
I expected the college day-trip to be the usual-casual merriment of getting together. I expected to have the picnic lunch including hams, sandwiches and fruits; the chit chatting all around and playfully jumping in that transient natural background. I expected to leave for home with nothing but a pack to reminisce.
But my expectations were the antonym of what actually happened.
I left with a new meaning, I left with the exclamation of actual wanderlust!
It’s this guy Lee.
Lee was quite like the usual guys in college, mocking professors, bunking classes and having all the whoopee possible.
So far this was how I knew him, until today.
Where everyone was enjoying, he sat close to the edge of a dale from where the whole scenic city could be viewed. His face composed a calm like that of the water in a pond on a random spring day. A sensation of liberty was distinct on his sunkissed face.
When everyone else gathered in groups to have lunch, he took his part and went back to the same spot. He sat still but the tides in his eyes were violent like an y
eagle, wantonly flying in the heights of the sky which it owns. Lee telepathed himself into another world with no mirages.
In the place filled with people and creations, it was Lee’s unpredictable desire for freedom that caught all of my attention. It seemed that he paused his world for some time, paused not to question but to appreciate; to amble.
His aura evoked the senses of daring and bravery for strolling, and I sat in awe wondering about Lee’s thoughts.
The adventure to get somewhere was transparent in his motionless yet so observant activity. This made me curious.
What made the fun-loving, charming stud, Lee so subtle?
Have lost control, I went and sat near him. For minutes he did not notice me, whereas, I tried to glance and spot what in the cityscape made Lee to not even blink his eyes. It felt like forever, because he was in some other world from where I had to call him back to quench the thirst of my inquisitiveness.
“This is so not you Lee. Has something happened? I mean I’ve never seen you so quiet.” I offered him a string of questions yet maintaining an empathetic tone.
“Curious, are you?” he took few moments to lose his attention and then responded as vaguely as he could. He continued-
“sometimes it’s not significant to interrogate everything. Like..” he took a resilient pause “like what is Heather doing in summer days?” he said caressing the petals of the Heather flowers blooming next to him. “It’s fine not to know everything,
unless you raise the question why.”
“Rains are so majestic till you answer it with the water cycle.
Creations are primitive until you emerge the term evolution.
Flowers are supposed to just blossom until you declare them a mode for reproduction.”
“Every why can have an answer but at the cost of losing the beauty of its mystery.”
I turned spellbound; words abandoned me for some time.
He sensed my perplex and said to console “nothing, it’s just the air. The vibes here are so good that I can’t resist myself to look and appreciate.”
“oh..okay,” I said in a lisp and left as fast as I could.
It cost me the whole tour to analyse Lee’s words. My spirit of oddity had taken a new birth. Today is the exact day when I know the meaning of hashtags at the end of some posts, the Instagram bios and the phrases rolled over tees.-
WANDERLUST- the strong desire may not be to travel but to cherish!
PC: shubham dubey