She sits in the train next to me. She is knitting today...a light blue, cross-stitched sweater for her teenage son. The son who will grow up to be an engineer and may be even an MBA graduate...who will get a nice job, buy a nice house (on EMIs of course) and finally settle down with a nice girl of her choice (she hopes).
Yesterday, she was picking methi leaves from a bundle. Yes, in the local train. 'It saves time, you see, my husband likes to have his dinner by 8 pm' so she tells me, this middle-aged lady.
I smile back...like I always do. Listening to her stories, her worries, her dreams. Her shinning eyes telling me far more than her words. They shine with a glint of pride as she talks about her son’s good grades and grow a shade darker worrying about her husband’s knee joints. Her conversations swing her many moods and I slowly realize how less of 'her' do I find in her stories, her worries, her dreams.
She is always busy being a mother while sparing a few thoughtful moments as a wife each day. The daughter-in-law in her is always on a high alert when in-laws drop by for a visit and on rare occasions, she revels in being her dad’s daughter all over again.
She is a science teacher, she tells me, ‘for class VII to X’ she says almost gloatingly. And although I have never met her outside this local train compartment, I have absolutely no difficulty in imagining her as a sweet-stern disciplinarian whom her students would lovingly remember years down the line.
What is her name? You may ask.
Well, that’s not really important. And although I may have met her in a local train compartment; you will see her and her kind all around you.
She is that lady in your office who leaves sharp at 6 pm because she has a kid waiting to be picked from tuitions. She is the one eyeing that unreserved seat in the bus because a week’s groceries can be really heavy. She is that lady whom you just crossed paths with but never noticed.
She is your everyday, regular woman. And no, she may not be very memorable, but she is every bit quite special.
