" You don't need a pretext to pull out your screen, do you? I thought your screen and you are inseparable"
"Ouch what burn. I get the message. But you need to entertain me then. Tell me a story and I'll promise I'll switch off my phone"
"So I am your personal volume of 'bedtime stories for toddlers'?"
"Nope - you are my personal volume of commute time stories for handsome young men"
"Oh I see? So I get to keep mum and watch through my window to the world then"
"Aha...you are on a burn roll" He laughs.
"Never mind. I'll tell you a story. As cryptic as..."
"You are?"
"You judge what you hear, alright?"
"Yes Senorita"
And she starts her narration
****************
Once upon a time, in a city by the river a young woman named Ganga lived a happy life. She was a bit of a mystery to all and sundry cause she did a lot of things. She smiled, she helped others, she spoke to people when they needed counsel, she listened intently and with empathy when folks spoke to her about whatever they wished to share. She cooked for and fed the hungry, she played with children, she smiled at strangers and made small talk with them in long queues or at the river banks on her evening stroll. She was nice to everyone she crossed paths with. All of the above she did without a reason. She just seemed to do things for the sake of doing them.
People around her would ask her "So you just called to say Hello?"
"Yes" She would reply. "I had been thinking of you and wanted to hear your voice."
She seemed to have found the fountain of happiness as no one ever spotted her looking grim. This was puzzling to the world that was constantly calculating about their benefit in all things they did - doing things without a motive. Some used Ganga to their means but the wise, sorted one she is, she let them. She somehow found being of help to others as very fulfilling and didn't care about being acknowledged, thanked or even judged. Ganga's friends called her foolish. A people pleaser. Some even went to the extent of wondering aloud that she has a sure shot selfish means behind all this facade and if there was some hidden agenda behind her niceness. She never paused and reflected upon how she was perceived by others. Ganga looked like she decoded life and found eternal bliss. Once a dear friend of hers who looked up to her asked why she does what she does and how it is humanly possible to be such a selfless giver.
"Givers are the biggest seekers, When we rise to a level where we obliterate the fine line between our ego and the world, we have attained the biggest of prizes" She replied.
"So you do everything without a reason?"
"Not true" She responds. I have a reason for everything I do. And it is Love"
Ganga flows like the river she lives by, lending a magic touch to every path she treads - nourishing the crops, quenching the thirst of countless living beings and doing all this for no reason.
*****************
She stops and leans back on the seat, looking at him. He looks lost, his gaze peering into the other side of the coach.
"That is so corny - not anything in a ten mile radius to cryptic, Ms. Cryptic" he says.
"I know, it has to be. But let's hope, against hope, that art imitates life and somewhere, somehow, some life imitates art as well"
"That is so deep" he says this time and making an intense eye contact. "You get your cryptic card back" "Love me for a reason and let the reason be love" He hums.
"Tell me another story now - and I know you'll somehow twist it and make it corny" He adds.
"You have no respite from that. Just saying" She winks.
And they both smile. For a reason.
:-)
Pictured - The Ganges in her Monsoon glory. Dasashwamedha Ghat, Varnasi.
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