My Quest With a Stranger

By Simran Chopra

Walking down the memory lanes

Recollecting my forgotten pieces

The thought of yours came in my mind

And in no time left me mesmerised.

I still remember that somewhat insane day

My heart was broken by some harsh failure.

And everybody left that hall hush-hush.

And at the centre of that shady audi.

I sat alone with my head-beaten down.

My friends that so called ‘8’ ones 

Left me behind and didn’t realise what I felt.

But I don’t mind their departure

Cause I am not someone who needs consoles.

In short, am much better on my own.

Me a young girl who just stepped into adolescence then,

Was weeping those very salty waterdrops

From her browny eyes,

Suddenly somebody overshadowed my shadow

And asked me to up my head by waving it like a mum do,

I thought it was my friend 

R, S, B, S, J, C, K or S.

But the person before my eyes was not a friend.

He was not even an acquaintance.

OH! It was you ‘stranger’.

You asked me to stop crying 

And lent me your handkerchief to wipe my tears.

For that very moment my brain stopped thinking.

For that few seconds I got stunned like never before.

I had a hold of your hanky for a nano mile,

And then threw it like it smelt of chloroform.

Cause a fear of being kidnapped also crossed my mind.

I know it’s so senseless,

But you could have an idea 

That I really went out of my senses at that very moment.

You tried to comfort me in all possible ways.

But all your efforts went into vain.

I remember, Oh! Yes, Yes I still do

You said,

I know you were right but the judgement went wrong.

And I was like ‘How you knew so’?

But I was not at all amused or comforted.

How shamelessly, sorry that’s a wrong word here,

How terrifyingly you bent down on your knees,

Just to comfort me?

But you turned out making me feel so uncomfy.

You left me stunned, scared, confused, horrified

With a bunch of crazy impulses                                                                      that I had never experienced before.

And I was like what’re you, who’re you, why did you?

I wanted to ask ‘are you my illusion’ by pinching you out,

My crazy lover, my forgotten friend, my bro-like, a vampire

Who smelt me to be sweet                                                                                        or a ghost to conclude my quest in short.

But for that very moment my throat lost voice.

And I stepped out of the balcony to escape you                                            by a km/sec’s speed.

But you followed me like my own shadow.

And then my class came, I was just about to move inside.

And when I looked at my back.

You blurred away like you never appeared………

Today I have stepped out of my adolescence,

And I still want to ask you moron,

That ‘Why the hell you came there for me?’

I don’t remember you by face,

I don’t know your name like you don’t know mine.

But I still can’t forget how you make me feel then.

In that few moments you made me feel,

All the care, affection and my favourite attention

That not even my all dear and near ones have collectively shown in my till lived lifespan on this blue planet.

I don’t want to meet you again, you trout.

I don’t want to conclude my quest with you know,

Cause I have simply settled down with the fact that

‘Sometimes confusion is better than clarification.’

For me you are still a stranger

This was an accident escaped from time.

I didn’t share about you to my friends.

I am not going do so even now,

Cause I know, they will say

What a love story or a nice fabricated one                                                   and you were just my illusion.

And it’s not surprising because I do felt the same.

Well thanks me for making me love myself,

Thanks for making me learn how to embrace failure.

And now at very last estranged thought of yours

Am like, why couldn’t we all be just strangers?

Why couldn’t we just be sweet and kind?

I wish for bonds which doesn’t attach me or detach me,

just make my soul grow, make this world feel like home.

By Simran Chopra