Heart Of Life.

6.40 pm and I'm walking out of office in the dreadful rains. November rain. Freak rain. I look down at my new purple suede shoes. Ruined. There is chaos all around me. People aren't prepared for the sudden showers of blessings so they scamper like little puppets to the nearest dry spot they can find. People hop into buses, cabs, trains and any other kind of transport.

While I stand there transfixed wondering how to get home, it suddenly dawns onto me that I'm in big trouble. I don't travel by train, there are no buses to take me home and all the cabs are full. CRAP. So, I contemplate about taking my shoes off and walking barefoot but I would rather not risk me getting some plague disease that would require me to amputate my foot later.

I stood on the street aimlessly looking around hoping to catch sight of a stray cab. In vain. I continued walking on and suddenly spotted a familiar face. We made small talk, decided to cab it back together and continued waiting aimlessly. In the course of time we started talking to this Muslim lady who seemed so full of life that I aimed to be just like her 10 mins into our conversation.

In my normal world, I would have never cabbed it home with complete strangers but desperate times call for desperate measures so when we finally got a cab, there was no second thought about it.

"Where do you work my girl ?" she asked me continuing the small talk.

"Oh I'm a content writer for this media company. I write movie synopsis and reviews and stuff for their newly launched channel".

"That's nice even my children work in the media". Her face brightened as soon as she thought of her children which immediately made me wonder if my mum's face lit up like that if she ever spoke about me..."one writes for the technology section in the Times and my daughter is a photographer " she continued..

While the distance was being covered so were the basic pleasantries about where I lived, what my aspirations were, future plans. Things that when my mother asks me annoys me to no end but I had no issue discussing it with a total stranger.

Silence.

I stared out the window at the concrete city before me. Street urchins running around playing and kicking water, mums trailing their children and covering them from head to foot, vegetable vendors covering themselves in bubblewrap. The fate of my purple shoes seem like such a tiny problem as compared to the children running around barefoot and completely happy oblivious to the fact that things like suede shoes exist.

"You remind me so much of a firecracker" she suddenly claims staring very intently right into my eye which takes me completely by surprise and breaks my thread of thought.

"Firecracker ?!?" I muse at that one.. I've never been called a firecracker before but I'll take it. I like the sound to it.

" You have that spark. Don't ever lose it ".

I smile. " I'll try not too Aunty, but I'm making no promises ".

She was quick to retort "Darling, you're young. My daughter did photography for 12 years. Life is exactly like that. Use the negatives to develop".

A complete stranger. A random compliment. An amusing conversation.

Even strangers surprise you sometimes....if you let them.

Pain throws your heart to the ground,
Love turns the whole thing around,
No it won't all go the way it should,
But I know the heart of life is good.