The stranger : Part 1 - Introductions

I remember vividly how and when I met him first. After that everything was so easy and simple. It was so surprising that I had not felt him before. It has been some time since I talked to him first. Now that things have completely fallen into place and he has gone back into hiding again and the feelings have become kind of blunt against the thick black wall of time, I can think about it rationally and maybe even share it with close (and not so close) people. Though after meeting him it is kind of pointless. It is not that meeting with him has changed me completely. In fact we both would prefer that we forget each other completely. Though we would definitely be comforted if we knew that we exist.

It was LakshmiPujan, actually a holiday. Though it was one of the biggest festival and we were celebrating it first time in our new home, I went to office that day. I had planned to return early but as it happens most of the times, I ended up extending my stay. Hyderabad, just like any other 2nd tier Indian city, has its own share of pollution. But it was worst that day. The smoke from crackers was hanging in the midair ominously. Strong smell of burnt sulphur was burning my nostrils but it was somehow comforting. Somehow the act of burning explosives and money and creating noise seemed to enthrall all and sundry.

For me, an inexplicable pall of gloom was hanging about, just like the sulphur cloud. I could somehow cut it with a shovel. It happens generally that comfort bores me. Moreover adventure upsets me. Neither do I have stomach for adventures. That makes me belong to a category where I sit on my couch and watch Nat Geo or discovery channel.

So on my way back, I thought of picking up some sweets for kid and family and entered a departmental store. I was looking at different sweets and there I saw him for the first time. He was looking at me steadily, he was not afraid of being spotted this time. He was standing by the side of a pond, moonlight shimmering on the still dark waters of mind, the black sand on the shore and he, just patiently standing there, looking at me.

At first I just saw his outline. He did not even try to be more conspicuous. He was just standing there, waiting for me to see him. His hands were hanging by his side, he looked the same age I was. But definitely looked frail. He was not much used to the sunlight but his gaze has adjusted to darkness. It is not easy to tell what he is wearing, or he is wearing anything at all. Can be flowing robes or can be just loincloth. Whatever he is wearing, the bones of his chest are completely visible even through all that darkness.

"What a moment you chose. Not that I am doing something life changing or something. But it is positively uncomfortable when I have handed over things over the counter and the lady across is waiting for me to pay up. I have my wallet open and my hands are rummaging through it to get the change. Can you hold on for a moment?"

"...."

He just stood there for a moment and then turned around and disappeared by the time I paid up.

The sands and the water were there. Moonlight still glimmering as it has been all the time. But he had vanished. I could not trace him for quiet sometime. But we both knew we will meet.