moment, did not know what to tell. I just got the flower, thanked her, said that I was happy she is back and walked away. I never prefer buying flowers because I believe they look beautiful and the best when not plucked; being plucked out for selling purpose, for making some other objects beautiful with the decorations they provide means nothing more than the very fact that they were dying a slow, painful and untimely death for mere pleasure of others. I, therefore, never appreciate buying flowers, but that day I went out of my own way just to have a word with her, as if just by listening her speak would make me believe that she is fine. Well, that did. I was feeling quite good and returned. After that day, she sometimes smiles at me and I smile back and some days I smile at her and she too reciprocates. This is of course not an everyday matter; it’s only on some few days that we smile at each other.

This story has some different aspects also. If intended, it could easily have been a ten paged story. But for now, that will be it.

Story 2

The second story is as much similar as the first story and is also as much dissimilar. What actually differs is the perception. The second story will be a part of the second installment of this piece of article, which I expect to post soon.

To be continued…..

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The Fundamental Element

The other day, I was travelling by a city bus and as usual and as expected, the traffic was too much of a headache. I know, complaining about traffic are clichéd these days, but one just can’t stop complaining specially if you are running late and you are caught up in the nightmare you least expected. I, generally, do not dislike being stuck in a traffic in the rush hours but I do find it a little inconvenient if it tends to become the reason for me being late (you see, I hate being late). In that particular day, the day I am talking about, I had to reach a place in an hour’s time so that I can be there 10 minutes prior to the time appointed. It usually takes some 30-35 minutes from my place to reach the place I was heading for (plus some 25-30 minutes were obviously the buffer time allowed for traffic rush). This is a story during the halt of the bus I was in, on that day, in a traffic signal; and it’s not exactly a story.

I was sitting in the bus and everything was pretty normal. There was nothing unusual in that transit till the bus stopped in a traffic signal. Well, that was exactly not in the signal, we were some 500 meters away from the signal, stuck in the traffic. I saw two kids playing by the roadside. It seemed that they had devised their own game and they were on it. Covered in soil and dirt from head to toe, it was rather difficult to distinguish their faces clearly. Their clothes were tattered but it seemed they hardly bothered about it. I did not understand the language they spoke, so I didn’t really know what they were conversing. As they were playing, a kid younger than these two came out from a frayed tent which was laid nearby. I think, this little one was perhaps young enough to speak. He wanted to play with his two siblings (perhaps) but I guess the older kids were finding it a bit difficult to accommodate the younger one into their team. In this fiasco, a girl of around 12 came out and handed over something in a leaf to one of the older kids. Whatever it was, it was food that was not enough in quantity for one kid. The two older kids settled down by the side of the road, placed the leaf in between them and divided that small portion into two and started eating. The little kid, who was staring at the two of his siblings, came crawling to them and continued staring at them. These three kids were conversing something which obviously I couldn’t understand. After some moments I witnessed something that is a very natural scenario in our country but made a kind of impact on me that I can never spell in words. The older kids shared their already small portion of lunch with their younger sibling, making the portions even smaller. The three kids shared the leaf of meal they had. The older kids even helped the young one with the food as he was finding it a bit difficult to eat on his own. That was it when the traffic cleared and the bus I was in moved ahead.

The kind of emotion that was spreading among these three kids was something worth witnessing. It might sound simple and very general but that emotion can be felt only by being in that moment. I felt a very strong emotion that left me spellbound and I couldn’t explain myself what I was feeling at that moment. At a time, when we don’t give food a thought as in a necessity, it still is. Most of us are too busy with other important matters and food has become a very trivial part of our lives. And whenever we actually talk about it, it is the luxury part of it that comes through. But for some, food is the only thing they can think of, because they have a life to sustain and for that, they have to hard earn the food. In my graduation days, I once saw a family of four eating out rice out of a small thrown away polythene bag. The rice was thrown away in that poly bag and most of it lay spread on the dirty, dusty road. But the family was eating the rice with so much ecstasy, as if it’s the only thing they dream of. Sad, but true. This is the face we all try hiding and most of the times ignore the very sight of it. These people struggle all through their lives just to sustain the life they have got. They do not want much from life, in fact they do not dream of getting anything else. The only thing that bothers them is their very survival. It’s the most fundamental element, sometimes taken as a luxury,  and sometimes the core of very existence.

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Enigmatic Horizon

The horizon is the greatest and the most beautiful illusion I have ever seen. Achieving what is almost impossible is a great feeling but trying till eternity for the moment you know is absolutely impossible but hoping that it might just get true some day is something beyond imagination and expression. They know that they can never meet, they are not destined to meet; for when they meet, it will be the harbinger of the destruction nobody alive could ever imagine.

Sometimes when I take a moment from my journey, looking over the horizon, I ponder what the horizon signifies. Does the horizon symbolize our life journeys in some way or is it just visualization pleasure created to impress and motivate. If it is created to epitomize the life journeys or so to say the ultimate truth, there can never be a more beautiful interpretation. You seek throughout your life to get something or the other. You think what you seek is the ultimate goal. If achieved, it seems that eternity is reached, that every end is met though you still want more. Horizon, when you see, appears to have met the ends of the two most enticing and beautiful entities but it’s nothing more than an illusion albeit a beautiful one. One thinks the journey is just about to materialize, but it goes on. It never ends because a journey doesn't have a true source, nor does it have a true destination. Source and destination are mere semblances. Journey is the sole veracity. Well, that is what I think.

For me, the horizon is a big motivating object. If you notice, this chimera is the most prominent at dawn and dusk. How I interpret this as a motivating factor, one wonders? Well, dawn marks the beginning of anything, a moment where myths are born. So, I think this is in cohesion with the beginning of a goal, an interest, an aim or be it anything. When one dreams something, a desire is born. At that point, the very factor of reaching the destination is the most prominent, but the journey is still not clear. Gradually when a journey begins, the chimera fades with the onset of real things that one has to face for reaching the goal. After all the effort, when finally you think that you have got what you deserved, what you have wanted, that is the moment of the dusk when again the illusion is the brightest. There’s no end to a journey. Where a part of journey seems to end, another part begins; awaiting another dawn. The horizon is not what it seems after all! It never ends, it goes on like life. That is what motivates me.

Every time I brood over the horizon, it gives a different meaning. It answers the unasked questions and leaves many asked questions unanswered. It’s mystical. The very fact that it appears as the meeting point of the eternals, while it is not and perhaps can never be is what makes it more exquisite. The enigma of the utmost illusion is somehow unaccountable and is best left unexplained.

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