Phone ringing..........
Sam : Hello!
Mags : He--e--llo Sam (sobs) why aren't you answering my calls? I called you a thousand time yesterday, didn't you check your cell? I was so tensed, why r u doing this?
Sam : I was busy Mags and its also the fact that I don't want you to bother me, I have told u this before.
Mags : I can understand your feelings but what about our friendship Sam. More than anything else I have always regarded you as one of my best friends, a person with whom I can be truly me and share my every thoughts and feelings. How can I let that friend go?
Sam : I don't want to converse any further Mags. I have decided not to be in any contact with you.
Mags : B--b--u--t hello please listen!
Call Disconnected.......
Maggie put down the cellphone beside her and stared out of the window with tears still rolling down from her deep black eyes. Thoughts flashed through her mind of the weekend recitation classes where she met Sam few months back.
It was Saturday and Maggie hurried up the stairs of Canterbury School of Liberal Art & Culture. Though she was late for the first day of her recitation class, she could not be blamed for this as her profession of journalism held her back in an urgent news coverage of an incident of social agitation that was to be the news headline for a next day morning daily.
Maggie : Please may I come in Sir?
Entraineur : Sure Madame but I guess you are late for the class?
Maggie : "Am sorry!"was Maggie's fidgeted reply.
Entraineur : Please do take a seat.
Maggie looked through the class and her eyes caught the sight of an empty chair towards the end with a bag as it occupant. A combined expression of embarrassment blended with traces of agitation shimmered through her eyes as she walked towards the vacant seat.
Maggie : Excuse me! Can I take this seat beside you?
A student : Surely! (and he freed the chair off its occupant)
Maggie settled herself on the chair and tried to concentrate on the class. It was a bit difficult for her to form a vinculum as she missed the first half. The hour hand of the wall clock dragged itself towards eight and the entraineur called off the session for the day. Maggie took the opportunity to start conversation with her class neighbor as she was intended to know the missed portion of the class.
Samuel is the name with which the student introduced himself, a PhD student of comparative literature who is also an ardent patron of recitation which vindicates his presence in the recitation session. Thus the seeding of the accord between Mags and Sam began.
It was strenuous for Maggie to accept the curt end of their analogy that began with an Utopian gleam. She remembered the after-class reciprocation of their thoughts and ideas in a nearby cafe and those swirls of laughter woven with the steam of the hot cafe lattes. On her way back home it had always brought an unknown smile to her rosy lips stretched across her white skinned visage. She can never forget the afternoons in between their classes which they spent in patronization of their favourite poems and the authors. There were also times when hours had passed by grooving on the nature around and its creation. Their semblance of reflection intensified the chord with the passing days and their friendship took an 'unusual' turn.
It was difficult for her to exemplify her relationship with Sam and thus the 'unusual' friendship that once both glorified, calmly took the shape of an innate conflict of sensitivity as
on the other hand Maggie was profoundly affectionate about her husband - an IT professional.
There are times when human race cannot administer a stern control over their emotions. Hence the emotional quotient sometimes becomes the most dangerous facet to be dealt with. It was her husband's lack of respect and appreciation for literary culture that off guardedly created a void in her inspiriting Sam's gradual entry to her life as adding hues to the white patches in a canvas.
"Can Sam actually be blamed for his impertinent behaviour?" "Can she ever forget the love and care that she had received from her husband in that one whole year of her marriage?"- were the distraught questions those entangled her mind as she rose up and faced the decorative long mirror of her apartment's bedroom. The appearance of her reflection on the mirror answered her interrogations with a prompt 'no'. She made a sudden realization that all the voids in life cannot be filled and one must learn to find peace from within oneself rather than seeking the same in some others' self. There are questions which do depletes a justified answer and goes beyond the power of rationalization and sometimes makes one learn to just 'Let Go' in life.
