Monday, June 20, 2005

The Intersecting Lines

This is a story of two young people, whose lives happened to cross at a point, nothing more and nothing less.

He was in the search of the meaning of his life; as any other human being, in his early twenties. He had the talent, hailed by the society, but he himself wasn't confident of accepting it. He yearned for more, more of what he did not know. He asked questions such as he himself could never answer. He did not know where the life would take him, and for that matter, did not even care. Sometimes, he found himself trapped in the web that he himself had woven, inadvertently. The people around him noticed, praised and talked of him. And he quietly enjoyed the talk, always wondering all this is for who?

She was a youthful bud. Free as in Freedom. Swift as a cloud on a windy day. Fluent were her thoughts as the turbulent blue waters of a stream in the forest. Bright was she as the sunshine on a day in March. And how beautiful!

It wouldn't be odd if they met one fine day. But until and unless that actually happened, sentences such as those would be meaningless. What would such two people find in common? Appreciation for one another! Strange are never the ways of fate, that they happened to meet one day. Out of the blue. And later, they laughed over the matter of their first meeting, for they couldn't make out why they had to meet.

Some things do not have any explanation. And some things do not need one.

The life continued its own course. Changing a bit here and there for the conveniences of these two. They spoke of many things. Of ideals, of socialism, of books and of songs. Of rainbows, of fireflies, of sand-dunes, of stars they spoke. If it ever came to his mind, he never spoke of the puzzle that was consuming very much of his processing power. And she never thought so much about it anyway. The time was spinning its wheel, and perhaps his mind was being freed by her. She, life's perfect admirer, could appreciate and accelerate the talents he had so far kept buried within himself (for no reason whatsoever). And he was aware of that. He, on the other hand could simply be amazed by the reach of her mind, the depth of her thoughts, the heights of her imaginations. He knew he had found the meaning, finally.

There were long dialogues exchanged, funny things debated and laughed at heartily. The others around them continued to enjoy what these two were offering them : joy! The weathers changed, the moon continued with its 15-day tours, the clouds came at the times expected and the rains poured sooner. The flowers never missed the blooming season. Everything about everything was just too perfect. Including these two.

One may be forced to think that perhaps, then, these two were made for each other. But that's a different story. That may happen in some other story, but not in this one. And that is not the point of the story after all.

The greatest adventure that life is, it miraculously brings out so uncountably many straight lines, some parallel, some intersecting, some short, some ever lengthening. And a few merge and become one after a certain point. Many meaningless lines never intersect, not that they are parallel but such a crossing never happens. And then there is no definition of parting for such lines too.

The geometry of life is not so straightforward.

The merry weather continued all the same. The stars shone on them and the moon cleared any darkness that was left in him. Time continued. Joys overflowed. Breeze hummed, and trees swayed. And after such a wonderful length of time, the two lines departed. For no reason, as there was no reason for there meeting. Without any emotion that can be described as sadness. Without shedding any drop of tear, without bidding any goodbyes. Without any promises of meeting again. Perhaps, life simply and cruelly turned its attention to another such pair of unrelated lines.

It is probably not so important how these two lines fared later, but what is important is the point they left on each other's paths. A line may be made up of infinite points, but not all of them can be so privileged as those of the intersection. Intersection, such as this.

Indeed, the geometry of life is not so straightforward. But then it is not pointless as well!

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