I rushed out of office and jumped in my car. I started driving but didn’t know where to go. I drove fast but aimlessly. I loved the speed.. It gave me a feel that I was not alone in this mad rush of the metro city. My life moved on too with everyone.  It was a half day  at office but this has been my regimen almost everyday after work.  I tried to cheer me up, wandered aimlessly on shopping malls, bought gifts for me, parked the car beside the river and sat for hours.  I went everywhere just to be a moment away from you.

I parked the car in the parking lot and walked up straight to the ticket counters of the multiplex cinema Hall. I didn’t think much but took the ticket. I didn’t bother, all I tried was to get accustomed to a life without you. May be in the darkness, I could be “me”.

The movie went on and alone in the darkness, I sobbed… I sobbed uncontrollably yet quietly.

” Be practical.”, You had said and I realised that I have to accept  to a world where you are gone. I didn’t know what to do.. how to move on…. how to be ‘practical‘…. For all I knew all these years were just “You” and “Me”. I never had a world beyond that.  Now I have to get accustomed to a world where you are gone and however shattered I feel, I have to conglomerate my broken pieces to a whole and display to the world “am happy!” and move on.

” It’s okay!”, I heard from beside and suddenly made me aware and conscious of his tall presence beside me in the theatre. In half darkness, startled by his remark,  I looked at the man seated in the next seat. No, I didn’t know him,  yet what he said was meant for me.

I was sobbing and tears streamed down my cheeks at my loss. This time he touched my palm. It was a comforting touch and he slowly tapped my palm like you sing a lullaby to a baby. It was so comforting that it only increased my sobs. I didn’t know what was there in him but in the darkness of the theatre, where we could not see each other, I suddenly felt very comfortable in his presence.  Me, who never broke down in front of anyone in this world just sobbed my heart away in his shoulders.

“Take it easy.”, he kept on saying….” Whatever may be your grief, It will pass. ”

“Now come on. Get over it. I am there for you… beside you… always beside you.”, He said.

His words were so soft and sombre.  I wept my heart out in his shoulders for I don’t know how long.  I had no justification of why I did that.  It just happened, spontaneously.  I didn’t know him yet he could give me a comfort that no one not even you could give me ever.  I could see him faintly in the dark,  yet he touched my heart in a way you never did, understood my pain without even asking me a question… just said unconditionally that he’ll always be there for me, beside me…. in a way you never said.  It felt so comforting that I shared with him the most close part of my heart which I couldn’t  with anyone in this world… My grief, my sorrow, my loneliness,  my tears. I don’t know till when he lent me his shoulders and my head rested on it and wept.

Suddenly, I woke up to reality.  This is not justified. I don’t know this man. The thought shook me up and I rocked my hand away from his comforting grip and shook myself up. I didn’t waste a minute there. Much before the movie ended I ran out of the theatre in the darkness.

Ever since that day, I became normal.  In the darkness, I could share a part of me with him which I didn’t with anyone and that made me feel light. The comfort he gave me and the way he understood me as a human being helped me come to terms with my life.

I started accepting life as it is and moved on. Built a world of my own, went out with friends and regained my lost self again.  Yet, I could never forget him and the moments I spent with him. In that dark hall, in those moments, he touched my soul in a way never to forget in this lifetime. His voice kept ringing in my ears..”I’ll be there for you… beside you… always.” It felt as if his comfort was there in my heart forever.

I searched him wherever I went in the city. Watched movies, theatres, visited places, desperately hoping to catch his glimpse once again…. but didn’t find him anywhere.  Months passed by and I had almost lost hope of meeting him again.

Last weekend,  I had to suddenly travel  Delhi for an official assignment.  I boarded the flight and took my seat. As I looked beside me… It was him. This time there was no darkness, yet I could not mistake him. For sure it was him seated as a passenger just beside me. I smiled at him, but he didn’t respond.

Was I and our episode in the theatre erased out of his memory?

” Excuse me,… Remember, we had met…”, I couldn’t complete my words when I heard him say..

“Ma’am , I am blind.

I froze for sometime…..Without eyes, this man saw and understood me in a way no one in this world ever did.

I didn’t say anything but quietly held his hand.

This time he smiled…, held my hands and said,

“I knew you would be beside me once again.”

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