Just last week, as I was waiting for my train at the station, I bumped into an old acquaintance, my senior from college. I hadn't met her since a very long time, and the last time I had, it was another chance meeting at a restaurant, where my mom and I had gone for a small snack.
She was sitting alone at a table, dressed in a white churidar kurta, finishing a plate of rava dosa. She had called out to us and we joined her at the table. After exhanging pleasantries, she quicky engaged my mom in conversation. (It's normally the other way around, as my mom tends to get rather chatty with most of my friends!), and she went on about how she was training in classical dance at a nearby college, and how she used to commute a really long distance everyday. My visibly impressed mom started probing her a bit about other "common interest" areas, with the sole intention of "inspiring me"! What followed was a long boring conversation, or rather a monologue, the flow of which I can't even recollect. After we were done with the food and were on our own, and I was reproaching my mom for showing so much interest, my mom did admit that she was also thoroughly bored by the end of it.
Back to our meeting last week, she spotted me first. Dressed again in a white churidar kurta, she came up to me and started chatting. To be really honest, I wasn't even half as excited as her, and I didn't make any effort to hide it. She started on about how long it had been since we last met, and how she remembered me making enquiries about a course at our college before I enrolled for it! Gawd... this was gonna be another long and boring talk, another one of those in-escapable tirades where I would be subjected to incessant and meaningless chatter I had absolutely no interest in! And it was no surprise why she wasn't exactly the most popular girl in class!
The train arrived, and we boarded it together. I was gonna have to be with her for a while more, I thought as I braced myself for more. She asked me what I did, and I told her. I happened to be working with one of the biggest agencies in India, and I noticed a conscious pause when I mentioned the name. I half grinned a wicked "Oh, I've got such an exciting job, and u just go around looking for work" grin. She was now into theatre, and was going home after an audition. But wasn't she into dance, I asked. She then shared about how a freak accident while performing had left her bed-ridden for almost a year, which is when she decided to get into theatre. But dance will start again, she tells me with a knowing smile. I think I smirked then, but I did start listening then.
When it was time for her to get off, we decided to exchange numbers, and she apologised again for not being able to recollect my name (she had already done that on the platform when we met), and I told her it was ok, as I had a really common name. To which she immediately said, "But you are not that common!" I was stunned. Almost guilty. Here was a person I was relegating to being another faceless entity for life, who was acknowledging my individuality, and actually respecting the time that we had spent together, because she respected me!
Can I do the same? It's difficult na... but I will... 'cos that's who I am - a possibility of unconditional love, support and self-expression. :-)
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