The young girl and her mother (FPFS~Day 2)

I like long train journeys, but not when the train is announced late by more than three hours. It was during my last vacation when I was travelling. As I cursed the late system of everything in India sitting in the train, my eyes fell on my co passengers who were sitting in front of me, cheerful and happy unlike me. 

I was too busy to notice them last night. I had comfortably got into the upper bunker and spend the entire night chatting with my friends and listening to music until slumber took over me. 

Now, in the early morning I finally saw my neighbors: a girl of about twelve and her parents. The girl sat in the window seat opposite to mine beside her mother. She had an effervescent aura around her. With a cute ponytail and bright twinkling eyes, she looked full of energy and life. Whenever our eyes met, she gave me a warm smile which was so genuine and pleasant that I couldn’t help smiling at her back, despite my distasteful mood.

The young girl’s vivacity couldn’t restrain me from looking at her. As I had nothing to do, I looked at her and her mother for a long time. At first, I wondered why her mother was silent all the while, albeit she was smiling whenever her daughter was telling her how beautiful the meadows looked or the river outside the train looked. 

It was as if the young girl was having an uncanny conversation with her mother. Some people might call it a one sided conversation, but it was exactly not so. Her mother was as much involved in the conversation as much was the little girl. The uncanny part was that one person was communicating through words while the other person was communicating through body language and feelings. 

Finally after some time, I could comprehend that the mother of the girl was totally speech impaired. She was dumb but her lovely daughter made it sure to communicate with her about every single thing that caught her interest. Although her speech was impaired, she could effortlessly communicate with her daughter through her smile and body language.

I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at the mother-daughter duo. Despite some void and imperfections in their lives, their lives looked so beautiful filled with love and tranquility. They were not annoyed by the train being late or the hawkers shouting incessantly. They were perfectly content in their own world.

Life is really beautiful. It is up to us to find beauty out of ugliness, peace out of the cauldron and harmony out of disharmony. 

Suddenly, the petty things stopped bothering me and I looked outside the window of the train to admire life in a new way. 

I have been tagged by my friend Kiran and my brother Sachin to take part in the Five photos Five stories challenge (FPFS) which is- Post a picture for 5 consecutive days and attach a post to it fiction, poem or short write-up. It can be anything to suit your taste.

I am tagging my friend Maniparna whose poems and stories always leave a mark on my mind on Day Two and as a part of challenge, I will tag a new person on Day Three.