…and she smiled.

I love walking; it feels like I am having conversation with mother earth- Gaia. The Huge amount of positive energy that flows through my body makes me want to walk more and more. After dinner, I prefer to take a stroll in my hostel lane. After few days of regular walks, I noticed I wasn’t the only one, there were others too.

Out of those few regulars, a lady quite puzzled me. She used to walk in a straight line without changing her course, to and fro. She never made eye contact nor was she accompanied by anyone. There is something unique about her, I felt.

Few days later, I found her in trouble. Unknowingly walked over dog’s tail, she was cornered by few ruff dogs. They were barking and all she was able to do is get scared. I helped her out of it, while she was returning after a formal thank you I said,

“Mam, you shouldn’t get scared by dogs, it makes them bark more”

I could see a big question mark on her face,

“We, humans give out a specific odour when we get scared which is easily noticed by dogs and hence they bark more” I clarified.

“But I am scared of dogs” She replied.

“Try not to be” I said with a smile and walked away.

Few days later, while I was returning from work, I saw her. She looked at me and I smiled, but she didn’t. I was baffled.
The very next day, we met again. She gave me a broad charming smile, and this time I didn’t reply. I continued my stroll and when we crossed for second time, she didn’t raise her head to establish eye contact.

Few days later at night, I and few hostel mates were enjoying leisure time and during this I described my encounters. The very first and prompt reaction was as expected, they said I was trying to woo her they cracked few below the belt jokes. I explained them that I don’t have a hint of lust for her, for me she is just another person that loves walking and we use the same lane that’s all. They didn’t stop.

I analyzed the situation and the generic human mentality. The answer came that an old women and young guy cannot be just acquaintances. This made me understand that why she didn’t reply to my smile on the other day. She knew the way human brain works and hence didn’t reply as she was accompanied by someone.

I was quite bamboozled by all this.

I couldn’t get the answer to the question, why can’t and elderly lady and young guy just be acquaintances. After a thorough analysis of Indian mentality, the answer came knocking. India is the land of relations. Here we take less than 10 seconds to create a relation. So for Indian people it is difficult to digest these kinds of unnamed relationships. If it had been given the tag of some relation it wouldn’t have been difficult for her.

Few days later, I saw her. She was bit ahead of me. Her dupatta was getting soiled as it was touching ground. I pointed it out to her and left.

We crossed again and she smiled.

-inanimate