Once upon a time, there was a small village.. It was lined up with vegetation everywhere.. Lush green trees, kachchi roads, where everyone used their cycles to travel. N it was monsoon.. The best time of the year.. People used to curse it at times though.. There was always a danger of floods, then there would be mud everywhere, n u couldn't get anywhere without getting wet..
But he liked it, rather he loved it. Every time it used to rain, he never missed it. He would go out and soak himself in the water.. Alone. He would pick up his cycle and go on the muddy road to no where.. The trees soothed him.. While he would be riding the cycle, he would look at the sky and try to see where is the water dripping from. N there suddenly a drop would hit his eye straight.. N he would lose his balance and fall off.. N instead of getting up, he would start laughing and rolling.. Lying on his back, he would stop worrying where the drops were coming from and just open his mouth to taste the sweetness of the water, scented by the lush green of the vegetation!
One such rainy day, he went to the railway station of the village. Just like that.. he had nothing else to do.. There was only one train that used to visit his village in the whole day. It was still some time that it would arrive.. He parked his cycle and went to the platform.. The tracks were witnessing the small grass growing through them.. Everything was damp as far as he could see.. The smell of the metal was blending with the odor of the damp soil.. As the time to board the train came near, he sat down on the bench.. He loved to see people in commotion! People talking to each other, people sitting alone, people thinking something. He would try to concentrate on them, their facial expressions, trying to make out what exactly is it that they were thinking.. He would wonder if he would ever get his assumptions verified, but he was always sure that he knew. In fact, he held this opinion that only by merely watching a person closely for a while, you can know the person inside out!
As the train moved in to the platform, it seemed that the whole village had flooded the station. The chai-wallah kept running from window to window, the Kooli kept persuading the old man to pass his luggage to him.. The boy just kept watching amusingly. Then, after a few minutes, the engine made a groan. The station-master whistled aloud, n the coaches started to move.. Suddenly, he spotted in a distance, a guy's gaze fixed at a window. He looked and he just looked. as if the world had stopped for him. The boy wondered what was it that was keeping him in such a state. Something on the guy's face told him that his life would never be the same again.. The little boy was noticing that perhaps he was trying to form a sentence or two in his mind that he would find suitable enough to speak at such an occasion, but his throat was going dry as the boy could notice by the strains on his throat's muscles.
As the window moved closer to the boy's bench, he saw.. a hand clinching the window bars.. Delicate as they looked, they conveyed the same emotions as the guy's eyes.. They held on to the bars, as if just by putting all her might in holding them, the girl would be able to tear them apart. The train was picking up speed, so was the guy.. Oblivious to the world around him, his gaze was still fixed, but his steps matched up with the speed of the train. it was a small village, and the platform reflected this completely in its length.. Even when the train had not gathered much speed, the guy reached end of the platform.. He still ran by the side of the, next to the vegetation, knowing fully the wastefulness of his efforts!
As the engine threw clouds of black smoke into the pristine air, the guy decided to stop the chase and come back to the world in which he was now alone. Still exhausted from the chase, he suddenly stopped in front of the boy, and sat down next to him on the bench. The little boy was suddenly nervous, he could hear the rhythm of the guy's breaths. He didn't know what to do, n then suddenly he felt some moistness on his small hand. Confused, he looked at it and when he understood what it was, looked at the guy. For the first time, they made an eye contact. N all the boy could see was himself in the guy's damp eyes..
The platform was again starting to bear the deserted look with silence setting in. The few moments of commotion receded to a past that looked distant. Very soon the sun would set down, the silence will give way to the buzz of the jhingurs.
And in a distance, a back was pressed against the seat to the window, eyes closed.
And the train moved away into a landscape silhoutted by the greens.
