“Separation brings sufferings...I know. Sufferings bring me
a heart ache mummy.”Mannu spoke and paused for a while.
“Your son has grown older. When he has a heart ache...He
just smiles.”said Mannu smilingly with his eyes fixed on his shoes. He had
talked to Mr. K and took his blessings. He heard his father’s sobs for the
first time. Mr. K was upset on being absent on his son’s farewell from home.
But he, too, was helpless. Leave had been cancelled twice. Mrs. K hugged him,
kissed on the fore head, the left and the right cheek and gazed at Mannu as if
he was never coming back. It was the first time when Mannu didn’t erase the red
lipstick marks. The insider within him had shown its new face.
Change had actuated. The signal turned green. Mannu’s heart,
it seemed, was out its place. Somehow he managed to keep that smile. Channu
hugged him.
“No pain...”Mannu spoke to him with their fists tightly
blocked.
“No gain...”He said in a pretentious voice. Eyes are the
tongue of your heart. Channu didn’t show his nervousness, but his eyes had a
golden glow.
The siren blew. Mrs. K wiped her eyes and tried to erase the
lipstick marks on Mannu’s face by her fingers. The mobile phone in his pocket was still awake by Pia’s messages. Time was running faster than thoughts. The
final whistle blew and the black smoke filled the sky. Mannu hung out from the
doors. Mrs. K and Channu walked with the train.
“I’m not alone...”Mannu said to them in a high tone. They
just kept on looking.
“I have memories...”He said to himself. The train paced up
and all he could see was their blurred faces and waving hands. They didn’t
signify a bye, but a comeback call.
Again Mannu shouted at the top of his broken voice.
“See you soon...but not yet, not yet...”
He was left with no courage to open his eyes and face the
new real world around. Most of the passengers were asleep. Darkness and
loneliness were like brothers who never left hands. Mannu checked the heavy locks
on the bags and lay down. Fear had started to roll up now. He couldn’t sustain
the smile on his face. Visuals of mummy, home and everything that he had left
and everything that he was leaving further, kept him wide awake. The slide show
of memories skated from past to the present, present to the past and from past
to the future. In the sub conscious state, he could see no future from the
present.
Life had not yet stopped teaching lessons. He got to know
the architecture of life rather the two phases that make it. One which always
keeps an eye on you just like the moon that was visible from behind the bars of
the train window. Another one silently waits for you to search it, see it and
live it just like the next morning.
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