Friday 22 August 2014

2 minutes love story



“Sir, this is a very old piece. It must have reached end of life”, the technician said.

“I do not have the tools to open the box and check what’s wrong. I will bring them tomorrow and will get it checked. We can then decide whether to replace it with a much advanced digital model or not”, he continued. 

“End of life”; these words started resonating in my mind. Has it really been that long since I was born? I was manufactured 15 years back and I have worked religiously ever since. And now, they are talking about replacing me. I am not really feeling bad about the fact that tomorrow could possibly be my last working day. In fact, I am relieved that my futile ordeal is finally going to come to an end.

***
I am a Traffic light, mounted on a pole. My life is all about monotonous iterations of red, orange and green.
Do I like my job? Yes and No. Yes, because my job is to keep people safe on roads and it makes me feel important. No, because people seldom obey me.

Am I happy for being posted at a scarcely populated place like Gandhi Nagar? Yes and No. Yes, because there is hardly any traffic here implying that I have less work to do. No, because there is hardly any traffic here implying that people think they do not need me and hence they conveniently choose to ignore my existence.     

I stand here day and night; across seasons, bearing the chills of winters, sweating through the scorching sun of the summers and getting wet in the pouring rain. 

***

The next day started with a strangely positive thought, ‘Today is possibly my last working day’

I shone green, signalling the vehicles to move ahead. Then I turned red. The counter in the timer started ticking down from 2:00 minutes. 2 minutes of red for a place like Gandhinagar is a long wait considering the fact that the traffic is bleak here. My Red-time, as I call it, can easily be reduced by half. I hope the new “digital machine” has lesser Red-time.

No sooner did I turn Red than I heard a screeching sound which is usually produced by the application of sudden brakes. I looked at the road and was astonished to see a girl, who was on a 2 wheeler, waiting for the signal to turn green.

I looked around. The junction was deserted. By typical human standards, she had no reason to stop and obey my futile orders; but she did. As far as my memory could stretch, this was the first time someone had stopped on red even when there was no vehicle moving across the road.

I looked at her in awe as her feet struggled to touch the ground. The five-foot-five girl, who had a helmet on, was dressed in a white tee and blue denim. She looked like girl who was in her early 20’s.

She removed her helmet, thus making her face visible to me. She had big expressive eyes, and a fair complexion. Her clear skin, which seemed to be immune to the pollution, was shining against the sun light. It seemed as if the sun shine was competing against the radiance of her bright face.

I realized that some other commuters, having noticed the girl; halted their vehicles and started waiting along with her for me to go green. She was instigating a change in people which I never expected of them. It was the first time I noticed so many people waiting at the junction for me. I felt important. People finally started noticing me. I didn’t want this to end. The day I finally found hope, cannot be my last day. Thanks to the girl; now I wanted to live.       

In the last couple of seconds, it dawned on me that I might not be fortunate enough to see the girl again. I wanted the time to freeze. For the first time in my life I felt that 2 minutes ‘red-time’ was too less a time to spend with this girl.

Having realized that her 2 minute wait was closing to an end, she put on her helmet and kick-started the bike. And before I knew she drove past me. I didn’t even get a chance to bid a good bye to her.   

I found myself thinking about the girl even after she left. I realized that there was some special aura about her which attracted me towards her. Is this the feeling which humans call love? Is it even possible to love someone you have just met? I was under the impression that love happens only when you know a person completely. What do I know about this girl? I know nothing; not even her name. Slowly but surely I figured out the answers to the above questions.
   
***

Love is not about staying together for ever after. Love is something which affects people in such a way that it changes their life ever after. The interaction between people in love can be as brief as 2 minutes but the after-affect can last for a life time. No other commuter had ever intrigued me like this girl did. The girl, for me, was more like a divine epiphany that knowingly or unknowingly motivated me to live longer and keep performing my duty and thrive to impact the life of humans in positive way.

Next day when the technician returned, he opened up my circuit box. After examining it for a couple of minutes, he said, “I don’t think we need to replace this anytime soon. I am surprised that it’s still working just fine. Some minor repairs and it will be as good as new”
   
***

an artby
Shashank