Jab We Met

Jab We Met
There was something special about her that struck me with the force of a sharp but cool breeze from a desert-cooler on a hot summer day. I looked around for the source of the breeze, and found her standing before me with a tray full of tea-cups. I wanted to tell her I never drink tea, but a part of me insisted on taking a few sips of one of the cups she held on the tray. They were a part of the scene she presented before herself, and like her, the scene was quite beautiful and enticing. I was on the verge of clasping one of the cups between my fingers when someone announced my dissonance to tea-consumption.

She moved to my left and proceeded to offer tea to others, while I took a casual look at the novelty before me. For everyone else present, there was nothing new about her, the very scene had been rehearsed several times with the same protagonists except for me. She held a typical freshness for me; it was more vibrant and fresh than a glass of cool lemon-juice on a hot summer day. I wanted to keep looking at her for a long time; there was a typical impropriety in the proposition, I knew, so all I considered myself lucky when I sole some furtive glances at her despite the dominating presence of her parents and siblings in the room.

I badly wanted to be with her alone for at least a while. I wanted to anlyse every inch of her mental self that was supposed to pump happiness into my life. I wonder what thoughts ran through her mind at that moment. She must also be trying to analyse me as carefully with her dark eyes. I wonder what picture of an ideal companion she had painted in her mind; I know I can never fit into the portrait of the ideal companion for anyone, but I was also aware of the importance of the first impression I was to leave behind when I left her house.

It was to be with her for a lifetime. I didn’t want to leave any false impressions on her; the image we have of each other today should remain unchanged throughout our lives. If I present a false image of myself today, I’ll be guilty of an immoral act. This is the point where she the two of us are to take the first few steps towards a new life, and honesty is the most important element of all relationships. I didn’t want to conceal any of the shortcomings I have for she was to have to live with them for the rest of her life, and unless she gets to adjust with them, life is going to be quite tough for both of us. she had already been briefed about all this, I’m sure, but I only wanted to be sure she knew where she was headed. It wasn’t the ideal world any of her peers had entered, I wanted to tell her, but her smile advised me to delay my confessions.

I really didn’t know if she was aware of all that lay in store for her once she crossed the most important frontier of her life. Life wasn’t going to be easy for her in any manner, and I couldn’t do anything to make it easy for her. I felt quite bad about it, but I simply couldn’t do anything to help her out at that moment. Quite a few crests and troughs were to be added to the roller-coaster ride we were to embark on by virtue of my being a passenger in the roller-coaster of life that was to begin in a few days.

It was to be a different ride from the one enjoyed by everyone else. Very little has been ordinary with me, I know, so I shouldn’t expect anything ordinary at this stage of life too. There are to be many new challengers before us, and they are to be of a new kind, they are to be different from the ones faced by everyone else. Everyone collects his or her typical experiences from all different stages of life, we are to merely add some more to the database of experiences collected by everyone.

The database is to keep increasing as more and more data is to be added to it by the hundreds and hundreds of subscribers adding their own typical experiences. The record can never be used by future generations; they are to have their own typical experiences, but history is recorded for the sake of recording history.

I sometimes wonder what typical experiences shall be enjoyed by are the people who follow me. I can never do anything to make life easier in any way for my children, no one can. They have to suffer the way their fate wants them to. It is to be of a different manner, they will undergo some different sorts of trials and tribulations, but they will also emerge as the winners in life. Life is only a series of trials and tribulations which are ultimately won by everyone.

I only hope I win the trials conducted by life, and my results are declared soon.