the woman in the metro

The Woman In The Metro...
This Metro arrival has been such a beautiful experience .It offers one a chance to connect with some  wonderful people if one is lucky enough .I, for my share, have found myself quite fortunate till date. One such chance meeting with some one ....

That gay abandon , resonant in that laughter full of freedom .Freedom that she found somewhere before ,or rather at the dawn of her life. .Freedom from the  crutches of dependence .

A life ,a journey ,having traversed ,a long distance ...indeed a distance covered was there in this life ,at least that was what ,caught the eye. From a young girl married at a tender age of 19 ,to still a young girl,with a grand daughter of the age of 17.Sounds rather strange ,but so befitting to a personality like that .Where at all did she let me feel that she had turned old, toiling hard ,and the grind of the long ,exhaustive journey (As is wont to get for most of us.)shown on the lines of that very innocent face.It was none of it there ! 
All that enveloped her was her powerful ,yet childlike infectious laughter ,and a deep assertive voice.( There i discover the answer to my prevailing confusion .What if the lady who charmed me into an image may be somebody entirely different from what met my eye ?By all means that could be possible ).While i kept pouring joy on myself ,for having discovered a beautiful story of acquired independence .It was that assertive element in her, (which is one end of the spectrum, the other end of which is dominance)which relieves her from the charges of being  a stinking feminist.
It is that which enables a being to leave room for creation.

          A woman exuding  confidence , positivity ,under the seeming baggage of 'care a damn' attitude. She definitely wasn't one who wouldn't care.
          Having gone trough her share of being a dutiful bahu, with a foot long ghunghat(veil) for five initial years of her married life  ,wife of a successful chartered accountant, with a successful innings,(sounded like the quintessential wife behind the success of her man. I wish society wasn't so kind to a woman in having bestowed upon her  the halo of having the ability to be behind. )mother of three well settled sons ,and a' full of love' grand mom to her 17 year old ,whom she called her daughter .
         The entire whirlwind as she looks back having been left behind -having discovered her cherished solitude, which lay safely submerged like a seed waiting to sprout when it got its earth.

            The young lady has lovingly been provided for, with an accommodation all for herself ,by her children, away from her near n dear ones, away even from her husband. A husband who is helplessly stuck to his chair irretrievably, and who thus has been left free to carry on with his commerce, for as long as he wants to .I feel sad for him , not for the fact that he has been rendered cuckold ,because even that kind of  togetherness hardly has a meaning .But for the fact that he couldn't discover anything more to his life beyond his work .That kind of work holism could well be sad escapism  .

          Definitely not a divorce or even a separation ,as opposed to the conventional skepticism. I am still left wondering in answer to my own lack of surety here ,if it is really so bad to be enjoying,ones solitude .Hey i recall the opening lines of a television serial  directed by Deepti Naval shown ages ago which went like "Ek dafa to apana jeevan mujhko khud hi bone do .Likh lene do apni kismat .Honahaijo hone do....
         If guilt hounds one even when one sets out to explore ones life at the fag end ,after having  been through all

the responsibilities, then God save  us .I raise a toast to that spirit of freedom -which failed to shackle her, not at all meaning to glorify walking out as the new woman's mantra of life .Rather letting oneself loose ,letting go off ...when holding on didn't mean anything through a whole long life .

           She scoffs lovingly and lightheartedly in response to some body's query of living all alone by retorting ‘Sava lakh da khalsa.’....In punjabi (that Bhatinda di sikhini types )And lends another infectious gush of her ringing laughter ,least self conscious of herself attracting some attention towards her from the surrounding passengers in the Metro .She talks about how ,people living around her remain forever curious of who she is seen with ,where and when she is going and coming .I cannot help but grin at the recollection of how she came close to my ear ,flanked the lips from declaring to the fellow passengers ,how she manages to put a stopper to the irrepressible inquisitiveness of those snooty neighbors’ ,by her bombarding whisper "i will never tell you who i am sleeping with "

        The most beautiful thing to have brought back home from her was the fearlessness, and the non-conformist feel, not for any ego trip ,i want to declare it loud and clear ,as much as i understood ,rather for allowing fear to ebb away from ones life and in the process allowing solitude to reveal its beauty if not at dawn ,then at least at the dusk ,being an equally beautiful time    .   

       The 'godhuli' having been so beautifully unravelled ,is an achievement unmatched .

        Thank you for having sustained with me till now.