The Encounter

: ** Published in "কোলাজ  শারদীয়া ১৪২৪" (KOLAJ_DurgaPujoEdition 2017)-

Hyderabad, India** :

That part of the day when the Sun is at its greatest and the shadows are smallest..
The part of the day when the roads remain empty because no one seems insane enough to go out in the scorching Sun
The time when the wind blows yet it feels humid!
As said by Mr.Dickens, it was one of those days when it was summer in the light and winter in the shades..

It was one of those days when I met her..
The innocence in her toothless smile..
The kindness in her cataract eyes ..
The calmness in her shaky voice..
Her wrinkled hand with a worship thread..
Everything about her seemed otherworldly!

I have always been a stroller and a seeker!
That day was no exception. I was in search and my search led me to the mighty bank of Ganges..
It was a lonely bank with the soothing sound of the flowing water, rippled by the winds.
I saw her sitting at the last step near the water with a bucket.
I went to her, sat beside and smiled unknowingly. It was like an unseen force pushed me to go and have a seat there. She smiled back!
I helped her filling up the bucket by going further down in the water. I asked her where she lived so that I could help her take the bucket, but the answer she gave ached me to the core!

"where is your house dida(grandmother)?
"house? I do not have a house. My son has a house. I have a room, there.", she said pointing towards the building adjacent to the bank of the pious river.
An old building...seen it few times before but never really had any interest about the interior!
It was an old age home. She was supposedly a resident there.

"were you here to commit suicide because you are in pain?", her simple straightforward yet complicated question puzzled me.
"everyone has pain..including me.. but do not worry I was just searching something. It seems I have to keep on searching. It's not here",I assured her.

With a half crooked smile she continued, "this generation's definition of pain is limited to breaking up with someone. They do not know what it feels like when you loose someone to death physically and when someone dies for you emotionally(like a son who doesn't even bother to visit) and yet I have to live knowing all these. Life is never fair, we live anyway."
I found myself blinded by tears..how simply she quoted her whole life!

I was otherwise occupied so asked her if I can help her reach her room.
As we were about to walk past the gate, she stopped me and said that she forgot her worship thread on the stairs. I asked her to wait and went all the way to the banks and down to the last step. I searched left and right but could not find it.
 I was not even gone for two minutes, when I came back she was not there, neither was the bucket. There was no water trail, for if she would have picked it up, water must had have fallen with her physical condition; moreover with her pace she could never have made it inside in less than two minutes.
There was no security guard near the gate to enquire.

However, I went there the next day. It was the early morning. I walked aimlessly towards the building and casually stroke a conversation with an  uniformed guard sitting. After a while I asked if anyone lived in the corner room and whether she was alright because she had to carry a bucket of water yesterday.

He gave me a ghastly stare stating that no one lived there since 2014 and no one is allowed to bring water from outside specially after 2014. There is ample arrangement inside. The last resident of the room died by drowning, as one afternoon she went out to bring the holy water of the Ganges but slipped and fell!

#StayBlessed