An year and five days back...
She looks around herself..emptiness.. the belongingness she always feels when she is here feels subsiding. This is the place where she has spent twenty one years of her life.. everything is hers.. this is her world, her people.. her family..her home..where she belongs to.. and now what lies around her are pieces of luggage, about to be taken out and boarded with her on the train to a new place... she is filled with nostalgia.. the memories of her childhood, how she had fought with mumma over small things, how papa taught her math, how di and bhai chatted along for hours and hours... she feels something choking in her in her throat, now they all stand in front of her.. ready to see her off for her her new life..to see her off for the path to her goals, her dreams, all are pretending to be happy, so it seems to her, and she wants to cry out that she is gonna miss them badly, to tell them that she loves them a lot.. but she smiles.. weakly.. hugs everybody.. and bids them goodbye..
She is on board the train..she sees a station.. she can see a platform, crowded wit people.. lots of ppl.. and different ppl.. oh they appear so much together!! one platform! but eveybody has a different purpose.. they move different ways.. their beliefs are different.. they have nothing in common.. except for the fact that due to an act of sheer serendipity, they are all here on this platform witnessing the same surrounding.. but perceiving it according to themselves..nobody belongs to this platform..she is still pensive when the train moves on...
She is here in this new world..she knows nobody. nobody know her..she is all on her own trying to become a part of this place.. and so she spends the next one year.. facing the truths of life at every moment. learning to live..as if this is her new incarnation, she knows now that its not her place.. the sense of belongingness that was there can no longer be found elsewhere... and not just for her.. for nobody.. because this place is not a destination.. its like that one platform.....
One year later..
Today she is in HER world.. her own world.. her dear home.. again looking around her at her luggage.. something sinking inside..
She boards the train to the OTHER world.. wanting with each passing moment for the time to stop.... if only she could be here for some more time.. if only she would not have to go back.. if only she could stay back where she belongs to....
Something within her cries out loud... tears roll down her eyes, and the train starts moving..
