The Precious Smile
It was a sunny day in summer of Jun and I was going from Delhi to Faridabad by bus. The bus was packed but comfortable and moving at an average speed since it was passing from the ring road which engulfs the city of Delhi all around. The people were sitting calmly, some were busy gossiping while others looked outside and were enjoying the fresh air coming through the window and I was one amongst them. Some were busy handling their kids and showing them various monuments which were visible from the bus. The road was clean and the traffic was dense due to lot many cars which plied on the road. Being a capital city of the nation the street roads were clean but lot of construction of flyovers made some parts dusty.
I could see beautiful cars below the bus window on to my right which were quietly overtaking our bus , thanks to the modern technology of noiseless cars. Variety of models could be seen as there was no count of it since eruption of no of car companies. From the lowest to the costliest models all could be seen at one glance making you dream of owning the best one someday. While I was watching what was going on outside I saw a beautiful navy blue coloured Hyundai Sonata car pass below my window of the bus trying to overtake the bus. It blew its horn but the bus driver could not allow it to overtake it as there was a vehicle in the front and the road was congested so the car moved on parallel with us and I could see it advancing from the rear and its speed stabilised near my position and then it tagged along with my position. All of a sudden I was stunned and spell bound you know why?
Because I saw the famous movie star “Karishma Kapoor” smiling at me and waving her hand from that shining window at the rear left of the car.
She was so beautiful and charming with a flash in her eyes. I looked to my front and rear to confirm whether that smile was aimed at me or someone else and soon was convinced as no one was looking out of window of the bus either to my front or rear. I was thrilled. She kept smiling with her raised hand so I immediately reciprocated by waving my hand with a warm smile. I wondered why she did like this: maybe due to my bright coloured turban which I wore that day which might have attracted her attention and she exhibited a goodwill gesture to impress me for gaining her image popularity which the stars generally do when they go out in public. Any way whatever may be the reason was not the matter which needed a thought and I only bothered about the fact that it had thrilled me due to this act of hers. Her lovely eyes with a sparkle, her fair cheeks, raised eyebrows and shining black hair with a maroon lipstick was all the matter which flashed into my mind again and again with the most important fact that it was live; face to face. Anyhow the car soon found a space ahead, zoomed overtaking our bus and vanished within seconds after that leaving only her thoughts in my mind. I wanted to immediately share it with someone but since I was travelling alone and all others were strangers so had to gulp this good news down my throat all alone till such time I reached home to share it with my dear ones.
Next few minutes I was in deep thoughts thinking why did she choose me to share her smile as she could have chosen a youngster of her age if she so desired and I also in excitement of the moment waved her back . How does she maintain herself so well even after being a mother? She really must be working hard to keep herself so fit and must be sacrificing her tastes of good food which we take without bothering much as they do. Life is indeed difficult for her and not as easy as it appears to be. What use is so much money if you cannot eat of your choice, cannot roam about freely in the streets and have Golgappas at a corner of your choice as we do and so many things which only a common man can do.
As I was thinking all this the bus turned to a corner and halted near a refreshing point where there were some shops selling cold drinks, potato wafers and tea. There were also some toilets for the transients of the bus. I also got down and had a coke after which I went to relieve myself. Later when I was returning towards the bus I was surprised to see the beautiful image of karishma Kapoor which was painted on the side of the bus wherein she was giving a similar smile and waving her hand as I saw her in the car when she overtook our bus few minutes back. The hairstyle was the same, her eyes were the same , the colour of her dress was the same with the same lovely cheeks and same colour of the lipstick. Slightly ahead of her painted image was written
“Always have Shakti Bhog Atta (Wheat flour) “
My mind was again in deep thoughts,
‘ How can this be possible?” I thought while boarding the bus after the break and quietly went and sat down on my seat before the bus could recommence its journey. As I sat on my window seat a thought suddenly flashed in my mind and the whole mystery was unraveled within a fraction of a second.
Oh my God ! How foolish is this on my part that I could not understand a simple law of physics. It was the reflection of her painted image on that navy blue car with a tinted glass as the image of her face fell exactly on the window of the car in such a way that it appeared to the observer that she glanced and waved at him.
Suddenly one more car overtook our bus from the same place when Karishma again smiled and waved me for the last time confirming that I was right but this time I did not wave her back with my hand but only smiled and felt happy in my thoughts.
God bless your precious smile Karishma as the image of your smile has enough power to give so much joy to anyone and God only knows how much happy would a person be when he actually sees you smiling -----Live.

The Safest Seat

The safest seat
Have you ever thought of while travelling in a bus ,train or an aircraft how safe you are while travelling in it. There may be hundreds of thoughts going on in your mind starting with whatever has to happen will happen so why think and bother about your life when nothing is in your hands and everything is in the hands of Almighty. Those with this belief can stop reading this article here itself as may find it boring and out of their interest to proceed any further.
For those who believe that some things are in your hands while the rest is controlled by God can still afford to carry on reading this as they may like it after they finish reading this.
For those who definitely are of the belief that success is 90 % hard work and 10 % fate would find it still more interesting to read it and those who totally believe in their own self would definitely like it the most. For your information I belong to the second last category so don’t keep your minds guessing in which category the author of this article falls in.
While travelling in a bus of Haryana roadways from Chandigarh to Delhi whose driver was driving very fast as he would not waste even a second in overtaking the vehicle in front of him at the first opportunity he got. His bus would swing to the left and to the right with the turn of his steering raising goose pimples on everyone’s epidermis.
I was engulfed with the thoughts; What if he banged head on with the vehicle approaching from the opposite direction? Apart from the driver the first three rows would definitely be smashed to death if the oncoming bus with a similar speed hits it with the double velocity impact. So I should shift my seat to the rear was the answer in my mind .
“No ! What if a similar bus hits from the rear while this bus is slow or standing ; the last two rows will not exist anymore,” was the second thought which prevented me from moving to the rear seat. Then where do I go? If I keep thinking like this then the middle seat is the safest.
If the bus plunges into the canal after breaking the parapet wall of the road which is meant to prevent the vehicle from falling into the river then I’ll be stuck since the door to the front or rear would be far off to reach from where I could get out while the water enters the bus. I convinced myself thinking that the chances of bus falling into the river/canal are less as the canal is following adjacent side of the road was for a limited distance only. Yes even if such an emergency occurs the window can be used to get out as it does not have any grills in it and the glass pane can be broken with my shoe heel for getting out from anywhere.
What if some other vehicle bangs the bus at right angles to it while on a crossing or a Tee junction then how the middle row will help ? This forced my mind to infer that I should not be sitting right next to the window on either sides of the bus both to the left and the right. Hence the option is left only with the two seats which are exactly in the middle of the bus from all the ends of the bus.
Out of these two seats which is the still safer one was the only query left in my mind. Since we have a right hand drive in our country hence the left seat would be comparatively safer compared to the right one as chances of collision are more towards the driver’s side.
Yes! The answer was that the safest seat would be the left middle one from all the sides where I was already sitting. It was just a coincidence that I had occupied this seat. There was one more advantage in this; it was the least disturbed seat as anyone wanting to go out would take the shortest route to get out from any side, so only the person sitting there or adjacent to me would come here and the rest would not disturb me.
Indeed a lucky and the safest seat I had occupied was the result of analysis carried out which you must note it for your future travels if you so desire.