Delhi diaries: The girl

A cold and solitary winter in Delhi… IIT campus… 

Those were troubled times for me. My heart ailed, and my body ached. The fear of losing someone whom I sincerely loved had deterred my spirit and… my desire to live. I searched for answers, thinking what went wrong, where it went wrong. But I couldn’t resolve the problem. I just couldn’t. It consumed me from inside.

That night... I strolled in the campus alone along the dimly lit streets. 

I couldn't feel my fingers.  Everything was numb; except for my nose may be. 

I walked. My pace synced with my disturbance. 

I got into the stadium. It was deserted. I descended down the gallery slowly to the ground. The view of the floodlit athletics tracks alleviated my pains momentarily. I vacuously stared the empty tracks. And then I abruptly broke off and started to run. I ran and ran and ran. I was running from the pain, I was running from myself. I ran hoping that the physical pain would overshadow the pain within. 

I must have run around eleven laps. I lost count. 

I stopped on my track when I saw this girl standing in the gallery. She started to walk towards me and as she did she cupped her hands around her mouth and ran towards me. She took out her handkerchief and wiped my chin, with a concerned look. Until then I hadn’t realised that I had been bleeding profusely. Blood was all over my mouth and chin. My jersey was soaked in blood.  She took me to the gallery. We sat there for some time silently. Perhaps she was waiting for me to settle down. But I couldn’t. I wept gently. She laid her hand on my shoulder to calm me and asked me, “They break hearts in Bhubaneswar too?” I wiped my face and replied “yes” with a smile. She smiled back and said “Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present. Don’t spoil the present for the past.” She kissed me on my cheeks and said “it’s all right… time will heal everything”.

We walked together for some time, for some distance; I thanked her and then we parted. 

Some gestures, no matter what time of the day, from anyone would make you smile at the first thought. 

I never saw her again. All that remained was her afterglow.