Serendipity..It happens!

The other day when my mirror showed me the first few silver linings, my memory was on a roller coaster ride to my happy days. It took me back to the days when I had just passed out my college and was wandering to get a good job to realize self-dependency on its whole.. :-)
And, there I can see myself rushing for the fully occupied last compartment of the 8:40 am metro and somehow managing myself to get into the overloaded tube train with different people going to make a living to some destinations. At last, the doors of the train succeeded in their nth attempt to close :-)
This was almost an everyday story!! I would hardly get a chance for a seat ever. Though a short journey, still it was really boring and tiresome standing all the way every day among the unknown crowd holding the rails and struggling to get balance for my feet just to stand straight.
Gradually, the crowd became known to me. Although I didn't had many acquaintances but started exchanging smiles with my co-passengers. This 16 min journey was not that monotonous anymore. While standing on the aisle of the ladies seat, I could hear a lot of stories and would think this place is a heaven for a writer. Everyday a new story crops up.- Stories or experiences.
Stories which varied from young girls of my age then, discussing their affairs or fantasies or their love for shopping. Mothers discussing their morning chores for their children.
Angry wives complaining about their husbands while few elder women shared their recipes while few kept silent reading books, Another group discussing yoga and meditation, while few discussing workplace politics. Few Beautiful girls busy with their last minute makeup before they enter the office.
Some mothers busy in giving the final tips to their children before entering the exam hall in schools.
It was a whole new bunch of stories for me everyday and this short journey was becoming interesting day by day for me.
And then one day I noticed a beautiful woman in her late fifties. I got a glance of her once and just could not move my eyes. The lady bewitched me somehow. The more she looked at me with her expressive eyes, the more thirst of talking to her and knowing her arose within me.
Yes, It was magical!!!
Till today I could yet not find out what was it which attracted me towards her?
The big red bindi on her forehead or the glowing vermillion which gave her the complete Bengali mother look. The very simple yet gorgeous cotton saris she wore everyday for her work, her way of talking; the compassion in her voice or the grace in her walk which itself illustrated her self respect and her independence to handle things alone? Or the kind motherly smile which she wore in her face or the skinny body and hand which tells her story of struggle for her family. Or simply the resemblance with my mother.
It became my regular routine to search for this lady, who has bewitched me,
Probably the lady started her journey from the source station and thus was always seated,
While I could hardly reach up to her seat. But once I boarded the train everyday, my eyes will automatically find her out in the biggest crowd and all other faces besides her faded away. Everyday, I stared and admire this lady with her knowledge sharing capabilities- knowledge on life...her own experiences; with other girls sitting beside her.
I wondered how to reach her...but I was so shy, In spite of trying multiple times to contact her, I could not gather courage to initiate communication. A lot of thoughts criss-crossed my mind, what if she doesn’t respond well to me. The picture which I have drawn about her in my mind will be broken.
And then the day came when I gathered all my courage struggling my shyness away to talk to this mother figure. I left office early that day but the metro was late due to some technical faults. While I was waiting in the platform, I saw the gracious lady coming down the escalator with load of gift packs and a big flower bouquet. As she approached me, I was gathering all my courage to not to miss this chance to get acquainted with her,
The lady asked me "Metro ki late?" (Is the metro late today?). I replied with a usual shyness in my voice- some technical faults. After a “not so short” pause, the lady said, I thought of talking to you many days but somehow could not reach you, You resemble my daughter to some extent. Every time I saw you in the crowd in the morning metro, your face dazzles with a difference fading the other faces around me. I feel my daughter near me...She is in overseas now for last few years. I was completely spell bound.
Despite of the difference that she was probably at the end of her career, I had just started it or the fact that we come from two different worlds but this feeling gave me great happiness that two people in the same train were thinking alike; Feeling alike; Talking through their silence but it took so many months for them to communicate with words..
After exchanging few more details about each other, she said, it was her last day in office as she is getting retired and the gifts and the goodies suggested it too..
She will no more be traveling in this train regularly. I felt helpless. I felt like crying. I could-not decide what to do...
Till the time the train was in, few more friends from her office join her in. I felt like touching her feet for once. I felt like hugging her for once but could not help with my shyness.
She left with her friends as she had other engagements that evening...I stood stand still; spell bound again!!!
I didn’t board the same train that day; just to hide my foolish emotions and the facial expression associated with it.
She left the platform that day but could not stay away from my memories till today.