Metro Diaries- Work In Progress

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I love travelling for I get to meet so many people and see so many beautiful places. And the most exciting part of travelling is the period of nowhere when either I am en-route to some place or am waiting for my train/ bus/ car to come and pick me up. At that time my imagination is at its best. With the work for the day nicely forgotten somewhere in the realms of my mind, people begin to take form of characters before my eyes. Their unheard stories begin to play softly in my ears and everything else in the background begins to drown in the oblivion. 


Grabbing a thread of my imagination, I notice a girl sitting on a bench at railway platform with a lost look in her eyes as if she is direction less in this world. Unclean shoes, ruffled hair and a devil-may-care attitude. A very bored look reflects in her eyes depicting that she is unsure about why is she here in the first place. Holding a book in her hand, she is busy in a fantasy world of her own not wanting to be disturbed. On a close observation one can clearly make out it’s not the book she is lost in, but her own cobweb of thoughts is what has entangled her.


Somewhere in far corner is a guy bespectacled, ruffled hair wandering aimlessly on the platform. There is a wait in his eyes, whether it is for the train, a friend or a loved one is something that is not clear yet. He is impatient and that it clearly visible in his fidgetiness with hands in and out of pocket continuously as if there is some lost treasure in them waiting to be found. His eyes seem to be anticipative, looking forward to the future with excitement. Yes it is brewing in his eyes, the excitement of that thing. It could be sensed even from a distance.

Source: Google Images

Amidst the chaos of their thoughts mixed with the music of their heartbeats is also the noise of the people they are surrounded with. The humdrum of the railway platform suddenly comes alive with the blaring horns of a train. All that had paused till now, all of a sudden comes alive. There is action all around with people running helter-skelter to occupy a seat, the porters to ensure they get their daily wages today, the food vendors out to sell their wares, some excited folks looking forward to welcome their loved ones and some sad souls biding a good bye to theirs. 


Unexpectedly somewhere between all of them these two eyes meet and once again everything pauses with things beginning to move in a slow motion. Is she the wait that was reflecting in his eyes? The answer to the direction she was looking for, is it him? No idea, but yes it surely seems to be the beginning of something, perhaps a story of what can be, or maybe the saga of what was.  Before I could probe any further the nasal twang of the announcer broke my chain of thoughts. My train had been announced, it was time for me to leave. And look for another tale, or perhaps try to unearth the mystery this one had......

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